Ooni Fyra 12 vs Ooni Karu 12 (2026): Which Should You Buy?

Neither is universally better, they cost the same $349, reach the same ~950°F, bake the same 12-inch pizza, and are both comfortable 60-Second-Pizza Club members, so the right pick depends on fuel philosophy. The Fyra 12 is wood-pellet only: the lightest live-fire Ooni at 22 lb, with a simple gravity-fed hopper and pure wood-pellet flavor, but no gas option and no charcoal. The Karu 12 is multi-fuel: it burns wood and charcoal out of the box and takes an optional gas burner, so it's more versatile at 26.4 lb but a touch more hands-on. Buy the Fyra 12 for the lightest, simplest, purest wood-pellet oven; buy the Karu 12 for fuel flexibility, wood now, gas later, at the same price.

Neither, they're tied. Both the Fyra 12 and the Karu 12 reach ~950°F in our verified database, so there's no temperature edge for either, and both drive a Neapolitan to a hard, leopard-spotted 60-second bake. Don't choose between these two on heat; choose on fuel philosophy, weight, and flexibility, where the real differences are. The Fyra is the lightest, simplest pure-pellet oven; the Karu is the heavier, more versatile multi-fuel one. On the bench, they bake equally hot and equally fast.

Fuel philosophy, and not much else. Both cost $349, both hit ~950°F, both make a 12-inch pizza, and both are 60-second ovens. The Fyra 12 runs on wood pellets only, fed by a gravity hopper, it's the lightest live-fire Ooni at 22 lb and the simplest, but it's pellet-only with no gas and no charcoal. The Karu 12 is multi-fuel: it burns wood and charcoal out of the box and accepts an optional gas burner, so it can become a gas oven later, but it weighs 26.4 lb and its firebox is a touch more hands-on than the Fyra's self-feeding hopper. The Fyra is about pure, light simplicity; the Karu is about flexibility.

No, that's the key difference. The Fyra 12 is wood-pellet only; there's no gas burner option and no charcoal path, so it commits you fully to pellets. The Karu 12, by contrast, is multi-fuel: it burns wood and charcoal out of the box and accepts an optional gas burner you can add for push-button convenience and instant recovery. So if you want the freedom to switch to gas someday, the Karu 12 is the flexible one; if you only ever want pure wood-pellet pizza in the lightest, simplest oven, the Fyra 12 is purpose-built for exactly that, at the same $349 price.

On live fire, they're similar, and then the Karu 12 pulls ahead only if you add its gas burner. Both ovens are wood-burners that need tending to hold temperature: the Fyra feeds pellets from its hopper, and the Karu stokes wood or charcoal in its firebox, so back-to-back recovery on either depends on how well you keep the fuel fed. The difference is the Karu 12's optional gas burner: add it, and the gas flame reloads the stone instantly between pies with no attention, something the pellet-only Fyra can't do at all. So out of the box they recover similarly; the Karu's edge is the option of instant gas recovery later.

The Fyra 12, but only slightly. It weighs 22 lb to the Karu 12's 26.4, about four pounds lighter, which makes the Fyra the lightest live-fire oven Ooni makes and a genuine grab-and-go wood oven. The Karu 12 is still genuinely portable, but it carries the extra weight of its multi-fuel firebox and the ability to add a gas burner. So if every pound matters, camping, a small balcony, frequent carrying, the Fyra has the edge; if you want flexibility and don't mind four more pounds, the Karu's versatility is usually worth it. Both are 12-inch ovens that move easily compared with the larger Ooni models.