Both machines make the same dinner out of the same cheap cut. They just disagree about when you have to be in the kitchen — and that, not flavour, is the whole basis for choosing.
Quick answer: Divide by twelve. A dish that takes 8 hours on LOW in a slow cooker takes roughly 40 minutes at high pressure, plus 10–15 minutes to come up to pressure and 10 to release. Going the other way, multiply pressure-cooker minutes by 12 for LOW and by 6 for HIGH. Cut the liquid by about a third when converting to the slow cooker, and increase it to at least a cup when converting to pressure.
We read the top results for ten crockpot and pressure-cooker searches this month — 76 pages, 54 sites. Seven of them were Instant Pot pages, and not one gave a slow-cooker equivalent with an actual time on it. The two appliances get written about as separate worlds, which is odd, because most households own one and are handed recipes written for the other.
6-quart programmable slow cooker
If you already own a multi-cooker, the case for a second pot is narrow but specific: wrap-around heating and a ceramic insert, which is why the slow-cook times in the table below are written for one.
See 6-quart pots →The Conversion, Both Directions
Pin it| Slow cooker LOW | Slow cooker HIGH | Instant Pot, high pressure |
|---|---|---|
| 4 h | 2 h | 20 min |
| 6 h | 3 h | 30 min |
| 8 h | 4 h | 40 min |
| 10 h | 5 h | 50 min |
Divide by twelve for LOW, by six for HIGH. Everything else in a conversion is liquid and vegetables.
Add 10–15 minutes at the front for the pot to come up to pressure and 10 at the back for a natural release. A “40-minute” pressure recipe is an hour of real time — still a fraction of eight, but not the number on the label.
What Changes Besides the Clock
Pin itLiquid
A slow cooker loses almost nothing: the lid condenses steam and drips it back. A pressure cooker needs a minimum — usually a cup — to generate steam at all, and it will refuse to seal without it. Converting to the slow cooker, cut liquid by about a third. Converting to pressure, top up to at least a cup, and thin any sauce that is mostly tomato paste or it will scorch on the base and trip the burn warning.
Texture of the meat
Both break down collagen; they do it at different speeds — and both hit the same finish line, 195–205°F on an instant-read thermometer for beef you intend to shred, which is the one number that transfers between the two machines unchanged. Pressure is faster and slightly more violent — the meat pulls apart into shorter, wetter shreds. Eight hours on LOW gives longer strands that hold their shape when you lift them. For pulled pork and shredded beef, the slow cooker wins on texture. For beans and stock, pressure wins outright.
Vegetables
This is where converted recipes fall apart. Carrots and potatoes that are perfect after 8 hours on LOW turn to pulp in 40 minutes at pressure, because pressure cooks them past done while the meat is still catching up. Cut them larger, or add them for a second short pressure cycle after the meat is done.
Reduction
Neither machine reduces a sauce with the lid on. The Instant Pot has sauté, which does it in five minutes at the end. The slow cooker’s version is the lid off on HIGH for 30–45 minutes — slower, and the reason many slow-cooker sauces read as thin. A pot whose insert is safe on the hob closes that gap: the same insert reduces on a burner in five minutes, which is the only feature a slow cooker is genuinely missing next to a multi-cooker.
Which One for Which Dinner
| Dish | Better in | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Pot roast, whole | Slow cooker | Long strands, even doneness edge to centre |
| Pulled pork | Slow cooker | Texture; also no need to be home |
| Dried beans, unsoaked | Instant Pot | Done in under an hour, no soak |
| Stock | Instant Pot | Extracts more in 45 min than 8 h of simmering |
| Chicken thighs in sauce | Either | Forgiving both ways |
| Chicken breast | Instant Pot | Short window; a slow cooker overshoots it |
| Chili | Slow cooker | Flavours settle over hours; nothing needs speed |
| Rice, potatoes, eggs | Instant Pot | Minutes, precisely |
| Anything started at 8am | Slow cooker | Pressure cooking needs you in the room |
| Anything started at 6pm | Instant Pot | Same reason, reversed |
The Slow-Cook Button on the Instant Pot
Pin itMost multi-cookers have a slow-cook mode, and it is not a true equivalent. The heating element sits under the base rather than wrapping the walls, and the metal insert holds heat differently from ceramic. In practice the slow-cook setting runs cooler than a dedicated pot: recipes typically need the highest of its levels and often an extra hour.
If slow cooking is your normal weekday method, a dedicated pot is the better tool, and the wrap-around element is the reason rather than the brand. If it is an occasional fallback, the button is fine as long as you expect to add time.
Converting a Recipe: Worked Example
Take a standard pressure-cooker beef stew: 35 minutes at high pressure, 2 cups of stock, potatoes and carrots in with the beef.
- Time: 35 × 12 ≈ 7 hours on LOW.
- Liquid: 2 cups becomes about 1⅓. Nothing will boil away.
- Vegetables: leave them in from the start — they need the hours here, unlike at pressure.
- Thickening: the pressure version thickens on sauté at the end; the slow version wants a cornflour slurry stirred in for the last 30 minutes on HIGH.
- Browning: whatever the original said. If it called for browning the beef, that step does the same job in both machines and skipping it costs the same depth either way.
Instant Pot and Crockpot FAQ
Can I use a crockpot recipe in an Instant Pot?
Yes. Divide the LOW time by twelve for high-pressure minutes, make sure there is at least a cup of thin liquid, and cut vegetables larger so they survive. Expect the meat to shred shorter and wetter than the slow-cooked version.
Is an Instant Pot better than a slow cooker?
Neither is better; they solve different problems. The Instant Pot turns a long cook into an hour when you are home. The slow cooker cooks while you are not. Households that use both usually keep the pressure cooker for beans, stock and last-minute dinners, and the slow cooker for anything started in the morning.
Does the slow cook function on an Instant Pot work?
It works, but it runs cooler than a dedicated slow cooker because the heat comes from the base rather than the walls. Use the highest slow-cook level and expect to add up to an hour to the recipe.
Why does my Instant Pot say burn on a converted recipe?
Slow-cooker recipes are written for very little liquid, and thick tomato-based sauces sit on the base and scorch under pressure. Add a cup of stock or water, and layer thick sauce on top of the other ingredients without stirring it in.
Which is cheaper to run?
The pressure cooker, by a clear margin — it draws power for under an hour instead of eight. The difference on a single dinner is small, but it is real if you cook this way several nights a week.
For the slow side of the same recipes, see crockpot pot roast and crockpot soup recipes, both of which list LOW and HIGH times you can run through the conversion above. The pasta and rice rules that no conversion transfers are in crockpot pasta recipes.
See 6-quart slow cookers →
