Having a grill is the ultimate indulgence in backyard cooking: You fire it up when the time is right, and your meal is ready in minutes. When it comes to choosing one, you could get a charcoal, pellet, electric, portable or tabletop style, but if you’re looking for something that makes outdoor cooking easy, gas grills are the way to go. They’re fairly straightforward to use even for even grilling newbies, heat up quickly and often provide plenty of surface area to whip up a dinner for the entire family. But there’s a huge difference between having any old version and owning one of the best gas grills on the market.
“There’s a lot of variety on the gas grill market,” says Paul Sidoriak, founder of Grilling Montana, a website dedicated to grilling recipes and guides. “It’s hard to say just what makes a gas grill the ‘best’ given that everyone’s needs are different.” For instance, if you’re looking to spend a little more, you can get a grill that’ll let you flip enough burgers to feed you and your friends in one round, with a built-in prep table and even a side burner to help you do all your cooking in one spot. Many come with nifty features like a temperature gauge, rotisserie burner, sear burner, flavorizer bars, different cooking grids, stainless steel grill grates and battery-powered electronic ignition. Sidoriak recommends considering how many people you’ll regularly be cooking for, any special features you’d actually use and your budget.
To help you find the best one, we analyzed the most popular options on the market and narrowed things down by quality, features and value. Here are the best gas grills you can buy right now.
Best Gas Grill Overall
An Impressive Pick With A Sizable Cooking Surface
Coming in at just under $600, this is one of the best values you will find in a gas grill. While the Spirit II E-310 is affordable, it was designed with quality in mind. It features three burners that put out a total of 30,000 BTUs per hour and 529 square inches of overall cooking surface. Dual side tables and a half dozen tool hooks help keep you organized as you cook, while the easy push-button ignition system makes turning it on a cinch. And it’s backed up by a 10-year warranty on all parts.
Best Gas Grill Under $1,000
A Three-Burner Grill With A Rotisserie And Side Burner
This grill might look like it was designed to stay in one place, but thanks to its two large wheels and two locking casters, it’s actually pretty easy to move around as needed. Powerful and portable, its three burners can crank out 44,000 BTUs beneath the 400-square-inch primary cooking surface. A side burner is ready to heat up sauces and sides while you grill. Broad stainless steel cooking grids hold heat well and create perfect sear marks while a built-in rotisserie lets you roast chicken. There are even drop-down stainless steel side shelves to let you prep food when you need it and save space when you don’t. An integrated condiment bin is just waiting to hold your sauces and go-to drink.
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Best Large Natural Gas Grill
A Powerful Option That Can Serve The Whole Neighborhood
This is the grill you get when you realize outdoor cooking is no longer a mere hobby for you, but indeed a way of life. With six burners, a rotisserie function, an infrared side burner capable of creating heat up to 1,800 degree Fahrenheit and a mighty 900 square inches of cooking space, it has everything you need for all your grilling needs. For the record, you can buy this configured for a liquid propane hookup, but when you go with hard-lined natural gas, you never have to worry about your fuel source again. And despite the fact that this grill is technically able to wheel about, it’s large enough that the better move is to pick your spot and then attach a gas pipe.
Best Kamado Gas Grill
A Quick-Heating Grill That Easily Flips Between Charcoal And Gas
A kamado is a little different from your average gas grill. Its thick sides absorb a ton of heat, making for an impressive cooking environment. And while traditional kamados use charcoal, this version from Vision Grill allows you the flexibility of using charcoal or gas depending on how much time you have on your hands and the type of flavor you’re going for. This particular grill offers up an impressive 604 square inches of cooking space, along with dual calibrate draft vent dials to help you get that perfect temperature. Dual side tables give you ample space to place your prep and finished product. And, while you’re probably not necessarily in it for the looks, it’s nice that you can choose between eye-catching colors like orange, bright red and glossy black.
Best Compact Camping Gas Grill
An Easy-To-Tote Option With A Built-In Cutting Board
This plucky little grill is a great example of informed design. It sets up quickly and includes a separate prep table formed from the detachable base and top cover, which doubles as a cutting board. The cast iron grates offer 154 square inches of cooking space, which is enough for a half-dozen burgers at once. The grates lift off for easy cleaning when the cooking is done. When not in use, it tucks away into an easily-carried package with storage space for its own propane tank and the grill plates securely covered.
Best Portable Gas Grill
A Tailgate-Ready Grill With Three Adjustable Burners
While it’s a little too big to be considered a great camping grill (save for large, prepared campsites set quite close to parking spots), this is a superb option for tailgates, the park or a beach near a parking lot. It’s also a large and reliable enough piece of hardware to be your only grill, and is a great choice if space is limited at your home. Three adjustable burners can create as much as 20,000 BTUs across a surprisingly large 285-square-inch cooking area. Twin side tables keep grill tools or sauces handy, and when the cookout is done you can collapse the grill and roll it back to the car or to the garage thanks to a pair of wheels.
Best Compact Gas Grill
A Solid Two-Burner Option That Takes Up Just 4 Feet Of Space
When this grill’s metal side tables are folded down, it takes up little more than four square feet of space, making it perfect for a small deck or balcony. This is a small grill, but that’s in no way to be taken in the pejorative sense. While compact in size, the two burners and 300 square inches of cook space that it does offer rival the quality of much larger gas grills. It also has many of the features you expect from a good gas grill, like an electronic ignition system, a built-in thermometer and a cabinet that can accommodate your propane tank and some grilling accessories.
Best Flat Top Gas Grill
A Versatile Grill That Can Handle Breakfast, Lunch And Dinner
Flat top grills are more accurately called griddles, and as such they allow for the “grilling” of lots of foods like omelets and pancakes that you can’t make on a traditional grill. On the other hand, you can still cook up burgers, steaks and veggie kebabs using the flat surface of this well-rated and highly affordable large flat top grill. The spacious 600-square-inch cook surface heats quickly and evenly, while side tables and two large shelves offer copious storage space for you to stash grill tools or ingredients.
Best Low Cost Gas Grill
A Quality Starter Grill That’s Less Than $140
If you aren’t quite sure gas grilling is for you, this is a perfect choice for a starter grill. It’s compact, basic and easy to use, and most important of all, it’s very affordable. The grill has a 240-square-inch primary cooking surface, plus a 150-square-inch upper rack. Its twin burners put out a combined 25,000 BTUs. None of the stats here are going to bowl over a BBQ pit master, but for the price this grill punches above its weight.
What To Look For When Buying A Gas Grill
There are a few different factors to consider when shopping for a gas grill. These are the top features to keep in mind while checking out your options.
Number Of Burners
The right number of burners ultimately depends on how much space you have—more burners tend to take up more square footage—and how many people you’ll be cooking for regularly, Sidoriak says. “If you have a family of four, a compact grill will be fine,” he says. “But if you’re regularly cooking for the whole softball team, you might want something with six or more burners.”
Built-In Thermometer
A built-in thermometer is a handy way to see where things stand with your cooking surface, but it’s not a requirement for good results, Sidoriak says. And, if you’re a stickler for an accurate temperature, know this: “Sometimes they can be difficult to calibrate,” he points out.
Side Burner
Side burners are “extremely convenient, even if you just plan to use them here and there,” Sidoriak says. “They’re great for chilis, beans and heating sauces,” he adds.
Side Prep Tables
Sidoriak highly recommends having at least one side prep table if you can. “It’s incredibly essential to have a place to sit your food and also place it when you take it off the grill,” he says.