The 6 Best Instant-Read Thermometers, Tested

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These thermometers take the guesswork out of cooking meats and vegetables.

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Food & Wine

Between the diners I first cooked in and culinary school, I learned many ways to judge the doneness of meat and poultry, but each left room for interpretation. Thankfully, by the time I opened my first restaurant, instant-read thermometers had progressed. They were already useful in spot-checking chicken on the grill, but their new responsiveness and accuracy allowed me to temp every burger, steak, or piece of fish coming out of the kitchen. I could prove a steak was medium rare within seconds.

I’ll go so far as to say the instant read bolstered my reputation as a chef and saved me money, minimizing the plates sent back for over- or under-doneness. Now, I use instant-read thermometers on my backyard grill, on the stove, and in the refrigerator (really). To help guide you to the right fit, we brought several of the best instant-read thermometers into our test kitchen.

The ThermoWorks ThermaPen ONE is still our favorite instant-read thermometer for its speed, accuracy, ease of use, and construction.

This is a fast and accurate thermometer that’s tough enough for professional settings

Some find the LCD’s backlighting too dim.

The ThermaPen ONE has aced several rounds of testing for its responsiveness and accuracy, making it one of our favorite meat thermometers and, if you ask us, the very best instant-read thermometer. It's comfortable to hold and has a large, backlit display that’s easy to read, as it rotates depending on how you position its body. In our most recent tests, we got consistent results over and over, with one degree of variance from our controls — ThermoWorks claims accuracy within one-half degree, and rounding numbers kept it within that threshold. It also reported its results in two seconds or less.

I have a ThermaPen ONE in my home kitchen and have used these thermometers professionally in my restaurant kitchens. I like them for their speed and accuracy and because they’re built to take a beating without affecting their performance.

The ThermaPen comes to life when you extend the probe and sleeps when you fold it back into the body, and as such, they have extensive battery life. I’ve never had to replace the single AAA battery in any of the ThermaPens I’ve bought. The backlighting isn’t a substitute for grill lights or a well-lit area, and making it brighter would come at the expense of battery life, though some might find it a little too dim. The ThermaPen ONE is by far the most expensive model we’ve listed here, but its accuracy, speed, efficiency, and longevity make it worth the price.

Probe Length: 4.3 inches | Temperature Range: -58°F to 572°F | Warranty: 5 years

The ThermoPop is a simple, easy-to-use, fast, and accurate thermometer with a rotating display.

This is a one-dimensional thermometer with no bells or whistles.

The ThermoPop 2 is a different design from many of the models I’ve tested. Most have a folding probe, but the ThermoPop is rigid and comes with a hard plastic sheath that you can put in your pocket like a pen. The 4-inch probe ends in a teardrop-shaped head with a backlit LCD and an on-off switch. The temperature display rotates 360° in 90° increments, allowing you to hold it in either hand, vertically or horizontally, and still have a clear view.

The display registers to the nearest one-tenth of a degree and was within three-tenths of a degree of the control temperature at its most accurate. The most the ThermoPop varied from our control was by 4°F in the roasted chicken test. It’s a good thermometer for those who need accuracy and speed for roasting, grilling, or smoking, or those who need precise liquid temperature measurement at a mid-range price.

Probe Length: 4.5 inches | Temperature Range: -58 to 572°F | Warranty: 2 years

The Alpha Grillers thermometer provides great value in speed and accuracy for the price.

The body’s front side contains all the information, controls, and functionality, but it’s almost too much in one place.

The Alpha Grillers thermometer's accuracy and response time surprised me. The smallest variance from the control temperature was two-tenths of a degree, the largest was about 2.5°F, and the average response time in the water tests was around five seconds.

The thermometer’s front side is busier than I like, but everything you need is there. A third of the front contains a meat temperature chart, and the LCD temperature display occupies the middle third. The final portion of the front includes switches to turn the backlighting on and off, a calibration button, and a hold button that freezes the current temperature and reports the minimum and maximum temperatures of any time you’ve pressed hold during your cooking session.

The case is waterproof, made of hard plastic, and is strong enough to survive a few falls, should you drop it. I’d recommend this thermometer to anyone who wants a fast, accurate thermometer but doesn’t want to commit to a more expensive model. It provides considerable value for the price.

Probe Length: 4.5 inches | Temperature Range: -58° to 572°F | Warranty: Lifetime

It’s fast for a thermocouple thermometer and is accurate within 2°F

The design is a little blocky and it lacks features that other thermometers have.

Thermocouple and digital thermometers differ in that thermocouples generate electrical voltage as a representation of temperature, which goes through a series of calculations before displaying a number. Digital thermometers are more of a complete unit that rely on multiple sensors (typically thermistors) to display the temperature. Thermocouples are, on the whole, durable and designed to handle high heat, but these are just a couple of reasons I'd recommend one.

The Dash delivers speed and accuracy at a fraction of the price of our favorite, albeit with some design sacrifices, meaning it’s a little blocky and one-dimensional. This thermometer registered within 1° to 2°F of accuracy in our freezing and boiling water tests with even better accuracy in our cooking tests, which reflects a more normal usage. It had a three- to five-second response time, which puts it slightly behind the Thermapen ONE, but a thermocouple thermometer isn’t quite as fast as a digital model, so we don’t necessarily count that as a negative. The price, however, is hard to beat.

Probe Length: 4.5 inches | Temperature Range: -40° to 482°F | Warranty: 1 year

It’s fast and accurate for the price.

The case is somewhat brittle and its biggest temperature variations were in the middle temperature range.

This thermometer is a close runner-up to our Best Value winner. In my testing, I found it very responsive to the boiling and ice water tests, especially for a thermocouple model, registering between one and three seconds with a 1.4°F variation from the control. Oddly, the response time and accuracy wavered in the mid-range temperature tests, but only by about three degrees. It’s a simple thermometer, with few features, save a button to lock the display to the current temperature and a latch to retract the probe when extended 180°. The case is comfortable to hold, save for two mounting magnets on the back, which somehow aligned perfectly with my first and third finger and felt a little weird. The case is also a bit brittle, so I’d be careful not to drop it or place it where it could get crushed.

Probe Length: 4 inches | Temperature Range: -14° to 572°F | Warranty: 3 years

This thermometer serves dual purposes, eliminating the need for a second thermometer type.

The infrared portion isn't as easy to aim as some dedicated models, and the display could be easier to read.

The Cuisinart Infrared and Folding Grilling Thermometer fills two heat-measuring needs in one device. In addition to its instant-read capability, this thermometer also has a point-and-shoot infrared thermometer, which you can use to assess the surface temperature of your grill or skillet before cooking and then use the probe to spot-check your food’s internal temperature.

The instant-read thermometer performed very well in our boiling and sous vide testing, giving spot-on accuracy in about two seconds. There were a few nit-picky issues with this thermometer, in that the display doesn’t rotate to orient with the direction you’re holding the base, the backlighting could be brighter in a low-light oven, and the infrared thermometer isn’t as easy to aim as its dedicated competitors. But, you get two good thermometers for far less than the cost of buying them separately, so we consider that a win.

What to use an instant-read thermometer for?

Use an instant-read thermometer whenever you need a quick, accurate snapshot of the current temperature of food. Most people understand their utility for grilling or roasting meats, but you can also use them in sauce-making where you need to know the temperature, like when tempering custard, or for scalding milk in cheese-making.

Most people think of using a thermometer to test how hot something is, but you can also use an instant-read thermometer to measure if something is cold enough, like whether your ice cream base is ready to spin. There’s also a place for instant-read thermometers in food safety, checking if the food you’ve set out on a buffet is outside of the microbial danger zone, or if the braised meat you just labored over (and which is always better when you let it cool in the cooking liquid overnight) is cool enough to safely store.

How far do you insert an instant-read thermometer?

Upon examining the five instant-read thermometers in my kitchen (I test cooking products for a living, OK?), all share a common trait. Their probes have a thinner, needle-like tip to make insertion easier that broadens about an inch from the end. Ideally, you should insert the thermometer’s probe far enough to cover that narrow end that houses the sensor. Expanding a little from that, you should insert the probe until the tip is in the middle of the food, provided the piece of food you’re testing is a uniform thickness. Because nature doesn’t often create uniform food, take a chicken thigh, for example, you should forgo the center as a target and insert the probe into the thickest part of the food, away from any bones, which are fantastic heat conductors and will give you an inaccurate reading.

Over the past few years, we’ve tested over two dozen instant-read thermometers in our testing lab and home kitchens. As new models and brands come on the market, we create test groups to see how they stand against our historical winners. We originally tested 22 models from brands including ThermoWorks, ThermoPro, Taylor, Cuisinart, OXO, Weber, Maverick, BBQ Dragon, Venigo, Saunorch, and Kizen. Since then, we’ve brought back our top-rated instant-reads and added brands like Dash and Typhur to the lineup.

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

In our most recent tests, I tested five newer models against the ThermoWorks Thermapen ONE, our previous Best Overall winner: one instant-read from ThermoWorks, Alpha Grillers, and Lavatools, and two from ThermoPro. I put the thermometers through the same four tests to arrive at our ratings. In all of the tests, I looked for accuracy and speed, but I also considered user-friendliness: how comfortable it was to hold, whether the probe was long enough to keep my hands from the heat, and the quality of the display.

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ThermoPro Digital Instant Read Meat Thermometer ($12 at Amazon)This ThermoPro offering has a waterproof case and magnetic back for storage, or, feasibly, sticking to the side of a pot for hands-free temperature monitoring over time. Compared to many of the other models I tested, it has a small, backlit LCD that registers to the nearest one-tenth degree. It’s accurate and registered within one degree Fahrenheit of the control temperature in every test. It wasn’t as fast, though, with an average response time of nine seconds across the testing. The plastic case seems semi-durable, but might not survive someone stepping on it.

OXO Good Grips Thermocouple Thermometer ($60 at Amazon)The Oxo Good Grips instant-read thermometer measured within 1°F of accuracy and took between three and five seconds to react. It's a basic model with an easy-to-read display that also accommodates left-handed folks. It lacks features, though you can switch between measuring in whole numbers (rounding up or down) or decimals (to the 10th of a degree). While it comes at a lower price than the Thermapen ONE, we chose the Thermapen ONE as our Best Overall because it reacts quicker and the construction feels a bit more durable.

Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore

Of the many instant-read thermometers we’ve tested, some inevitably fall in the middle. The Lavatools Javelin PRO Duo Digital Instant Read Thermometer ($43 at Amazon) was a prime example of this. Sometimes, it was dead-on if we rounded; other times, it varied up to 4°F. Plus, others were more accurate, registered faster, and cost less. We also found that, with the exceptions above, most inexpensive thermometers weren’t worth recommending.

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There are two main types of instant-read thermometers: digital and dial, and each works in markedly different ways. Digital thermometers work in two stages. The first stage creates an analog electrical current generated by the measured object's temperature. That current passes through an analog-to-digital converter, feeding those results to a device that performs computations that result in the numbers on the digital display.

Most dial thermometers use a spring made of two disparate metals, typically copper, steel, or brass. One metal is more sensitive to heat, and the other is more sensitive to cold. When you insert the thermometer’s probe into whatever you measure, one of the two metals will react and either expand or contract, depending on whether the object is hotter or colder than the thermometer’s starting point. That expansion moves the dial on the display, reflecting the object’s temperature.

Digital instant-read thermometer manufacturers frequently list their products’ accuracy within a specific temperature range. Our three favorite thermometers register within one-half to one degree of accuracy for most cases the average cook will encounter.

Depending on the brand and model, our favorite instant-read thermometers register within one to three seconds.

You can, but I need to add a really big asterisk to this statement. There are a couple of reasons why an instant-read thermometer isn’t the best tool for candy-making. First, you’ll have to hold the thermometer steady the entire time, measuring the same spot during the process. Most candy thermometers have a device that attaches them to the pan to free up your hand and keep them stationary. The second is the tip of an instant-read is more needle-like, designed to penetrate food to measure the internal temperature, and they are great for that purpose. The tip of a candy thermometer has a slightly different shape and registers temperature changes at a higher range more effectively.

Instant read thermometers aren't meant to be left in the oven, as the material may melt at high temperatures. Other wireless thermometers are, however, designed to be left in the oven or grill. These have heat-resistant probes, typically attached to a base unit with a cord, and the base unit connects wirelessly to either a remote screen or an app on your phone.

Greg Baker is an former award-winning chef, restaurateur, and food writer with four decades of experience in the food industry. In addition to writing over 30 articles on grilling and barbecuing, he’s tested wireless thermometers, cutting boards, wood-burning and gas pizza ovens, a kamado grill, and more. He tested six instant-read thermometers to update this article with our most recent recommendations.