Take Your Smoothie to Go With These Tested and Approved Personal Blenders

Best Overall

Nutribullet Pro 900 Personal Blender

$110 $80 at Amazon $80 at Wayfair $100 at Target

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. 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. 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. It might be better for a smooth tomatillo dip rather than a chunky salsa.

The blender couldn't be easier to use; you lock a cup into the base, push, and twist. During testing, 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. 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.

When it comes to cleaning, most pieces are dishwasher-safe. The blade assembly is hand wash only, but it comes off the base for fairly simple rinsing and wiping. We 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, and it's 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.)

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 Blender

$70 $55 at Amazon $60 at Walmart $70 at Wayfair

This mini blender had no trouble powering through greens, ice, and frozen fruit, 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. The lids do make a good seal, just be sure to screw them 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.

Power: 700 watts | Cups Included: 2 | Maximum Cup Capacity: 16 ounces | Weight: 4.6 pounds | Dimensions: 4 x 4 x 13 inches

Best for the Gym

NutriBullet Personal Blender

$65 at Amazon $58 at Walmart $61 at Wayfair

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 we 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.

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 Nutri Blender Pro with Auto-iQ

$100 $90 at Amazon $89 $79 at Walmart $90 at Wayfair

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.

This 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.

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

$98 at Amazon $100 at Wayfair View on Perigold.com

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. 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.

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 for Families

Cuisinart Portable Blending/Chopping System

$80 $67 at Amazon $80 at Bed Bath & Beyond $80 at Macy's

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, 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 are all dishwasher-safe, so you can be ready for the next batch with ease.

Power: 350 watts | Cups included: 6 | Maximum cup capacity: 32 ounces | Weight: 7.3 pounds | Dimensions: 10.1 x 15.8 x 10 inches

Best Cordless

Ninja Blast™ Max Cordless Portable Blender

$90 at Amazon $90 at Target $90 at Ninjakitchen.com

The Ninja Blast is one of the newest of Ninja’s personal blenders. We wrote about a previous model, and took this for a test drive to see what’s new. Like the previous 16-ounce model, it’s still small at 18 ounces. Unlike the previous model, this is cordless, so you can take your smoothie along and re-blend it if the ingredients separate before you’re done drinking. Or take your ingredients along and blend at the destination. It’s also lighter, so it’s easier to carry.

This has a cylinder that screws onto the base that has the blades, while the drinking cap screws on top. It’s meant for drinking with the base attached, but when we weren’t taking our smoothies on the go, we preferred to pour our beverages into a glass since the base adds a bit of weight.

This doesn’t have any settings, just a power button and another to start and stop the blending. While you could blend a smooth salsa in it, this is really meant for making smoothies and other drinks on the go. It comes in a variety of colors, so you can match your kitchen or your gym gear.

The jar and cap are both dishwasher safe, but the blades still need to be cleaned and the base shouldn’t be immersed in water. It was easy enough to hand wash and rinse the base while occasional drips are kept out of the USB port thanks to the silicone cover. The blender can also be partially cleaned while assembled by adding a drop of dish soap and water and blending. Still, we’d suggest disassembling to make sure everything is completely clean.

Power: 7.4 volts | Cups Included: 1 | Maximum Cup Capacity: 18 ounces | Weight: 1.74 pounds | Dimensions: 3.54 x 3.54 x 10.7 inches

Best Milti-Purpose

Cuisinart Soho Personal Blender

$80 at Amazon View on Cuisinart.com $80 at Office Depot

While this is designed as a personal blender and has a cup with a drinking top, it has a few extra tricks up its sleeve. Thanks to the pulse option, it can make chunky foods as well as smooth ones. Sure, it’s not as good as a food processor for chopping ingredients, but it doesn’t take up a lot of space and it’s easy to move around. We used it for making pancake batter, starting with blending rolled oats into dust before adding the other ingredients. We had some oats stuck to the sides of the blender when everything else was mixed, but it was simple enough to use a spatula to mix that in. We also attempted grinding some nuts. While we hoped we’d end up with nut butter, we actually ended up with very nice ground nuts.

This blender is simple to use. Just fill with the desired ingredients, screw on the blade attachment, attach it to the base, twist to make sure it’s engaged, and blend until everything is smooth. Since the other end of the jar doesn’t open, there’s no way to add extra ingredients on the fly or scrape down the sides without taking the jar off the base, but that’s a minor quibble. On the other hand, there’s less chance of a smoothie leaking out when you take one on the road.

Once the drink is blended, you simply take the jar off the base, remove the blade attachment, and put the drinking cap on, and go. When it’s time for cleaning, the blade assembly, jar, and cap are all dishwasher safe. Because the blade assembly separates from the jar, it’s also easy to clean out food from under the blades if hand washing is preferred.

Power: 400 watts | Cups Included: 1 | Maximum Cup Capacity: 24 ounces | Weight: 5.5 pounds (jar is 10 ounces with lid) | Dimensions: 5.5 x 6 x 14.74 inches