The 3 Best Portable Jump Starters in 2026: Get Charged Up

Leaving your headlights on used to mean a knock on a neighbor's door—or a long and maybe costly wait for a tow truck. But battery technology changes everything, whether for cars or portable blenders or power packs. Portable jump starters now don't cost much more than the price of a single tow and can jolt your car awake even with a bone-dead battery. Most can also charge your phone or laptop in a pinch.

My conversion moment happened in a remote stretch of northern Delaware, where I'd left my headlights on after a foggy morning drive. I chased phone signal for most of an hour, until a passing parks employee happened to have one of the new breed of lithium-ion jump starters tucked behind his seat. I drove straight to the auto parts store and procured a basic 1,000-amp NOCO jump starter ($100) that saved my hide multiple times thereafter.

NOCO is still a brand I recommend. The same goes for a reliable, low-cost Gooloo A3 jump starter ($70) that I bought after moving cross-country. But after testing eight of the most highly regarded lithium-ion jump starters on the market over dozens of starts, it's the Wolfbox 4,000-amp jump starter ($170) that came out on top for its mix of reliability, price, capacity, and sheer cranking power. The Wolfbox charges fast, starts the engine smoothly, and stays above half capacity after 15 jump starts from dead on a six-cylinder engine.

A newer 1250A NOCO Boost X ($125) is the most compact option for six-cylinder engines or lower. A bulkier and more expensive 2,000-amp model from Battery Tender ($170) offers the most comprehensive solution for battery maintenance, as long as your battery's not stone dead. For this round, I focused on lithium-ion power packs, which may not be suitable for the most extreme weather conditions (see below). In future updates, I'll also look at the newest generation of battery-free supercapacitor jump starters.

Best Portable Jump Starter Overall: Wolfbox 4000A Jump Starter

This jump starter from Dallas-based Wolfbox does not have much in the way of bells or whistles. It'll fast-charge a laptop or phone at 65 watts off a USB-C outlet if you need it to. It has an LED lamp, if it's dark. But mainly it does two things: It maintains a charge, and it releases a charge. It does so safely, without risk of sparking or reversed polarity if you get your wires crossed. And if you press the Boost button, overriding the low-voltage safety cutoff, this Wolfbox can juice a starter battery that's as near to dead as a healthy battery can get.

Tested on an old six-cylinder 1994 Land Cruiser with a (dead) six-month-old battery and on a ’97 Mitsubishi Montero, the Wolfbox managed to turn over my engine faster and better than it would normally start after sitting for a couple of days. The 89-watt-hour capacity is among the largest of jump starters I tested. On a single charge, I was able to jump-start the Land Cruiser 15 times before the battery got down to 50-percent capacity.

Specs | | |---|---| Dimensions and weight | 9 x 3 x 1.5 inches, 3 pounds | Advertised peak amps | 4,000 | Battery capacity | 89 Wh | Time to charge fully from dead | 90 to 120 minutes on fast-charge | Number of V-6 jump starts before draining to half capacity | 15 | Charges from completely dead? | Yes, with “Boost” |

Best Compact Jump Starter: Noco Boost X GBX45

Ohio-based NOCO is an automotive accessories company of long repute, and even its lowest-amp jump starters have served me admirably with both four- and six-cylinder vehicles. This little 1250A Boost X jump starter packs a reliable wallop despite its diminutive status, able to be tucked into most nooks or crannies and carried around easily in most bags. It's a lower-capacity battery, which means it's good for only a couple of cold starts before it reaches half-battery capacity.

Specs | | |---|---| Dimensions and weight | 7 x 3 x 2 inches, 2 pounds | Advertised peak amps | 1,250 | Battery capacity | 31 Wh | Time to charge fully from dead | 50 minutes on 60 W fast-charge | Number of V-6 jump starts before draining to half capacity | 2 | Charges from completely dead? | Yes, with override button |

Best Jump Starter for Safety and Versatility: Battery Tender 2000A Portable Power Station

This device from Battery Tender is the most sophisticated device I tested. It was the most reliably spark-free and the best shielded from any minute current discharge. It is also able to operate as a battery maintainer, topping up batteries so they don't need jump starting in the first place. It offers 100-watt AC power with a standard three-prong outlet, as well as USB-C, USB-A, and DC charging.

Specs | | |---|---| Dimensions and weight | 9 x 5 x 2 inches, 2 pounds | Advertised peak amps | 2,000 | Battery capacity | 59 Wh | Time to charge fully from dead | 7 hours with 5-volt USB-C | Number of V-6 jump starts before draining to half capacity | 5 |