Best portable blenders 2021: personal blenders to take on the go

For vacations or just your morning smoothie, the best portable blenders will power through protein shakes, fresh fruits, and even ice to make delicious drinks on the go. Some of the personal blenders in our guide are cordless, meaning you can simply charge them up and put them in your bag. 

Other options are corded, but come with such lightweight designs that they make the cut as one of the best portable blenders. Just make sure that wherever you want to use them, you'll be able to plug them in. 

Some of the best portable blenders in our guide also feature in our best blender guide. While they are not suitable for use large portions, these personal blenders can also act as mini choppers to rival some of the best food processors, making dips and sauces as well as drinks.

Best portable blenders

Looking for a truly portable blender? Well, the Cuisinart EvolutionX could just be the one. It comes with a rechargeable battery and is capable of crushing ice and making smoothies and protein shakes on the go. What more could you ask for? 

The cup is 16 ounces and it comes with a travel lid alongside the blender attachment. Users love that this blender comes with a battery that can last a few weeks, or more. 

Using the blender couldn’t be easier: everything goes into the cup, then you press the button to activate the single-speed motor until you’ve got your desired mix.

We found that it was capable of blending ice and frozen fruits for delicious cocktails or iced coffee. Our main gripe is that it won't work when it's plugged in, so make sure it's topped up on power if you plan on using it at home. 

Homes & Gardens rated 5 out of 5 stars. Our Cuisinart EvolutionX Cordless Blender review has more information

We tried the Nutribullet GO Portable Blender out to see how it could hold up on a morning commute and we found that it's a back-to-work summer essential. Not only is it seriously lightweight (only 1.5 pounds) but it also has a clever two-part design that means you can carry around the bottle, full of fruits or protein shakes, and the blending unit separately.

The Nutribullet GO won't blend unless it is attached securely to the base. It switches off automatically after a 30-second blend.

We found that it was capable of blending fresh fruits with ease, but struggled with ice cubes thanks to its limited power. For shakes and smoothies, this is a great value portable blender – our

Homes & Gardens rated 4.5 out of 5. Our Nutribullet GO Portable Blender review has more information

Another one that's Homes & Gardens tested, the BlenderX Cordless Portable Blender is powerful enough for ice crushing, and it works very fast.

The button front and center glows when charging, and when the blender is turned on. There is a screw-on cap that keeps your blades protected when not in use, and it's a case of simply screwing onto the plastic 20oz cup to start blending.

Charging takes a couple of hours, but the battery was long-lasting. Our main issue was the weight, because the base is hefty.

It weighs 4.62 pounds in total, but because it comes with a carry bag to and suction cups to keep the base attached to your kitchen counter, we think it's perfectly suited for use in RVs or camping trips. For taking in your handbag though, it's maybe a little weighty. 

Homes & Gardens rated 4 out of 5 stars 

Personal and travel blenders tend to be very simple to use with a simple on/off control. If you want to make something a bit more complicated with ease, then the Ninja Foodi Power Nutri Duo Smoothie bowl Maker and Personal Blender could be for you.

This blender has a 24oz travel cup and a smaller 14oz bowl for making the likes of frozen desserts and nut butter. To accompany this, there are four pre-set programs: extract and smoothie for the travel cup, and spread and bowl for the bowl attachment. You can also manually pulse if you want more control over the finished product.

With a powerful 1200W motor, the product gets rave reviews for its ability to deal with tough ingredients, making perfectly blended smoothies and excellent butter and frozen desserts.

Everything is dishwasher safe, so cleaning up when you’re done is really easy.

The downside is that the blender is quite loud, not particularly portable and, while more flexible than your average travel blender, it’s not quite as powerful or useful as a full-size blender. 

Still, if you want a smaller blender that can do a little more than just make smoothies for on the go, the Ninja Foodi is a great choice.

The original personal blender is still one of the best, and the Magic Bullet 11-piece set goes one step further, with everything you need to make and take drinks on the go.

With this set, you get the standard cup, a tall mug, short cup, recipe book, and blades for liquids and grinding. Given the low price, that’s a lot of kit in one box.

With only a 250W motor, the Magic Bullet works best with softer fruits, and it can struggle to make its way through frozen ingredients. If you want frozen drinks, then you should look for a higher-powered blender. 

For dry ingredients, you can switch-blades and effectively grind spices and seeds, making the Magic Bullet a handy cooking companion.

For its simplicity and low cost, the Magic Bullet remains the best value personal blender.

A lot of personal or travel blenders tend to have fairly low-powered motors, but the Ninja Nutri Pro ups the game with a powerful 900W motor. That puts it above some large blenders and gives you a bit more flexibility to the ingredients that you can tackle.

Soft fruits are handled with ease, but put in tougher fruits or even frozen ingredients and you can see what the 900W motor is really for: here, you get similar smooth results as you’d expect from a much larger blender.

This single-speed blender is also really easy to use: everything gets loaded into a cup, then you press down to engage the motor. There are travel lids for the included 18oz and 24oz cups, and everything (including the blades) can go in the dishwasher.

Although it can handle dry ingredients, the consensus is that the Nutri Pro doesn’t do a particularly good job, with uneven chopping and blending.

With a rather chunky base, the Ninja Nutri Pro isn’t particularly portable, but it’s a great choice if you want single-serve drinks using a wide variety of ingredients.

If you frequently travel but want to make your favorite smoothies wherever you go, the Hamilton Beach Personal Creations Blender could be for you. Little bigger than a travel cup, this is a blender that you can throw in a bag and take everywhere.

It’s also cheap enough that you won’t mind so much if it should get broken as you travel, or if you leave the blender in a hotel room.

There’s a 14oz cup with a travel lid that attaches to the top of the blender. That’s a little smaller than many other models, but you’re sacrificing size for convenience, which seems like a fair trade-off.

Softer fruits and ingredients blend down well in the Personal Creations, but the 175W motor struggles with harder ingredients, such as frozen fruit. Some reviews point to the motor burning out, but just remember that this isn’t a heavy-duty blender for the entire house, but a device that you’ll use less regularly.

Even if you have other products on this list, the Hamilton Beach Personal Creations Blender could be a good addition for vacations or business trips.

Most personal and travel blenders are designed with the simple job of creating smoothies. The Cuisinart CPB-300 is built for more than that, shipping with a 32oz blender jar, 8oz chopping cup, and four 16oz travel cups.

That’s not only a lot of flexibility, but for drinks on the go, you can either go most of the week without having to fully wash up, or you can take care of everyone in your family.

With a 350W motor, this model is more powerful than much of the competition, letting it power through most smoothies with ease, but some say that it doesn’t cope so well with frozen ingredients.

You get more advanced controls on this model than with a typical personal blender, with high and low speeds, plus a pulse control.

The jug and the chopping cup give more options in the kitchen, too. There’s a two-minute auto cut-off, though, so look for a full-size blender if you need to do bigger jobs.

If you’re after a well-priced blender that does more than just make drinks for travel, this is a great choice.

If you’re going camping, then it doesn’t matter how small the blender is if you don’t have access to power. With the Tenswall Portable Blender, you don’t have to worry, as it has an internal battery. Charged via USB, the 2000mAh battery gives you around 12 uses.

There’s a relatively small fixed 13oz cup, but this at least means that the blender is easy to carry around, as it’s so small.

As the Portable Blender is battery powered, the motor isn’t very powerful and it’s not recommended for frozen fruit or ice. Tenswall also says to cut up fruit into 2cm before adding water, and it should be used by tilting, shaking, and then blending.

Provided the instructions have been followed, owners are impressed with the quality of the blended drinks, saying that this model competes well with more expensive plug-in models.

After use, clean water and a blending cycle can be used to clean it out. If you do wash with a sponge, be careful not to get water into the charging port.

More limited than the competition, if you have access to a power socket, you can get better blenders for not much more. If you regularly camp, then the Tenswall Portable Blender is a great way to make healthy drinks.

Portable blender tips: bring an extra cup

If you’ve already got a blender, but want on-the-go convenience, it makes sense to see if there’s a single-serve cup upgrade for your existing model.

These replace the regular blending jug with a smaller cup (typically 16oz to 24oz) and blades, so you can mix your drink, stick on the lid and take your smoothie with you.

The advantages of this method are that you get the full power of your main blender, so can tackle harder fruits and vegetables, and even ice, and you don’t add another blender base into your home.

The main downside is that a smaller cup doesn’t make your main blender any easy to carry around, so these options aren’t very good if you need a blender to travel with.

Watch out for pricing as well. For example, if you take our top-recommend blenders, the Vitamix Personal Cup Adapter for the Vitamix 5200 costs more than most travel blenders on this list. Conversely, KitchenAid sells the 16oz Personal Blender Jar for $39.99, which fits the excellent K400.

How do I choose a good portable blender?

Portable blenders (also known as travel or personal blenders) are typically designed to make smoothies directly into travel mugs. They’re built for quick, grab-and-go operation, and are designed to be easier and quicker to use than their full-sized models.

There are lots of different models and no right choice, as it depends on how you want to use the blender. If you travel a lot and want a blender that you can throw in your luggage, then size is all-important. Look for a smaller lighter blender, even if you have to compromise on a smaller travel mug as a result.

If you’re going camping a lot and won’t have power, then look for a battery-powered model that you can pre-charge and use when you’re out.

Smaller blenders tend to have lower-powered motors, so will work well with soft fruits and for making most smoothies, but you’ll find they struggle with (or can’t handle) ice or frozen ingredients.

If you mostly make smoothies at home, then you can get a model with a bigger base and a larger motor. With a bigger motor, you’ll be able to make a wider variety of drinks.

For home use, you may find it useful to get a blender with different accessories, such as a chopping bowl for preparing ingredients for cooking, or a grinder for dealing with spices. Some even come with attachments designed to transform them into the best food processor. 

How much should I spend on a portable blender?

As they’re smaller and aren’t as powerful as full-size blenders, prices are much lower. An entry-level blender should cost under $50, and give you basic smoothie making with softer fruits.

At the high-end, you can spend up to $150 on a model with more accessories and more powerful motors to give you more flexibility.

Is a portable blender as good as a full-size model?

A portable blender is different from a full-size one. Most portable models are designed to be quick and easy to use, with one-button operation and single-speed motors. They’re typically as good as large models for smoothies.

Travel blenders are generally quite limited, though: you can make smaller quantities, they’re not built to run for as long, and they don’t have the controls of a full-size model. 

You usually can’t use hot liquids in personal blenders, either, as the travel cups are made from plastic that could be damaged by the heat.

If you want to vary what you can make, and have more control over the process, a full-size blender makes sense and, as our guide showed, you can always add a travel cup to your model to give you that blend-and-go convenience.