Can You Can in a Pressure Cooker or Instant Pot?

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The short answer: no, not for safe home canning. A pressure cooker for canning has to hold at least four quart jars standing upright. That's the size the USDA's tested processes were built on. The National Center for Home Food Preservation (NCHFP) also says its canning processes are not recommended in electric multi-cookers like the Instant Pot, even models with a "canning" button. Utah State University research backs that up with in-jar temperature data.

That doesn't make your Instant Pot useless in a canning kitchen. It just isn't the tool that makes jars shelf-stable. Below we compare the four kinds of appliance people try to can with, explain why size and design matter more than the word "pressure," and lay out what each one is actually good for.

Side-by-Side: Which Appliances Can Safely Pressure Can?

Why "It Reaches Pressure" Isn't Enough

The core idea in the NCHFP's statement is this: "What matters is temperature, not pressure." A tested canning process is a specific temperature, held inside the jars, for a specific time, followed by a specific cool-down. Any appliance can build some pressure. The question is whether the food at the center of every jar actually gets hot enough for long enough. Here are the four reasons that rarely holds in a cooker.

1. Size changes the process

The USDA defines a pressure canner as one that holds at least four quart jars, and says pressure saucepans with smaller capacities are not recommended for canning. The NCHFP explains why. USDA times for low-acid foods count the heat delivered during come-up, during processing and during the natural cool-down to zero pressure. A small pot heats up and cools down faster, so food can end up under-processed even if you use the "right" time. That's also why the NCHFP's processes were set for canners holding four or more quart jars.

2. Trapped air lowers the temperature

The USDA says air trapped in a canner lowers the temperature reached at 5, 10 or 15 psi. That's why every stovetop canner is vented for 10 minutes before pressurizing. The NCHFP stresses that proper venting matters for exactly this reason, and no USDA testing has shown that a multi-cooker's cycle clears the air from a load of jars.

3. You can't check what's happening inside

With a stovetop canner, you can see a dial or hear a weighted regulator rock. With a multi-cooker, the NCHFP notes, you rely on an internal sensor. Power surges or drops can lower the temperature without you knowing. An Ask Extension answer from 2025 made the same point: with these self-monitoring devices, you have to trust the manufacturer, because you can't verify pressure or temperature yourself.

4. Altitude makes it worse

The USDA has you raise pressure as elevation rises, because water boils at lower temperatures. Utah State's research found that altitude made a statistically significant difference in the temperatures reached.

What the Research Found

Utah State University Extension put temperature data loggers inside canning jars filled with chicken, green beans and pinto beans. They tested three electric units at three elevations: St. George (2,917 feet), Provo (4,500 feet) and Monticello (7,070 feet). Each combination was run three times, for 81 runs in all. The units were an Instant Pot Duo80, a Power Pressure Cooker XL and a Carey Smart Canner and Cooker.

• The Instant Pot and the Power Pressure Cooker XL never reached 121.1°C (250°F), the commercial benchmark the study used for destroying botulinum spores.
• The Carey Smart Canner reached it in most conditions, but the results depended on altitude and the type of food. The researchers said more study, including microbial challenge testing, was needed before it could be recommended.
• The conclusion was blunt: none of the three should be used for low-acid canning at Utah altitudes.

That's why we don't treat "canning button" or "smart canner" as a safety claim. Our botulism and home canning guide explains what's at stake.

Pressure Cooker for Canning vs a Real Pressure Canner

The USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning describes a modern pressure canner as having a jar rack, a gasket, a dial or weighted gauge, an automatic vent/cover lock, a vent port closed by a weight or gauge, and a safety fuse. Many pressure cookers share some of those parts. What separates a canner is the combination of three things:

• Capacity: room for at least four quart jars standing upright on a rack, which the USDA treats as the minimum.
• A readable pressure control: a dial gauge you can have tested each year, or a weighted regulator that rocks at a known pressure (5, 10 or 15 psi).
• A process built around it: USDA times assume this type of vessel, including its heat-up and its slow, natural cool-down.

Take away any one of those and the published time no longer describes what's happening in your jars.

Why Hasn't Anyone Tested the Instant Pot for Canning?

It's a fair question, given how many people own one. The NCHFP's position is that a manufacturer would need to document temperatures throughout the unit for the whole process, because producing pressure alone isn't enough data. Independent testing is expensive. An extension specialist answering on Ask Extension in 2025 noted that there is little or no funding for the USDA, the NCHFP or Extension to test new devices independently. In 2024, another specialist said Extension evaluates products when serious concerns arise and resources allow. That answer added that collecting primary data on electric canners would wait for temperature data loggers that fit inside them.

So the absence of a recall or a lawsuit isn't evidence of safety. It mostly reflects the fact that nobody has paid for the tests.

Common Mistakes

• Trusting a canning button. The NCHFP's warning explicitly covers multi-cookers with canning or steam canning buttons.
• Adding extra minutes to make up for a small pot. There is no tested adjustment that turns a small cooker into a canner.
• Assuming small batches are safer. A smaller load in a smaller pot heats and cools faster, which is exactly the problem the NCHFP describes.
• Storing cooker-processed jars on the shelf. If food went through a multi-cooker, treat it as cooked food: refrigerate or freeze it.

Instant Pot Canning: What About High-Acid Foods?

Some people reason that if pressure canning is off the table, an Instant Pot can at least water-bath jam or pickles. The NCHFP's statement doesn't make that distinction. It says its canning processes, not just its pressure processes, are not recommended in electric pressure multi-cookers, and it offers no tested process for them. For acid foods, the USDA's requirement is simple: a pot deep enough to keep at least 1 inch of briskly boiling water over the jar tops (2 inches for processes over 30 minutes). A stockpot with a rack meets that more reliably than a multi-cooker insert.

What About Dedicated Electric Canners?

Appliances sold specifically as electric pressure canners are a separate category from the Instant Pot. Within that category there are two very different designs:

• The Presto Precise line is canning-only. It senses temperature and holds 240°F (116°C), and it comes with Presto's own recipe book. Kansas State University Extension reported in 2021 that it had not been evaluated by the USDA or a university lab. The NCHFP advised following Presto's manual if you use one. See our Presto Precise review.
• The Nesco NPC-9 is a canner and multi-cooker in one, with 10 and 15 psi weighted regulators. As a multi-cooker, it falls under the NCHFP's warning. See our Nesco pressure canner review.

Neither has a published USDA or university validation. Our electric pressure canner guide compares them side by side.

Choose a Stovetop Pressure Canner If…

• You want shelf-stable vegetables, beans, meat, poultry, fish, stock or soup.
• You want to use USDA and NCHFP recipes exactly as written.
• You want a gauge or regulator you can check, and a process you can verify.

Keep Your Instant Pot or Pressure Cooker For…

• Cooking: beans, stock, stews and tough cuts, quickly.
• Making food you'll refrigerate or freeze rather than store on a shelf.
• Prep work, such as cooking down stock before you can it in a real canner by a tested recipe.

A good stovetop canner also doubles as a big pressure cooker. Presto and All American both sell their canners as cooker/canners, so one appliance can cover both jobs.

Ready to try the real thing? Our beginner's guide to using a pressure canner walks through a full load, and our best pressure canner guide compares current models.

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