The Best Smart Ovens That Make Meal Planning And Prep So Much Easier

Capacity: 0.83 cubic feet | Wattage: 1800 | Cooking functions: 13, including Proof, Air Fry and Pizza | Smart functions: Autopilot, Breville+ app compatibility, voice activation | Accessories: Pizza pan, two wire racks, broiling rack, roasting pan, air fry basket, crumb tray

What we love:

• Spacious capacity
• Ample modes for cooking and baking
• Step-by-step guided recipes

Keep in mind:

• No steam function

Pregont calls Breville the gold standard for build quality and thermal performance, praising the Joule for striking “an excellent balance between smart functionality and traditional controls, which appeals to serious home cooks.” It’s designed to take the place of your toaster, air fryer, pizza oven and more, thanks to its 13 versatile cooking functions. In addition to the dozen-plus pre-sets, there are also two convection modes—convection and super convection—for achieving ultra crispy and precise results. And its size makes it able to house food for the whole family—up to nine slices of bread, a 12-cup muffin tin or a whopping 14-pound turkey.

The smart settings on this oven are useful without being overwhelming for the average user. It’s compatible with the Breville+ App, which gives users access to over 400 guided recipes from America’s Test Kitchen, New York Times Cooking and more, all catered to the precise settings of the Breville Joule Oven. The step-by-step guidance includes photos and videos for reference, and you can even use Autopilot to let the machine adjust cooking modes and settings throughout the process as needed. The app also lets you control the machine remotely, and utilize voice activation with your Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa.

The only feature missing from this appliance is a steam function, which is often helpful in small convection ovens for distributing moisture and preventing food from drying out too much as it cooks. But when following the Breville+ recipes, especially, you shouldn’t have to worry about micromanaging results.

Capacity: 0.6 cubic feet | Wattage: 1800 | Cooking functions: 10, including Air Fry, Sear and Cook Rice | Smart functions: Integrated camera, TempSensor probe, LED touchscreen | Accessories: Aluminum tray, glass tray

What we love:

• Built-in camera to monitor food
• Integrated temperature sensor
• Three cooking zones for one-pan meals
• Integrated app with 7,000 recipes available

Keep in mind:

• Takes up a lot of counter space

A luxe, tech-savvy descendant of our childhood Easy Bake Ovens, the Brava Smart Oven uses light to cook food—with chef-grade results. It features six infrared heat lamps throughout the oven, designed to reach up to 900 degrees and cook up to four times faster than traditional ovens. There’s also no preheating required, further speeding up the cooking process.

The six heat lamps are designed to cook three different foods at once—like a tray of steak, potatoes and broccoli—at the same time with different settings. Users can take advantage of the 7,000 recipes available in the Brava Home App, which guide users through step-by-step instructions with videos, automatically adjusting settings as needed in the oven. But if you prefer to cook on your own, there are 10 different modes to choose from, including toast, bake, air fry, slow cook and more.

This appliance has a futuristic look, with a stainless steel exterior and wide LED touchscreen at the top. There’s no glass door to monitor your food from the oven, but the interior has an integrated camera that allows you to watch your food cook from afar via your smartphone. Keep in mind that the infrared heat in this oven comes with an inherent learning curve, but the accompanying app and instructions are designed to guide you through each step in the process.

Capacity: 0.65 cubic feet | Wattage: 1525 | Cooking functions: 6, including Air Fry, Steam and Toast | Smart functions: QR scanning for meals and groceries, app compatibility, integrated recipes | Accessories: Air fry basket, sheet tray, oven mitt

What we love:

• Accompanying meal kit for easy cooking
• 1,000 scannable grocery items
• Steam function for better results

Keep in mind:

• Minimal functions and scannable items available

When we tested the Tovala Smart Oven, along with the brand’s accompanying meal kit delivery service, we were delighted by how well this oven consistently churned out delicious results. Everything from chicken breasts and salmon fillets to soups and vegetables came out with the perfect doneness every time, particularly when scanning the meal kit QR codes to input specific settings.

But even without the accompanying meal plan, this oven is designed to tackle a lot of heavy lifting in the kitchen. It offers six cooking functions, delivering everything from crispy air-fried potatoes to browned toast and roasted chicken. The addition of the steam inlet in this machine makes all the difference, incorporating moisture as the food cooks so that proteins or grains never get too dry as they’re cooking.

The accompanying app has plenty of guided recipes to stretch the functionality of this machine beyond meal kits, where it connects right to the oven to start cooking with the appropriate settings as soon as you prompt it on your phone. The QR scanner is also compatible with over 1,000 groceries (think frozen fries and waffles) that the oven automatically adjusts time and temperature settings for. However, some users have reported this feature falls short, since many groceries are not available to scan. Plus, other ovens on this list have more pre-set functions like keep-warm and proof settings.

Capacity: 1.2 cubic feet | Wattage: 1800 | Cooking functions: 12, including Sous Vide, Steam Bake and Proof | Smart functions: Built-in camera and temperature probe, food recognition, accompanying app | Accessories: Two wire racks, sheet pan, temperature probe

What we love:

• Built-in camera with food recognition
• Guided cooking and recipe library
• Included temperature probe

Keep in mind:

• Food recognition is not always accurate

Technological precision is the name of the game with the Anova Precision Oven 2.0, which has some of the most advanced smart oven technology. The food recognition feature uses the internal camera to identify the food after it’s been placed in the oven, offering the user suggested cooking techniques based on what has been identified. (Though some users have reported this function is not always accurate.)

Beyond that, the oven has several other smart features to simplify meal prep, including access to a wide recipe library, adjustable settings from smartphones and the ability to scan packaged foods for guess-free cooking. Smartphone usage isn’t required, though; there’s a large touchscreen housed on the front of the machine, which allows users to toggle between its 12 cooking functions and monitor cooking progress as it’s happening. 

There are a dizzying number of cooking functions available on this oven, including unique options like Sous Vide, Dry Sous Vide and Steam Roast. The incorporation of steam allows users to achieve more professional-grade results in the oven, and the inclusion of a probe thermometer promotes precision even further. 

Capacity: 0.9 cubic feet | Wattage: 1750 | Cooking functions: 12, including Air Fry, Proof, and Pizza | Smart functions: Wireless probe thermometer, app compatibility, AI recipe function | Accessories: Air fryer basket, wire rack, roasting pan, crumb tray, wireless probe

What we love:

• Wireless probe has five sensors for ideal results
• Accompanying app offers AI recipe generation
• Spacious design

Keep in mind:

• No steam setting
• May come with initial burnoff smell

Achieving perfectly cooked steak, chicken or seafood is always intimidating, especially when you leave an oven to do all the work. Temperature monitoring is key, which is why the Typhur Sync oven comes with a wireless thermometer that features five different temperature sensors throughout for the most accurate and precise reading. Once you select your protein and ideal doneness, the accompanying Typhur app will provide a cooking countdown and notify you when it’s complete, helping you achieve perfectly cooked protein that’s neither underdone nor dried out.

Beyond cooking proteins alone, this oven also comes with 12 cooking functions to tackle everything from air frying and roasting to proofing dough and dehydrating fruit. The accompanying app allows you to toggle between different recipes to help you take advantange of each function, remotely adjusting time and temperature settings as needed. Perhaps the most advanced function offered with this app is the AI-powered recipe generator, which allows users to adjust portions, flavor or doneness in any recipe to best suit your household’s needs. Plus, it can even generate recipe ideas based on a photo of ingredients that you provide, or help brainstorm ideas based on your mood.

This oven lacks a steam inlet, so you won’t be able to incorporate moisture as you cook or warm up leftovers in this oven. Also, some owners have reported that this machine comes with a burnoff odor that takes a few uses to fully dissipate.