6 Best Instant Pot Rice Cookers to Buy in 2025

Unlock serious kitchen versatility with the Instant Pot Duo Plus 8-Quart, a powerhouse 9-in-1 multi-cooker designed for larger families and ambitious home cooks. This model stands out with its whisper-quiet steam release, a thoughtful feature that significantly reduces noise compared to older units, making post-cooking venting far less disruptive. Beyond its impressive quietness, the large LCD display provides clear, step-by-step guidance and a cooking progress bar, taking the guesswork out of complex recipes and ensuring perfect results, whether you’re pressure cooking ribs or steaming delicate fish. Its substantial 8-quart capacity easily handles meals for up to eight people, tackling common pain points like cooking large roasts or preparing big batches of rice or grains efficiently.

Performance is where the Instant Pot Duo Plus 8-Quart truly shines, offering consistent results across its nine functions. The pressure cooking mode dramatically speeds up meal prep, achieving tender meats and perfectly cooked beans up to 70% faster than traditional methods, while the slow cook function handles classic comfort food with ease. Its food-grade stainless steel inner pot features a tri-ply bottom for even heat distribution, crucial for tasks like sautéing vegetables or searing meat directly in the pot before pressure cooking. While highly capable for various dishes, mastering the nuances of different cooking modes and their specific steam release requirements can take a little practice for newcomers to multi-cookers.

Positioned as a feature-rich workhorse, the Instant Pot Duo Plus 8-Quart offers a significant step up in capacity and user interface compared to the more compact Instant Pot Duo Mini 3-Quart, which is better suited for smaller households or singles. While it boasts many functions, the Instant Pot Pro (8 QT) adds premium features like a cookware-grade inner pot and sous vide, making the Duo Plus a strong contender for those prioritizing capacity and a quiet operation without needing the absolute highest-end options. For families needing generous capacity and a wide array of reliable cooking modes, the Duo Plus provides excellent value and performance.

Discover compact convenience with the Instant Pot Duo 7-in-1 Mini, a scaled-down multi-cooker perfect for small living spaces, singles, or couples. This 3-quart model packs essential functionality into a space-saving design, offering pressure cooking, slow cooking, rice cooking, steaming, sautéing, yogurt making, and warming. It simplifies meal preparation with 13 customizable Smart Programs, making it effortless to whip up staples like rice, soups, or yogurt with just a touch. For those living alone or in smaller households, this mini version addresses the common problem of oversized appliances, fitting neatly into limited kitchen real estate while still providing versatile cooking options.

Despite its smaller stature, the Instant Pot Duo Mini delivers reliable performance for individual meals or side dishes. Its 3-quart capacity is ideal for cooking enough rice for 1-3 people or preparing smaller batches of chili or pulled pork. The stainless steel inner pot with a tri-ply bottom ensures consistent heating for sautéing and overall cooking. While excellent for small portions and quick meals, its limited capacity means it’s not suitable for entertaining large groups or cooking substantial family dinners, a key consideration for potential buyers needing more volume.

The Instant Pot Duo Mini is positioned as the budget-friendly entry point into the Instant Pot ecosystem, offering core multi-cooker functions at a more accessible price. It provides more versatility than a dedicated Instant Pot Zest Rice Cooker, which lacks pressure cooking entirely, but offers fewer functions and a smaller capacity than larger models like the Instant Pot Duo Plus 6-Quart or 8-Quart. This Instant Pot is the ideal choice for individuals or small households prioritizing space and essential multi-cooker capabilities over maximum capacity or advanced features.

Experience the pinnacle of multi-cooking performance with the Instant Pot Pro (8 QT), a premium 10-in-1 appliance engineered for culinary enthusiasts and large families. This model boasts a cookware-grade stainless steel inner pot with stay-cool silicone handles, a significant upgrade allowing you to transfer it directly to the stovetop for finishing touches. It expands functionality to include sous vide, along with an improved gentle steam release switch with a diffusing cover that reduces noise and prevents countertop splashes. With 28 program settings plus 5 programmable favorites, this Instant Pot tackles virtually any recipe, addressing the desire for maximum versatility and professional-level results at home.

The Instant Pot Pro (8 QT) delivers exceptional cooking performance, powered by 20% higher wattage for quicker pre-heating and superior searing and sautéing compared to standard models. Its extra-thick 3.5mm aluminum core in the inner pot ensures faster, more efficient, and incredibly even heating. Whether you’re achieving restaurant-quality sous vide, pressure cooking tough cuts of meat, or preparing perfect grains, this unit performs reliably. While its advanced features and robust build justify its name, the complexity and numerous options might feel overwhelming for users simply looking for a basic rice cooker or pressure cooker.

Positioned at the top tier of the Instant Pot lineup, the Pro 8 QT offers features not found in the Instant Pot Duo Plus 8-Quart, such as sous vide and the premium inner pot, justifying its higher cost. It provides vastly more functionality than dedicated appliances like the Instant Pot 20-Cup Rice Cooker, which specializes only in grains. This Instant Pot is best suited for serious home cooks and larger families who demand the highest performance, maximum versatility, and premium build quality for their diverse culinary endeavors.

Discover the popular sweet spot in multi-cooking with the Instant Pot Duo Plus 6-Quart, a versatile 9-in-1 appliance perfectly sized for small to medium-sized families. This model integrates pressure cooking, slow cooking, rice cooking, steaming, sautéing, yogurt making, and more into a single unit, simplifying meal preparation. It features an improved easy-release steam switch that automatically resets, making venting safer and less intimidating than on older designs. With 15 customizable Smart Programs and a real-time cooking progress bar, it provides effortless control and visibility over your cooking process, addressing the need for a reliable, do-it-all kitchen tool.

The Instant Pot Duo Plus 6-Quart provides consistent and dependable performance across its various functions. The 6-quart capacity is the most commonly recommended size, comfortably cooking meals for up to six servings, making it ideal for weeknight dinners and small gatherings. Its stainless steel inner pot with a tri-ply bottom ensures even heat distribution, essential for everything from achieving fluffy rice to developing rich flavors when sautéing. While highly capable for most common tasks, it lacks some of the advanced features, like sous vide or the premium inner pot, found on the higher-end Instant Pot Pro model.

Positioned as a highly capable all-rounder, the Instant Pot Duo Plus 6-Quart offers a significant upgrade in functionality compared to simpler models like the Instant Pot Zest Rice Cooker, which only handles grains and steaming. It provides a balance of capacity and features, sitting below the larger 8-quart Duo Plus and the feature-packed Pro model. This Instant Pot is the go-to choice for typical families seeking a reliable, versatile multi-cooker with a standard capacity that handles a wide range of recipes effectively without breaking the bank.

For those who prioritize perfect rice and healthy grains, the Instant Pot 20-Cup Rice Cooker is a dedicated specialist in a world of multi-cookers. This appliance stands out with its massive 20-cup cooked capacity, ideal for large families, meal prepping, or entertaining. Its headline feature is the unique CarbReduce technology, utilizing a special steam basket to potentially reduce carbs and sugar in rice by up to 40% without compromising taste or texture. With 8 smart cooking presets specifically tuned for various grains, it takes the guesswork out of achieving consistently excellent results every time.

This Instant Pot delivers exceptional performance specifically for rice and grains, consistently producing fluffy, perfectly cooked results thanks to its dedicated programs and CarbReduce basket. The included non-stick cooking pot and stainless steel CarbReduce basket are dishwasher-safe, making cleanup remarkably easy, a key benefit after cooking large batches. While it excels at its core function and offers convenient features like a 10-hour keep warm mode, it lacks the pressure cooking or multi-functionality found in other Instant Pot models, limiting its use strictly to grains, steaming, and slow cooking.

Positioned as a specialized appliance, this Instant Pot Rice Cooker directly addresses the needs of heavy rice consumers or those seeking health benefits via CarbReduce technology. It offers vastly more capacity and specialized features for grains than the Instant Pot Duo Mini 3-Quart, but lacks the pressure cooking and other functions of the Instant Pot Pro or Duo Plus models. For users whose primary need is cooking large quantities of perfect rice and grains with added health benefits, this dedicated unit offers focused capability unmatched by the multi-cookers.

Experience effortless simplicity with the Instant Pot Zest 8 Cup One Touch Rice Cooker, a straightforward and highly affordable appliance focused purely on delivering perfect rice and grains. Designed for ease of use, this unit features four smart programs specifically for rice, oatmeal, and other grains, requiring little more than adding ingredients and pressing a button. Its compact size and 8-cup cooked capacity make it an excellent fit for singles, students, or small households needing a reliable way to cook side dishes or small meals. This Instant Pot solves the problem of inconsistent stovetop rice with dependable, fluffy results every time.

The Instant Pot Zest provides reliable, consistent performance for its core function: cooking rice and grains. The non-stick ceramic coated pot ensures easy serving and cleaning, while the included steam tray allows for simple steaming of vegetables or fish. Its 8-cup cooked capacity (4 cups uncooked) is sufficient for preparing side dishes for a small family or main dishes for one or two people. However, it’s important to note that this model does not have pressure cooking capability or any of the other multi-functions found in the Instant Pot Duo or Pro lines, making it a dedicated rice cooker only.

Positioned as the most budget-friendly option, the Instant Pot Zest is a direct competitor to basic rice cookers from other brands, offering the Instant Pot name and app access at a very accessible price point. It is significantly less versatile than the Instant Pot Duo Mini 3-Quart, which adds pressure cooking and other functions. This Instant Pot is the ideal choice for users seeking a simple, reliable, and inexpensive appliance solely for cooking rice and grains without needing any of the advanced features or multi-cooking capabilities of the more complex Instant Pot models.