Instant Pot to Slow Cooker Converter

How the slow cooker to Instant Pot conversion works

A slow cooker holds food at a low, steady temperature for hours, usually between 190°F and 210°F on Low and near 300°F on High. An electric pressure cooker reaches about 250°F by trapping steam at roughly 10.5 to 12 psi. Both cook the same kind of food, so a braise, a stew, a pot of beans or a whole chicken can move from one appliance to the other with a single rule of thumb.

This calculator uses the conversion most pressure-cooking guides settle on: 25 minutes at high pressure for every 8 hours on Low, and the same 25 minutes for every 4 hours on High. Both settings land on the same number because a slow cooker's Low and High finish at similar temperatures, and High gets there sooner. So 8 hours on Low and 4 hours on High both come out near 25 minutes at pressure.

Two adjustments sit on top of that base. The food selector trims or adds time for how a specific ingredient behaves under pressure, and the release type tells you whether to leave the valve alone or open it right away. The cook time is only part of the total: add 7 to 14 minutes for the pot to reach pressure, and another 10 to 20 minutes if you let it release naturally.

Worked example: an 8-hour pot roast on Low

Take a standard pot roast: a 3-pound chuck roast with carrots, onions and 1 cup of beef broth, cooked 8 hours on Low in a 6-quart slow cooker.

• Base conversion: 8 hours on Low divided by 8, times 25 = 25 minutes at high pressure
• Food type (beef, tough cut): no change, the base figure already assumes a braise
• Release: natural, which adds about 20 minutes
• Come-up time: about 12 minutes for a 6-quart pot holding 3 pounds of meat

Total from pressing start to opening the lid is about 57 minutes, against 8 hours in the slow cooker. The meat shreds at 25 minutes of pressure because the slow natural release keeps it cooking as the pot cools.

The liquid is where the recipe changes. A slow cooker loses almost nothing to steam over 8 hours, so a cup of broth stays a cup. A pressure cooker also loses almost nothing, but it does not reduce either, so keep the liquid at 1 cup and thicken the sauce afterward with a cornstarch slurry if you want it to coat a spoon.

Worked example: chicken that cooks 4 hours on High

Now a chicken dish: 4 bone-in thighs with a jar of salsa, cooked 4 hours on High.

• Base conversion: 4 hours on High divided by 4, times 25 = 25 minutes
• Food type (chicken): minus 20%, so about 20 minutes
• Release: 10 minutes natural, then quick release to stop the cooking
• Come-up time: about 9 minutes

Call it 39 minutes from start to a fork-tender thigh. Bone-in dark meat tolerates the extra minutes well. Boneless breasts do not, and they dry out past 12 minutes at pressure, so if your slow cooker recipe uses breasts, drop to 8 to 10 minutes and use a full quick release.

Notice that the chicken conversion is shorter than the beef one even though the slow cooker times look similar in the recipe book. That is the food adjustment doing its job. Chicken is lean and cooks through fast, while a chuck roast needs the extra time to break down connective tissue.

Slow cooker to Instant Pot time chart

These are the base conversions at high pressure, before the food adjustment. Use the middle two columns when you are standing in the kitchen holding a slow cooker recipe.

Read it the other way and every 5 minutes at high pressure is about 1 hour 36 minutes on Low or 48 minutes on High. A 15-minute pressure time is therefore a 4.8-hour Low recipe or a 2.4-hour High recipe.

Liquid, release type and what else changes

Three things change when a recipe moves from a slow cooker to a pressure cooker, and the time is only one of them.

Liquid. An electric pressure cooker needs at least 1 cup of thin liquid, whether that is water, broth, stock or juice, to build steam and seal. A slow cooker recipe can run with less. If the converted recipe lists half a cup of broth, top it up to 1 cup. Thick sauces alone, like a jar of barbecue sauce with no added liquid, can scorch on the bottom, so thin them with a quarter cup of water.

Release type. Natural release means you leave the valve alone and let the pressure fall on its own, which takes 10 to 25 minutes depending on how full the pot is. It keeps cooking the whole time, so it suits meat, beans and rice. Quick release opens the valve straight away and stops the cooking, which suits vegetables and seafood.

Evaporation. A slow cooker lid is not sealed, so a long cook reduces the liquid a little. A pressure cooker is sealed, so nothing escapes. Sauces come out thinner, and that is the usual reason a converted recipe tastes flat: the flavor is there, it is just more diluted. Reduce it with the saute setting for a few minutes after the pressure comes down.

Foods that convert cleanly and foods that do not

Some foods move between the two appliances without a second thought. Others need a different recipe entirely.

Converts cleanly: beef and pork roasts, chicken thighs, chili, pulled pork, bean soups, stews and root vegetables in a sauce. These are long, wet, forgiving cooks and the pressure cooker does the same job faster.

Converts with a tweak: dried beans, which need 30 to 35 minutes rather than the 25 the formula gives, and rice, which is better handled with a dedicated pressure rice method than a converted slow cooker time. Dairy goes in after the pressure comes down, because cream and yogurt can separate under high heat.

Do not convert: recipes where the texture comes from a long, dry cook, such as a slow-baked casserole or a crisp-topped dish. A pressure cooker traps steam, so nothing crisps. Pasta cooked in the sauce also behaves differently, and a slow cooker pasta bake has no pressure equivalent.

When in doubt, use the food selector above and then check a pressure-cooking chart for that specific ingredient. The formula is a starting point, not a substitute for a chart on the foods that misbehave.

Going the other way: Instant Pot back to slow cooker

The calculator runs in both directions. If you have an Instant Pot recipe and want to cook it in a slow cooker, switch the direction and enter the pressure time. Every 5 minutes at high pressure becomes about 1 hour 36 minutes on Low or 48 minutes on High, and the food adjustment applies in reverse.

A 20-minute pressure recipe for pulled pork is therefore about 6 hours 24 minutes on Low or 3 hours 12 minutes on High. Add the liquid back: a pressure recipe that uses 1 cup of broth usually wants 1 1/2 to 2 cups in a slow cooker, because the unsealed lid lets some of it escape over six hours.

One safety note that applies to both appliances: cook meat to a safe internal temperature rather than to a clock. Ground beef and pork need 160°F, poultry needs 165°F, and whole cuts of beef, pork and lamb need 145°F with a three-minute rest. The USDA safe temperature chart has the full list, and Instant Pot's own recipe library is the place to check the settings for a specific model. A cheap instant-read thermometer matters more here than the timer, and the foodsafety.gov minimum temperatures list covers poultry, ground meat and leftovers.