Months of Searing, Roasting, and Sizzling Led Us to the Best Gas Grills Under $250

Best Overall

Char-Broil Classic Series 3-Burner Gas Grill

View on Amazon View on Walmart $184 at Wayfair

One of the best inexpensive gas grills you can score is the Char-Broil Classic 3-Burner Propane Grill. This freestanding model has all the features you need to host an epic backyard cookout, and you can’t beat its affordable price. While it may not have the bells and whistles of fancier models, the performance is impressive, and we find it to be a particularly good option for small spaces. "The flame was even and responded well to temperature adjustments, which translated to even cooking and food that came out exactly as expected," said our tester.

This propane grill has 360 square inches of primary cooking space—enough to fit up to 15 burgers at a time—as well as a 170-square-inch swing-away warming rack. There are three stainless-steel burners that you can control individually, and the grill’s total heat output is 30,000 BTUs per hour. The grill features electronic ignition, porcelain-coated grates, as well as two durable side shelves for food prep. The grill is mounted on six-inch wheels for increased mobility. We do wish there was a drip pan on the right side of the grill, but that—along with the fact that we did have some food stick to the grates—isn't a deal-breaker.

Dimensions: 51.2 x 24.1 x 43.5 inches | Cooking Area: 360 square inches | Burners: 3 | Power: 30,000 BTU/hour | Warranty: 5 years (burner); 2 years (firebox and lid); 1 year (everything else)

Best Compact

Cuisinart Petite Gourmet Gas Grill With VersaStand

$200 $177 at Amazon View on Walmart $178 $177 at Wayfair

Not a lot of space for your grill? Then the Cuisinart Petit Gourmet Portable Gas Grill, which can be used freestanding or as a tabletop model thanks to its VersaStand, is perfect for your needs. The whole unit is only around 16 x 32 inches, but it has a 145-square-inch grilling surface and a 5,500-BTU burner that lets you cook a few servings at a time.

Just note that you might have to cook your meal in batches, instead of all at once. Our burgers and chicken thighs had beautiful grill lines, and veggies were perfectly charred, except we had to cook them separately due to the limited space and single burner. But we only needed to minimally oil the porcelain-coated grill grates, and food came right off without sticking. Another minor annoyance was the lid's locking mechanism, which is wonderful during transport, but also engages while you're cooking.

This gas grill runs on liquid propane, and the whole unit weighs just 17 pounds, making it a good choice to bring camping or tailgating. It includes a twist-start electronic ignition and a temperature gauge, but what makes this grill unique is its telescoping stand, which sets up and breaks down in seconds.

Dimensions: 28 x 17.5 x 32.5 inches | Cooking Area: 145 square inches | Burners: 1 | Power: 5,5000 BTU/hour | Warranty: 3 years

Best Four-Burner

Nexgrill 4-Burner Propane Gas Grill in Black with Stainless Steel Main Lid

View on Home Depot View on Nexgrill.com

The Nexgrill 4-Burner Propane Gas Grill shows that you can cook for a crowd without spending a fortune. The four stainless burners deliver 40,000 BTUs for all your grilling needs, and with the easy assembly and price, this is an ideal grill for beginners.

This affordable gas grill has a total cooking area of 566 square inches across its porcelain-coated cast-iron cooking grates, and its angled flame tamers help to distribute heat across the grilling surface while minimizing flare-ups. That's not to say this doesn't have any flare-ups at all. We experienced a few during our testing, mainly concentrated towards the back of the grill, which also measured hotter than the front and sides. We worked with the different heat zones, though, and were easily able to regulate the burners' output.

The grill's two side shelves are useful for holding plates and serving platters, and it's mounted on two wheels for better mobility. We tested the slightly more expensive model, which comes with a 12,000-BTU side burner, and both versions have the option to come with a grill cover (something we always recommend).

Dimensions: 29.75 x 24.63 x 20.75 inches | Cooking Area: 566 square inches | Burners: 4 | Power: 40,000 BTU/hour | Warranty: 1-year

Best Tabletop

Coleman Portable Propane Grill

$295 at Amazon View on Walmart $275 at Home Depot

At just 25 pounds, the RoadTrip 225 gets you a huge amount of cooking area for its size—225 square inches, to be exact. This model features two separate burners with a total of 11,000 BTUs for quick and powerful heating. It brought the grate to 650 degrees Fahrenheit with little difficulty in our tests, creating a great seared crust on the steak and browned, crisp skin on the fish, and both came off the grate’s nonstick surface easily. It was also noticeably simple to set up: We had trouble figuring out how and where to attach the 1-pound propane tank on many of the models we tested, so this is a small but appreciated design element.

The downside to having separate burners is that they’re prone to creating uneven heat, and that was a bit of an issue here. After the beautiful sear, the heat dropped pretty quickly—especially with the lid open—and we found differences in temperature from one side to the other. Our other complaint is that the unit feels a little cheaply made, with plastic handles and feet, no attached prep table, and a lid that doesn’t lock in place for transport like most models. (The grate itself is cast-iron and holds heat well, however.)

Dimensions: 21.8 x 18.3 x 10.6 inches | Cooking Area: 225 square inches | Burners: 2 | Power: 11,000 BTU/hour | Warranty: 3 years

Most Portable

Cuisinart Venture Gas Grill

$200 $160 at Amazon View on Walmart View on Williams Sonoma

When you show up to the barbecue or tailgate with a Cuisinart Venture, people might think you’ve got a lunch box or cooler. But this compact 20-pound grill has a clever design that packs plenty of power into a small and easy-to-transport container. A 1-pound propane cylinder clips into the bottom section, with the short-legged grill itself in the middle, plus a wooden cutting board/serving tray on top and a large, comfortable handle to carry everything.

Since the Venture doesn’t have a domed lid, it’s open to the elements during cooking, something that resulted in uneven temperatures from one side to the other in our testing. The mere 9,000-BTU burner managed to heat part of the cast-iron grate well above 600 degrees Fahrenheit for great searing, but we recorded differences of more than 200 degrees from one side to the other. The nonstick coating on the grate was very effective, not holding onto the delicate fish we cooked at all, but one end of our steak wound up almost burnt as the other was perfectly medium-rare. (Your best bet to account for this is to turn and move the food frequently during cooking to even out the temperature.)

Dimensions: 13 x 16.3 x 10.8 inches | Cooking Area: 154 square inches | Burners: 1 | Power: 9,000 BTU/hour | Warranty: 3 years