Our top-rated portable air conditioner stands out for how quickly it cools down a room. During testing, we turned it on and almost immediately began feeling a cold blast of air with very little runtime. The a/c noticeably brought down the temperature in just a few minutes, plus it did so quietly. According to LG, the unit operates at just 44 decibels on its lowest setting.

The unit has three modes: cooling, fan, and dry. Cooling and fan are pretty straightforward while dry actually turns the unit into a dehumidifier. So, when you don’t actively need it, feel free to have it run in moist spaces like your laundry room or garage.

The louvers on the a/c unit can be set to move up and down on their own. This actually made a pretty notable difference in full-room air circulation and helped get rid of hot air that sat near the ceiling.

Setup was also quite easy, as the air conditioner was almost fully assembled right out of the box. Even connecting the hose and slider into the window was intuitive and took less than 5 minutes total. With the four wheels and very basic setup, we were rolling it from room to room in no time.

Full LG Portable Air Conditioner Review

Key Specs

If you’re hesitant to spend over $500 on a portable air conditioning unit, this option from Dreo is the best bang for your buck. Considering the relatively low price, its power and added features surprised us during testing.

First and foremost, the unit blasts cold air quite quickly. In fact, it worked nearly as well as several of the more expensive units we tested. The window exhaust has a foam seal to make sure no hot exhaust or exterior air sneaks in.

The air conditioner pairs with Dreo’s app for connection and precise programming, however we ended up using (and loving) the physical remote. It has 10 buttons for changing the speed and temperature, setting the air mode, operating the sleep timer, turning on the auto-swing louver function, and more. Plus, there’s an attached magnet for convent storage on top of the unit.

On the front of the unit there are manual controls and a digital display that shows the room temperature, mode, and fan power. So whether you’re using the remote, app, or changing settings manually, you know exactly what the status is.

Key Specs

This Whynter’s amperage and BTU capacity position it firmly in the heavy-duty cooling category. The same applies to its dehumidifying power, with the unit capturing up to 71 pints of moisture per day. The biggest downside is that it’s also firmly in the heavy category, weighing over 70 pounds.

The portable air conditioner has a dual-hose design (intake and exhaust) for reducing the amount of condensate that the a/c collects, since it’s supposed to be removed in the exhaust air stream.

A similar model (ARC-14SH) also operates in heat pump/heater mode. For a slightly smaller model, check out the Whynter Elite ARC-122DS below.

Key Specs

While most units are either quiet or powerful, the GE Profile Portable A/C offers a bit of both worlds. Because of its dual-hose design, the air conditioner takes in air at a much higher rate than one that relies on the body of the unit to do this work. With more air coming in, more cold air comes out. This was definitely true during testing.

On its average setting, the a/c noticeably cooled down a mid-sized room in less than ten minutes. Holding up my hand to the vents, I felt a cold blast of air much stronger than other options I tried out. Going even further, the Profile has a turbo mode that turns the fans up to an even higher level.

The effectiveness of the cooling has do to with more than just airflow, too. This portable a/c unit also comes with auto louvers that more evenly distribute cold air by shifting the vents up and down. I particularly like this feature for apartments like mine which are a few floors up and end up with a lot of accumulated hot air near the ceiling. The auto louvers help bring down the temperature of the entire room down as opposed to just blasting cold air in one direction.

While all these features impressed me, the unit’s best quality is that it doesn’t stand out at all. This a/c is incredibly quiet. While I barely noticed the sound at normal levels, when I set the unit to quiet mode, the noise levels drop to a whisper. According to GE, quiet mode is measured at just 42 decibels, which is lower than all other options we recommend.

This makes the Profile an ideal choice for overnight use or in small rooms. However, the remote control buttons don’t light up, so if you’re using it at night, you may need a flashlight, phone, or bedside lamp.

Full GE Profile Portable Air Conditioner Review

Key Specs

If the other units on this list take up more real estate than you have or want to give, the Dreo AC319S is the one you won’t have to make room for. It's the most compact refrigerant-based portable air conditioner we've included—at just over 17 inches wide and 28 inches tall, it slips into corners and tight apartments where bulkier units don't fit. Be warned, though, the tradeoff for that smaller footprint is smaller cooling coverage. This one is best for bedrooms, home offices, and other spaces up to 300 square feet.

But what it gives up in cooling-size capabilities, it makes up for in smart features and low maintenance. The drainage-free system, powered by Dreo's patented internal pump and dual water sensors, handles condensation automatically. In moderately humid conditions, you'll likely never need to drain the unit at all. The Dreo app sends a notification if the tank does fill up, which is a thoughtful touch. That kind of hands-off convenience is why this one made our list.

At just 45 decibels on its lowest setting, it's whisper-quiet on par with the priciest units here. Smart controls are also unusually comprehensive. In addition to Alexa and Google Assistant, the AC319S works with Siri, making it one of the only portable ACs that pairs nicely with Apple products. The circular LED display looks sharp, though you can’t dim it, so keep that in mind if you plan to use it overnight in rooms you want to stay dark.

Key Specs

If you’re fortunate to have a large living room, an open-plan studio, or a finished basement, you know the luxury of size comes with a cost—cooling oversized areas can be tough. To beat the heat in big rooms, the Whynter ARC-1230WN is the unit we’d point you toward.

With 14,000 BTUs, it covers up to 600 square feet—more than any other unit on this list. In independent testing, it dropped room temperature by about 12 degrees in a single hour, a result no other unit came close to matching.

A big part of that performance comes from Whynter's hose-in-hose dual-hose design. Unlike a standard dual-hose setup, the intake and exhaust lines run concentrically inside a single tube, preventing heat leakage between the airstreams and improving overall efficiency. The inverter compressor, which ramps up and down rather than cycling on and off, keeps noise down once the room reaches your set temperature and reduces energy use.

According to Whynter, the inverter technology delivers 20 percent more cooling capacity and over 40 percent energy savings compared to non-inverter models. Do note, though, that while this is technically a portable unit, at more than 75 pounds, it’s one you’ll want to set up for the season, not haul around on the regular.

Key Specs

If you're shopping for a portable AC because you have a room your HVAC system can’t handle, the Midea Duo MAP14HS1TBL is our top recommendation. It's a four-season unit: the same inverter-driven, hose-in-hose dual-hose design that makes it such an effective cooler works equally well in heat mode, and switching between the two is as easy as a click on the remote or SmartHome app—no setup or adjustments required.

The dual-hose design pulls in fresh air and expels exhaust air through a single concentric hose, keeping a neutral pressure balance in rooms. This prevents warm outside air from coming back in through gaps and cracks. Midea's airflow system also projects air up to 26 feet, which makes a real difference in longer rooms where less forceful units only cool the area immediately around them.

We’re also impressed by the smart controls. The SmartHome app works on iOS, Android, and Apple Watch, and voice control is compatible with Alexa and Google Assistant. I also like that you can completely turn off the control panel lights, which is a sleep-saving feature for overnight use. And at 42 decibels on its lowest setting, it's among the quietest options we’ve come across.

Key Specs

This Hisense tower a/c is the outlier on this list in the best possible way. While most portable air conditioners trade efficiency for convenience, this one refuses to make that compromise. Instead, its SEER rating of 13 is the highest of any unit we recommend here (and the next highest has a SEER of 6.6), which means it does more cooling work per watt of electricity it consumes. If you run your a/c heavily through summer, that gap will add up on your energy bill.

We really like the twin-hose design that pulls fresh air in from outside rather than recirculating outdoor air. That makes cooling faster and more effective—it’s the same principle that makes the Whynter ARC-14S efficient, but here it’s paired with smart inverter technology that adjusts the compressor speed continuously, rather than cycling it on and off. The result is more precise temperature control and less wasted energy.

It’s also the quietest of the units on our list. At just 39 whisper-quiet decibels, it operates below the GE Profile’s celebrated 42-decibel quiet mode and well below most of the competition. You’ll notice the Hisense is running because the room is getting cooler, not because you can hear it working away.

The tower is nearly 50 inches tall, which will take some getting used to if you’re accustomed to the squat, roll-around units that most people think of when they hear “portable air conditioner.” That gives it a smaller footprint than most, though, so it tucks into corners where it’s out of the way. The self-evaporating design means no water bucket to dump, and a garden-hose connector handles continuous drainage in heating and dehumidifying modes.