Best rice cookers for the way you use them

This small rice cooker has its own quinoa and steel-cut oatmeal settings. Those extra grains are what matter if one appliance has to serve both breakfast and dinner.

Best forSmall rice batches, plus named programs for quinoa and steel-cut oatmeal

This 5.5-cup cooker lets you pick softer or harder white rice outright. Consider it when your meals call for different textures. Batch size alone is a weak reason to pick it.

Best forHomes where the preferred white-rice texture changes with the meal

This is the smaller of the TSC models, aimed at kitchens that want a steaming basket and a cake mode on a rice cooker. Read the basket instructions before pairing it with a full batch of rice.

Best forCooking 5.5-cup rice batches, with a separate steaming mode and a cake program

This is the large TSC, meant for people who really do cook big batches of rice. The ten-cup white-rice capacity takes extra cupboard and counter room, including on nights when you only want a little rice.

Best forBig white-rice batches, along with the TSC steaming and cake functions

This 5.5-cup induction cooker still allows half-cup white-rice batches, which suits a household that eats small portions on weekdays and cooks more on weekends.

Best forHalf-cup white-rice dinners, plus room for a larger batch on the weekend

This three-cup induction cooker has a detachable cord. The compact body works if you put the cooker away after every meal, as long as three dry cups covers your biggest white-rice batch.

Best forSmall white-rice batches, with a cooker that gets stored in the cupboard after use

This 5.5-cup induction cooker is fairly narrow and comes with quinoa, steel-cut oatmeal and steam programs. It’s a fit for a counter where one appliance has to handle several grain routines.

Best forA body under ten inches wide that cooks rice, quinoa and steel-cut oats

A simple tacook model that cooks rice underneath a side dish. With the cooking plate in use, the practical meal is smaller than the 5.5-cup headline suggests.

Best forModest amounts of rice and a side dish cooked at the same time

This tacook cooker adds saved timers and extra rice programs. If you cook rice with a side, expect to start it by hand, since the timer doesn’t work with the cooking plate.

Best forTimer-started plain rice on certain nights, and tacook meals you start by hand on the rest

This small cooker has a ceramic-coated pot, a carry handle and a detachable cord. It works in a kitchen where the cooker is kept in a cupboard, and half-cup rice batches cover the quieter nights.

Best forHalf-cup rice batches and a cooker kept in the cupboard

This three-cup non-pressure cooker offers quinoa and oatmeal programs. The small size may suit a compact household, but you’ll need to look in the recipe instructions for the smallest batch it cooks reliably.

Best forSmall-scale non-pressure cooking with quinoa and oatmeal options

This six-cup non-pressure cooker is a better match for regular medium-sized batches than for single portions. If you often cook just for yourself, the two-cup minimum counts for more than the red finish.

Best forRice batches of two dry cups or larger

The documented range on this six-cup cooker begins at one dry cup. That handles a smaller everyday dinner than the CR-0655F can, with the same headline white-rice maximum.

Best forA one-cup weekday batch, then larger rice meals later in the week

This six-cup pressure rice cooker talks you through cooking with voice guidance in several languages. Pick it for the pressure approach and the voice guidance, and expect extra cleaning of the pressure path afterward.

Best forRice cooked under pressure, with voice guidance in English, Korean or Chinese

With this six-cup cooker you decide between pressure and non-pressure cooking. That flexibility helps a household whose rice routine is changing, though brown rice has a higher minimum than white.

Best forHaving both pressure and non-pressure cooking available in one rice cooker

This six-cup cooker stores two finish times and includes a steaming basket. It’s a good fit for a household that eats dinner on repeating schedules and doesn’t mind washing the pot by hand.

Best forBigger rice batches, plus two meal schedules that repeat

This is the smaller Toshiba, for households that never need a six-cup batch. It retains the two saved timers, and the inner pot still has to be hand washed.

Best forDinner timers that repeat, on a three-cup cooker

This four-dry-cup cooker has a dishwasher-friendly pot and a steam tray, but with a side dish cooking above the rice you can use only half of that rice maximum.

Best forA smaller meal of rice with a side, using a pot that is safe on the top rack

A large rice-and-steam cooker that also slow cooks. Cooking rice and a side together, its tray lets you make a much bigger rice batch than the small ARC-914SBD.

Best forLarger meals of rice with a side, plus a dishwasher-friendly pot

This large rice cooker adds quinoa, oatmeal and sauté-then-simmer modes. It earns its place when those extra jobs are part of your week. If you’d only make plain rice, it is hard to justify.

Best forBig batches of rice, along with quinoa and sauté-then-simmer dishes

A wide-ranging, multicooker-style rice appliance whose pot, lid and stainless basket are all dishwasher-safe. Its cleanup routine is the clearer point in its favor. The CarbReduce name should not be read as a health benefit.

Best forRice and grains when several parts can go in the dishwasher

This shallow cooker has a single switch and is meant for rice you serve soon after it’s done. It handles one to three dry cups of white rice, then shuts off. With no Keep Warm, it’s a poor match for dinners that regularly wait on someone getting home.

Best forA small dinner of fresh rice, eaten together, in a spot with hardly any counter depth

This simple cooker takes up to six dry cups of white rice and warms it automatically for a later sitting. Brown rice tops out at three cups and should never be kept on Warm. A steam basket is included, with its own water-based cooking instructions.

Best forBigger white-rice dinners on a simple switch, with a second sitting later on

This small cooker has one switch and an uncoated stainless inner pot that is dishwasher-safe. The six-cup label refers to cooked rice, which works out to three dry measuring cups. If rice sits on Warm for a longer time, the current instructions call for adjusting the water.

Best forSmall white-rice meals, if your priorities are an uncoated pot and cleaning in the dishwasher

As the larger Neuro Fuzzy, it fits big batches of rice and offers softer and harder white-rice settings. Regular white rice can begin at one dry cup, while brown and mixed rice begin at two. The ten-cup headline doesn’t hold for every menu.

Best forBig rice batches where you choose white-rice texture and can live with a two-cup brown-rice minimum

On this larger tacook, a suitable side can cook above two to four dry cups of rice. The ten-cup headline only holds when the plate isn’t used. Once cooking is done, take the hot plate out, because it can’t remain inside during Keep Warm.

Best forRice in amounts of two to four cups, cooked together with a side from the supplied cookbook

This larger HCC can make dinner and still leave a sizable batch of rice for later. Short or medium-grain brown rice starts at two measuring cups, which can make the extra capacity awkward on quiet nights.

Best forBig rice batches, as long as two cups of brown rice makes sense as the minimum

This ten-cup induction cooker is built for bigger batches of rice and grains. The body is less deep than the large HCC, which frees up room, though brown rice and quinoa each start at two dry measuring cups.

Best forBig batches of grain in a body that is shallower than the ten-cup HCC

Even though it is large, this cooker documents one-cup batches of white and brown rice, which helps when one person eats early and the weekend brings a bigger shared meal. Measure the water for a one-cup batch, as the pot has no one-cup line.

Best forMaking one-cup weekday rice and bigger brown-rice batches in the same pot

This large, single-switch cooker handles two to ten dry cups of white rice or two to six of brown. Keep the two-cup minimum in mind for quiet nights. A counter where a long Micom cooker is in the way may suit its shallower body.

Best forBig rice batches, provided your usual meal works with a two-cup minimum