The 3 Best Rice Cookers of 2023

We've read through this guide, and we continue to stand by our picks.

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Rice is one of the world's most versatile foods: You could eat a different rice dish every day for weeks without getting bored. If that sounds appealing, you might appreciate a great rice cooker, which can turn out perfect, plump grains with almost no effort. After more than 150 hours of research and testing, during which we’ve cooked approximately 275 pounds of rice, we recommend the Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy NS-ZCC10. It makes the best white rice, across all grain types, of any cooker we’ve tested, and it also turns out great brown rice.

We looked for cookers that produced fluffy jasmine rice with distinct grains, pleasantly chewy short-grain rice, and toothsome but tender brown rice.

Good rice cookers achieve the same texture throughout the entire batch—no waterlogged areas, uncooked centers, or browned crusts at the bottom of the pot.

Our top pick, the Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy NS-ZCC10, uses fuzzy logic to make up for human error. It produced great jasmine rice even when we used 33% too much water.

Design elements like removable lids, handles on the inner pot, and durable nonstick surfaces make our top and upgrade picks especially pleasant to use (and clean).

The Neuro Fuzzy makes sublime sushi rice and is great at other varieties, even basmati, which is one of the hardest to get right in a machine. Although this model is a little slow, it's the most all-around excellent and foolproof cooker we tested.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $231.

Thanks to a computer chip that can sense things like moisture and temperature and can adjust cooking parameters to account for human error, the Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy NS-ZCC10 makes great rice, even in situations where other cookers (including those with similar technology) produce starchy, congealed messes. It's one of the most compact models we tested, its removable lid makes it easy to clean, and the inner pot has handles for easy lifting out of the machine. The Neuro Fuzzy's only downside is its relative slowness: Unless you use the quick-cook setting, it takes at least 40 minutes to make a batch of white rice and over 90 minutes to make brown rice. But the rice you get from the Neuro Fuzzy is worth the wait.

Pressurized cooking, substantial construction, and lightning-fast delicious results make this the right cooker for the serious rice eater, especially if you love sushi rice.

The Cuckoo CRP-P1009 makes the best sushi rice of all the cookers we tested—chewy, distinctive grains that hold together perfectly. Because it's a pressure cooker, it also delivers these results more quickly than the other rice cookers we tested. The Cuckoo is especially handy at cooking brown rice quickly, in some tests taking almost half the time it took the Zojirushi. However, you might need to tweak the amount of water in your recipe if you prefer softer brown rice—our batches came out quite al dente, though not unpleasantly so. And we think the pressurized cooking caused our delicate long-grain rice to come out a bit mushy. Because the Cuckoo is pricey and comes in only a 10-cup capacity, we recommend this cooker to people who want to cook short- or medium-grain white and brown rice often and in large batches.

This simple model ranks among the fastest non-pressure cookers we tested, making jasmine rice in around 35 minutes. The rice isn't perfect, but this model is a great option for college students or anyone on a budget.

May be out of stock

*At the time of publishing, the price was $60.

The Hamilton Beach Rice and Hot Cereal Cooker makes good white rice very quickly—it's a marvel considering its low cost. Although the results weren't as tender or well separated as what we got from the Zojirushi or the Cuckoo, this model's rice was better than that of many other higher-end models we tested. The Hamilton Beach is also faster than our top pick, capable of churning out a good batch of white rice in around 35 minutes. In addition, it sports modes for delayed cooking and brown rice—though our brown rice came out a little underdone.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $231.

Pressurized cooking, substantial construction, and lightning-fast delicious results make this the right cooker for the serious rice eater, especially if you love sushi rice.

May be out of stock

*At the time of publishing, the price was $60.

Tammie Teclemariam, who conducted the latest round of testing, is a food and drinks writer and former pastry chef. This update builds on the work of Wirecutter editor Tim Barribeau and of writer Karen Solomon, whose cookbooks include Asian Pickles: Sweet, Sour, Salty, Cured, and Fermented Preserves from Korea, Japan, China, India, and Beyond. In 2018, Sabrina Imbler, then a Wirecutter staff writer, conducted a round of testing.

For research we did the following:

Whether you consider rice a mundane starch or the star of your meal, there's no denying it's a cheap, easy, and versatile staple. And a dedicated rice cooker can dramatically improve flavor and texture, producing rice that's aromatic, nutty, and earthen, with a broad depth of flavor and a pleasing chew. These little appliances also offer the ease of one-step, foolproof cooking: Just rinse your rice, add water, push a button, and then focus on the rest of dinner. Cleanup is easier than scrubbing burnt-on rice from a pot cooked on the stove, too.

For people who eat rice infrequently (and especially people who almost always eat jasmine rice), an inexpensive model under $50 will be just fine. But if you want to make perfect short-grain white rice, sushi rice, or brown rice, or to experiment with other types of grains, you may want a more advanced cooker, which can range from $100 to $400 or so.

A rice cooker is also perfect for people who don't cook often or who don't enjoy it. You can cook an entire meal in a rice cooker simply by putting some meat, tofu, or fish plus some vegetables in the steamer tray while you cook the rice. (Roger Ebert wrote a book on this kind of rice-cooker cooking called The Pot and How to Use It: The Mystery and Romance of the Rice Cooker.) Many rice cookers can also make polenta, and porridge, slow-cook stews, or steam things like tamales or dumplings. But if you want to make one-pot stews or leave your food to cook while you’re at work, you may be better off with another kind of multicooker. For a breakdown of the differences between a rice cooker, a pressure cooker, and a slow cooker, check out our guide. And if you’re curious about the difference between a rice cooker and the Instant Pot—our favorite electric pressure cooker—we explain the pros and cons of the two machines below.

Some people prefer cooking rice on the stovetop, which requires just a thick-bottomed pot and a lid. We don't really recommend this method to anyone who makes rice frequently (unless they prefer it), as it requires more attention and is prone to user error. But if you’re interested in the flexibility of cooking rice on the stove, we have recommendations for the best way to do it.

A good rice cooker should cook delicious, fluffy, and flavorful short- and medium-grain white rice every time. We looked for sturdy machines that were easy to use and easy to clean, and that could handle cooking both large and small quantities of rice.

We started by poring through listings of hundreds of models, including best sellers on Amazon and everything available from the most popular retailers of rice cookers, such as Zojirushi, Cuckoo, and Tiger. We also browsed the rice cooker selection in Asian superstores like H-Mart and C-Mart to see a range of machines that may not have popped up on Amazon. We decided to test only those cookers that included a brown-rice setting and a quick-cook setting (or promised to make rice in under 40 minutes). We’ve also interviewed several chefs and food professionals about the rice cookers they love.

Over the years, we’ve focused our scope to look for new and updated models from major brands in two tiers: midrange cookers from $100 to $300, and budget cookers under $100. Having considered some more expensive models in the past, we don't think they’re worth the investment.

With all that in mind, here's the list of criteria we used to select our top rice cookers:

We’ve also tested models with the following fancier features, but they’re not necessarily helpful or crucial for great rice:

For our original 2013 review, we tested the cookers informally with some home cooks. Then we conducted a formal taste test with a panel of chefs and employees from the Japanese restaurant Ken Ken Ramen in San Francisco, which served bento boxes and curries. Takahiro Hori and Yuichiro Aramki, both Japanese chefs with years of experience, headed the panel. In our 2018 update, we tested our three picks against seven cookers using medium-grain Japanese white rice (sushi rice) to start with. Models that performed well in rice flavor, texture, and cooking speed we then also tested with brown and basmati rice, and again with sushi rice on their quick-cook setting.

For the 2020 update, we again tested our three picks against seven new cookers. This time we first tested each with batches of Thai jasmine rice and medium-grain sushi rice—likely the most critical and the most-used skill for a rice cooker. The cookers that delivered great flavor and texture in a reasonable amount of time then moved on to testing with brown rice and basmati. For the sushi, jasmine, and basmati rice tests, we rinsed and drained the rice three times before cooking to wash away extra starch (we didn't wash the brown rice). For our sushi and jasmine rice tests, we measured using a Japanese rice cooker cup (included with every machine), which is actually around ¾ cup, or 6 ounces, in US measurements.

When tasting white and long-grain rice, we looked for fully cooked grains that held their shape, based on chef Dale Talde's description of the perfect grain: "If you hold it in your finger and press on it, it should give a little, but not immediately turn into a paste." In brown rice, we looked for intact, plump grains that were just barely cracked. "I don't want the hull to explode, but I want it to break a little," Talde said. "And the rice needs to hold together."

*At the time of publishing, the price was $231.

Though not the fastest machine we tested, the Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy NS-ZCC10 is by far the most versatile, making the best white rice across the different grains plus respectable brown rice (though if you love brown rice, you might prefer our upgrade pick). Handles on the inner pot make it easier to pick up than many others we tested, and the Neuro Fuzzy's computer chip is particularly good at adjusting cooking parameters to adapt to human error.

Rice made in the Neuro Fuzzy can seem like a work of art: firm, slender, intact, and milky white. Each grain plumps nicely without bursting and doesn't seem to break when scooped out of the pot. In our tests, the Neuro Fuzzy was one of the few machines that made sushi rice, brown rice, and long-grain rice all taste great. Of all the machines we tested, this model produced the best basmati, cooking it up light and fluffy. By comparison, our upgrade pick, the Cuckoo CRP-P1009 made overly moist long-grain white rice.

In previous tests, the Neuro Fuzzy was the only cooker that still made decent rice with separate, firm grains when we added almost twice the needed amount of water, likely due to its advanced fuzzy-logic chip. It can adjust to the extremes of human error, a skill we find helpful for people who don't want to measure a precise ratio every time.

We like that the Neuro Fuzzy comes in two sizes, a 5½-cup model that's perfect for smaller households and a 10-cup model that can provide for larger families or dinner parties. In contrast, our upgrade pick from Cuckoo only comes in a 10-cup version, which takes up too much counter space for people making rice for just one or two people. The Neuro Fuzzy also has a smaller footprint than most other 6-cup cookers we tested.

Of all the cookers we tested, the Neuro Fuzzy is also one of the easiest to clean. It has a removable inner lid, which allows you to wash from every crevice the starchy film that accumulates during cooking. (The Hamilton Beach and the Cuckoo also have removable inner lids, so they are similarly easy to clean.) Plastic handles attached to the Neuro Fuzzy's inner pot—a feature that many rice cookers lack—make it easy to transport a still-hot pot of rice to the dining table or to dump the contents into a pan for stir-frying. The Neuro Fuzzy also has every perk we looked for in a cooker. It can keep rice warm for up to 12 hours, which feels more than adequate. When it's finished cooking, the Neuro Fuzzy plays a chipper, electronic rendition of the French gavotte "Amaryllis" (video), which we found charming. And the Neuro Fuzzy comes with a one-year warranty, the same amount of coverage as our other picks.

"Our Neuro Fuzzy makes wonderful rice, better than a restaurant," says senior staff writer Joel Santo Domingo, who has been using the Neuro Fuzzy since 2022, "we have/had a cheaper Zojiroushi 5-cup model, which is much faster, but makes harder texture rice." Like Ellen (see caption above), Joel notes the slowness of the machine: "The main drawback of the Neuro Fuzzy (NF) is the lengthy cook time. About half the time, we use the quick cook function on it. Quick cook is faster than regular, but not quite as fast as the cheaper Zojirushi. The texture is also in between the two. We've had to start the rice earlier in our cooking routine to give the NF time to finish. We mostly cook jasmine rice."

The downfall of all the Zojirushi cookers we tested is their slowness, and the Neuro Fuzzy is no exception. It took a long time to make a batch of white rice, 44 to 46 minutes for a 3-cup batch, compared with 38 minutes in the Hamilton Beach and 29 minutes in the Cuckoo. And the Neuro Fuzzy was the slowest for brown rice by a landslide, taking 1 hour 38 minutes, almost twice as long as the Hamilton Beach and the Cuckoo. Overall, we believe that great rice is worth waiting for. The difference of 10 or 20 minutes between an okay batch of rice and an amazing one isn't too significant for people who care about great rice, especially if you start your rice at the beginning of cooking dinner or use the timer function. But if you regularly cook brown rice, you might prefer our upgrade pick, the Cuckoo CRP-P1009. Or just be prepared to plan ahead.

In our tests, the Neuro Fuzzy made brown rice better than most rice cookers we tried, but the process took a bit of experimentation. The results were a little too firm when we used the machine's measurements of water and rice, but they came out a little mushy, with quite a few burst and exploded hulls, when we used the 1:1.5 proportion of rice to water that Lundberg recommended.

The Zojirushi's quick-cook setting made firm white rice that felt a little too al dente (it wasn't nearly as good as the results from the Hamilton Beach or the Cuckoo). But we figure that if you really care about your rice, you’ll wait the extra 10 or 15 minutes it takes to churn out a delectable batch of grains. After all, some things you can't rush.

Pressurized cooking, substantial construction, and lightning-fast delicious results make this the right cooker for the serious rice eater, especially if you love sushi rice.

If you’re seeking a faster way to make the absolute best rice, we recommend the Cuckoo CRP-P1009S. Although it's fairly expensive, in our testing we found that the Cuckoo made exceptional sushi rice: flavorful, aromatic, and with a texture that preserves the integrity of every grain. From the moment you open the lid, you can see the difference in how these grains are plumped. What also sets this cooker apart is how fast it cooks. In our tests, short-grain white rice cooked wickedly fast—in just 27 minutes, faster than on the quick-cook setting of any of the other machines we tested. Brown rice cooked in about 50 minutes, almost twice as fast as in the Zojirushi and 10 minutes faster than in the Hamilton Beach. Overall, this Cuckoo model was the second-fastest cooker we tested, coming in just a few minutes short of an even speedier $400 Cuckoo model.

This Cuckoo's pressure-cooking technology is key to its swift cooking and its great rice. Like pasta, rice cooks from the outside in; slowly cooked rice becomes mushy on the outside before each grain cooks all the way through. The intense pressure that builds from trapped steam inside a pressure-cooker pot causes the water's boiling point to rise, and at the higher temperature, the rice cooks faster. The result is perfectly cooked rice all the way through.

The Cuckoo CRP-P1009S has a removable inner lid like the Zojirushi, making it easy to clean the starchy film that collects as the rice cooks. Of our three picks, we think this lid is the easiest to remove and put back on, with a simple pull tab design.

The Cuckoo does have some drawbacks, however. Although it made outstanding sushi rice in our tests, the long-grain white rice it made was somewhat mushy. Our brown rice was chewy and firm in a way that some of us really enjoyed, but a couple of tasters in our 2020 tests found it too al dente. (This can be pretty easily adjusted by tweaking the amount of water you add before cooking.)

In contrast to the Neuro Fuzzy's 6-cup and 10-cup options, the Cuckoo comes in only the hefty 10-cup size. This kind of heft is wonderful if you cook batches of rice for many people, but it's needlessly cumbersome if you’re cooking for one or two.

The Cuckoo CRP-P1009 offers real-time updates on your rice, playing different audio alerts when your rice has moved from pressure-cooking, to settling, and then playing a jingle when it's finished cooking (the cooker also offers optional voice navigation in Korean). Its illuminated LED menu includes a fun animation of the machine puffing away during the cooking stage. None of these frills make your rice any better, but we found them quite fun to watch, and it's good to be alerted when the machine is about to release pressure a few minutes before the end of cooking, so you can get out of the way.

Cuckoo is a popular maker of high-end rice cookers, and this particular model, one of its best sellers since 2014, is one of the few rice cookers to offer pressure-cooking technology at this price. It should not be conflated with electric pressure cookers like the Instant Pot, which costs less than half of what this Cuckoo model costs. Although the Instant Pot is a masterful multipurpose cooker, its rice just isn't as good as what you can get from the Cuckoo CRP-P1009. (You can see how this Cuckoo compares with both the Instant Pot and other rice-specific pressure cookers in the Competition section.) Similar to the Zojirushi and the Hamilton Beach, the Cuckoo CRP-P1009 comes with a limited one-year warranty.

May be out of stock

*At the time of publishing, the price was $60.

The Hamilton Beach Rice and Hot Cereal Cooker offers tremendous functionality for a low price. In our tests, it made sushi and jasmine rice as delicious as what we got from some models costing three times as much. It's also ultrafast, cooking rice in less time than every other machine we tested except the Cuckoo. Its construction feels solid, and its 7-cup capacity is much larger than that of many other machines at this price. On top of that, its compact design means that despite its larger capacity, it still takes up less counter space than our other picks.

Unlike other $50 cookers, this machine has advanced functions such as settings for brown rice and quick-cooked rice.

The Hamilton Beach can't cook rice as well as the Zojirushi or the Cuckoo, but the rice it makes is good for the price. In our experience, sushi rice from this machine turned out a little too sticky, but it produced fluffy jasmine and basmati grains. In both cases, the results were almost as good as what we made in some Tiger and Cuckoo machines that cost two or three times as much. But it did only a mediocre job with brown rice, which came out dry in our tests.

Despite its humble price (and lack of pressure cooking), the Hamilton Beach is speedy. For jasmine rice, this was the fastest cooker of all our picks; just 34 to 37 minutes stand between you and nicely cooked rice. It was almost 10 minutes faster than the Zojirushi Neuro Fuzzy and three to five minutes faster than our Cuckoo pick, although that machine cooks sushi rice more quickly than jasmine. Brown rice took just an hour in the Hamilton Beach (nearly half the time of the Zojirushi), about the same length of time as when you’re cooking it on the stove.

Low-price cookers are often single-switch on/off affairs, with a simple lid like the kind you’d put on a saucepan. But the Hamilton Beach has an insulated lid to hold in steam and keep food warm for hours. And unlike other $50 cookers, this machine has advanced functions such as settings for brown rice and quick-cooked rice. It also boasts a delayed-start-time function and the ability to slow-cook or steam vegetables, meat, beans, soups, and stews. Additionally, many rice cookers under $50 max out at a 3-cup capacity; in contrast, the Hamilton Beach's capacity of 7 uncooked cups of rice can easily feed a large family, but at 9 inches in diameter, it has a smaller footprint than either the 14-inch-long Zojirushi or the 15-inch Cuckoo.

The Hamilton Beach rice cooker does have certain design flaws. Overall, it isn't as intuitive to use as more traditional rice cookers like the Zojirushi or Cuckoo. Our timers regularly recorded shorter cook times than what the display indicated, usually by a few minutes. In addition, we noticed starchy water bubbling up through the steam vent during recent tests, and we have heard similar reports from our long-term testers who used this appliance at home.

The lid opens from left to right, and if you open it with your left hand, it can let out scalding hot steam directly on your arm. You can avoid this by rotating the machine before serving, but this precaution is easy to forget. Also, the condensation collector does not collect moisture well and lets a considerable amount of hot water run down from the lid and onto the exterior of your pot and counter. The cooker does contain more plastic parts and a thinner metal interior pot than either the Zojirushi or Cuckoo, but it also comes with a pretty standard one-year limited warranty (PDF) .

Some home cooks forgo rice cookers and swear by a simple pot with a fitted lid. It's certainly a cheap option—our recommendation for a saucepan usually costs around $50—but the process does require much more care and attention than using a rice cooker.

Tejal Rao, a food reporter and columnist for The New York Times, frequently makes brown, jasmine, and basmati rice on the stovetop. She said she loves stovetop cooking because it's fast, rarely taking more than half an hour. Unlike rice cookers, which become impermeable black boxes while cooking, a pot lets you experiment and adjust midway. Rao loves the flexibility of this control, as she can add a few spoonfuls of water if the grains seem dry or she can allow water to evaporate if the grains look wet. For a pot, she recommends anything with a heavy bottom and a fitted lid. For more specific steps on cooking stovetop rice, read her guide for NYT Cooking.

But if you make rice frequently or want every grain pristine, you’re better off with a rice cooker. Chef Dale Talde told us he thought there were too many variables involved in stovetop rice. "Not every pot sits on the stove the same way, the lid doesn't fit on the stove the same way," he said. Talde grew up making rice for his parents, who worked alternating day-night shifts and expected a fresh pot of rice every day. "God forbid you fuck the rice up," Talde said. "But all I had to do was measure properly and hit cook." Luckily, even if you do get the ratios wrong, the Neuro Fuzzy can compensate for user error to produce an excellent batch of rice.

Rao, who owns a Zojirushi NP-GBC05-XT, also admits that a rice cooker is the only way to get perfect rice every time. "There's just something about the texture of rice from a rice cooker," she said. "It's really kind of perfect."

Taking care of your rice cooker is easy. Thanks to the nonstick nature of the pot, cleanup is a snap with hot, soapy water. After each use, wash the inner pot by hand with the soft side of a sponge (in the dishwasher, the pot's nonstick coating can deteriorate). For more detail on how to preserve your nonstick coating, check out our tips. Also be sure to wash the inner lid, which is detachable on all three of our picks. To wash a detachable lid, simply remove it and clean the entire thing by hand with a sponge. If the lid isn't detachable, wipe it as clean as possible with a damp towel.

The measuring cup that comes with your cooker is the Japanese standard, so it's not the same size as the cup in a set of US measuring cups. If you lose it but still want to go by the water measurements marked out on the inner pot, simply measure out ¾ cup of dry rice for every cup of rice you wish to cook.

Most rice cookers (including all of our picks) have a steam catcher that you need to empty after every batch of rice. If left wet and unattended, these little cups will get grungy and moldy (or, worse, attract pests). Often you’ll find these cups clipped to the side or back of the machine, near the hinge of the outer lid. (The Zojirushi and Cuckoo also have steam caps on top of their outer lids, which should also be removed and cleaned.) Make sure that all parts are dry before placing them back into the machine. You can simply wipe down the machine's exterior as needed.

Most rice cookers we tested came with a plastic rice paddle. Our favorites were the nubbly paddles from Zojirushi and Tiger because rice didn't stick to them as much as it did to others. You don't have to use these paddles—a wooden spoon would work as well—but do not use metal utensils or anything that can scratch the nonstick coating inside the pot.

In the store, rice is distinguished by brand, variety, country of origin, and cuisine, but most generally it can be categorized by grain length. Short-grain rice is nubby and almost spherical, medium-grain rice is two to three times as long as it is wide, and long-grain rice is three to five times as long as it is wide.

Long-grain rice cooks up dry and fluffy, while short-grain rice tends to be more sticky and chewy. The textural variation is largely due to differences in the ratio of amylose to amylopectin, the two molecules in starch (PDF). Amylose inhibits gelatinization, retaining long grain rice's more brittle, crystalline structure. Meanwhile, amylopectin gelatinizes when cooked and releases starch, contributing to the soft and sticky texture of shorter grains. Short-grain rice contains almost no amylose, long-grain rice varieties can contain up to roughly 35%, and medium-grain rice will be somewhere in between. This is why longer grains separate more easily, refirm after cooking, and are more fragile in their cooked state compared with short-grain rice, which is suited to manipulation like sushi making and stays gummy once cooked.

The length of grain, the level of starch, and other inherent qualities of a type of rice, paired with your preference for soft or chewy, call for adjustments in water level, cook time, and technique. Overall, we found that rice cookers brought out the best in short- and medium-grain rice. We also found that rice cookers from Japan and Korea (such as the Zojirushi and Cuckoo brands) are optimized for gelatinizing short-grain and sushi rice. If you prefer your short-grain rice al dente and almost mochi-like, you might seriously consider our upgrade pick, the Cuckoo CRP-P1009.

Few electric rice cookers specialize in cooking long-grain rice. The cookers we tested all did well on jasmine rice, but almost all of them struggled to produce good basmati. Many traditional preparations for long-grain rice, such as Persian tahdig, use a combination of boiling followed by steaming, as opposed to an absorption method where all the water cooks into the grain (which is what happens in most rice cookers). If you primarily cook basmati rice, a rice cooker is not your best bet.

If you’d like a Zojirushi option that costs less than our pick:Try the Zojirushi NS-TSC10, a prior pick. It performs almost as well, making superb white, long-grain, and sticky rice. You can also get a larger 10-cup size. We prefer the Neuro Fuzzy's pot because it has handles, making it easier to lift while hot. Plus, the Neuro Fuzzy has a more advanced fuzzy-logic chip that can turn an atrociously mismeasured batch of rice into something edible. The NS-TSC10's quick-cook setting is around 10 minutes faster than the Neuro Fuzzy's, but regardless we prefer the normal cook settings, which make considerably better-quality rice.

Our favorite electric pressure cooker, the Instant Pot, is a combination slow cooker, yogurt maker, and rice cooker (among other things). Although it's an excellent multi-purpose pressure cooker (which our upgrade pick, the Cuckoo, is not, due to its smaller pot), it isn't as great a rice cooker as our top picks. If you want white rice, the Instant Pot can make a batch that's just fine if you’re not too discerning. If you want brown rice, the Instant Pot is not for you—in our tests, the Instant Pot made dense rice that was far less fluffy than a batch from the Cuckoo.

We also tested Instant Brands's inexpensive Instant Zest Rice and Grain Cooker (which is not a pressure cooker) in two different sizes. The 8-cup (cooked-rice) model was the smallest in our lineup, but we were attracted to its undeniably cute compact size, while the 20-cup (also cooked) version was similar in size to a standard Instant Pot. The overall construction of the Instant Zest made it look sleeker than the sturdy Hamilton Beach, but the inner lid on the smaller pot wouldn't stay on reliably after a couple of uses. Like the Hamilton Beach, the Instant Zest performed well with jasmine rice, but with other styles it cooked inconsistently, producing wildly different textures in a single batch.

In response to requests for alternatives to models with nonstick coating, we tested the Aroma ARC-6206C, which uses a glazed ceramic pot. (The ARC-6206C is now discontinued, but as of July 2022, a representative informed us the company will be releasing a new ceramic-pot cooker soon.) The cooker we tested made firm, plump white rice in 30 minutes and quick-cooked rice nearly as well in 23 minutes, but it overcooked brown rice and made sticky long-grain rice. Rice also stuck to its ceramic pot a great deal more than it did to our nonstick cookers.

In previous testing, as much as we wanted to love the clay pot in the VitaClay 2-IN-1 Organic Rice 'n' Slow Cooker, we determined that this was not a cooker we would recommend for most people. Our rice stuck to the seasoned clay, and we found the nub of the scalding-hot interior lid difficult to grasp.

We were intrigued by the Zojirushi Induction Heating Pressure Rice Cooker and Warmer NP-NVC10, which used induction heating and pressure cooking. It certainly produced delicious rice, but it didn't perform better than any other Zojirushi we tested. Despite its induction and pressure cooking capabilities, the NP-NVC10 took 55 minutes to make a 2-cup batch of white rice, 10 minutes longer than both the Neuro Fuzzy and NS-TSC10. And two tasters couldn't perceive a meaningful difference between the rice of the NP-NVC10 and the rice we made in other Zojirushi machines. The NP-NVC10 appears to have been replaced by the NP-NWC10, which we don't plan to test, given the nearly $500 price tag.

The Zojirushi Induction Heating System Rice Cooker and Warmer NP-HCC10 has an added setting for jasmine rice and an easier-to-read display. Though the rice from the NP-HCC10 was very good, we concluded that the rice from our top pick, the Neuro Fuzzy, which cost less, was even better.

We also tested the Cuckoo CR-1020FW, a Williams Sonoma exclusive. According to a company representative, Cuckoo has plans to team up with other retailers for exclusive appliances, and we wanted to see how this machine stacked up against Cuckoo's flagship offerings. It didn't make white rice as texturally rewarding as the higher-end models, but it still cooked Nishiki and jasmine rice well. Lacking pressure, this model was slower than other Cuckoo cookers, but it made better basmati and softer brown rice. Other quirks like hard-to-read measurements on the inner bowl and a large size kept this model from being a top contender.

Curious about what a $400 rice cooker could offer that a $200 one could not, we tested the Cuckoo CRP-HZ0683F, which offers a luxuriously overwhelming experience. The cooker features programmable induction heating, stainless steel lids, and too many cooking settings to list. It cooked faster than any other rice cooker we tested and made excellent rice across the board, but we didn't find the rice any better than what we made with our upgrade pick.

The Cuckoo CR-0631F claimed lightning-fast cooking times on a par with our upgrade pick's but for a more affordable price. It delivered on timing, producing white rice in 30 minutes and brown rice in under an hour. But the quality of the rice just wasn't great. Sushi rice consistently turned out moist and gluey, and the long-grain rice devolved into mush. The CR-0631F did make the second-best brown rice of any cooker we tested, beating every Zojirushi model, but the grains looked overly puffed and burst when compared with brown rice from the CRP-P1009SW.

Also on the lower end is the Cuckoo CR-0351FR, a tiny, 3-cup wonder that cooked fast and sloppy rice. Though the cooker never took more than 40 minutes to make white rice, we found the burst and sticky grains it produced disappointingly poor quality for a $100 cooker. If we mismeasured the rice-to-water ratio even slightly, the grains congealed together in a gelled lattice of mush. It was, however, the cutest cooker we tested.

For our 2020 update we tested the Tiger JBX-B10U, a minimally designed cooker priced around $50 less than our winning Zojirushi model. In comparison, this unit is much bigger and clunkier. In our tests, it excelled at jasmine and brown rice, while sushi rice came out a little soft and basmati didn't work at all. It cooked rice quickly, with times consistently around 10 minutes shorter than the Zojirushi's for white rice and almost 30 minutes less for brown rice. This is a fine option if you want a streamlined machine for basic white rice, have the counter space to spare, and are willing to trade precision for speed.

We were excited to test the Tiger JBV-A10U because it's one of the cheapest cookers that still offer fuzzy-logic controls. It was also super speedy in our tests, finishing a batch of white rice in under 30 minutes. The quality of the rice itself was good, with firm and separated grains, but not as plump as rice that came from a Zojirushi. The lid is not removable and also lacks a functional drain hole, so puddles of condensation collect and spill into your rice when you open the lid.

The Tiger JAX-T10U was one of the strongest performers in our previous tests. It has a nice thick inner pot, a stainless steel exterior, and a detachable inner lid. It cooked on a par with the winning Zojirushi when making sushi rice, which is why it moved forward into the latter rounds of testing. But we were not impressed with its brown rice, long-grain results, or quick rice.

An induction heat cooker, the Tiger JKT-S10U, was in a similar boat. Sure, it made a good batch of sushi rice, but not enough for you to justify paying double the price of the other Tiger models we tested.

We looked forward to testing the Cuisinart FRC-1000 Rice/Grain Multicooker, which has a dazzling number of functions including sauté and pasta, but in our first rounds of testing, the rice was so gluey and poorly cooked that we didn't bother exploring other features. The steps required just to get it to cook plain white rice are complicated and unintuitive, and once you finally figure it out, the fully backlit display flashes like a glitch, making you wonder if the machine is even working correctly. This cooker was also one of the biggest machines in our lineup, requiring an especially high clearance for us to use it with the lid in an open position.

We tested one Panasonic model with fuzzy logic in 2018, and although it had 13 settings and cost about half as much as our top pick, it took an excruciatingly long time to cook white rice. It has since been discontinued, and we’ve passed on other Panasonic models, like the 5-cup SR-DF101 and the identical 10-cup SR-DF181, which didn't come with features or reviews compelling enough for us to call them in.

The Aroma ARC-914SBD, which we tested in 2013, is a super-affordable rice cooker with a low price, a tiny footprint, and a 4-cup maximum capacity. Unfortunately, in our tests, its rice wasn't really up to scratch, with most of our tasters rating this machine as the bottom of the barrel for both white and brown rice. It also has a tendency to gather condensation on top of the lid.

This article was edited by Marilyn Ong and Marguerite Preston.

Dale Talde, chef and author of Asian-American: Proudly Inauthentic Recipes from the Philippines to Brooklyn, phone interview, March 30, 2018

Tejal Rao, food reporter and columnist for The New York Times, phone interview, March 14, 2018

Tejal Rao, How to Make Rice, The New York Times

Matt Slem, food technician, Lundberg Family Farms, phone interview, January 14, 2020

Kevin L. Cho, sales and marketing associate, Cuckoo Electronics, phone interview, December 4, 2019

Marilyn Matsuba, marketing manager, Zojirushi, phone interview, December 4, 2019

Naomi Duguid, food writer and author, interview

Fuchsia Dunlop, chef and food writer, interview

Harris Salat, restaurateur and author of Japanese Soul Cooking: Ramen, Tonkatsu, Tempura, and More from the Streets and Kitchens of Tokyo and Beyond, interview

Sabrina Imbler

Sabrina Imbler is a former staff writer for Wirecutter, where they covered kitchen tools and HVAC.

Tammie Teclemariam

Tammie Teclemariam is a freelance food and drinks writer who contributes to Wine Enthusiast, Eater, Taste, and other publications. Before becoming a wine and spirits professional, she studied philosophy, apprenticed as a pastry chef in France, and interned at Ceremony Coffee Roasters. She lives in Brooklyn.

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Capacity: Even and consistent cooking: Keep-warm and quick-cook settings: Multiple grain settings: Fuzzy logic: Speed: Nonstick cooking pot: Plastic rice paddle: Alert or musical tone: One-year warranty: Induction heating: Mobile app: Voice navigation: Test 1 – sushi rice: Test 2 – jasmine rice: Test 3 – brown rice: Test 4 – basmati rice: If you’d like a Zojirushi option that costs less than our pick:

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