Home & Kitchen · Buyer's guide
"AI" is now printed on the box of every multi-cooker above about £150, and in almost every case it is doing work the machine isn't. Before you spend anywhere between £130 and £1,349, here are the questions that separate a genuinely capable cooker from a slow cooker with a touchscreen — and the honest answer to whether any of them will actually save you time.
What this article is
This is a research-led buying guide, not a test. We have not cooked the same four dishes in five machines and compared the results — and until we have, we won't claim to have. What follows is built from manufacturer specifications, independent reviews, and the failure patterns that recur in owner reports.
We have, however, checked every product named here against the current UK range and opened every link — because one turned out to be an American model Britain is losing, one was two different machines being treated as one, and one appears to have no UK route and possibly no manufacturer. Details where they come up.
We may earn commission on some links, at no cost to you. It never changes what we recommend, and where a link earns us nothing we say so next to it — see how we choose and our full affiliate disclosure.
What "AI" means in a multi-cooker — and what it doesn't
Start here, because the word is being asked to cover four very different things.
Guided cooking. The machine walks you through a recipe on screen, setting temperature, time and speed at each step so you don't have to. This is the most common thing sold as AI. It's a genuinely useful feature and it is not intelligence — it's a well-built instruction player.
Sensor-driven adjustment. The cooker measures something — temperature, pressure, weight, sometimes resistance against the blade — and adjusts in response. This is real and it's the thing worth paying for. It's why a good machine can hold a simmer without boiling over and a cheap one can't.
Automated mechanical action. Stirring, kneading, chopping without you. Not AI at all, just motors and a well-designed bowl — but it's the feature that actually saves the time everyone's buying these for.
App-based suggestion. "Tell us what's in your fridge and we'll recommend a recipe." Increasingly this genuinely is a language model. It's also the feature least connected to whether dinner turns out well.
The useful question isn't "does it have AI." It's does it stir, does it sense, and does it guide. A machine that does all three is worth serious money. A machine that only suggests recipes on a phone is a slow cooker with a subscription.
The seven questions to ask before you buy
1. Does it stir itself?
This is the dividing line in the category. A risotto, a béchamel, a custard or a caramel all need near-constant agitation, and a machine that stirs is the only kind that removes you from the process. If it doesn't stir, you're standing at the counter anyway and the time saving is largely illusory. Ask specifically: does it stir while heating, and at what speeds?
2. Does it pressure cook — or only look like it does?
This one catches people, and it caught us. Machines in the same family, from the same brand, with almost the same name, can differ on whether they pressure cook at all. Pressure is what makes stews, pulses and tough cuts fast; steam-and-air-fry is a different technology solving a different problem. Check the function list, not the family name. Worked example below.
3. Does it brown properly before it pressure-cooks?
Most stews and curries start with a sear. A cooker whose sauté function can't reach a genuinely high temperature produces grey meat and a flat-tasting result, and you'll end up dirtying a frying pan — which defeats the one-pot premise.
4. Does it weigh?
Integrated scales sound like a gimmick until you use them. Adding ingredients by weight directly into the bowl removes every intermediate bowl and spoon from the process, and it's a bigger contributor to the "less washing up" claim than any other single feature.
5. What's the recipe platform, and does it cost extra?
Guided cooking is only as good as its library, and the library is often a subscription. Thermomix's Cookidoo, for instance, is £50 a year after an included three-month trial. That's not a criticism — it's a real cost that belongs in your comparison.
6. What happens when the company stops supporting it?
A cooker whose core functions live behind an app is a cooker with an expiry date set by someone else. This is the question people wave away, so here is what it looks like when the answer goes wrong.
The cautionary tale: Multo by CookingPal
Multo was the interesting one. A genuine Thermomix-style machine — it stirred, it weighed, it guided — bundled with its own tablet, at roughly two-thirds of the Thermomix price. On paper it was the value answer in this category, and we had it in an earlier draft of this article as exactly that.
Then we checked whether a British reader could actually buy one. Amazon UK carries a spare mixing bowl for it, and not the machine. The nearest thing to a UK listing is an import reseller whose own page warns that a step-down voltage transformer is required, because the unit is built for 110–120V American mains. Every genuine retailer we found — Macy's, Neiman Marcus, Amazon US — is American. And among recent buyer comments on the secondary market is the observation, in passing, that the manufacturer appears no longer to exist.
We can't confirm the company's status and we're not going to assert it. But consider what you'd be buying: a four-figure appliance running off a voltage converter, whose recipe library, guided cooking and app control all depend on servers belonging to a company nobody can reach. The hardware might work for a decade. The thing you actually bought it for could stop next Tuesday.
So Multo is out of this guide as a recommendation, and in it as the answer to question 6. Before you buy any connected appliance, ask what it still does with the servers switched off. If the honest answer is "heats and spins," price it as a machine that heats and spins.
7. Where will it live, and how does it clean?
These are large, heavy appliances. A machine that has to be lifted out of a cupboard before each use gets used on Sundays and then not at all. And look for a dishwasher-safe bowl and a lid that comes apart — if the blade assembly doesn't detach, food gets trapped under it permanently.
The machines, and who each one is for
The benchmark: Thermomix TM7
The TM7 is the machine every other one in this category is measured against. It stirs while heating, weighs to the gram, browns properly, steams on multiple levels, and runs the most developed guided-cooking library available. If you cook from scratch several times a week, it is the only machine here that genuinely replaces a shelf of appliances.
The obstacles are real. It costs £1,349, and in the UK it can only be bought through a Thermomix Advisor rather than a retailer — there's no Amazon listing, no price comparison, and Vorwerk doesn't discount it, so any "deal" you find online is a warning sign rather than a bargain. The purchase involves a demonstration and a conversation, which suits some people and puts others off entirely.
It's also, after the Multo story above, worth noting what you're buying with the price: a company that has been making these machines for decades and will plausibly still be answering the phone in ten years. In a category this dependent on software, that is part of the product.
We earn nothing if you buy one. We're recommending it anyway, for the readers it fits: people who cook most nights, have the counter space, and would otherwise buy a stand mixer, a blender, a steamer and a slow cooker over the next three years.
The mainstream buy: Ninja Foodi — and not the Speedi
Doesn't stir, doesn't weigh, doesn't pretend to be clever — and pressure-cooks, air-fries and slow-cooks well for about a fifth of the Thermomix price. For most households this is the honest answer.
Check price on Amazon → Or direct from Ninja UK →We may earn a small commission on the Amazon link. The Ninja link earns us nothing — it's there because the manufacturer's page lists the full function set, which is the thing worth checking before you buy.
Both links go to the OL550UK specifically, because the model code is the whole point in this range. Its eleven functions include Pressure Cook and Yoghurt — neither of which the Speedi has — alongside Air Fry, Grill, Bake, Dehydrate, Sear/Sauté, Steam, Slow Cook, Steam Air Fry and Steam Bake.
A pricing note, because it changes the advice
This machine's price has moved a long way. It has sat closer to £200 in the past and at the time of writing is nearer £280 — which puts it above the Instant Pot Pro rather than below it. If that's still the case when you read this, the choice between the two isn't about money: it's whether you want air frying and crisping in the same machine (Foodi) or a more refined pressure cooker without them (Instant Pot). Check both prices on the day. This is a category where a fortnight's wait can change the answer.
The mistake we nearly made — Foodi and Speedi are not the same machine
We originally wrote this pick as "Ninja Foodi / Speedi," as though they were interchangeable. They aren't, and the difference is the single most important spec in the category.
The Ninja Speedi does not pressure cook. It uses steam plus convection air frying — Ninja's "Rapid Cooking System" — which is genuinely clever and produces a three-part meal in about fifteen minutes. But there is no pressure function, and no yoghurt setting either.
The Ninja Foodi does pressure cook. That's the original proposition: pressure cook to lock in juices, then switch to a crisping lid to finish.
Since our whole argument for this pick is that most people are cooking stews, curries, rice and things that get crisped — and stews and pulses are exactly what pressure cooking is for — the Foodi is the machine that argument supports. Check the model code, not the brand name: OL550UK is the 11-in-1 SmartLid, OP350UK the 9-in-1, ON500UK the Speedi.
The thing worth saying plainly: the overwhelming majority of what people actually cook in these machines is stews, curries, rice, and things that get crisped. None of that needs stirring, weighing or guided cooking. A well-built pressure-and-air-fry machine covers it, and the money saved against the top of the category is substantial.
What you're giving up is the whole "walk away from a risotto" category, and the reduction in washing up that integrated scales bring. If neither of those describes how you cook, you don't need to spend more.
The Speedi, on its own terms
A genuinely good machine for a different job: steam plus air fry, three-part meals in about fifteen minutes, compact enough for a small kitchen. Buy it knowing it does not pressure cook.
See it at Ninja UK → Or on Amazon →Ninja's own link is first here and earns us nothing. We've put it first because Amazon's stock of the 12-in-1 is thin — at the time of writing it's a marketplace seller with a handful of units, and there are several colour variants under different codes. We may earn a small commission if you use the Amazon link, but the direct route is the one we'd take.
If your weeknight problem is "rice, a vegetable and a piece of salmon, all ready at once, in a flat I can't fit another appliance into," the Speedi is arguably the better buy than the Foodi. It's a rapid cooker rather than a pressure cooker, and judged as that it's very good. The error is only in treating it as a substitute for one.
Watch the model code here too. The ON500UK is the current 12-in-1; the older ON400UK is a 10-in-1, and the two are easy to confuse in listings. Colour variants add further codes — ON500UKSTGD and ON500UKCYD are the same machine in different finishes.
The pressure-cooking specialist: Instant Pot Pro
The most refined version of the classic pressure cooker, with Wi-Fi and better sensing than the older models. Choose it over the Ninja if pressure cooking is the main event and air frying isn't.
See the range at Instant Pot UK →This link earns us nothing. We're sending you to the manufacturer's range page rather than a single listing on purpose: several different machines are sold under the "Instant Pot Pro" name, including an older model at a lower price, and the range page is where you can tell them apart. Check the capacity and the price before you buy.
A naming trap worth knowing about. Most round-ups recommend the Instant Pot Pro Plus. In Britain that is the wrong advice: the Pro Plus is being discontinued here, its page has already gone from Instant Pot's own UK site, and Amazon is effectively the last retailer carrying remaining stock. The successor is the plain Instant Pot Pro, a UK-only model at around £249 that isn't being released in America at all.
So the transatlantic confusion runs both ways: American guides recommend a machine Britain is losing, and the British replacement doesn't appear in them because it doesn't exist over there. Buy on the model name, not the round-up.
Worth noting the price jump too — the Pro lists around £249 where its predecessor sat nearer £199, for a machine whose headline changes are faster pre-heating and quieter steam release. If you find a Pro Plus at a genuine discount and don't mind buying an end-of-line model, that's a defensible choice; just know that's what you're doing.
What we'd actually tell a friend
The honest verdict on the AI part
Most of what's marketed as AI in this category is a user-experience improvement rather than a capability one. The machines that are genuinely better are better because of motors, sensors and heating elements — physical engineering, not software. The touchscreen makes them nicer to use; it doesn't make them cook better.
There's a second reason to be wary of paying for the software, and Multo is it: physical engineering can't be switched off remotely. A motor and a heating element will still be a motor and a heating element in 2035. A recipe platform is only as durable as the company hosting it.
None of which is a reason to avoid the category. A well-guided interface genuinely does help people cook things they'd otherwise find intimidating. But it should be priced as a convenience feature with an unknown lifespan — and when a £200 machine and a £400 machine both say AI on the box, that word is telling you nothing about which one is better.
Quick answers
Will one of these actually save me time?
Yes, but mostly through washing up and unattended cooking rather than raw cooking speed. Pressure cooking genuinely is faster for stews and pulses. Everything else saves you attention rather than minutes.
Foodi or Speedi?
Foodi if you want pressure cooking — stews, curries, dried pulses, tough cuts. Speedi if you want a compact machine that steams and air-fries a complete meal quickly. They are not two versions of the same thing.
Is the Thermomix worth £1,349?
If you'd otherwise buy a stand mixer, blender, steamer and slow cooker, and you cook several times a week, the maths is closer than it looks. If you cook twice a week, no.
Why do prices in this category jump around so much?
Multi-cookers are heavily discounted around sale events and then reset, so the same machine can swing by £80 or more across a year. Two consequences: don't treat any single price as the price, and be sceptical of a round-up that ranks machines by cost without saying when it checked.
What about the cheaper Thermomix alternatives?
The mechanics are often surprisingly close; the software and support usually aren't. Ask three questions before buying one: does it work fully offline with manual controls, does it run on 230V UK mains rather than needing a transformer, and is there a UK entity to contact if it breaks? A no to any of them makes it a two-year purchase rather than a ten-year one.
Why do American reviews recommend different models?
Because the ranges genuinely differ. The Instant Pot Pro Plus is current in the US and being discontinued here; the Instant Pot Pro is British-market-only. Always check the model exists in the UK range before acting on an American recommendation — a lesson this article learned the hard way.
Specifications, model codes and pricing drawn from manufacturer sources including Vorwerk UK, SharkNinja UK and Instant Pot UK, plus independent reviews and live UK retail listings, checked August 2026. Prices in this category move sharply — always check the current price before buying. This is a research-led guide; we have not conducted comparative cooking tests, and we'll update this page when we do. Pre-publication corrections: we originally named the Instant Pot Pro Plus, which is being discontinued in the UK; treated the Ninja Foodi and Speedi as one product when only the Foodi pressure cooks; recommended the Multo by CookingPal, which we could not find on sale through any UK retailer; linked the wrong Speedi model; and described the Foodi as costing a tenth of the Thermomix when clicking through showed nearer a fifth. All five were caught before publishing. Last reviewed August 2026.