The Best Meat Thermometers for Perfectly Cooked Proteins Every Time (2025)

The thing that sets the Combustion Thermometer apart from almost everything else on the market is the way it uses its readings to track the cooking process and predict when your food will be ready. You can set a target temperature, and the thermometer tracks how quickly your food is heating up, along with the ambient temperature. It then uses that data in a built-in algorithm to estimate how much cooking time is left. It’s not perfect for particularly long cooks (it struggled to deal with a brisket stall in our tests), but for shorter- or medium-length cooks, like when we roasted a whole chicken, it proved quite accurate. It can also alert you when enough of your food reaches the USDA’s minimum internal cooking temperatures for food safety.

Unlike the RFX, the Combustion really could be your only cooking thermometer, as it also works as an instant-read, registering readings in our boiling and freezing water tests in about two seconds. It also has a wide temperature range—the entire upper half of the probe can withstand temperatures up to 900°F, making this versatile enough to use when deep frying or in a pizza oven.

Finally, while you can just use the probe with the Combustion app, you can also get a digital display that shows both temperature and predicted finish time for an added layer of visibility.

What we’d leave: The reason we recommend getting the (slightly more expensive) version of the Combustion with the Wi-Fi booster is because we did have signal issues with the standard version. When using it in the backyard I had to stand outside in order to get a reading.

Best instant-read meat thermometer: ThermoWorks Thermapen One

Instant-read thermometers do not come faster or easier to use than the ThermoWorks Thermapen One.

What we love: The two most important features of an instant-read thermometer are its accuracy and its speed, and the Thermapen One excels with both. It took one second to produce an accurate reading in our water boiling test and two seconds in our freezing water test. The focus on speed might seem excessive, but remember, whenever you go to check temperature, you’re opening the oven or grill and the longer it’s open the more the temperature inside will drop.

Besides its quick read capability, the Thermapen has a few other nice features. It turns on automatically when opened, goes to sleep if not used (you can set the sleep function to kick in anywhere between 10 seconds and three minutes), has an LCD display that rotates so you can read the thermometer easily at whatever angle you’re holding it. And while the battery life is not an issue (we used one for over a year without changing the battery), the Thermapen One has an easier to open battery compartment than the original Thermapen and uses a AAA battery instead of two of those annoying to find circular batteries.

What we’d leave: This is the ideal instant-read food thermometer in our opinion. The only downside is price—it retails for over $100. However, it’s frequently on sale for less.

Best budget meat thermometer: Kizen Instant-Read Meat Thermometer

What you sacrifice in speed and features when dropping down from the Thermapen you make up for in a price tag of under $15.

What we love: During our tests, the Kizen proved to be a powerful thermometer for the money. It did take four seconds to read during the water boiling test, but it has a number of other nice features that make it user friendly. A button turns on a backlight for use in dark settings, another toggles between Fahrenheit and Celsius. The display automatically turns on when you unfold it and a magnet lets you stick it on to the door of your range or fridge so it’s easy to keep track of.

What we’d leave: It does take four times as long as the Thermapen to provide a reading, but that is the kind of compromise you should expect to make if you’re spending under $20. The sleep function also takes 10 minutes to turn on and isn’t adjustable.

How we tested meat thermometers

To find the best meat thermometers, we put a range of leave-in and instant-read models through hands-on testing both in the kitchen and on a grill and smoker. We evaluated accuracy, response time, ease of use, and additional features to determine which tools were the most reliable, intuitive, and helpful for optimal cooking performance. Here’s how we tested:

What makes a good meat thermometer

We only tested digital meat thermometers here. You can use an analog thermometer like this, but it will be slower and more challenging to read. Here are the other things we looked for in our tests.

Other thermometers we tested and liked

These thermometers still performed well across our tests, and we think you’ll be happy if you pick one of them, but they lack some of the features of our top picks.

The Typhur Sync has a lot going for it. It comes with either two or four meat probes to handle multiple cooks at once, reads quickly, and didn’t have issues dropping its signal. The five sensors in the probes provide a robust picture of temperature changes and the base offers a clear display as well as a (very loud) alarm when a cook is done. If you don’t want to use the base, which is quite large, the Typhur app is straightforward and easy to navigate. There is a prediction feature, though it wasn’t as accurate as the Combustion prediction when we cooked chicken.

Of the three Meater thermometers we tested, the Pro series was by far our favorite. It read quickly and accurately during our water tests, and the improved high heat capabilities (up to 1000°F) allows use in searing cooking temperatures like a pizza oven or an open fire. It also didn’t drop signal the way the original Meater Plus did during our tests. We tested the single probe Meater Pro, but we’d also recommend the Meater Pro Duo with an extra probe.

This wireless thermometer is more basic than the RFX or the Combustion (but it is much less expensive). It doesn’t have a separate display and only has a single sensor at the tip of the thermometer. Its charging case doubles as a Bluetooth booster, supposedly extending its range up to 500 feet; however, we found getting that kind of range outdoors required optimal conditions. The companion app is simple but useful, with temperature readings for both what you’re cooking and the ambient temperature as well as the ability to set high and low temperature alerts.

The Instaprobe was a close second to the Thermapen One in our testing. It was hard to notice any difference in its read time, and its rotating, bright OLED display is easy to read no matter the angle of insertion. A magnet on the back makes it easy to stick on the stove, so it’s always ready to use. Ultimately, the choice of the Thermapen was a subjective one; We thought the wider base was easier to hold and use compared to the slimmer, sleeker Instaprobe. This is still a terrific instant-read thermometer.

For around half the price of the Thermapen One or the Typhur Instaprobe, the Javelin offers many of the same features, including an automatically rotating display and sleep function. The backlight requires pressing a touchpad, and it wasn’t quite as fast to read, but this is still a good, less expensive instant-read.

Thermometers we don’t recommend

Not every thermometer we tested earned a spot in our recommendations. Some were outclassed by newer models, others had usability issues, and a few just didn’t offer enough value for the price.