The Best Air Purifiers
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Best for Small RoomsCoway Airmega 200MRead more
The Best OverallIQ Air Atem XRead more
The Most StylishIkea Förnuftig and StarkvindRead more
An Affordable OptionHoneywell HEPA InSight HPA5200BRead more
Welcome to the future, where clean air is a luxury. Thanks to pandemics and wildfires, air purifiers have become the gotta-have-it home appliance. Buildings let in a lot of particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, and vaporous chemicals. Indoor plastics, furniture, paint, and flooring off-gas noxious fumes too.
Since your home might be your workplace, playground, meditation studio, dine-in restaurant, and movie theater, you want to ensure that the air you're breathing for most of the day is clean. These are our top air purifiers. All of these purifiers provided significant anecdotal benefits, from stopping persistent coughs and allergy symptoms to helping us wake up with clearer sinuses and less-raspy throats. Not sure if you need an air purifier or something else? We have a guide to all the devices that can help improve your indoor air quality. For more home tips, take a peek at our other guides, including the Best Robot Vacuums and the Best Mesh Wi-Fi Routers.
Updated April 2024: We added the Ikea Förnuftig and Starkvind, the IQAir Atem X, the Dyson Humidify+Cool Formaldehyde, the Air Doctor 2000i, and the Morento Purifier. We also updated links and prices.
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- Photograph: Coway
Best for Small Rooms
Coway Airmega 200MFor sheer simplicity and affordability, the Airmega 200M will do the job for most people’s lives, houses, and budgets. The compact, attractive device easily fits into a corner of my bedroom and is effective for spaces up to 361 square feet. It saves energy with an included air-quality monitor that turns the machine off when no pollution is detected and automatically increases the fan speed if it detects particles. When my dog plopped down in her bed, or when I cooked bacon with the bedroom door open, the Airmega 200M roared to life. You’ll probably want to turn off the AQ monitor’s bright light at night, though. —Adrienne So
- Photograph: Lisa Wood Shapiro
The Best Overall
IQ Air Atem XThe more air purifiers that I test, the more I think they should be viewed as a lifetime investment. If you have the means, the Atem X (9/10, WIRED Recommends) truly is the best investment when it comes to a HEPA filter. Aside from its sleek design, you get a 10-year warranty, which means you’ll have access to parts and repairs for a decade. It’s quiet and has custom settings, a built in sensor, and a dashboard phone app, and it can be set flush against a wall. I use the term “air purifier math” to consider how many air purifiers you might burn through in the next decade. One, two, maybe three? This is why the Atem X is a wise investment, even at its big ticket price. The one drawback is that the Atem X doesn’t have a carbon filter to remove gases.
- Photograph: Lisa Wood Shapiro
The Most Stylish
Ikea Förnuftig and StarkvindIkea’s Förnuftig and Starkvind air purifiers hit the American market in 2021. They are stylish and relatively inexpensive. Both have the option to add on a carbon filter for gases such as benzene. The Starkind can be purchased either on its own or built into a wooden side table. It’s worth noting that the Starkind took me an hour to assemble. While both are CARB-certified, meaning they passed the rigorous standards of the California Air Resources Board, neither air purifier has a HEPA filter. Thinking I had an early version made for media, I went to my local Ikea. I bought a Förnuftig, and its manual listed the filter as HEPA. It’s not.
We reached out to the company; at the time of publication, Ikea has said that it's still routing the question to the appropriate team. The question remains: If you’re buying an air purifier, why not buy a HEPA? The briefcase-sized Förnuftig is too small to clean a regular-size room at its lowest setting, and the fan is too loud at its highest. It also doesn't have a built-in air-quality sensor. But I might consider the Förnuftig for its looks and the fact that it can be mounted on the wall. The larger and more powerful Starkvind has a built-in sensor and is compatible with Ikea’s smart home hub, the Dirigera.
- Photograph: Honeywell
An Affordable Option
Honeywell HEPA InSight HPA5200BThis Honeywell is rated for rooms up to 360 square feet, which is on par with the other large-room air purifiers we tested. It's also lightweight and easy to pick up and move around with its built-in handle. Inside, it packs two HEPA-grade filters and an activated carbon prefilter for trapping volatile organic compounds such as cooking odors. When air quality dipped inside my apartment, the InSight quickly ramped up its fan and sucked up the odors or invisible particulates. For around $200, you get a strong-performing purifier with an automatic set-it-and-forget-it mode, plus you can tote it from room to room. —Matt Jancer
- Photograph: Lisa Wood Shapiro
Best Purifier for Formaldehyde
Dyson Purifier Humidify+Cool FormeldahydeDyson’s Humidify+Cool Formaldehyde reminds me of those 3-in-1 appliances that are an amalgam of a toaster, coffee maker, and egg cooker all in one. But if you’re going for an air purifier that removes gases, then I would opt for one that removes formaldehyde, a known carcinogen. My review unit was never able to oscillate, but it’s supposed to. (I tried troubleshooting through the manual, but the more features that an item has, the more that can go wrong.) It has a two-year warranty, which seems short. This model also came with three packets of humidifier descaler, which is a plus, because buying citric acid powder isn’t always easy to find in the store. As Dyson’s marketing claims, it has a unique algorithm to capture and destroy formaldehyde at the molecular level that is its most impressive feature.
- Photograph: Lisa Wood Shapiro
Best Purifier With Ionizer
AirDoctor Smart 2000iThe Air Doctor 2000i has an electronic ionizer, which charges particles to make them easier to capture. While ionizers produce ozone, the amount is so small that they are still CARB-certified. I generally try to avoid ozone generators in my home. The Air Doctor, however, also has HEPA and carbon gas air filters. The smaller Air Doctor has a sensor and a light on the control panel that shines green for good air, yellow for moderate, and red for bad air. At night, I turned on Sleep Mode, but for the Air Doctor, that just turned off its display light, as I later learned when I woke up at 1:40 am to the Air Doctor blasting at the highest setting. If you turn it to its most powerful setting but need to switch it to Sleep Mode to get a good night's sleep, it might not clean your bedroom as effectively at night. Still, the Air Doctor is an excellent choice for the other rooms in my home.
- Photograph: Levoit
A Great Smart Purifier
Levoit Core 300SThe Levoit 300S cycles the air five times per hour in spaces up to 219 square feet, so it's great for bedrooms, living rooms, and kitchens. It's marketed as a tabletop air purifier, but at almost 9 inches across, it's on the larger side, so I keep it on my living room floor. It's easy to carry around from room to room, though. It also packs a prefilter, an activated carbon filter, and an H13 True HEPA Filter that captures 99.99 percent of bacteria and mold. On top are clearly labeled touch controls and an indicator light that changes color depending on the air quality.
Using the VeSync companion app, you can check the air quality indoors and tinker with settings. When I was cooking salmon in my tiny studio (smoke and odor filling up the space), the app listed the air quality at 209 and labeled it as “bad.” I switched the fan to high and the quality was back down to 74 (“good”) within 15 minutes. You can also set it to automatic, which will adjust the fan speed accordingly based on the air quality. It was super useful amid the spread of smoke in New York City due to the Canadian wildfires. I've been constantly monitoring the air quality inside my apartment via the app, which gave me some peace of mind as we waited for the smoke to dissipate. —Brenda Stolyar
★ Alternative: We're also fans of the Bissell 320 Max ($250). Like the Levoit 300S, it has a prefilter, an activated carbon filter, and an H13 HEPA filter. And it works with the Bissell app for monitoring. Both the digital display and app will tell you what the air quality status is too. But with the ability to cycle air 4.8 times per hour in a 366-square-foot room, it covers more surface area than Levoit's. It's also more aesthetically pleasing, with wooden feet and a place to wrap any extra cord.
- Photograph: Amazon
Quietest Air Purifier
Blueair Pure 411There's an Ikea-like simplicity to the Pure 411, aesthetically and mechanically. To change the filter, you unscrew the fan component from the air filter and then pull the washable fabric prefilter sock off the filter. There's a one-touch control on the top: Tap once for low power, again for medium, again for high, and again for off. That's it. No smartphone app, no display, no smart mode. It can cycle the air in a 161-square-foot room five times per hour. I slept with the Pure 411 just 2 feet away from my head, and I couldn't hear a thing when it was on low. Its quietness and narrow footprint make it ideal for small bedrooms. —Matt Jancer
- Photograph: Amazon
A Fan/Purifier Combo
Blueair Pure Fan AutoThe Pure Fan Auto looks more like a little piece of art than an air purifier. We like other Blueair products, and this one adds cool air to its purifying capabilities—it cycles air five times an hour in a 326-square-foot room. The fan is not powerful enough to cool down a sweltering room on its own, but it feels quite nice if you’re sitting in front of it. It hardly makes a sound, but if you’re a light sleeper, Night mode turns the fan to its lowest setting and shuts off the air quality indicator light. —Medea Giordano
- Photograph: Lisa Wood Shapiro
Another Option for Tiny, Tiny Rooms
Morento Smart PurifierThe Morento has four settings. It has a sensor and a PM 2.5 screen display, and it’s compatible with Google Assistant and Alexa. It has a sleep mode as well, where the control panel light is turned off and the purifier runs at the lowest fan speed. As far as air purifiers go, the Morento is moderately priced but lacks a carbon filter to rid your air of gases. Still, it is too weak on its lowest setting to clean my New York City bedroom, which makes “sleep modes” not really effective, but it’s a solid pick for sleep in a very tiny room.
- Photograph: Clorox
A Tabletop Air Purifier
Clorox Tabletop True HEPA Air PurifierThis air purifier from Clorox isn't the prettiest, but it makes for an excellent desk or nightstand companion. I've been using it as the latter—thanks to the built-in adjustable nightlight and whisper-quiet setting, it doesn't disrupt my sleep. It has three speeds (low, medium, and high) and an optional timer with three settings (two hours, four hours, and eight hours). It's easy to operate with responsive touch controls.
Given its compact size, the Tabletop is best for small spaces. The 360-degree HEPA filter cleans rooms up to five times per hour when placed in an 80-square-foot room and two times an hour in a room up to 200-square feet. It also captures 99.97 percent of particles as small as 0.1 microns, while the prefilter captures larger particles. When it’s time to replace the filter, you’ll see the Check Filter Light alert glow red. Clorox has a version that connects to Alexa, which lets you use your existing Alexa speaker to turn the purifier on or off, change settings, or check the filter life. —Brenda Stolyar
- Photograph: Coway
A Wireless Charger and Air Purifier Combo
Coway Airmega IconSCoway continues to make some of the prettier air purifiers, as you might have noticed in this guide, and that continues with the Airmega IconS. It looks like an end table, and so I keep it right next to my couch. The star of the show is the Qi wireless charging pad, so when I sit down, I just plop my phone right on the purifier to let it recharge. Any phone with wireless charging support should work, though you may need to take your phone case off.
Like all Coway purifiers, it’s powerful—it cleans the air in spaces up to 649 square feet—easy to control, and simple to clean. This version is Wi-Fi enabled and voice-controlled. —Medea Giordano
- Photograph: Wynd
Best for Travel
Wynd PlusAbout the size of a water bottle, the Wynd Plus is one of the smallest air purifiers on the market. It's not a HEPA filter, but it can clean all particles greater than 0.3 microns, which includes auto emissions and most wood smoke, in about a three-foot span. It also comes with its own air-quality sensor, a microfiber traveling bag, and a small kickstand to prop it upright.
It is truly dystopian to say that this might be a useful item to keep in your go bag if you live on the West Coast. I usually bring it in the car if my family and I have to travel through wildfire smoke. It's easy to set up on the nightstand next to my two kids, and it fits perfectly in a cupholder if you have to evacuate by car. —Adrienne So
