Last updated: August 22, 2026
It is a reasonable question. The machine on your counter builds pressure, holds it, and beeps when it is done, and there are jars in the cupboard. Somebody in a Facebook group has been canning salsa in one for three years and swears by it. Why would that not work?
The answer is not that the appliance is badly made. It is that nobody has measured what happens to the food inside a sealed jar inside that appliance, and in canning the measurement is the entire safety system. This page lays out what the National Center for Home Food Preservation says, what the manufacturer itself says now, and what an Instant Pot genuinely is useful for in a preserving kitchen.
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Quick Answer
Can you use an Instant Pot for canning?
- Not for pressure canning. NCHFP does not recommend canning in electric multicookers, because it has not tested its research based processes inside them.
- Not for water bath canning either. The pot is not deep enough to keep boiling water over the jars, and no tested process exists for it.
- Instant Brands itself corrected earlier canning information and no longer promotes canning in these appliances.
- The machine is still useful: hot packing, cooking down sauce, softening skins, prepping the food that then goes into a real canner.
Bottom line: use it to prepare the food, not to process the jars. The processing tool is a stovetop canner.
What NCHFP Actually Says
The National Center for Home Food Preservation does not recommend canning in electric multicookers. Its stated reason is that it has not tested its research based canning processes in those appliances, so it cannot confirm that jars inside a countertop multicooker reach and hold the conditions the process requires.
Notice what that sentence does not say. It does not say the appliance fails to reach pressure. It says nobody has measured the temperature at the coldest point inside a jar inside that machine over a full process, which is exactly the measurement every published canning time is built on.
Why Untested Means Unsafe Here
In most cooking, untested means unknown and you find out by tasting. In low acid canning, the failure mode is a sealed jar that looks and smells perfectly normal and contains botulinum toxin. There is no feedback loop, so the process has to be right in advance. That is why extension services treat an untested process as an unsafe one rather than an open question.
What the Manufacturer Says Now
Instant Brands previously included canning information in its materials for one model line and then corrected it after looking into the question. Newer models are not sold with a canning function and the company no longer recommends canning in them. That is the manufacturer’s own retreat, not an outside critic’s claim.
It matters because a lot of the online advice still circulating dates from the window when that information was published. If someone points you at an old manual page or a screenshot of an FAQ, that is the material that was withdrawn.
Why Water Bath Canning in One Does Not Work Either
Boiling water canning has a physical requirement: the jars must be covered by at least an inch of vigorously boiling water for the whole process, with room for the water to boil without flooding the burner. The inner pot of a multicooker is not deep enough to do that with standard jars, and the sauté function is not a controlled boil.
Extension services asked this question directly give the same answer as for pressure canning. No tested process exists for boiling water canning inside a multicooker, so there is nothing to follow. A stockpot with a rack in it costs very little and is a tested piece of equipment, which our water bath canner guide covers.
What an Instant Pot Is Genuinely Good For
Plenty, as long as the jar never goes inside it. It is a good pot for the cooking half of a canning day: reducing tomato sauce, cooking apples down for butter, softening tough vegetables before a hot pack, cooking beans that then get processed properly in a canner, or making stock overnight that you can the next morning.
It is also a good way to handle the overflow. When the last four jars of a batch do not fit in the canner, cooking that portion for the refrigerator or freezer is a better answer than improvising a process. Freezing is a legitimate preservation method and it needs no validation table.
The Refrigerator Pickle Exception
Quick pickles that live in the refrigerator are not canning and have no process requirement. You can make the brine in any pot you like, including a multicooker, pour it over the vegetables, and put the jar straight in the fridge. They are not shelf stable and should not be treated as such, but they are safe, fast and genuinely good.
What You Want to Do, and the Right Tool
The table maps the four jobs people are trying to do with a multicooker onto equipment that has a tested process behind it. The recommendation against canning in electric multicookers is NCHFP’s.
| What you want to do | Instant Pot | Correct tool | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Can green beans, meat, soup | No | Stovetop pressure canner | NCHFP has not tested processes in multicookers |
| Can jam, pickles, tomatoes | No | Boiling water canner | Pot too shallow, no tested process |
| Cook the food before canning | Yes | Either, then a canner | Cooking is not processing |
| Refrigerator pickles, quick brine | Yes | Any pot | Not shelf stable, no process needed |
If the table pushed you toward buying a canner, the choice is mostly about size and gauge type, which our pressure canner guide works through, and the canner versus cooker comparison explains why the distinction exists at all.
Frequently Asked Questions
People online say they have canned in an Instant Pot for years with no problem. Are they wrong? They may well have avoided harm so far, and that is not evidence the process is adequate. Botulism risk is per jar and the failure is invisible, so an absence of illness in one kitchen tells you nothing about the temperature reached inside those jars. NCHFP’s position stands on measurement, not anecdote.
What about the model that had a canning button? That information was corrected by Instant Brands after the question was examined, and newer models do not carry the feature. Advice based on the original materials is out of date.
Can I sterilize jars in an Instant Pot? You can heat and hold clean jars in one, which is convenient during a batch, but a sterilize setting is not the boiling water sterilization that short process recipes call for. Our page on sterilizing canning jars explains which recipes need it and which do not.
Is an electric pressure canner the same thing? No. Appliances sold specifically as electric pressure canners are a separate product with their own manufacturer instructions. The published USDA processes were still developed on stovetop canners, and we do not present a maker’s claim as a USDA endorsement. See our electric pressure canner page.
Can I use the yogurt or slow cook function to ferment? Fermenting vegetables happens at room temperature in an open crock or an airlocked jar, so the appliance is not really involved. Our fermentation kit guide covers the gear that fits that job.
The Bottom Line
An Instant Pot is not canning equipment. NCHFP does not recommend canning in electric multicookers because it has not tested its processes in them, the manufacturer withdrew its own earlier canning information, and the inner pot is too shallow for boiling water canning regardless. Use the machine to cook the food and a stovetop canner to process the jars. Read next: our pressure canner guide for the tool that does the job, and canning mistakes that can actually make you sick for the rest of the list.