The 3 Best Uninterruptible Power Supplies (UPS) of 2024
Most people can get through a household power outage without much hassle. Chances are, by the time you find the spare flashlight batteries and break out the board games, your lights and television will already be back on.
But if you want to keep your home Wi-Fi network and some other key electronics up and running in the event of an outage, an uninterruptible power supply, or UPS, is worth the investment.
The CyberPower CP900AVR is the best UPS for people who want to back up a few small electronics—such as a modem, router, PC, external hard drive, or game server—during a blackout lasting up to four hours. It offers many of the same premium features found in pricier models, including battery backup for up to five devices and surge protection on all 10 of its outlets.
Our pick
With five outlets on battery backup and 10 in total, this UPS can keep a Wi-Fi network running for up to four hours, or it can power your home-office setup long enough for you to save your work and shut down.
The CyberPower CP900AVR can cover the basics for most people during common, short-term blackouts. In our tests, it provided enough power to keep a household broadband modem and Wi-Fi router running for four hours, which means you can stay online while the power is off and get in touch with emergency services, follow news and weather changes, or just pass the time on your favorite websites.
It requires no setup aside from plugging it in, and it comes with its own software. It has a user-replaceable battery and includes automatic voltage regulation (an important feature that some cheaper models lack), which can prolong the overall lifespan of the battery and help prevent damage to sensitive electronics.
It backs up five of its 10 outlets with a battery, and it has a 6-foot cord. Its compact shape—about the size of a jumbo three-ring binder standing upright—makes it relatively easy to stow under a desk or nightstand.
Key specs:
- Measured run time with a 20 W load (modem and router): 4 hours
- Measured run time with a 300 W load (modem, router, PC, and hard drive): 17 minutes
- Measured max output: 738 watts
- Measured surge protection: 540.4 let-through volts
- Number of battery-backed outlets: five
- Warranty: three years
Upgrade pick
This UPS offers the highest output and run time of any model we tested. Plus, it has an informative screen, USB ports, and six battery-backed outlets (12 total).
The CyberPower CP1350AVRLCD3 is the most expensive UPS we recommend, but for good reason. Like our top pick, it has premium features such as automatic voltage regulation, surge protection, and a user-replaceable battery. And if you need to provide power to more (or larger) devices at your computer workstation than our top pick can handle, this UPS can deliver up to 825 W—it’s so effective that we had trouble finding home-office gear powerful enough to overload it in our testing.
Its battery is bigger, too, with enough capacity to keep the average modem and router running for up to 4.5 hours. That should give you more than enough time to save your work and wait for the blackout to end.
Roughly the size and shape of a small PC tower, this UPS has 12 outlets in total, six of which it backs up with the battery. It also adds two USB ports (one USB-A and one USB-C) and a backlit screen, which provides helpful information such as the remaining battery life and the total wattage of the devices plugged into the unit.
Key specs:
- Measured run time with a 20 W load (modem and router): 4.5 hours
- Measured run time with a 300 W load (modem, router, PC, and hard drive): 21 minutes
- Measured max output: 825 watts
- Measured surge protection: 526.8 let-through volts
- Number of battery-backed outlets: six
- Warranty: three years
Budget pick
This UPS lacks premium features, but it has plenty of outlets and delivers enough power to keep a home Wi-Fi network up and running for as long as an hour and a half when the power goes out.
If you’re on a tight budget, the Amazon Basics Standby UPS 800VA is an affordable UPS with the battery and run time of a more expensive model: It can keep a typical router and modem running for up to one and a half hours.
Its maximum output is on the lower side—we measured up to 470 W in our testing—but that should be plenty of power for the six battery-backed outlets to support basics such as home Wi-Fi gear.
Unlike our other picks, this less-expensive model uses standby power management instead of automatic voltage regulation. That should be fine in most cases, but it’s harder on the battery, and you shouldn’t use this UPS for sensitive AV gear or medical equipment. Plus, Amazon offers only a one-year warranty, in contrast to the three-year warranties that other brands provide.
Key specs:
- Measured run time with a 20 W load (modem and router): 1.5 hours
- Measured run time with a 300 W load (modem, router, PC, and hard drive): 6 minutes
- Measured max output: 470 watts
- Measured surge protection: 402.8 let-through volts
- Number of battery-backed outlets: six
- Warranty: one year
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