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How to use the Converter Above
You’ve got a slow cooker recipe that needs 8 hours. It’s already 5pm. Dinner is in trouble. Sound familiar?
This is exactly the moment the Instant Pot saves the day — it does in minutes what the slow cooker does in hours. The only problem is figuring out how many minutes. That’s what the converter above is for, and here’s how to get the most out of it.
The quick version
Here’s the whole idea in one sentence: the Instant Pot cooks under pressure, so it does the same job way faster than a slow cooker. A recipe that simmers all day in the slow cooker usually only needs a short burst in the Instant Pot. The tool works out exactly how short.
Step by step
1. Pick your direction. Going from a slow cooker recipe to your Instant Pot? Keep it on Slow Cooker → Instant Pot. Already have an Instant Pot time and want to do it low-and-slow instead? Flip to Instant Pot → Slow Cooker. Same tool, both directions.
2. Choose your food type. This one matters more than you’d think. A pot of soup and a beef roast don’t behave the same way under pressure, so pick the closest match from the list — soup, beans, rice, vegetables, poultry, a roast, and so on. The tool adjusts the math based on what you’re cooking.
3. Enter your time (or weight). For most foods, you’ll enter the slow cooker time and whether it’s on LOW or HIGH. For big cuts like a roast or a whole chicken, the tool asks for the weight instead, because that’s how those are actually timed. Don’t worry — it shows you the right box automatically.
4. Set the pressure and read your result. Most recipes use High pressure (that’s the default). The tool gives you the Instant Pot cooking time, plus a couple of important extras I’ll explain below.
A few things worth knowing
“Cook time” doesn’t include the build-up time. Here’s something a lot of converters hide from you: an Instant Pot needs several minutes to build pressure before cooking starts, and time to release it after. That’s not part of the cook time — so the tool shows it separately instead of secretly baking it into the number. When you’re planning dinner, remember to add those extra few minutes on each end.
Always leave enough liquid. Slow cooker recipes sometimes run a little dry because the lid traps moisture over many hours. The Instant Pot needs enough liquid to come up to pressure in the first place — usually at least a cup. If you’re converting a recipe that looks low on liquid, add some.
Frozen? Add a little time. If you’re starting from frozen, the tool bumps the time up for you (in the Slow Cooker → Instant Pot direction). Just make sure the food is safely cooked through before serving.
The first try is a starting point. Pressure cooking depends on your exact recipe, how full the pot is, and even your specific Instant Pot model. Treat the first result as a strong starting point. If it’s not quite there, you can always seal it back up for a few more minutes — you can’t un-cook, but you can always add a little.
Why you can trust the numbers
Straight up: I’m a developer, not a chef. So I didn’t guess these times. I built the tool on published slow-cooker-to-Instant-Pot conversion charts, cross-checked against more than one source, and I lay it all out on the How We Calculate page. The core rule is simple — Instant Pot minutes are roughly your slow cooker HIGH hours times six — and the tool fine-tunes that for each food type.
And for anything with meat, poultry, or fish: please use a thermometer. The tool even shows you the USDA safe internal temperature for those foods. A timer says “probably done”; a thermometer says “safe to eat.”
Your turn
Try it with tonight’s dinner and let me know how it turns out. What did you convert? Did the timing work, or did you have to adjust? Leave a comment below — your results genuinely help other home cooks figure out their own recipes, and they help me improve the tool. And if a conversion didn’t go how you expected, tell me what you were making and I’ll dig into it.
