The 3 Best Gas Grills of 2025 | Reviews by Wirecutter

Jun 10, 2025

By Kathleen Squires and Lesley Stockton

We tested Weber’s new line of Spirit grills, alongside several other contenders, and we’ve made the four-burner Spirit E-425 our top pick. It’s the same size as our previous pick (the Weber Spirit II E-310) but with an extra burner.

The two-burner Spirit E-210 is our budget pick, and the Weber Genesis E-325 remains our upgrade pick.

There’s evidence that humans have been cooking over an open flame for some 780,000 years. Maybe that’s why having a good grill can feel like a primal necessity. And for those who love to cook (and dine) alfresco, your grill is the centerpiece — or, more often, the only piece — of an outdoor cooking setup.

Gas grills may not invoke our open-fire ancestors as naturally as, say, charcoal grills. But gas grills are hands down the most convenient and easy to use, so they are perfect for weeknight cooking or impromptu patio parties.

Since 2015, we’ve researched dozens of propane models and rigorously tested 18. We’ve flipped burgers, seared steaks, charred chicken thighs, roasted whole birds, blistered veggies, and even put out a few fires in the process.

Weber has consistently come out as the champ. And after our latest round of testing, Weber’s new, four-burner Weber Spirit E-425 is our top pick. The new, two-burner Weber Spirit E-210 is our budget pick, and the reliable Weber Genesis E-325 remains our upgrade pick.

For tailgating, camping, or even an afternoon at the park, consider using a portable grill. And if breakfast, veggies, or big, varied meals are your priority, we also have a guide to outdoor griddles.

This is a great all-around grill, with its unrivaled combination of performance, durability, and value.

With more heat per square inch and a larger grilling area than our top pick, this model is our pick for dedicated grillers.

This two-burner grill is great for grilling novices or for folks with limited space. However, it lacks some of the versatility of our other picks.

Liquid propane gas (LPG) fires up a grill quickly and easily, with no need for coals or a natural-gas line.

Durable, rustproof, and fantastic at holding in heat, cast aluminum is the ideal material for the body of a grill.

We eliminated grills with laborious assembly and that were flimsy when built.

Experts and members of our testing team confirm that grills in this price range offer the best value, with top-performing models that can last a decade or more.

This is a great all-around grill, with its unrivaled combination of performance, durability, and value.

The four-burner Weber Spirit E-425 heats up quickly. And in testing, it was the most consistent when cooking at both high and low temperatures: It turned out satisfyingly seared beef, crisply roasted whole chicken, and delicately charred eggplant.

We like that it’s compact enough to use on small patios or balconies, yet the cooking area is large enough to easily accommodate 12 burgers or two whole chickens. It packs four burners and a total of 35,000 Btu in the same-size body as our previous three-burner pick (the discontinued Weber Spirit II E-310).

The Spirit E-425 comes with two “sear-zone” burners. They heat up quickly, and they concentrate heat on the right-hand side of the grill. So you can grace a steak with grill marks, for instance, while cooking things normally on the rest of the grill. We also love that the updated Spirit grills all have a closed cabinet for storage.

Like all Weber grills we tested, the E-425 has a durable cast-aluminum firebox. It’s easy to assemble, and the enameled-steel lid and frame remain sturdy once they’re built. Weber also offers a generous 10-year warranty on the grill box, lid, and burners, and there’s a five-year warranty on grill grates and burner hoods.

With more heat per square inch and a larger grilling area than our top pick, this model is our pick for dedicated grillers.

The Weber Genesis E-325 is 6 inches wider than our top pick, with about 20% more cooking area and 39,000 Btu across its three main burners. A bonus fourth burner — located between the middle and right-side burners — adds a “sear zone” and an additional 13,000 Btu. The Genesis E-325 also has roomier side tables, including one that’s big enough to fit a half-sheet pan.

Like our top pick, the Genesis E-325 has a cast-aluminum firebox and an enameled-steel lid and frame. It comes with a 12-year warranty on the grill box and lid, and there’s a 10-year warranty on the burners, grates, and burner hoods.

This two-burner grill is great for grilling novices or for folks with limited space. However, it lacks some of the versatility of our other picks.

The compact Weber Spirit E-210 is 4 inches narrower than our top pick, and its cooking area is 15% smaller. Yet it still provides enough space to snugly fit a cut-up whole chicken or six to eight burger patties. Though it’s smaller than the other budget grills we tested, it outperformed them. In our testing the E-210 produced a steady, solid sear without ever flaring up, and it was also capable of cooking gently.

The Spirit E-210 is good for grilling foods that are best suited to intense direct heat, such as steaks, chops, and burgers. We don’t recommend it for indirectly cooking bigger items, such as whole chickens. The E-210 is a great first gas grill, and it’s a nice option for folks who have limited outdoor space. It comes with the same generous warranty as our top pick.

Kathleen Squires is a staff writer on Wirecutter’s kitchen team, as well as a cookbook author and avid home cook. She previously covered grilling and butchery in The Wall Street Journal, writing stories on the best way to grill fish, how to break out of a grilling rut, and even how to make desserts on the grill. She’s also tested and written about knife sharpeners, immersion blenders, drip coffee makers, knife sets, food-storage containers, and more for Wirecutter.

Wirecutter staff writer Lesley Stockton designed and ran our original grilling tests (not to mention our tests for charcoal grills and pizza ovens), and she also participated in our most recent gas-grill testing. She has over a decade of experience in professional kitchens, much of it spent on the grill station.

For this guide:

The Weber Original Kettle Premium Charcoal Grill 22″ has been our pick since 2017. It’s solidly constructed and easy to control, offering great value.

For those who love dining alfresco but are short on time (or patience), a gas grill can be the best choice. It’s quicker and more convenient to use than a charcoal grill, since it heats up in a flash (our picks got to 500 °F within seven minutes), and you don’t have to tend to smoky coals.

A quality gas grill can do more than char a burger or sear a steak. A good gas grill offers a higher level of control than you get with a charcoal grill. So it can quickly toggle between hot-and-fast and low-and-slow cooking, to pep up veggies, smoke a whole turkey, and even add a fiery facet to dessert (while giving your oven — and your air conditioner — a break).

Some may think that propane grills don’t impart the same flavor as charcoal grills, and that’s fair. But gas grills do impart more smoky, charred flavor than you typically get from electric grills.

The outdoors can be rough on equipment, so you should also be prepared to clean and maintain a grill. Once again, gas grills make this process a little easier. After using your gas grill, we suggest that you empty the grease tray and scrape down the grates. And unlike with a charcoal grill, with a gas grill you won’t have coals or ash to dispose of.

If you’re dealing with a rusty grill, know that grates and burner hoods can be easily replaced. So if you’re happy with your current grill, you may be able to get several more years out of it by replacing those parts first. If the grill body is rusted, however, it’s probably time to consider a sturdy upgrade.

Our picks cost between $400 and $900 — a worthy investment for a grill that’s enjoyable to use and will likely last for more than 10 years.

Before we dove into testing, we wanted to narrow our list of gas-grill contenders.

So we found models that offered the following basic criteria:

Cast-aluminum fireboxes: A firebox is the lower half of the grill body, where the burners and grates are mounted. We’ve found that fireboxes made from cast aluminum — which is resistant to rust and highly durable — hold and conduct heat well and will likely provide a decade or more of service. Thinner materials, like porcelain-coated steel or painted carbon steel, are prone to rust, and they don’t efficiently hold or reflect heat.

Value: Our picks cost between $400 and $900. We’ve found that you can get a great grill within this price range, without overpaying for unneeded capacity or seldom-used add-ons (like rotisseries, side burners, and infrared burners).

We did test budget options priced around $200. They didn’t perform well and were difficult to assemble. And they were wobbly, with some misaligned parts once they were assembled. Ultimately, if you want to spend less, we recommend that you get a smaller, two-burner grill, or consider a charcoal grill or a portable grill instead.

Liquid propane: This is the most common fuel used for gas grills. With all of our picks, however, you can also find versions that work with natural gas (though they tend to cost a little more).

British thermal units, or Btu: On three-burner grills, the total Btu count tends to vary between 30,000 Btu and 40,000 Btu. And our research convinced us it’s just as important (if not more important) that those British thermal units are applied efficiently, steadily, and evenly across the grates.

Grate material: Grates come in a range of materials, such as plain cast iron, porcelain-coated cast iron (which is more rust-resistant), and stainless steel rods. We’ve found the difference in performance to be negligible, mostly because a grilling system’s design and materials — namely the firebox, burners, and burner hoods — have a bigger impact on heat distribution.

That said, some experts — including Big Apple BBQ’s Joe Salvaggio — favor porcelain-coated cast iron for its durability and heat distribution. Our picks all happen to come with porcelain-coated cast-iron grates.

Built-in thermometers. Thermometers are usually positioned several inches above the cooking grate, and as a result they don’t accurately report its temperature. Consider getting an inexpensive infrared thermometer to gauge the temperature of your cooking surface. Or you can rely on the hand test.

To determine our picks, we put the grills in this guide through a battery of tests.

We started by assembling the grills alone and in teams of two, noting any poor instructions, needlessly complicated screw or bolt sizes, or safety hazards, such as sharp edges.

Once the grills were assembled, we fired them up on high, with the lids closed, to burn off the factory coating, and we noted how long it took each grill to heat to 500 °F. We used an infrared thermometer on the grates to verify temperature at the cooking level. (Built-in thermometers tend to have probes positioned at the top of the grill’s lid, where heat collects, so they read roughly 50 °F higher.)

After pre-heating, we covered the cooking areas with burger buns and toasted them for a minute. The uniformity (or lack) of browning gave us a “heat map” to determine whether a grill had hot and cold spots.

Next, we cooked 12 to 15 ⅓-pound beef patties on each grill while looking for flare-ups, excessive charring, or undercooked patties.

We checked each grill’s ability to cook food uniformly by grilling chicken thighs low and slow, at 300 °F. We occasionally checked for charring and redistributed pieces as needed. We monitored the grills’ ability to hold a steady temperature throughout.

We also tested whether each grill could act like an oven. This is a nice feature in the hot summer months, when you don’t want to warm up your kitchen, or during the holidays, when oven space is at a premium.

For this indirect cooking test, we brought the grills to temperature with their two outer burners lit and the middle burner(s) unlit (in the two-burner grill, we kept both burners on low). Then we placed a whole chicken, weighing 3 to 4 pounds, in the center of the grate and closed the lid. We monitored the grills’ temperature for the hour-long cook, and we noted the chicken’s crispness and evenness of browning at the end.

In our final round of testing, we explored the “sear zones” on Weber grills, tossing on a few steaks. We also grilled eggplant, veggie burgers, and broccoli, to test the grills’ deftness with vegetables.

After testing more than 90 tools from grill brushes to chimney starters, we have recommendations for everything you need to barbecue with ease.

This is a great all-around grill, with its unrivaled combination of performance, durability, and value.

The Weber Spirit E-425 offers an unrivaled combination of top-notch grilling performance, a versatile four-burner design, durability, and a relatively affordable price. It excelled in every one of our tests.

But before we go any further, we need to point something out: Anyone who has owned one of Weber’s three-burner Spirit grills (including our previous pick, the E-310) from before 2025 may be disappointed if they decide to replace it with a new E-310 or E-325.

That’s because Weber has shrunk the bodies of its newest three-burner Spirit grills, making them the same size as our budget pick, the two-burner E-210.

The new, four-burner E-425 is now the same size as our previous (now-discontinued) three-burner pick, and we still think it’s the best size.

It’s relatively compact, but it can cook plenty of food. The Spirit E-425 can easily accommodate 12 large hamburgers, two whole or cut-up chickens, or a large cut of protein, such as a rib roast. Or it can cook a complete meal for five or six people: For instance, you can cook a steak or fish over the “sear zones,” and then grill vegetables on lower heat on the other side of the grill.

It heats quickly and evenly. We like the “Snap Jet” ignition, which lights the burners in a flash and doesn’t require batteries. The E-425 heated up to 500 °F within seven minutes. And our bun “heat map” revealed that, compared with the other grills we’ve tested, the E-425 provided the most consistent heating across the entire grate surface.

It sears beautifully, with few flare-ups. Our burgers came out consistently picture- and palate-perfect, with lovely grill marks on the outside and cooked to a juicy medium on the inside.

There were no issues with meat sticking to the flat, porcelain-coated iron grates. And we had no problems with flare-ups, the grease fires that produce charring and acrid smoke. (All grills produce brief bursts of flame when grease drips onto the burner hoods; the problem is when there are persistent fires.)

Among all of the grills we tested, Weber’s grills had the fewest flare-ups, so they left our burgers, chicken, and steaks with perfect grill marks, and they never incinerated our vegetables. We also appreciated the extra boost that the “sear zone” provided, concentrating more heat into the two burners on the right, when a quick charring is called for.

It’s also great for gentler, indirect cooking. With almost no fiddling on our part, the Spirit and Weber Genesis grills we tested produced perfect grilled chicken, while other contenders produced either flabby or charred chicken. And in our indirect-cooking test, the Spirit E-425 offered up a nicely browned roasted bird. The grill held a steady temperature during both the low-and-slow and indirect cooking tests.

It’s easy to assemble and maintain. In all of our testing, the Weber grills have had the most well-thought-out instructions, with clearly labeled parts. We’ve even managed to assemble them solo in about an hour, though Weber recommends using two people for the task (we agree, it’s faster and safer).

As for maintenance, the flat grates were easy to keep clean with a grill brush, and the grease trap was easy to access for dumping and washing. (To keep your grill in tip-top shape — quite possibly for years after its decade-long warranty expires — be sure to clean it regularly and thoroughly.)

It’s durable, and it has a great warranty. This grill is sturdily built from the ground up. Lots of metal, very little plastic, and tight tolerances add up to a stiff chassis. Weber has added a cabinet to all of its Spirit grills, including our picks, and they’re all-metal, sturdy, and well aligned (unlike on a few other grills we’ve built).

Weber also offers a 10-year warranty on the firebox, lid, and burners; a five-year warranty on grates and burner covers; and a two-year warranty on all remaining parts. In our experience, Weber also provides exceptional service under that warranty. A Wirecutter colleague stabbed a hole in his firebox after a grease fire; he told this upfront to a Weber representative, and the company replaced the firebox at no charge (not even for shipping).

Our 2022 reader survey revealed high satisfaction with Weber grills’ performance and reliability. Of the 1,000-plus grill-owning readers we surveyed, more than 60% of them said they owned Weber grills. Of those Weber grill owners, 69% reported that they were extremely satisfied, and another 29% reported that they were moderately satisfied.

It doesn’t come with a grill cover. But neither did any other grill in our test group (though we think they should). You can purchase a Weber cover separately for about $90. Or you can buy a third-party cover: We’ve been using this Unicook cover for the past year on a Weber Genesis grill, and it’s sturdy, fits well, and does a fine job.

Whether you spring for the Weber cover or pick up a generic one, we highly recommend buying and using a cover. It will extend the life of your grill, and it could save you time, effort, and money over the course of that lifetime.

With more heat per square inch and a larger grilling area than our top pick, this model is our pick for dedicated grillers.

If you’re looking for a big grill that has a larger cooking area and an even sturdier build — with all of the same core elements that make our top pick great, including the cast-aluminum firebox, a swift-lighting control panel, and porcelainized grates — consider the Weber Genesis E-325.

Seriously, it’s big. Compared with the Weber Spirit E-425, the Genesis E-325 is about 6 inches longer, and its cooking area is about 20% larger — easily accommodating 15 burger patties at a time or the pieces of two whole chickens (with some breathing room).

The Genesis E-325 also has a foldable upper rack, which extends the length of the main cooking grate and expands to a depth of 11 inches.

To top it off, this grill has two side tables; they’re both 25 inches wide, but they don’t fold down. So before you buy this 57-inch-long grill, triple-check your space to make sure you have room for it.

It has an extra burner for searing. In the “sear zone,” there’s an extra burner, located between the middle and right-side burners (so this is really a four-burner model, though it’s marketed as a three-burner grill). And this extra burner puts out the same 13,000 Btu as the others do. We’re impressed with how well this concentrated heat zone created a dark and flavorful crust on ribeyes and burgers.

It’s excellent at low-heat grilling. On a 90 °F afternoon in July, we grilled a grate full of chicken pieces, and the Genesis E-325 did an excellent job of maintaining a steady medium-low heat from beginning to end.

The Genesis line has a great warranty. The warranty covers the firebox and lid assembly for 12 years; the stainless steel burner tubes, cooking grates, and Flavorizer bars (burner hoods) for 10 years; and all of the remaining parts for five years. To get the longest life out of your grill, be sure to clean and care for it properly.

Apart from its “sear zone,” this is a gentle grill. The Genesis E-325 is large; its three core burners maintain even and sufficient heat across the grates, but this grill is not heavy on firepower. We grilled a grate full of burger patties over just the main burners, and the burgers had slightly paler sear marks than the burgers cooked on our previous pick, the Weber Spirit II E-310. But that’s a minor quibble, and one that’s moot if you use the “sear zone.”

We’re planning to soon test the Genesis side by side against our current pick, the Weber Spirit E-425, to see how its power compares to that of the new four-burner Spirit.

Like our other picks, it doesn’t come with a cover. We strongly recommend you buy one separately. Weber sells one for $100, but we’ve also used a cheap one from Unicook, and it works just fine.

This two-burner grill is great for grilling novices or for folks with limited space. However, it lacks some of the versatility of our other picks.

If you have limited outdoor space, or you don’t want to commit to the cost or footprint of a larger grill, the two-burner Weber Spirit E-210 is a great choice.

There are larger grills in this price range, but we’ve tested quite a few from the most popular budget brands, and we think you’re better off compromising on size rather than on quality. (If you really have your heart set on a bigger grill, and you are willing to compromise on build quality, the Monument Mesa 305 is a larger three-burner option in the same price range, and we think it is worth considering.)

It offers the same quality as our top pick, but it’s more compact. The E-210 has a cast-aluminum firebox, an enameled steel lid and open cart, and two side tables. But it’s 4 inches smaller in width than the Weber Spirit E-425. That may not seem like much, but if you’re working in a small patio area, every inch counts.

It’s great for straight-up grilling. It’s small but mighty, putting a mean sear on steaks and burgers. It provides good heat control, and it can maintain a steady medium to medium-low for grilling chicken pieces with rendered skin.

It still has a great warranty. Weber offers the same coverage on the Spirit E-210 as it does on our pick, the Spirit E-425: a 10-year warranty on the firebox, lid and burners; a five-year warranty on grates and burner covers; and a two-year warranty on all remaining parts. And your grill may outlast its warranty if you regularly clean and maintain it.

If the price of the Spirit E-210 is still more than you’re willing to pay for a gas grill, consider other, less-expensive types of grills, such as charcoal grills or portable grills, as opposed to buying a cheaper gas grill that will last only a couple of years.

It fits less food. Although this grill can accommodate a cut-up whole chicken or six to eight burger patties at a time, if you’re cooking for a large crowd, you’ll be standing at the grill for a few hours.

And it’s not great for indirect cooking. This model has only two burners. So to cook with indirect heat, you either have to cook with one burner off — and rotate your chicken or roast to make sure it cooks evenly throughout — or keep both burners on low (as we did in testing), which can take more time. If you think you’ll frequently use your grill as an outdoor oven to cook roasts and whole birds, we recommend choosing one of our other picks instead.

You’ll need to buy a cover. You can buy one from Weber, or you can find a generic cover for less.

If you want a large three-burner grill at a budget price: The Monument Mesa 305 has a cooking area that can fit 20 burgers. Though we would have liked more-prominent grill marks and browning, the grill didn’t flare up during our tests, and it was capable of keeping a steady temperature during indirect and low-and-slow cooking. We also liked its bells and whistles, such as light-up knobs, a glass window on the hood, a side burner, and even a bottle opener. These perks, along with the grill’s larger size, make it seem like a good value, since the Mesa 305 is the same price as our two-burner, no-frills (yet more sturdily built) budget pick.

But since its build quality seemed a bit ramshackle, we weren’t ready to give this grill pick status until we tested it over a longer period of time. We’re hoping to put it through more paces and report back. This grill was also harder to assemble than any of the Weber grills. And the warranty — eight years on the burners, one year on electrical, and two years on all other parts — is not as good as Weber’s.

If you want a compact three-burner grill: The Weber Spirit E-325 packs a lot of power in its small frame, which measures the same as our budget pick, the two-burner Spirit E-210. Among the grill’s three burners, it has two “sear zone” burners, which boost firepower on the grill’s right-hand side. We found this grill to have exceptional control in lower temperature cooking, too, and it comes with Weber’s excellent warranty.

To keep your grill in working order, take time to do some simple cleaning tasks, as well as the occasional deep scrub-down, every time you cook.

We were perplexed by the new Weber Spirit E-310, expecting that it would simply be the newer model of our previous pick, the discontinued Weber Spirit II E-310. It’s smaller, though — the same size as the two-burner Spirit grill. And we think that anyone looking to replace a Spirit II model would be miffed at the downsizing. That said, the grill performed just fine during our tests, but the Weber Spirit E-325 edged it out due to its “sear zone” booster burners. We also found that it didn’t offer the same control at lower temperatures as the E-325 did.

We loved the matte black finish of the Monument Eminence 425, as well as the fact that it ignites without much effort. But we expected much more prominent browning from 69,000 Btu, and we found its cooking to be inconsistent.

The Charbroil Pro was extremely smoky and prone to dangerous flare-ups. The trademark Amplifire cooking system (a set of ridged plates sitting directly beneath the grill grates) claimed to prevent flare-ups. But instead it collected pools of grease and stoked flare-ups and smoke galore.

We thought the smoke and flares on the Charbroil Pro were bad. But then we had to extinguish a raging inferno on the Charbroil Performance Series FlavorMax 4-burner, which was scary and unsafe. For this reason, we eliminated it in the first round.

The Cuisinart Propel+ 3-in-1 claims to be a grill, griddle, and pizza oven. Giant flare-ups, a tricky-to-ignite middle burner, and knobs that became stuck when turning off (not good when you’re trying to extinguish flare-ups!) kept this grill from moving past the first round of tests. We also weren’t crazy about its unintuitive, diagonal grates, which force you to stand at different angles to flip or remove your food. We found the construction of the grill to be ramshackle, too. We didn’t test the griddle or pizza oven functions, reasoning that this jack-of-all-trades is likely a master of none.

Our chicken-thigh tests revealed that the Nexgrill 4-Burner Propane Gas Grill had too many hot and cold spots. Some pieces were overcooked, and some were undercooked. Burgers also couldn’t take on a good, consistent sear, and we found the grates to be rickety during cleaning.

Despite its cool, retro design and attractive array of colors, the Kenmore 3-Burner Compact Gas Grill flared up too much during our initial tests, charring burgers without properly cooking them. Even when it was set on low, the temperature climbed and climbed.

The Napoleon Rogue 425, typically priced around $850, is the Canadian company’s flagship model in the $400-to-$900 range. It has a cast-aluminum firebox, porcelain-coated cast-iron grates, and three burners. On paper, the Rogue 425 has a lot going for it, but we were disappointed with its performance. Despite showing heat at 650 °F on our burger test, it failed to achieve a good sear; the grill also struggled to hold a steady temperature on our barbecue-chicken test. Wavy grates are a Napoleon signature, and they do look cool, but they’re harder to clean than straight grates.

During our burger test, the Broil King Signet 320 topped 700 °F after 15 minutes of pre-heating, and as a result, it blackened the patties. (“Tastes like a Marlboro,” Sam Sifton said.) It also ran too hot for our barbecue chicken, topping 450 °F on the lowest setting, when our goal was a steady 375 °F.

This guide was edited by Marilyn Ong and Marguerite Preston. Michael Sullivan and Tim Heffernan contributed reporting.

Kathleen Squires

I test and review kitchen gear, small appliances, and packaged foods.

Lesley Stockton

Lesley Stockton is a senior staff writer reporting on all things cooking and entertaining for Wirecutter. Her expertise builds on a lifelong career in the culinary world—from a restaurant cook and caterer to a food editor at Martha Stewart. She is perfectly happy to leave all that behind to be a full-time kitchen-gear nerd.

by Caroline Mullen

by Ben Keough

After smoking hundreds of pounds of meat, we think the Camp Chef Woodwind Pro 24 is worth the cost. It helps even beginners make great barbecue.

by Lesley Stockton and Tim Heffernan

After grilling over 55 pounds of food, we recommend the Weber Q 1200 as our portable gas-grill pick. For charcoal purists, we recommend the Weber Jumbo Joe Charcoal Grill.

by Gabriella DePinho

Advertisement