Pin Down Your Portion Sizes with These Food Scales, Hand-Picked by RDs

The Greater Goods High Capacity Digital Food Scale has a weight capacity of 22 pounds, significantly more than most home kitchen scales, which have a capacity of 8 to 11 pounds. This makes it an excellent choice for people who are weighing ingredients for full family meals or baked goods in large pots or bowls.

This scale is also very easy to use, and it feels well-made and very high-quality. It's sleek-looking and compact. I can easily store it in a drawer because it has such a small footprint and slim profile. One of the only complaints I have about this food scale is that, even though it has such a large weight capacity, it's so small that weighing in larger pots or bowls would make it very difficult to read the screen. While the surface wipes clean easily, the lip under the non-removable plate is difficult to fully clean.

Coming in under $15, the Amazon Basics Digital Scale is an affordable option with some features that still make it a standout pick. First, it has a larger surface area for weighing than many more expensive food scales, so it's easier to weigh larger plates, bowls, or pans and still see the display. The plate is also easy to clean, with no grooves where food may get stuck.

It weighs up to 11 pounds and is small enough that you could find a home for it in even the most cramped kitchens. I appreciate how easy to use this food scale is, but I noticed some accuracy issues when measuring small amounts. I added salt a little bit at a time until the scale read two grams, but when I reweighed the entire amount at once, it was actually eight grams — which I verified with two other scales. The LCD display is not backlit and can be difficult to see because the numbers appear very light as well.

The Smeg Digital Kitchen Scale is a unique food scale that features a removable bowl, allowing you to prep ingredients and weigh them in the same container. Smeg products are known for their distinct look. "If you're buying a Smeg appliance then you already know the price point is a reflection of the look," says health and nutrition writer Tori Martinet, MS, RD.

However, she also notes that the bowl style limits the scale's functionality. The scale can't be used to measure food on plates, in pots, or in other bowls. "It's a nice looking product and I can see using it for certain tasks," she says, "but I don't think it will replace my current, much more basic-looking but more precise scale." Another drawback is that this scale costs over $150, significantly more expensive than most other food scales.

For baking projects that often require the use of large mixing bowls, a display that's easy to read is key. This OXO Good Grips scale features a pull-out display, allowing you to easily read the weights even when using a larger container to measure ingredients in. "I love the pull-out feature on this scale," says editor Katie Tuttle. "It's easy for a bowl to obscure your measurements when you're mixing dough, and OXO handles that quite neatly."

She also appreciates the scale's slim profile and easy-to-clean stainless steel surface. However, she notes that the food scale can only weigh down to one-tenth of an ounce, so it may not accurately measure very small quantities. She also says there can be a delay when the scale calculates weights.

While our team did not test this scale, I personally tried another Greater Goods food scale and was very impressed with the product quality, sleek design, and affordable price. However, it's unlikely that this scale will include all of the foods that you eat inside its database. It also doesn't connect to any common food logging apps, and it requires you to enter a code from a codebook to relay to the scale what food you are weighing. This can be time-consuming.

If you would like to avoid having to change batteries, a USB-rechargeable scale like this one from Letron is a good choice. It's versatile in that it can use battery power or you can charge it with the included USB cable. This food scale also has a very generous weight capacity of 33 pounds and a built-in timer. This makes it particularly useful for people who bake large quantities of bread at once, because bread-making often involves proofing and rising times.

However, according to our research, this product feels inexpensive and not durable. It is also prone to shutting off or resetting mid-use. With such a high weight capacity but a small surface area for weighing, I imagine the display's visibility when using a large mixing bowl would also be an issue.

I've had my Ozeri Pronto kitchen scale for five years, and the reason it's been a mainstay is that it's so easy to use. It uses physical, tactile buttons that respond every time, even with wet hands — a nice contrast to the finicky touch controls on many glass-display models. The Ozeri display is a non-backlit LCD, but the numbers are dark enough that they are easily visible. The weight plate is also removable and easy to clean.

This kitchen scale weighs up to 11.24 pounds. However, I don't know that I would pay nearly $30 for this scale. It was around $15 when I purchased it, and when I bought mine there were several color options available (it appears to only be available in silver, now). It's plastic, and while it's performed well for me, I've also tested scales in that price range that seem much sturdier. Based on my experience with this kitchen scale, I would trust any of the kitchen scales from Ozeri. 

For a food scale that's very easy to clean, look no further than this KitchenAid scale. It features a completely flat surface with digital buttons, and it's fully waterproof. It's easy to wipe down the entire scale without damaging the digital or electrical components. It can also be safely rinsed under running water.

The bright LED display ensures that the numbers are easy to read even in the shadow of a mixing bowl, and it is very slim, making it easy to store in nearly any kitchen. The glass surface is also stain-resistant, so it can stay looking nice enough to display on your counter if you desire. During our research, however, we noted that this scale may be less accurate when measuring smaller quantities. The completely flat, digital buttons may also not respond properly if your hands are wet or dirty.