Which cooks the fastest, the Ninja Foodi or the Instant Pot?

There is no published figure that compares how fast a Ninja Foodi and an Instant Pot cook, so the question cannot be settled on the makers’ own numbers. Instant Pot states that its Duo 6 Qt cooks up to 70% faster compared to slow cooking methods, and that is a comparison against slow cooking, not against a Ninja Foodi. Ninja does not publish a cooking speed figure for the Foodi at all, and this site has not compared the two.

What can be compared is the published specification of the electric pressure cookers in our guide to Best Pressure Cookers for Canning and Fast Meals. That guide covers five picks, and the Instant Pot Duo is the only one of them that carries a speed claim. The Ninja Foodi is not on that fact sheet, so nothing here should be read as a statement about how it performs.

What each maker actually publishes

Instant Pot publishes a speed claim for the Duo 6 Qt 7-in-1: the maker states it cooks up to 70% faster compared to slow cooking methods. That sentence is the whole of the published speed information for that model. It does not say how long any dish takes, and it does not name a competing appliance.

Ninja does not publish a comparable figure for the Foodi. The company describes the Foodi as a pressure cooker and air fryer combination, but no cooking time or speed percentage appears in its published product specifications. Because the Foodi is not one of the five picks on our fact sheet, this site has not compared it with anything, and no number for it appears on this page.

The practical result is that a shopper looking for a maker’s own speed figure will find one for the Instant Pot Duo and none for the Ninja Foodi. That is an absence of published data, not evidence that one appliance is faster than the other.

The Instant Pot Duo and its published figures

The Instant Pot Duo 6 Qt 7-in-1 is 12.6 inches wide, 13.0 inches deep and 12.2 inches tall, and it weighs 14.6 pounds. Its cooking pot is stainless steel (18/8) with a tri-ply bottom, and the maker lists 1000 watts at 120 V 60 Hz. It carries seven cooking functions: pressure cook, slow cook, sauté, steam, rice, yogurt and keep warm.

The maker also lists 13 one-touch smart programs and an Easy-Release steam switch for venting. The 6-quart capacity is described as enough for up to 6 servings. None of these features is a speed measurement, and the only speed statement in the published feature list is the 70% comparison against slow cooking.

That distinction matters when reading the claim. A pressure cooker reaching pressure and then holding it will generally finish a braise or a bean dish sooner than a slow cooker set for hours, which is the comparison the maker is drawing. It says nothing about how the Duo compares with another electric pressure cooker of similar capacity.

The other picks in the guide

The Midea 12-in-1 Electric Pressure Cooker is 8 quarts, 11.6 inches wide, 11.1 inches deep and 11.6 inches tall. Its published features include a claim that one-pot cooking is up to 70% faster than traditional cooking methods. That is a different comparison from the Instant Pot wording, against traditional cooking rather than slow cooking, and the maker does not define traditional cooking in the feature list.

The Cosori Pressure Cooker 6QT is a 6-quart model weighing 11.9 pounds. Its published features cover nine functions, a seal and vent button set away from the steam release valve, a 30 degree backward-angled steam release, a 0.5-inch widened pot gap and 12 safety features. The maker publishes no cooking speed figure for it, and this site has not compared it.

The two stovetop canners on the fact sheet are a different kind of appliance. The Presto 01781 is 23 quarts, 17.5 inches wide, 13.5 inches deep and 15.5 inches tall, weighing 12.0 pounds, and it holds 26 half-pints, 20 pints or 7 quarts of jars. The T-fal canner is 22 quarts, 15.39 inches wide, 19.33 inches deep and 16.26 inches tall, weighing 14.77 pounds, and it holds up to 24 half-pint jars, 16 wide-mouth pint jars, 18 pint jars or 7 quart jars per batch. Neither maker publishes a cooking speed figure.

Why there is no head to head number

A speed comparison between two pressure cookers would need both makers to publish the same kind of figure, measured the same way, for the same dish. That does not exist here. Instant Pot publishes a percentage against slow cooking, Midea publishes a percentage against traditional cooking, and Ninja publishes no percentage at all for the Foodi.

Even the two published percentages cannot be set against each other, because the baselines differ. One is measured against slow cooking methods and the other against traditional cooking methods, and neither maker states the dish, the starting temperature or the method used to arrive at the figure.

What a reader can do is compare the specifications that are published. Capacity, wattage and dimensions are stated for the Instant Pot Duo, and capacity and dimensions are stated for the Midea and Cosori models. Those figures describe the appliance, not its cooking time, and this site has not used any of these products, so no timing appears on this page.

What to take away

If a published speed claim is what you need, the Instant Pot Duo is the pick in our guide that carries one: up to 70% faster compared to slow cooking methods, as the maker states. The Midea carries a separate claim of up to 70% faster than traditional cooking methods. The Cosori, Presto and T-fal picks carry no speed figure.

For the Ninja Foodi, the answer is that the maker does not publish a cooking speed figure, and this site has not compared it with any Instant Pot model. Any claim that one is faster than the other would have to come from somewhere other than the makers’ published specifications.

Capacity is the figure that is fully published across the electric models in the guide: 6 quarts for the Instant Pot Duo and the Cosori, and 8 quarts for the Midea. Those numbers tell you how much food an appliance holds, and they are the honest basis for choosing between them when no shared speed measurement exists.