6 Budget-Friendly Air Conditioners That Can Help Beat The Summer Heat

The summer heat can feel oppressive, but it's a lot worse if you never get a chance to cool off. A good air conditioning unit can turn your house from a stuffy and uncomfortably warm box to a cool reprieve from the blistering sun. There's nothing better than walking through your front door and getting hit with that first blast of icy wind after a long day sweating in the heat.

A lot of A/C units are quite expensive, though, and you might find yourself wrestling between your desire to be comfortable in your home and your desire not to deplete your bank account. Fortunately, there are also several affordable options out there. That said, there is a wide discrepancy in the amount of cooling power that different kinds of air conditioners offer. Some might be powerful enough to cool a medium-sized home, while others might struggle even in a small room. So the cheapest option might not necessarily be the best for your specific needs.

In general, the best method for finding the most affordable option is to take the square footage of the room that you're trying to cool and then compare prices and reviews for models rated to handle that amount of space. Other factors, like the ceiling height and type of insulation used in your home, might play a role in your A/C needs as well, but this will at least give you a solid foundation from where to start. With that in mind, here are eight of the best budget-friendly air conditioners.

There are a few different kinds of air conditioners out there. Anything that's going to have the power to cool a room on a hot summer day is going to cost over a hundred dollars. That said, there are a few options that can help take the edge off for a lot less money.

The Kloudic Portable Air Conditioner Fan is an evaporative air cooler. That means it uses cold water instead of a freon-based cooling system like what more powerful air conditioners use. It is powered by a USB cable and has three different fan speeds. Other manufacturers, like Costway, make these kinds of coolers as well, but you can currently get the Kloudic one from Walmart for just $39.99.

My mother-in-law uses these to keep her home cool during the summer in California. While they are no substitute for true air conditioning, they do manage to drop the temperature by a few degrees if they are kept running and given a consistent supply of icy water. Using one of these is also a great home energy-saving tactic, since they don't require much more electricity than a basic fan. They are best used in conjunction with a larger A/C unit to cool and move air throughout the rest of the house. They can also be good for keeping by a desk while you work or keeping by your bed while you sleep, as they are fully mobile and don't require ventilation like more powerful A/C units.

Most people who are looking for an affordable air conditioner are probably going to want something that actually blows some cold air, though. A good window unit can cool down a room and maybe even help fend off the worst of the heat in a larger living area.

The Midea 5,000 BTU Mechanical Window Air Conditioner is a simple, but effective appliance that is designed to cool spaces up to 150 sq. ft. It has two different cooling settings and fan speeds. It is designed to fit in windows 23 inch to 36 inch wide. It also has a washable filter for easy maintenance.

I bought one of these units during a particularly hot summer a couple of years ago. I work from home and needed something to keep my home office reasonably comfortable. It works well, cooling a 12-foot x 12-foot room in a matter of minutes. There are only two downsides that I've noticed. The first is that it's quite loud, (in spite of its advertised Sleep Mode), so it might not be ideal for a bedroom if you want to be able to run it at night. The second is that, because it's mechanical, it can't be programmed or automated. Even so, it's hard to beat the price. Amazon sells it for $217 and Walmart has it for $144.00 — so if you want to save a few bucks, Walmart may be the better route.

BTUs (British Thermal Units) measure the amount of cooling potential that an air conditioner can offer. The higher the rating, the more effective an AC unit will be in a larger space. 6,000 BTUs might not seem like that big of a step up from 5,000, but it actually makes a pretty substantial difference in square footage.

The GE 6,000 BTU Window-Mounted Room Air Conditioner is designed for rooms up to 250 sq. ft. which is a fair bit more than the 150 sq. ft. promised by the 5,000 BTU units. It has three different cooling and fan speeds, an eco-mode for energy efficiency, a filter reminder, electronic controls, and a remote. It's available from both Amazon ($199) and Home Depot ($219) GE is also known as one of the more energy-efficient air conditioner brands on the market.

Lowe Saddler of Hunker said, "As soon as I plugged it in, I could feel an ice-cold breeze. It didn't take long for my entire room to feel perfect, and I didn't even need to close my door or the other window. It was almost too cold (which, if you lived in my heat cave apartment, you'd know that's impossible). The circulation stretched to the hallway outside of my room, too." That's a pretty impressive output for a little window unit, so this might be the better option for those with larger bedrooms or smaller living areas that they're trying to keep cool.

There comes a certain point where higher BTU window units start getting more expensive than their portable indoor counterparts–and that point is right around 8,000 BTU's. These might take up a bit more floor space, but installation is quite a bit easier, and they often come with other features such as HEPA filtration and a dehumidifier.

The Zafro 8,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner is currently retailing for just 179.99 on Amazon. That means that for the same price as the 6,000 BTU unit mentioned above, you can get a portable air conditioner that can cool up to 350 sq. ft. It has four different modes: Cool, Dehumidifier, Fan, and Sleep. There is a newer 2024 model coming in at $239.99, so this particular version might be phased out soon. Even so, both of them are reasonably priced for the amount of power they offer.

There don't appear to be any independent reviews of the Zafro, but it maintains a weighted 4.3 out of five stars on Amazon with over 2,400 reviews. Customers found the build quality, ease of installation, value, portability, and energy efficiency to be its best features. It is worth noting that there were a few more mixed opinions on its cooling ability, noise, and size, however.

The next step-up in power is the 10,000 BTU units. These still operate on 115V of power, but they manage to produce a lot more cold air than their smaller siblings. Our recommendation for this size category is the R.W. Flame 10,000 BTU Portable Air Conditioner. R.W. Flame is more well-known for its stoves and fireplaces, but it makes a few other appliances as well. The company only makes a handful of air conditioners, but the 10,000 BTU unit is easily the best bargain of the bunch. It has three different functionalities: cooling, a dehumidifier, and a fan with two speeds. 

One of the nicer things about this model is that it has a water storage tray built-in, so you don't need to worry about messy hoses and emptying water buckets from the dehumidifier all the time. It has a timer and a smart control panel as well. You can pick up one of these on Amazon for $229.

This unit also doesn't seem to have any professional reviews, but it's been rated by 416 Amazon customers and has a weighted score of 4.3 out of five stars. Most of the reviews mention its excellent performance and ease of installation, with most complaints coming from people who had shipping issues.

Finally, we have the Rovsun Smart 10,000 BTU Window Air Conditioner. This is a worthy alternative to the larger portable units for those who prefer to keep their floor space open and use a window unit to cool the larger spaces in their homes. It cools up to 450 square feet and, like many of the other units on this list, it features cooling, dehumidifying and fan functionalities. It fits windows that are 23 inches to 34 inches in width and comes with a washable filter.

That isn't all that makes this A/C special, though. The Rovsun 10,000 BTU Air Condition is also Wi-Fi compatible and can be controller through an app. This makes it easy to set timers and schedules for the fan, as well as making it so that you have a remote to control it from anywhere that you have internet service. It used to be over $400, but the MSRP has since dropped to 309.99, and you can even get it on Amazon for as little as $279.99. Admittedly, that does make it the most inexpensive product on this list, but it's still significantly cheaper than most similar sized A/Cs and the added smart control functionality adds a level of convenience that's hard to beat.

Best Product Reviews gave this A/C an 8.4 out of 10, stating that it was easy to assemble. It cooled rooms down quickly, it was energy efficient and that it was easy to operate. Customer reviews on Amazon had a similar response. It currently has 4.5 out of five stars, and comments are overall very positive.

I haven't lived in a home with central air in my entire adult life, so I've often had to shop for and buy affordable AC units like the ones on this list to make the summer heat more bearable. I applied that knowledge and experience when composing this list.

I used the low-to-high-price search filters available from online retailers such as Amazon, Walmart, and Home Depot to find the cheapest air conditioners that they sold. Then compared the cheapest units in each BTU output category across all of these platforms. Not only that, but I compared the specs and features of similarly priced products to determine which of them offered the most value for the price. Finally, I used my own experience where it was applicable, and both professional reviews and customer reviews where it wasn't, to determine how these air conditioners stood up to real-world testing.