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The Spruce Eats / Chloe Jeong
If you're a person who drinks smoothies every morning or takes protein shakes to the gym, a personal blender could be ideal. Less powerful and less expensive than full-size blenders, personal blenders are designed to whip up single servings that can be taken on the go. Most models blend in the same container you drink from, with swappable travel lids that make it easy to take a smoothie or shake with you wherever you're headed.
To help find the best one for your needs, we tested them side-by-side in our Lab, creating lots of smoothies (blueberries and kale with ice; peanut butter and dates with protein powder) as well as salsa, with onion, jalapeño, cherry tomatoes, garlic powder, lime juice, sea salt, and ground back pepper. When rating, testers considered each product's design, how easy it was to use and clean, convenience, performance, and overall value. The following is a selection of products that outperformed the rest—the very best personal blenders on the market.
Best Overall
NutriBullet Pro 900 High-Speed Blender
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Amazon
High power
Large capacity
Durable
Expensive
Cups lack measurement lines
With its 900-watt motor, the NutriBullet Pro 900 is ideal for someone with a small kitchen who makes a lot of soups, sauces, and smoothies. It did a great job with pretty much every ingredient we threw at it, making short work of kale, blueberries, dates, frozen banana, and ice. The results were consistently textured and easy to drink both through a straw and from the side of the cup. No unpleasant chunks of ingredients wound up in the final product.
This blender comes with two BPA-free 32-ounce blender cups, which are larger than most personal blender cups, but still work just fine with smaller batches, like an individual smoothie or serving of dip. You also get two cup rings, two handled lip rings, two flip-top to-go lids, and a recipe book. The blender couldn't be easier to use; you lock a cup into the base, push, and twist. The motor is not meant to run for more than 60 seconds at once, but that was more than enough time to complete each of our tests. It has lots of power for crushing and pureeing, but the Nutribullet Pro 900 only has one speed setting and no real pulse mode, which means it's not great at chopping—our salsa test ended up with more of a smooth puree than a chunky dip.
When it comes to cleaning, the cups, lids, and rings are all dishwasher-safe. The blade assembly is hand wash only, but it comes off the base for fairly simple rinsing and wiping. Our tester didn't have too much trouble, but did find it a bit of a pain to carefully squeeze a sponge into the nooks and crannies beneath the blade itself. This is one of the more expensive personal blender options, but it's powerful and durably built, well worth the extra money if you're going to use it heavily. (The Pro 900 comes in many different colors, and some are available at a significant discount, to boot.)
Price at time of publish: $110
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The Spruce Eats / Russell Kilgore
Power: 900 watts | Cups Included: 2 | Maximum Cup Capacity: 32 ounces | Weight: 4.7 pounds | Dimensions: 12 x 7.7 x 16 inches
Best Budget
Ninja Fit Personal Blender
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Amazon
Easy to use
Dishwasher-safe, including blade
Inexpensive
Small capacity
Noisy
This mini blender had no trouble powering through greens, ice, and frozen fruit in our tests, but its teensy 16-ounce cups meant that it took two batches to make a full blueberry-kale smoothie. The Ninja Fit couldn't be easier to use: You screw the blades onto the cup and then simply flip it over, place on the base, and push down to blend for as long or short as you want. It had no trouble with smoothies, but with just one (high) speed setting, it's not good for making chunky salsa or other chopping tasks.
The Ninja Fit comes with two 16-ounce cups, each with its own screw-on spout lid. (Our tester noted that the lids make a good seal but need to be screwed down very tightly to avoid leaks.) All the parts are dishwasher-safe—including the blade, which is a nice bonus that most personal blenders don't offer. It might not be cordless, but the low price, small size, and screw-on blade make this blender a good option to throw in your gym bag for a post-workout smoothie anywhere you can access an electrical outlet.
Price at time of publish: $62
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The Spruce Eats / Russell Kilgore
Power: 700 watts | Cups Included: 2 | Maximum Cup Capacity: 16 ounces | Weight: 4.6 pounds | Dimensions: 4 x 4 x 13 inches
Best Portable
BlendJet 2 Portable Blender
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Blendjet
Measurement markings on blender cup
Large battery capacity
Fun color and design choices
Small cup capacity
Underpowered
Short charging cord
Designed with portability in mind, the BlendJet 2 can go anywhere you do. After testing the original BlendJet One, we were excited to get our hands on the next-generation model, which offers more power, longer battery life, and a larger capacity—though at 16 ounces, it's still fairly small. The cup, blades, and base are a single unit that can easily be tossed in a gym bag, large purse, backpack, or even luggage. It charges via a UBS-C cable that can plug into the wall, a laptop, a car outlet, or a solar charger, and our tester found that a full charge is enough for the 15 smoothies the maker claims, plus more. That's a huge improvement over the previous version, though the cable itself is only about a foot long, making charging kind of inconvenient.
The BlendJet 2 features just a single button to control all of its functions: Tap it once for a 20-second blend session or twice to switch to pulse mode, which blends only when you hold down the button. (There's also a lock mode so you can't accidentally turn the blender on while it's packed away.) In the Lab, it did a decent job with most smoothie ingredients, especially after our tester discovered that turning the unit upside-down while running helped get a smoother blend. But it still couldn't quite break down fibrous kale into a smooth drink. That said, if you're using it for less-intense jobs, like blending banana and ice or whipping protein powder into juice, the 200-watt motor is good enough.
The fact that this is truly an all-in-one unit—you drink out of the blending cup with the blades and base still attached—also makes it easy to clean. The brand's recommended method is to simply put some dish soap and water inside and run the blades, which worked great in our tests. The BlendJet 2 also comes in a wide variety of designs, from a range of solid colors to Lisa Frank-branded rainbow leopard spots and Disney prints featuring characters from "Toy Story" and "Frozen." (Different retailers have different sets of designs, so you might need to search around if you want something in particular.)
Price at time of publish: $50
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The Spruce Eats / Sharon Lehman
Power: 200 watts | Cups Included: 1 | Maximum Cup Capacity: 16 ounces | Weight: 1.3 pounds | Dimensions: 3 x 9 inches
"The blending mode is much faster than it used to be. The BlendJet One took about one minute to blend, but the BlendJet 2 blends for about 20 seconds and then turns itself off automatically." — Sharon Lehman, Product Tester
Best Multipurpose
Bella 15 Piece Rocket Extract Pro Power Blender Set
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Amazon
Lots of cups
Extra grinding blade
Inexpensive
Small capacity
Cheap materials
Only one travel lid
The Bella Rocket Extract Pro is pretty much a knock-off of the NutriBullet that we named our best overall personal blender. It looks quite similar, is slightly less powerful, and our tester noted that it's somewhat lighter and uses lower-quality materials. In our tests, it performed quite well, though it did leave some small chunks of date in the finished smoothie. It even made a pretty good chunky salsa, something none of the other personal blenders we tested were really able to do.
In addition, the Bella comes with lots of accessories, including three 24-ounce and two 12-ounce cups, as well as an additional blade meant for grinding hard coffee beans and spices, something neither a blender nor a food processor is usually equipped to do. Unfortunately, there's only one travel lid among all the extras, but it does come with three solid lids that seal the cups closed, and even a shaker lid to use for spices.
In all, this is a blender at a really cheap price that performed surprisingly well and comes with an array of extras. It might not last a lifetime, but it makes a solid smoothie and will serve as both a blender and coffee grinder. If you're a NutriBullet owner and your unit ever dies, this is an excellent option.
Price at time of publish: $49
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The Spruce Eats / Russell Kilgore
Power: 700 watts | Cups Included: 5 | Maximum Cup Capacity: 24 ounces | Weight: 6.4 pounds | Dimensions: 8.4 x 8.7 x 12 inches
Best for the Gym
NutriBullet 600W Personal Blender
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Amazon
Solid blending performance
Inexpensive
Easy to use
Small capacity
Blade must be hand washed
Bulky
The original model NutriBullet has been around for nearly 20 years, and it's still a great choice for making a single-serving smoothie or shake on the way to the gym. It doesn't have quite as much power as the 900-watt NutriBullet that was our overall winner, but this machine's blades were able to turn blueberries, kale, dates, peanut butter, frozen banana, and ice cubes into smooth beverages that didn't clog up a straw. It needed extra time to achieve a fully uniform texture, especially with the dates and peanut butter, but it was able to get there.
With only one speed and push-to-blend operation, this machine is super easy to use. You can also push and turn to lock it in place for longer blending sessions. The 600-watt Nutribullet's cups and lids are dishwasher-safe while the blade itself has to be scrubbed and rinsed by hand, but our tester found that there was plenty of room to maneuver around the blade to remove any lingering bits of food.
When it comes to accessories, you might run into a bit of confusion. There are two different sets out there that have the same blender base: One (at Amazon, among others) includes just a single 24-ounce cup, while the other (including on the NutriBullet site) comes with an additional 18-ounce cup and travel lid. The two-cup set is slightly more expensive, but both are pretty affordable.
Price at time of publish: $70-$80
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The Spruce Eats / Russell Kilgore
Power: 600 watts | Cups Included: 1 or 2 | Maximum Cup Capacity: 24 ounces | Weight: 5 pounds | Dimensions: 6.9 x 11.6 x 12.3 inches
Best Smart
Ninja BN401 Nutri Blender Pro with Auto-iQ
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Amazon
Very powerful
Automatic settings
Multifunctional
Loud
Left bits of kale and date
With 1,100 watts, this is the most powerful of all the personal blenders we tested. (It's actually one of our favorite high-powered blenders, period.) But the Ninja Nutri Pro isn't just a burly brute; it's got smarts. Its two Auto-iQ presets—one for smoothies and one for chunkier crushed ice—adjust the time and spin speed based on what's in the cup.
Our Lab tests proved that power isn't the only factor that comes into play for blenders, as it left some small bits of kale and date behind after running the smoothie program. It still made a tasty smoothie, but another run through the program or a few seconds of manual pulsing were needed for ideal texture. On the other hand, the smart programs make the blender more useful for non-smoothie applications, like salad dressings, dips, or soups. The crushed ice setting, designed for frozen drinks like margaritas, can break up ice without melting it, something hard for one-speed blenders to do. This machine would be a good fit for someone who plans on making a lot of smoothies or shakes as well as other blending tasks. It was easy to use, simple and straightforward, and blended ice and frozen banana well.
This model comes with two 24-ounce cups, each with a tight-sealing travel lid.
Price at time of publish: $100
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The Spruce Eats / Russell Kilgore
Power: 1,100 watts | Cups Included: 2 | Maximum Cup Capacity: 24 ounces | Weight: 6.3 pounds | Dimensions: 6.3 x 6.9 x 14.3 inches
Best Splurge
Zwilling Enfinigy Personal Blender
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Amazon
Excellent performance
Sleek, modern design
Leakproof to-go lid
Expensive
Small capacity
Zwilling's Enfinigy line is a set of kitchen appliances that pay as much attention to looks as they do to performance. The ridged jar and minimalist controls of this machine look striking on the counter, and it also made an excellent set of smoothies in our test. The 500-watt motor powered right through ice and frozen banana and didn't have much trouble with kale or dates, leaving only tiny bits that were easy to suck up with a straw. Its set of four serrated blades looks different than the six straight blades most other models have, but that didn't seem to make much difference in how it actually performed.
The simple control wheel for this blender has a smoothie mode that runs constantly and a pulse mode better suited to crushing ice. The 20-ounce cup is made of extra-strong Tritan plastic, with a firm-sealing travel lid that didn't spill a drop in testing. Like most similar models, its cup and lid are dishwasher-safe, and the blade assembly removes for easy washing by hand. The big downside here is the price, but keep an eye on sales: Zwilling products are often available at a solid discount.
Price at time of publish: $170
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The Spruce Eats / Russell Kilgore
Power: 500 watts | Cups Included: 1 | Maximum Cup Capacity: 20 ounces | Weight: 5.1 pounds | Dimensions: 5.3 x 5.8 x 14.5 inches
Best Design
Beast Blender
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Beast
Powerful
Automatic speed adjustment
Large capacity
Expensive
Loud
Only one blender cup
The Beast Blender is named appropriately. The brand proudly describes the device as "overbuilt," and it's clear that lots of thought went into each and every aspect of how it works. The 1,000-watt motor spins the blade at up to 18,000 RPM, but it also senses the thickness and temperature of what it's blending, adjusting the speed and power automatically for maximum effectiveness. The 1-liter cup has a unique ribbed shape inside and out, which not only looks distinctive but also helps increase the turbulence of the liquid inside and ensure a more even blend.
In testing, the Beast did an excellent job with almost everything, reducing kale and blueberries to a smooth puree and crushing ice easily, but it left a little bit of grittiness in the date smoothie. The machine has just one speed, with a 60-second automatic setting that's ideal for smoothie-making as well as a pulse mode for more freestyle blending. The cup and lid are dishwasher-safe, but the blade assembly must be washed by hand. It has some ridges and screws close to the blades, so you need to take care while wiping everything out with a sponge or cloth. Our tester also noted that the machine is quite loud; you might not want to use it while others at home are asleep.
For a little extra money, you can expand the Beast's capabilities with a "Hydration System" that adds on a 500-milliliter blending cup and a 750-milliliter glass water bottle with a special infusion filter. You give fruits and herbs a quick whiz in the blender, then pack them into the filter to enjoy lightly flavored spa water all day long.
Price at time of publish: $165
Power: 1,000 watts | Cups included: 1 | Maximum cup capacity: 33.8 ounces | Weight: 3 pounds | Dimensions: 4.9 x 4.9 x 15.8 inches
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The Spruce Eats / Russell Kilgore
Best for Families
Cuisinart Compact Portable Blending/Chopping System
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Amazon
Sleek, compact design
Includes many cups
Multiple speed settings
Underpowered
Takes a long time to fully blend
Most personal blenders truly are personal, with enough accessories to make only one or two servings at a time. That's not the case with this Cuisinart system, which comes with six different cups that all fit on the same blade and base. There are four separate 16-ounce cups with their own travel lids so you can make breakfast smoothies assembly line-style and send each member of the family out the door with their own. There's also a 32-ounce extra-large cup and an 8-ounce cup for chopping.
The high setting is best for smoothies, but the Cuisinart also has a low speed and pulse button, which, combined with the small chopping cup, let it chop foods into chunks. It did a just-OK job of making chunky salsa in our test, which honestly put it toward the top of the heap—most of the personal blenders we tested turned tomato, onion, and jalapeño into watery gazpacho or failed to chop the big pieces at all. This unit's 350-watt motor did well with frozen banana and ice, but it had some trouble with tougher ingredients: It needed longer than other models to deal with kale and blueberry, and it wasn't really able to break up and incorporate dense, fleshy dates into a date-peanut butter smoothie.
It may not be the most powerful personal blender on the market, but if your goal is to make fairly simple smoothies and juices for lots of different people, this one is ideal, especially at this price. And the cups and blade at all dishwasher-safe, so you can be ready for the next batch with ease.
Price at time of publish: $80
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The Spruce Eats / Russell Kilgore
Power: 350 watts | Cups included: 6 | Maximum cup capacity: 32 ounces | Weight: 7.3 pounds | Dimensions: 10.1 x 15.8 x 10 inches
The Nutribullet Pro 900 gets the top spot because it's not only fast and powerful—great for those with tight schedules—but also compact and easy to clean. If you're looking for a more affordable option, or want to add coffee- and spice-grinding capabilities to your personal blender, the Bella Rocket Extract Pro comes with a range of accessories including five cups and two blades.
How We Tested
Blenders - Personal
Our Lab purchased and tested 20 different models of personal blenders, evaluating each one overall on general design and ease of use before running identical sets of tests. Each blender was used to make two smoothie recipes, one with orange juice, blueberries, kale, and ice, and the other with frozen banana, oat milk, peanut butter, dates, and protein powder. After blending for a uniform amount of time (30 seconds for the blueberry-kale smoothie and 60 seconds for the peanut butter-date one), we evaluated the smoothies on how well the ingredients were incorporated, drinking each through a straw to test texture. If the ingredients were not fully blended after the set time, testers continued to blend until they achieved the best texture the blender was able.
Between making the two smoothies, testers fully cleaned the machines following the included directions to rate them on ease of cleaning and disassembly. We also attempted to make a tomato-onion-jalapeño salsa in each blender to evaluate its ability to chop as well as blend. For sets that include travel lids, testers filled the cups, sealed the lids, and set them on their side for five minutes to check for leaks. They also evaluated the effectiveness of any other unique accessories or functions for individual blenders on an individual basis.
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The Spruce Eats / Tierney McAfee
Other Options We Tested
- NutriBullet Pro 1000: This is the slightly more powerful cousin of our overall winner, NutriBullet's 900-watt Pro. The extra 100 watts raise the price but don't really do much for performance: The 1000 actually performed slightly worse than the 900 in our tests. This is a good blender, but there's one from the same brand that's better and cheaper.
- PopBabies Portable Blender: We tested four models of USB-charging portable blenders, and this one was notably at the bottom of the pile. The cheap machine had lots of trouble with kale and couldn't handle full-sized ice cubes at all. (It comes with its own small-cube mold, which might have worked better but is a pain to have to deal with.) The battery could also only hold enough charge for four or five 20-second blending sessions, which pales in comparison to the BlendJet 2 above, and the narrow opening makes it tough to clean, too.
- Tribest PB-350 Personal Blender: This blender is a little more expensive than average, and in our tests it did...fine. It left a few chunks in the smoothies, and we couldn't get its travel lid to seal tightly. Those are minor negatives, but they aren't outweighed by any special functions or accessories.
What to Look for in a Personal Blender
Blender Cup Capacity and Quantity
How big is your morning smoothie? Do you like the idea of blending once and then portioning it into several cups, or do your family members have different flavor preferences? Look for a kit that's the right size for you. Larger cups can, of course, blend more at once, but they're less portable. Many personal blender models come with more than one small cup, which lets you make a kale smoothie and then a strawberry-banana one without having to wash everything out in between. (Most of the brands on our list sell additional blender cups, so you can buy extras if needed.) Keep in mind that some personal blenders are also compatible with Mason jars, giving you lots and lots of inexpensive options.
Lids and Accessories
Some personal blenders come with travel lids that screw right onto the cup, which is a lot more convenient than pouring the cup into a separate mug to get your smoothie into the car. Some screw-on lids even include a mug-style handle for easy gripping. Other blender models offer multiple sets of blades for chopping and grinding, while cordless models can charge their batteries via USB and don't need a wall plug in the car or on the trail.
Power
While wattage isn’t the perfect indicator of a blender’s effectiveness, it’s a pretty good hint. In general, the higher the wattage, the more powerful the appliance and the higher the price. If you typically blend softer foods like bananas and yogurt into liquid-heavy smoothies, you might not need as much power as someone who plans on blending dense vegetables, ice, and frozen fruits. Higher power can also mean that the blender will be noisier, which might be a consideration if you’re blending in the morning while your family’s still asleep or have an easy-to-wake infant.
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The Spruce Eats / Sharon Lehman
FAQs
How powerful are personal blenders?
In general, personal blenders aren't as powerful as standard-sized blenders—more powerful motors are simply bigger and heavier—but there is some overlap: 1,000 watts is on the weaker end for a full-size blender and the stronger end for a personal one. On the other hand, the smoothies, sauces, and shakes you'd typically use a personal blender for don't need extreme levels of power. Some budget-priced personal blenders have motors with as few as 200 watts, though cup and blade design can help do more with less power.
Can you put frozen fruit in a personal blender?
You can put frozen fruit in a personal blender, but the key to getting a smooth blend is adding the right ratio of liquid to frozen ingredients. Check the user manual for recommendations. If you find yourself ending up with unblended bits, try letting the frozen fruit sit out at room temperature for five to 10 minutes before blending to partially thaw. If that doesn't help, you might need a more powerful blender.
Can a personal blender crush ice?
Some personal blenders are powerful enough to crush ice, which is a necessary feature if you like making icy coffee drinks, slushies, and frozen margaritas. Higher-wattage blenders will be better at crushing ice quickly, while weaker models will take too long to break up large cubes before they melt. Trying to crush ice in a low-end blender isn't unsafe or anything, just ineffective.
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The Spruce Eats / Sharon Lehman
Why Trust The Spruce Eats?
Donna Currie has used a veritable flock of blenders, from manual to hand blenders to a high-end Vitamix, that she tested for The Spruce Eats. To make sure she found the perfect personal blenders for everyday use, she spent hours doing even more research online to narrow down the list to the best of the best.
This roundup was updated by Katya Weiss-Andersson, a writer and editor who has nearly a decade of experience as a professional chef, Sharon Lehman, a home cook and registered dietitian nutritionist,Allison Wignall, a writer who focuses on food and travel, and Jason Horn, a commerce writer at The Spruce Eats.