Switching to fresh-ground beans for your morning cup of joe can make all the difference. While pre-ground coffee is quick and convenient, it often sacrifices flavor and aroma. Grinding your own beans at home gives you better control over the grind size, which can impact the taste and quality of your cup. Adding a home grinder to your routine takes just a few extra minutes each morning.
Our Picks
You can't get much simpler than Baratza's $150 Encore. The Encore Conical Burr Grinder has just one control: a switch that turns the grinder on and off. That's not just easy -- that's easy easy. A button on the Encore's front pulses the grinding as long as you hold the button, too. Grounds from the Baratza grinder were relatively consistent in particle size. The machine is also simple to clean and less noisy than many other coffee grinders we've tested.
Pros
- The Baratza Encore burr grinder is affordable considering it packs 40 coarseness settings to supply a wide range of coffee types and brewing styles. It produces grounds that are uniform in size and texture. It's simple to operate, sturdily built and relatively quiet.
Cons
- It grinds beans slowly. It also lacks any extra features such as a timer, screen or scale.
If you want a cup of espresso, here's an espresso maker to look at. You'll pay a little more for grinding with the $200 brushed stainless steel Smart Grinder Pro, but if you've got your heart set on pulling espresso shots at home, the Smart Grinder Pro is the best coffee grinder for espresso, cup after cup. This Smart Grinder with stainless steel burrs can produce extremely fine coffee grounds, the sort necessary for brewing quality espresso or Turkish coffee. The machine also created the most consistently sized grounds of all the machines I tested. The Breville boasts 60 grind settings, and it comes with adapters for espresso machine portafilters. If you like brewing siphon, French press or cold brew, consider looking elsewhere. Even at its coarsest setting, this coffee bean grinder's grounds are too fine for those methods.
Pros
- The Breville Smart Grinder Pro grinds coffee beans for many beverage styles including espresso, drip, French press, and cold brew. It measures its grounds with repeatable results using a digital timer. It has an attractive stainless steel design, LCD screen, plus cradles that accept espresso portafilters.
Cons
- It's expensive yet doesn't have a scale to confirm the amount of grounds it produces. It's programmable but only for the number of cups or espresso shots you want, not for full pots of drip. You have to continually hold down a button to grind manually.
Electric burr grinders are especially user-friendly and efficient compared to manual coffee grinders, making the whole process nearly effortless. If you've already invested in a decent coffee maker or espresso machine, it's worth the extra time and effort to grind your own coffee beans to get the most flavorful cup possible. Whether you like to brew with a French press or prefer a cold brew coffee maker, automatic grinders help you nail the perfect grind size for your preferred brewing method every time.
After thoroughly testing grinders from brands like Baratza, Breville, Oxo and other major players, I've picked the best options for coffee enthusiasts of all kinds. I've included other electric grinders I've tested along with my top three picks. These standouts deliver consistent results, have easy-to-use controls, powerful motors, and won't give you trouble during use or cleaning. Overall, my top pick is the Oxo Brew Conical Burr Grinder -- it's not only the best burr coffee grinder we tested, but also my top all-around choice. If the Oxo grinder doesn't suit your needs, there are plenty of great alternatives. Whether you're looking for the best budget coffee grinder or looking for something with all the bells and whistles, you'll find an option on this list that fits the bill.
Also, be sure to read our guide to the best home espresso machines if you're looking for other ways to improve how you have your coffee.
Best coffee grinders of 2026
If you're a coffee drinker who needs a solid, all-purpose (relatively) inexpensive coffee grinding machine, I recommend the $100 Oxo Brew Conical Burr Grinder as the best coffee grinder overall. In terms of grind consistency, the Oxo Conical Burr Coffee Grinder placed second within my test group. That's behind the $200 Breville Smart Grinder Pro, which ranked first in grinding but also costs twice as much. The Oxo Brew Conical Burr Grinder can grind beans faster.
While it has fewer coarse grind settings, Oxo's stainless steel machine is more versatile. The Oxo burr coffee grinder can grind fine enough to be used as an espresso grinder in a pinch. The stainless steel Oxo coffee grinding machine can also produce coffee grounds coarse enough for brewing a cup of siphon, French press and cold brew. Other pros are that the Oxo Brew is easy to clean and creates less of a mess when grinding than other grinders. $100 might sound like a lot, but keep in mind a quality coffee and espresso grinder should grind for a long time. Additionally, this model is often on sale, so keep an eye out.
Pros
- The Baratza Encore burr grinder is affordable considering it packs 40 coarseness settings to supply a wide range of coffee types and brewing styles. It produces grounds that are uniform in size and texture. It's simple to operate, sturdily built and relatively quiet.
Cons
- It grinds beans slowly. It also lacks any extra features such as a timer, screen or scale.
You can't get much simpler than Baratza's $150 Encore. The Encore Conical Burr Grinder has just one control: a switch that turns the grinder on and off. That's not just easy -- that's easy easy. A button on the Encore's front pulses the grinding as long as you hold the button, too. Grounds from the Baratza grinder were relatively consistent in particle size. The machine is also simple to clean and less noisy than many other coffee grinders we've tested.
Pros
- The Breville Smart Grinder Pro grinds coffee beans for many beverage styles including espresso, drip, French press, and cold brew. It measures its grounds with repeatable results using a digital timer. It has an attractive stainless steel design, LCD screen, plus cradles that accept espresso portafilters.
Cons
- It's expensive yet doesn't have a scale to confirm the amount of grounds it produces. It's programmable but only for the number of cups or espresso shots you want, not for full pots of drip. You have to continually hold down a button to grind manually.
If you want a cup of espresso, here's an espresso maker to look at. You'll pay a little more for grinding with the $200 brushed stainless steel Smart Grinder Pro, but if you've got your heart set on pulling espresso shots at home, the Smart Grinder Pro is the best coffee grinder for espresso, cup after cup. This Smart Grinder with stainless steel burrs can produce extremely fine coffee grounds, the sort necessary for brewing quality espresso or Turkish coffee. The machine also created the most consistently sized grounds of all the machines I tested. The Breville boasts 60 grind settings, and it comes with adapters for espresso machine portafilters. If you like brewing siphon, French press or cold brew, consider looking elsewhere. Even at its coarsest setting, this coffee bean grinder's grounds are too fine for those methods.
How we test coffee grinders
An ideal coffee grinder produces ground particles that are of a consistent and correct size. By that, we mean that the size of ground coffee particles should match its grinder's coarseness setting, fine or not. The size of grounds produced should also be fit for the intended brewing method, as outlined within the product manual.
To test each grinder for our coffee grinder reviews, we first hand-wash and dry all parts recommended by the manufacturer. We then set each machine to the appropriate level for grinding drip coffee or automatic coffee brewers (again, as indicated by the manual). Sometimes the manual lacks specific directions. In this case, we select the middle coarse setting for grinding coffee, then bump it up by one more coarse level (from fine grind, such as an espresso grind, to coarse grind). For example, if a grinder has 16 total coarse grind settings (assuming 16 is its most coarse grinding option and 1 is fine), we'll set it for coarse level 9.
Next, we weigh out 10 grams of whole coffee beans to grind. By default, our test beans are Kirkland Colombian roast. It's the same beans we use for our coffee maker tests. (No judgments, please.) When you grind as much coffee and espresso as we do, it pays to be frugal.
Then we run our sample beans through the grinder. We also make note of how long the grinder takes to grind coffee beans. Next, we carefully collect the grounds, then sift them with a two-screen sieve for 60 seconds. For that, we use the Kruve Sifter system. Our original Kruve Two unit came with two mesh screens of different aperture sizes (800 and 400 microns). This step lets us measure the grind size and grind consistency of our sample. The Kruve Base has now replaced the Kruve Two and offers five mesh screens (300, 500, 800, 1,100 and 1,400 microns).
We used a Kruve coffee sieve system to confirm grind size consistency.Â
A superior electric coffee grinder or hand grinder will produce grounds, preferably with stainless steel blades, that are mostly between 400 and 800 microns in particle size (at our chosen grind settings). Finally, we weigh the grounds that collect between the two screens (800 microns top, 400 microns bottom).
A bad grinder will grind particles of varying sizes, from large to small. Blade grinders are notorious for this issue. Unlike a blade coffee grinder, a coffee grinder with steel or ceramic burrs typically yields grounds that are much more uniform in grind size.
Additionally, we grind at least two more times. From there, we can record an average optimal yield for each grinder.
Other coffee grinders we've tested
Want more? Whether you're a coffee lover who prefers a simple cup of fresh coffee, espresso or even Turkish coffee, here's a list of coffee grinders I've put through their paces for this evaluation, in addition to the ones above. Below that, you'll find a chart that displays their grinding pros and cons and how well they stack up against each other.
Coffee Grinders Compared
| Baratza Encore | Bodum Bistro coffee grinder | Breville Smart Grinder Pro | Capresso Infinity Conical Burr grinder | Cuisinart Supreme Grind Automatic Burr Mill | Krups GX5000 | Mr. Coffee Electric 12-cup coffee grinder | Oxo Brew Conical Burr coffee grinder | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Average optimal yield (grams) | 2.6 | 3.9 | 6.5 | 2.9 | 1.8 | 1.9 | 1.8 | 3.2 |
| Percent optimal yield | 26.3% | 38.7% | 64.7% | 28.7% | 18% | 19% | 18.3% | 32.3% |
| Average grind time (seconds) | 26 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 33 | 19 | 12 | 7 |
| Price | $170 | $100 | $200 | $100 | $60 | $93 | $23 | $100 |
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