The 10 Best Portable AC Power Supplies

Editor's Notes

November 1, 2026, by Ezvid Wiki Admin:

A portable AC power supply today almost always means a lithium battery station, so we rebuilt this list around them. The Anker SOLIX C1000 Gen 2 now leads, thanks to its steady output, under-an-hour wall charging and five-year warranty.

The old list mixed battery boxes with two gas generators and a jump starter. The Generac 7117 and Rainier R2200i belong with generators, and the Schumacher SJ1332 starts cars rather than running appliances. The Goal Zero Yeti 500X and Anker PowerHouse II are no longer sold. The Suaoki 300W, Paxcess 330W Generator, Westinghouse iGen160s and Omars Handheld are older lithium-ion designs that today's lithium iron phosphate stations outlast. The Jackery 500W stays, now in its current form as the Jackery Explorer 500 v2.

Outside bench work shaped the ranking: Popular Mechanics timed a refrigerator on the Jackery Explorer 1000 v2, and Wired and The Solar Lab ran Anker, DJI and EcoFlow stations through everyday loads. We kept one tiny unit, the Marbero M82, because it's small enough to fly with.

November 11, 2020:

Four new models come on board today, including the Goal Zero Yeti 500X, a versatile 500-watt choice that can be charged either through a standard wall outlet or via a solar panel. Like many on our list, it’s equipped with a pure sine wave inverter to ensure smooth running of your devices. It weighs just shy of 13 pounds and is kept lightweight thanks to its lithium ion battery. It’s equipped with a comprehensive LCD to keep you apprised of its status, as well as an ergonomic carrying handle and four sturdy feet for stability. You can buy it with confidence, thanks to its two-year warranty. If you don’t need quite as much power, consider the 300-watt Anker PowerHouse II, which can be hooked up to eight devices at a time and also features a pure sine wave inverter. Like most, it allows for passthrough charging, so it can be charging and provide power to things at the same time. It’s lightweight at just 10 pounds and easy to carry with the top handle.

Another 300-watt option is the newly added Suaoki 300W, which runs efficiently and stays cool thanks to an integrated fan, and it’s got built-in emergency lights to give you peace of mind. In addition, its battery management system helps keep the voltage, current, and temperature within safe ranges so that no harm comes to your electronics. For a budget-friendly, lower-power selection, look to the 100-watt Westinghouse iGen160s, which is lightweight and easy to carry and store, safeguards against overloads, and incorporates a handy flashlight. One caveat is that it’s got a modified sine wave inverter, which are known for their choppy currents that produce electrical noise and cause some devices to run inefficiently. Leaving the list are the Polaroid PS600, the Prymax Portable Station, and the Jackery 85W, all of which have been discontinued.

For safety’s sake, never use a gas-powered generator, such as the Generac 7117 and the Rainier R2200i, inside your home or in a closed garage, since the fumes could be dangerous indoors. Whether you go with a gas- or electricity-run power supply, be sure that it provides protection from problems like short circuits and dangerously low and high voltage. Always read the product manual carefully to ensure you are using it properly.

December 01, 2019:

This category was in need of serious update and only 3 models from the previous list remain – the Chargetech 85W Battery Pack, the Schumacher SJ1332 and the Polaroid PS600.

There are 2 primary types of power an ac supply can deliver: starting power and running power. Starting power (peak or surge power) is higher and can accommodate certain products that need an initial power boost to start running – refrigerators, washing machines, blenders, etc. – while running power is the amount of continuous power your appliances need to work under normal load. Your ideal portable power supply will be based on the activities you intend to use it for, and will take into account the highest starting power plus the collective running power of all your items: Starting Watts Needed = Total Running Watts of All Appliances + Starting Watts of Appliance with the Highest Starting Watts.

It’s important that you check the power requirements of your devices before buying. With that in mind, I wanted to highlight a variety of generators to suit a variety of needs and applications - there’s no point in you buying a massive Jackery 500W (or worse still, a Rainier R2200i) when all you need to do is recharge your laptop now and again during the work day; conversely, the Omars Handheld is not going to be able to handle your power needs during a tailgate party or a 2-day camping trip!

Ultimately, there is a wide array of portable ac power supplies available, sort of on a continuum of power delivery; but for our purposes, I split my selections into 3 broad classes.

For (class 1) lightweight portable ac supplies, I prioritized portability (weight, size) first, followed by price and total capacity (energy output) in mAh or Wh (Ah x V). These models are great to keep around with you in your bag in case you need to recharge your laptop, cell phone or other small electronics in an emergency: Jackery 85W (84Wh(23200mAh), 85W, 100Wp), Omars Handheld (88Wh(24000mAh), 80W, 120Wp), Chargetech 85W Battery Pack(320Wh(27000mAh), 65W, N/A).

While I’ve also listed the peak (surge) power of each of these models (Wp), laptops, phones and similar electronic devices do not usually have surge power ratings, so the Wp value can generally be ignored. While both these models delivered around the same amount of energy as their competitors, they were also cheaper and more reliable than similar models. For instance, the Omars Handheld is about half the price of the RAVPower 27000mAh, while the Jackery is much smaller and lighter than the same model. Both these models are also suitable as flight carry-ons as they fall under the Federal Aviation Administration’s Safe Limit of 100Wh.

Where with the lightweight classification, portability took precedence over many other considerations, with (class 2) middleweight portable ac supplies, I wanted to prioritize the return on investment (i.e. bang-for-buck). I did this by inspecting the cost per unit of energy of many devices (by dividing the total energy in Wh by the price). I also looked at the average and peak powers among quality factors (ease of use, weight, common issues, etc.), with more weight on the average power, since these models will likely be used for devices with no starting power requirements.

I’ve included the following in ascending order of capacity: Paxcess 330-Watt Generator (288.6Wh, 330W, 700Wp), Prymax Portable Power Station (298Wh, 300W, 600Wp), Jackery 500W (518Wh, 500W, 1000Wp), Polaroid PS600 (578Wh, 300W, N/A).

The Polaroid PS600 (one of the few remaining models from before the update) still delivers the lowest cost per unit of energy, while the other models I’ve included are also good in this regard. I had to remove a lot of the older models because they delivered comparatively poorly on the cost-per-unit-energy metric. I also disregarded a lot of new and otherwise good models for the same reason (like the Jackery 200W and Rockpals 300W).

Among models in this class that I removed was the Goal Zero Yeti 400 Solar, which, despite being designed with the noble intention of providing a zero-emissions alternative to wall-socket rechargeable models by using solar panels, was not the best option on the cost-per-unit-energy scale – at 29 pounds, it was also an insanely heavy model for the capacity it offered.

Now, while ac power supplies have generally not included gas-powered generators (since they have been so large in the past), the prevailing trend in recent years has been towards building smaller and more compact portable generators that weigh around 40 pounds and were designed to be carried around and stored in the back of your car for an emergency or for certain outdoor recreational activities like longer camping trips or tailgating. Technically, these portable generators are also portable ac supplies, since they supply ac current.

These generators are significantly more cost effective than electrically chargeable power supplies -- you end up getting far greater capacity compared to smaller wall-charging units, and gas is cheaper too -- and it would be inaccurate not to account for the best models here, since these are indeed classified as portable ac supplies.

I refer to these as (class 3) heavyweight or heavy-use portable ac supplies, and while they can be a little noisier and larger than smaller battery-run models, they are still significantly quieter and lighter than larger generators and produce a more consistent sine wave power output than jobsite generators. In fact, unless you have a very specific purpose for a small model and you’re not looking for a portable ac supply for overall emergency power backup needs, then I would personally recommend investing in one of these larger machines, which is why I’ve included both these models higher up in the rankings. In addition to noise levels and weight, a good warranty is an important consideration with these models since they are a slightly larger investment. I’ve included two excellent and budget-friendly options: Rainier R2200i (12.6KWh, 1800W, 2200Wp), Generac 7117 GP2200i (4.95KWh, 1800W, 2200Wp).

These are both great, reliable models with warranties and optional protection plans that are always good to consider with such an investment. While the Honda EU2200i is a great overall competitor on the market by our standards, these models are very close to its standards and significantly more affordable - which, ironically, makes them better options than the Honda by our considerations.

The one model I haven’t mentioned is the Schumacher SJ1332 which is really designed as a car jump starter and not a spare electronics power supply – hence its very high peak power. In terms of capacity, this model would fit between the lightweight and middleweight classes, though it has a different function to most other picks, so I thought it best to keep it in the list for the sake of range as well as mention it separately here.