Which of these is right for which person
The hard part of buying a grill for someone else is not the grill, it is matching it to their life. Here is the plain-English version.
They have a back yard and no grill: the 18-inch kettle
An 18-inch porcelain-enameled kettle is the default right answer at this budget. It is a real grill — domed sealing lid, adjustable vents top and bottom, enamel over steel — in a size that cooks for about four people in one round. It does direct grilling and, with the coals pushed to one side, genuinely good indirect cooking. It is also light enough to move, which matters more than people expect when the gift has to live somewhere.
If their yard is bigger and they feed crowds, the step up is a full-size 22-inch kettle, which sits just above this budget — see our under-$200 picks.
They want size and won’t compromise: the barrel
There is one honest exception to the small-good-grill rule at this price: a barrel grill from a real brand with a proper firebox, an adjustable charcoal pan and a warranty. It gives significantly more cooking area than a kettle at the same money, at the cost of a less effective seal and heavier ash cleanup. For someone who cooks for six and grills mostly hot and fast, that trade is reasonable.
They camp, tailgate or travel: the folding portable
A portable charcoal grill with a lockable lid and folding legs is a genuinely different gift from a small yard grill. It is designed to be carried and to survive being thrown in a car boot, and the lid locking down over the bowl is the detail that makes it travel-safe. If you know the person camps, this is a more thoughtful gift than a better grill they cannot take anywhere. Our portable grill comparison covers packing size and capacity honestly.
They keep saying they want to try smoking: the combo
A charcoal grill with a side offset firebox lets someone cook burgers on Saturday and try low-and-slow on Sunday without owning two cookers. Be honest with yourself about this one: offset cooking on a budget combo takes attention and fire management, and someone who wants dinner fast will not enjoy it. But for a person who has actually said the words “I want to try smoking”, it is the cheapest legitimate way in. Our combo guide is straight about the compromises.
They already own a grill: the multi-probe thermometer
This is the pick for the person you cannot buy a grill for. A multi-probe wireless thermometer is the upgrade experienced charcoal cooks most often want and least often buy for themselves, because it feels like a luxury until you have used one. Several probes means pit temperature plus two or three pieces of meat at once, with alarms, from indoors.
It is also the pick most likely to see a genuine discount in the November sales, because it is a small electronic device — see our Black Friday guidefor how we’d time it.
They cook on a balcony: the 14-inch
A 14-inch kettle is a two-person cooker and a proper one. It lights with half a chimney of charcoal, stores in a cupboard, and cooks a steak as well as anything four times the price. It is the right gift for a small space, and it leaves most of the budget for the accessories in our under-$50 list.
Check first: many apartment buildings and rental agreements prohibit charcoal on balconies. This is worth a quiet check before you order, because it is the one gift on this page that can be impossible for the recipient to use.
What $150 does not buy
A hinged cooking grate. On the grills here you lift the whole grate to add coals, usually with food on it. Long gloves solve this for under $30. A hinged grate arrives around the $300 mark.
Long low-and-slow. A small bowl holds a small fire, and a small fire cannot run unattended for eight hours. Two to three hours of indirect cooking is realistic on these; ribs are possible with a mid-cook top-up; brisket is not. That is a dedicated smoker job.
Capacity for a crowd.Nothing here cooks for eight people in one round except the barrel. Batch cooking — longest-cooking food first, rest it under foil, use the free space for the rest — stretches all of them much further than people expect.
Buy the grill, then add one thing
A grill alone is a slightly incomplete gift, because the person still has to go and buy fuel and a way to light it before they can use it. The best version of this present is the grill plus a chimney starterand a bag of charcoal, which costs very little on top and means they can cook the day they open it. If the budget is tight after the grill, the chimney alone is the one to add — it is the difference between a first cook that goes well and one that puts them off.
Our starter kit guide ranks the add-ons in the order they earn their place, if you want to build the bundle properly.
A note on the prices you see here
Prices on this page come from a daily check and carry the date they were read. We never store a price in the article text, which means nothing here can go quietly stale — but a pick can drift across the $150 line between our writing and your reading. The live number next to each pick is the true one. Grills in particular move on a seasonal calendar rather than a steady one, which our deals guide explains.
