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HUB 04 · Buying Guides

Multicooker vs Slow Cooker

A multicooker like the Instant Pot slow-cooks and pressure-cooks and sautés; a slow cooker only slow-cooks. So the multicooker obviously wins on versatility — but the plain slow cooker still has two real advantages, and for some cooks they decide it.

By Stephen V.Updated How we rank
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We earn a commission if you buy through our links. It does not change the price you pay, and it does not decide our picks — the scoring rubric is published in full, including what disqualifies a pick. How this works.

The short answer

Quick picks

#CookerBest forScorePrice
01
Instant Pot Instant Pot Duo 7-in-1 Electric Pressure Cooker, 6 Quart
Instant Pot Duo 7-in-1 Electric Pressure Cooker, 6 Quart

The one to buy if you are not sure

1,000 W
8.6
$104.04Amazon
02
Crock-Pot Crock-Pot 6-Quart Cook & Carry Programmable Slow Cooker
Crock-Pot 6-Quart Cook & Carry Programmable Slow Cooker

If you only ever slow cook

240 W
7.0
$88.46Amazon

#ad · Prices pulled live from the Amazon Product API, last checked Jul 21, 2026. Where we have no verified live price we show none — we would rather leave a gap than print a number that has gone stale. The wattage column is what the manufacturer publishes; “not published” means exactly that, and we have not estimated one. Scores are ours, compiled from published specifications, and are not test results.

The versatility gap is obvious

A multicookeris a slow cooker plus a pressure cooker plus a sauté pan plus a rice cooker. A slow cooker slow-cooks. So if you weigh them purely on capability, the multicooker wins in a walk — it does the slow cooker's one job and a half-dozen others. The interesting question is why a slow cooker still sells at all, and it has two genuine answers.

Where the slow cooker still wins

Price and simplicity. A programmable slow cooker costs a fraction of a good multicooker, and there is essentially nothing to learn or to fail — no pressure seal, no gasket, no steam valve to set wrong. For someone who only ever wants to put ingredients in before work and come home to dinner, that simplicity is a feature, not a limitation. The dedicated stoneware and travel lid.A slow cooker's heavy stoneware crock holds a very gentle, even low heat that some cooks prefer for all-day braises, and models like the Crock-Pot Cook & Carry have a locking lid built to travel to a potluck — something a multicooker does not do.

The running-cost angle

A slow cooker draws very little — the Crock-Pot here is rated 240 W, against a multicooker's 1,000 W — so an all-day slow cook genuinely costs little to run. But a multicooker's pressure function reaches the same tender result in a fraction of the time, so for a pot roast the multicooker's higher wattage over 40 minutes often uses less total energy than the slow cooker's low wattage over eight hours. Neither is dramatically cheaper; they trade time for power.

The decision rule

Buy the multicooker if you want one machine that does everything, or if you value the speed of pressure cooking — for most people it is the better single purchase. Buy the plain slow cooker if you genuinely only slow-cook, want the lowest price and simplest machine, or need a travel lid for potlucks. If you own a multicooker and never touch anything but Slow Cook, that is a sign the slow cooker was all you needed.

In detail

The picks, in full

01
Instant Pot Instant Pot Duo 7-in-1 Electric Pressure Cooker, 6 Quart

The one to buy if you are not sure

Instant Pot Duo 7-in-1 Electric Pressure Cooker, 6 Quart

Rated power:1000 WCapacity:6 Qt / 5.7 LWorking pressure:10.2–11.6 psi (70–80 kPa) highFunctions:7-in-1, 13 programsInner pot:18/8 stainless, tri-ply base
Stainless inner potWattage & pressure published
8.6/10

The multicooker that made the category, and still the right default. Instant Brands publishes the wattage, the working pressure range and a stainless (not nonstick) inner pot, which is more than most of the field manages — and it costs less than almost all of them.

Capability
7.5
Capacity
8
Documentation
9.5
Build
8.5
Value
9.5

What it gets right

  • Instant Brands publishes the wattage, the working-pressure range and the pot material — the full set, which most of the field does not
  • The 18/8 stainless inner pot has no coating to scratch off, so it outlives the nonstick pots in cookers costing more
  • At the current price it is the cheapest genuinely well-documented multicooker on this site

What it doesn't

  • No sous vide or air-fry program — this is the plain pressure-and-slow-cook model, by design
  • The steam release is a manual toggle, not the quiet auto-release of the Duo Plus or Pro
  • Seven functions is fewer than the sticker-count leaders, though most of those are the same element at different set points

What it costs to run

About 18.8¢ an hour at full rated draw, at the US average of 18.83¢ per kWh.

1,000 W ÷ 1000 × 1 h × 18.83¢ = 18.8¢

1000 W at 120 V / 60 Hz, published on the Instant Pot Duo product page and confirmed on the IP-DUO60 manual specification page. This is an upper bound: the element only draws full power while it is heating up or pressurizing, then cycles off to hold temperature, and no manufacturer publishes a duty cycle — so we compute at full rated draw rather than invent a correction factor. The full method is published.

Skip this if…

…you specifically want sous vide, a quieter steam release, or an air-fry lid — the Duo has none of those, and reaching for it and then wishing it did more is the most common Instant Pot regret. Step up to the Pro or Duo Crisp instead.

$104.04on Amazon

$109.995% off

Price last checked Jul 21, 2026. Prices move constantly — Amazon's at checkout is the one that counts.

#ad · we may earn a commission from this link to Instant Pot Duo 7-in-1 Electric Pressure Cooker, 6 Quart

02
Crock-Pot Crock-Pot 6-Quart Cook & Carry Programmable Slow Cooker

If you only ever slow cook

Crock-Pot 6-Quart Cook & Carry Programmable Slow Cooker

Rated power:240 WCapacity:6 QuartType:Programmable slow cookerCrock:Removable oval stoneware
Lowest draw on the siteSlow cook only
7.0/10

Not a multicooker and not a pressure cooker — a plain 6-quart programmable slow cooker with a locking Cook & Carry lid. It is here as the honest counterweight to the whole category: if the only function you ever used on a multicooker was Slow Cook, this does that one job for a fraction of the price.

Capability
4
Capacity
8
Documentation
7.5
Build
7
Value
8.5

What it gets right

  • At 240 W it is by far the lowest-draw appliance on this site — a genuinely cheap way to cook all day
  • The locking lid genuinely travels — to a potluck, a tailgate, a family dinner — without sloshing
  • Almost nothing to fail: no pressure seal, no gasket to replace, no electronics beyond a timer

What it doesn't

  • It only slow-cooks — no pressure, no sauté in the pot, no rice program, no sous vide
  • Slow by design: a pot roast is a 6–8 hour job here versus 40 minutes under pressure
  • The stoneware crock is heavy and breakable, unlike a metal multicooker pot

What it costs to run

About 4.5¢ an hour at full rated draw, at the US average of 18.83¢ per kWh.

240 W ÷ 1000 × 1 h × 18.83¢ = 4.5¢

240 W at 120 V / 60 Hz, published on Crock-Pot's own product page for the 6-quart Cook & Carry programmable slow cooker. This is an upper bound: the element only draws full power while it is heating up or pressurizing, then cycles off to hold temperature, and no manufacturer publishes a duty cycle — so we compute at full rated draw rather than invent a correction factor. The full method is published.

Skip this if…

…you want speed or versatility. This is the opposite of a pressure cooker — it is slow on purpose. If you would ever use a sauté, rice or pressure function, buy an Instant Pot and this becomes redundant.

$88.46on Amazon

$94.997% off

Price last checked Jul 21, 2026. Prices move constantly — Amazon's at checkout is the one that counts.

#ad · we may earn a commission from this link to Crock-Pot 6-Quart Cook & Carry Programmable Slow Cooker

How we picked

Machines we claim to have tested: 0

Everyone in this category tells you they tested twenty cookers. We have tested none, and we say so. Here is what we do instead: read the manufacturer's manual and spec page, record the published wattage, capacity, pressure or temperature figure and warranty term, work out what the machine costs to run per hour, show the arithmetic so you can redo it with your own electricity rate, and cite all of it. Where a brand publishes no wattage, we print no running cost rather than borrowing a number from a similar model. Prices come live from Amazon's API and disappear rather than go stale.

The scores above are judgments from that documented research — not test results. One of the five metrics is Documentation: whether the manufacturer will tell you what its cooker draws at all. The full rubric, including what disqualifies a pick, is published in full.

Questions

Frequently asked

Is a multicooker better than a slow cooker?
For versatility, clearly — a multicooker slow-cooks and also pressure-cooks, sautés and steams. A plain slow cooker wins only on price, simplicity and a dedicated travel lid. If you want one machine that does everything, buy the multicooker; if you only ever slow-cook, the slow cooker is cheaper and simpler.
Can an Instant Pot be used as a slow cooker?
Yes — every Instant Pot has a Slow Cook function that works like a standalone slow cooker. It is one of the reasons a multicooker can replace a slow cooker for most people. The plain slow cooker's only edges are lower price, mechanical simplicity and a stoneware crock some cooks prefer for gentle braises.
Which is cheaper to run, a slow cooker or a pressure cooker?
A slow cooker draws far less power (around 240 W vs a multicooker's 1,000 W) but runs for many hours; a pressure cooker draws more but finishes in a fraction of the time. For a long braise the total energy is similar — the pressure cooker's speed often offsets its higher wattage. Neither is dramatically cheaper.

Keep reading

Related

Receipts

Sources

We have not tested these machines in a lab and we do not pretend to have. Specifications come from the manufacturer's own published documents; electricity rates come from the US Energy Information Administration; prices come from the live Amazon API. Where a figure is not published, the page says “not published” rather than guessing. Read the full method.