The best food processor 2024, tried and tested by our experts

The best food processors make life easier when you're cooking for a crowd or simply prepping for a meal for one. They effortlessly blitz through dicing, slicing, grinding and kneading.

We've thoroughly tested a wide range of food processors from leading brands, such as Ninja, KitchenAid, Cuisinart, and NutriBullet. Our tests put the best food processors through their paces, judging their functionality and efficiency through performance, cleaning, and ease of use. There's more detail below, but our current favorite is the Cuisinart Core Custom 10-Cup food processor for its easy storage and exceptional performance. 

If you want to double up your food processor with one of the best blender and food processor combos, we've also included models that come with blending cups to make smoothies as well as dips or sauces. 

Quick List

If you want a food processor and you're in a hurry, here's a quick summary of our top picks. If one piques your interest, you can find more details further down.

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Best food processor 2024

Best food processor overall

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The Cuisinart Core Custom 10-Cup is our top buy and I think you will be hard-pressed to find a better food processor. Our tester Camryn found that it was lightweight, but felt secure, with a bowl that fully seals to prevent any messes while mixing wetter ingredients. 'I think this appliance is worth the splurge if you’re going to use it regularly,' Camryn reports. 'Details like the sealed work bowl make this appliance easy and enjoyable to use, plus you can buy additional attachments to use on the same base.' 

One of our favorite things about this food processor is that everything can be stored inside the main mixing bowl. That includes the blade (which comes with its own protective cover) and the reversible shredding and slicing discs. You can also expand its capabilities by investing in a blender jar, juice extractor or dicing accessory.

The controls are on the simple side, you can either mix on low or high, or pulse. However, we didn't find that this food processor lacked power when we made everything from energy bites to guacamole. The removable parts are all dishwasher-safe, and you can even choose from a range of colors when you buy. 

Our Cuisinart Core Custom 10-Cup Food Processor review has more details

Best value

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If you want a versatile everyday food processor, the NutriBullet NBP50100 7-Cup Food Processor is for you. This is down to its do-it-all attachments, which include a dough hook, a chopping blade, two reversible slicing and shredding discs (one thick, one thin), and a spiralizing insert. 

Our tester Camryn was particularly impressed with these attachments: they were very easy to set up and produced long spirals of carrot and potato. There are three speeds: low, high, and pulse, and Camryn used all to make everything from shakes to dough. 'After weeks of testing, I think it’s an ideal everyday food processor for any household,' she reports.

Despite this huge selection, the attachments can be easily stored in the bowl – other than one disc, which doesn't fit inside. This is important to note since food processors that don't allow for in-bowl storage take up more valuable storage space. At just six pounds, the Nutribullet 7-Cup Food Processor is also very lightweight – a need to know if you are not storing it on the countertop. 

Camryn also found it easy to clean: most of the removable parts are dishwasher-safe and the plastic is BPA-free. As with a lot of Nutribullet products, it comes with a comprehensive recipe book that is great to get you started using the machine. However, it isn't amazing on dough, and the capacity is half that of the biggest food processor we've tested. 

Our Nutribullet 7-Cup Food Processor review has more details

Best food processor blender combo

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If you're looking for a hard-working appliance, you've found the one. Not only can this cover a range of blending and food processing options, it comes with an enormous capacity. The Ninja comes with a 72 oz pitcher and 64 oz food processor as well as two 24 oz cups for any drinks that you'll take on the go.

When we tested this on blending, we were impressed. It came close to knocking the Breville Super Q from it's spot as the largest blender, but missed out on the accolade due to the small seed residue it left when blending berries. Don't let that deter you, because this made delicious smoothies, soups, and ice cones. We just aim for perfection and this fell a little short.

As for the all-important food processor tests, this was faultless. We threw some tough and fibrous vegetables at it, asking it to chop zucchini, celery, and carrots. Our experts were suitably impressed at how it performed on the low, medium, high, and pulse settings, even if they were on the noisy side.

It's important to note that this is a big appliance. The large attachments are brilliant for batch cooking, but when it comes to storage, finding the space can be tricky. Also, the lids won't close until the attachments are on the blender, so they're not easy to store in the cupboard.

 Our Ninja Professional Plus Kitchen System with Auto-IQ review has more details 

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Best cordless

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When our tester Camryn put the KitchenAid Cordless 5 Cup Food Chopper through its paces, it truly converted her to cordless food processing. 'Suddenly I could make sauces and dips while standing outside with the grill, and move around the kitchen with complete freedom,' she says. 

Camryn used this five-cup food processor for blitzing up onions, carrots, tomato sauce, guacamole, and even to make a delicious aioli using the mayonnaise attachment. It impressed her at every turn. 'It delivers strong processing power that can handle most tasks, and includes an awesome whisk attachment, as well as an oil drizzle basin that will come in handy for recipes like pesto or hummus,' she says, 'though it doesn’t do as good a job creating uniform pieces as larger food processors.'

Camryn loved its ease of use and cleaning: you turn it on by simply twisting the lid into place and pressing the perfectly thumb-sized groove at the top (though you need to unscrew and reattach the lid to add new ingredients), and the cup is dishwasher-safe. Of course, she points out that you will need to remember to recharge it, but the battery lasted a long time during testing and she anticipates needing to recharge every month, at most. 

Our KitchenAid Cordless 5 Cup Food Chopper review has more details

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Best large

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What sets the Cuisinart 14-Cup Food Processor apart is its large capacity: it's got five cups more than the industry standard. 'I can see this appliance being useful for someone who frequently does big-batch cooking. If you regularly double or triple the size of recipes to accommodate a large family or frequent hosting, the extra-large size of this appliance may be worth the splurge,' says our tester Camryn.

It tackled just about everything Camryn threw its way with ease: 'The pesto I made was evenly chopped and there was no need to go in and scrape any un-mixed ingredients into the sauce; my energy balls came out very well mixed and I found that it was easy to add and remove the blade because the bowl was so large,' she says.

For those who want a sturdy workhorse in the kitchen, look no further: it's outfitted with a slicing disc, shredding disc, and chopping/dough blade, and you can buy other shredding and slicing discs as well as a whisk attachment separately. Its uncomplicated design means it doesn't take up more space in the kitchen than it needs to, but it is heavy, so think twice about buying it if you'll need to transfer it from cabinet to countertop regularly. 

Our Cuisinart Custom 14-Cup Food Processor review has more details

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Best budget

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The Magic Bullet Kitchen Express brings surprisingly good food processing on a budget. Even better than that, it also has a personal blender, too, so it offers a lot for functionality for under $100. 

It's surprisingly good at everything. It was far from perfect, but it does better than you'd expect for the price. It was particularly good at chopping onions, and it made a fantastic guacamole and a pretty good hummus. The capacity is a little small, but it's a great option if you're in a couple. 

Where this food processor falls down is on the strangely-shaped chute. It's pinched in the middle for some reason, which means though it's long and wide enough for lots of ingredients at once, you can't add as much as you think. At first glance, we thought we'd be able to shred three carrots at once, but the chute limits you to two. We also found that there's a knack to twisting on the food processor and blender that isn't immediately obvious. It also simply lacks all the bells and whistles of other foo processors, which isn't surprising for the price. 

There's more detail in our full Magic Bullet Kitchen Express review.

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The ones that just missed the list

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How to choose the best food processor for you:

You'll find a food processor to be invaluable when cooking and making drinks all year round. They're super quick, making cooking easier and less stressful.

The type of food processor you choose will ultimately depend on how often you'll use it and what you'll be using it for. Each model has its own expertise, so choose carefully.

Motor
If you want to chop root vegetables and hard fruits, you'll need an appliance with a powerful motor.

Programs
Look out for a food processor that has automatic programs for the kinds of action that you want, as this takes the guesswork out of using a food processor.

That said, manual controls are important if you want finer control over the results, say blending a soup that still has some chunks in it.

A pulse function is a great way to get fine control: the food processor runs while you press the button but stops the second that you release it. 

Features
Move up the price scale and you’ll find that you get additional features. Some luxurious models will come with plenty of attachments, meaning you can spiralise, chop, knead dough, and more.

Capacity
Look out for the total capacity of the food processor: go for a larger one if you’ve got a big family to feed.

How we test these food processors

Our food processors have been tested in our test kitchen and in our homes. You can read longer reviews of each in separate guides, but know that our testing process is continuous, so you can be sure only the top choices feature in this guide. Alongside our hands-on testing, we also research online user reviews and ask experts to ensure we can present you with a balanced view of each food processor. 

If we have included a food processor in this guide, it will have a rating out of five stars and we will clearly state this in the summary of each product. You will see that some with four stars are higher up the list than those with five stars; this is because, from position two downwards, we list the product by popularity amongst you, our readers. However, we are confident that all food processors listed are really good buys.

When testing the best food processors we made sure to use every attachment on offer, meaning we will often slice, chop, grate, spiralize, and even make pizza dough. We also like to work with a mixture of personal and brand-supplied recipes. A lot of brands include recipes with their products, which can be a great way of getting to know a food processor, but it's also important that the machine will work with our own recipes. We also test each food processor for weeks, not once, to ensure we offer you more than just a first impression.

For more insight into our hands-on review process, refer to our Homes & Gardens review guidelines. 

Meet The Team

Millie Hurst

Millie Fender is the Reviews Editor on the Homes & Gardens Ecommerce team. Millie specializes in reviewing cooking appliances, and has built up a deep knowledge of food processors, mixers and blenders in particular. Millie loves to bake, so she will take any excuse to review stand mixers and other baking essentials. All of Millie's reviews are conducted at home, meaning she uses these products in her own kitchen, the way they're designed to be used. 

Camryn Rabideau

Camryn Rabideau is a product reviewer who has been testing small kitchen appliances (as well as other home goods) for several years. She’s tested everything from toasters to oil infusion machines, and as an avid baker, she loves trying out any gadgets that promise to make her creations more delicious or easier to bake, especially food processors. Camryn does her product testing from her small homestead in beautiful Rhode Island. 

Food processor FAQs

What size food processor is best?

Our advice is to never buy something your kitchen can't accommodate. Yes, it's tempting to buy the largest and most impressive food processor out there, but if it won't fit onto crowded counters or in kitchen cupboards, you'll grow to resent it very quickly.

Not all food processors take up a lot of space though. Both of the KitchenAid options in our guide have a small footprint, even though there's a 9-cup model that will cater to even large families. 

Often it's the motor found in the base of a food processor that makes it so space-consuming, so opting for a mighty Ninja food processor could be costly in terms of space, but worth it for the high-powered functions. 

Food processor vs blender: what's the difference?

If you've ever tried to make a smoothie in a food processor or chop veggies in a blender, you'll know they're very different machines. Because food processors have flatter bowls they're best suited to chopping dry ingredients, whereas the vertical design of a blender's pitcher means you'll have perfectly smooth drinks in seconds.

If you're trying to choose between a blender versus a food processor, there's always the option of buying a model that can do both. We have a whole buying guide dedicated to the best food processor blender combos.

How much does a food processor cost?

The best food processor doesn't have to cost much. In fact, the models in our guide start at around the $100 mark, which really isn't bad for a powerful kitchen appliance that will last you for years. As they get smarter though, food processors also get more expensive. The typical food processor could cost as much as $250 for a truly multi-functional and high-end model.