Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs
Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs are quick, simple and perfectly cooked every time! Learn how to make soft boiled, medium, or hard boiled eggs in the instant pot to use in your favorite hard boiled egg recipes.
Hard boiled eggs in the instant pot are easy peel (especially farm-fresh eggs) and ideal for these Easter egg chicks or these tasty guacamole stuffed eggs!
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Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs:
For years, we only made stove-top hard boiled eggs until we discovered the instant pot. This method is quick and easy whether you are making 2 eggs or a dozen hard boiled eggs. It is so easy to make batch after batch. The results are always consistent which means no more over-cooked green egg yolks!
Finally! Easy Peel Hard Boiled Eggs:
The instant pot is the best way to Hard Boil Farm-Fresh Eggs because they are easy to peel. I used to hate boiling my Mom’s fresh eggs because half of the whites were lost with the shell after peeling. They were a mess and so ugly for deviled eggs. The instant pot is by far the best way to hard boil fresh farm eggs because cooking the eggs in a pressure cooker makes them easy to peel.
Tips for the Best Instant Pot Eggs:
- Timings below are for large eggs. For medium eggs, reduce cook time by 1 minute and increase by 1 minute for extra large eggs.
- Start with refrigerated eggs.
- It’s ok to stack eggs on the rack, but eggs should not touch the water or walls of the instant pot.
- Transfer cooked eggs to a bowl of ice water right away to prevent overcooking.
- We use a 6 Qt 7-in-1 Instant Pot Duo. You may need to experiment timings using a smaller or larger pressure cooker.
How to Hard Boil Eggs in Instant Pot:
- Place the wire rack (that comes with the instant pot) in the bowl of the instant pot. Add 1 cup water. Place 2-12 eggs on the rack (so they aren’t touching the water).
- Secure the lid and set lever to “sealing.” Set to manual “high pressure” and set timer for desired doneness (5 min for soft boiled, 6-8 min for medium boiled, 9-10 minutes for hard boiled). Once instant pot reaches high pressure (which takes 5-6 minutes), your set timer will automatically start counting down.
- As soon as your timer is up, use a hot mitt to switch the lever to “venting” position and a hot burst of steam will release. When pressure is fully released and the pressure indicator has dropped, remove lid, use tongs to transfer the hot eggs to a bowl of ice water and let rest 5 minutes to stop the cooking process.
How Long to Boil Eggs in the Instant Pot:
Instant Pot Soft Boiled Eggs: 5 minutes on high pressure was what it took for consistently fully cooked egg whites with a wet yolk. I’ve seen several tutorials say 4, 3 or even 2 minutes, but I found anything less than 5 minutes to have a portion of the whites still a little wet and more difficult to peel.
Medium Boiled Eggs: A range of 6-8 minutes seemed to all produced medium boiled eggs. These have fully cooked whites with a tender and somewhat creamy center.
Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs: It took from 9-10 minutes on high pressure with 10 minutes being a dry yolk – the ideal texture for making deviled eggs.
Safety Tips for Cooking Eggs in Instant Pot:
- If you are new to the instant pot, read the owners manual and be sure to follow the use instructions for your specific model.
- Always double check the pressure indicator popup has dropped indicating there is no more pressure behind it before opening the lid.
- When releasing pressure, a surprisingly strong spurt of hot steam releases from the valve. Keep your face and others away from the machine while depressurizing.
- Use tongs to remove the eggs because they will be blazing hot.
Must-Try Instant Pot Recipes:
- Instant Pot Beef Plov – the tastiest rice pilaf!
- White Chicken Chili – 30 minute instant pot dinner
- Instant Pot Dulce De Leche – so quick and easy
- Chicken stock – nutrient rich bone broth in just 2 hours!
I hope you give instant pot hard boiled eggs method a try. If you have farm fresh eggs or struggle with peeling, this easy peel hard boiled eggs method is keeper!
Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs
Ingredients
- 12 eggs, (refrigerated)
- 1 cup water
Instructions
- Place wire rack (that comes with instant pot) in the bowl of the instant pot. Add 1 cup water.Arrange 2-12 eggs on the rack (so they aren't touching the water or bowl).
- Secure the lid and set lever to "sealing" position. Cook on manual "high pressure" and set timer for desired doneness (5 min for soft boiled, 6-8 min for medium, 9-10 minutes for hard boiled eggs). Once instant pot reaches high pressure (which takes 5-6 minutes), your set timer will automatically start counting down.
- As soon as your timer is up, use a hot mitt to switch the lever to "venting" position (a hot burst of steam will release). When pressure is fully released and pressure indicator has drops, remove lid and use tongs to transfer hot eggs to a bowl of ice water for 5 minutes before peeling.
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #natashaskitchen
Natasha Kravchuk
Hi! I'm Natasha Kravchuk. Here you'll find delicious, trusted recipes with easy step-by-step photos and videos. 
Anything more than 3 minutes and instant release winds up being a rubbery egg with a hard yolk with green around the edges.
Has anyone tried using this method of hard-boiling eggs at altitude? I live at 4,000 feet and boiling eggs the old-fashioned way is a total mess!! I love your recipes, Natasha and use two or three a week.
I haven’t tried that but let’s see if others can share their experience. I’m glad you’re enjoying my recipes!
I am loving your recipes! Thanks for what you do. I would really appreciate the recipes I saw that were made in a mug. My husband is disabled and these would work well for us. Our email as below
Hi Jane. All of my recipes are available on this website. I have categories you can choose from above. 🙂
Just made these using the egg setting on the Instant pot. Read through all of the comments first to get a good idea of different variations. I used fresh eggs from my chickens, so not refrigerated and washed right before use. Put 2.5 cups of water and cooked 12 eggs. The setting automatically set for 5 minutes and I didn’t change it. I did get distracted with some biscuits I was making in the air fryer and didn’t vent right away. The eggs peeled great though! A little dry on the yolks so I need to pay closer attention to the timer and vent sooner. Wanted to leave a review and confirm that this recipe is great and works well for fresh farm eggs too, so don’t worry if your eggs are not refrigerated😉
Thank you so much for sharing that with us, Erin!
Love all your tips.
I too use my instant Pot and follow your method except for the timing.
I use the 5-5-5 min method.
set the pot on high for 5 min. then 5 min NR then you can QR the pressure and right into an ice bath for at least 5 min. Perfect every time and peal perfectly.
Great to hear that you are enjoying my tips. I hope you’ll love all the recipes that you will try!
Hi Natasha
Never cooked eggs in my instant pot but will definitely try this. Air fryer does a good job also. Place a couple jumbo eggs and did not pre- heat. Cooked for 13 minutes. Slightly dried yolks with a little creamy soft center. Added to ice water and peeled with turned over spoon inside shell. Thought I’d share this tip. Thanks for the insant pot method!
I haven’t thought of that! Thank you so much for sharing that with me.
9 minutes came out looking like the 5 minutes, completely raw. Wasted a dozen eggs. None of them peeled well at all either. Horrible morning. I’ll have to go back to boiling water on the stove and hope it works, or find another recipe.
Hi Amanda, I haven’t had that experience, and I’m sorry to hear that. Did you ensure your Instant Pot was set to the proper setting and no steps were missed?
I find steaming achieves the same result………..i use a steamer basket,,,,,,,,,,,,,1 cup of water brought to a boil…………….10 minutes …….voila……………..i also use this method for most fresh veggies………broccoli……………..corn….asparagus……..brussel sprouts…..etc……….no need to peel veggies tho…..
Thank you for sharing!
Hi Natasha, I’ve been doing my IP eggs 5-5-5 but I’m getting a little green sometimes around the yolk. I think I might need to vent the steam earlier. What do you think? Also, I love the blue tongs you have in the photo. Do you have a link to those? Thanks so much for your awesome recipes!
Hi Carla, a little green in the yolk indicates overcooking. I would vent and remove a little sooner. The other issue is make sure you are putting them into ice water right away to stop the cooking and it makes all the difference. I have the tongs linked in my Amazon shop under the Natashas Kitchen Tools category.
I bought the egg insert that fits my 6qt IP that holds 18 eggs do I need to increase the time or water? Thank you
Hi Debra, I haven’t tried with the insert so you’ll have to experiment, but from what I understand, the liners should not affect the timing or amount of water. If you had a bigger instant pot, say an 8qt, you would want to increase water to 1 1/2 cups.
Thanks for the post! I have a Instant Pot Duo Nova 6 Qt. On their card for hard boiled they suggest poultry setting for 5 mins. Their website says the same so must be updating it as pressure times decrease with newer models. My 5 mins with one cup water, instant release then directly into ice cold water for 5 mins gave me what appears to be a 9/9.5 on your egg photo scale. SUPER easy to peel! I did an entire dozen in one layer using your tips for them to only touch themselves and not the water or sides and had perfect eggs with no cracks or burning. This was the first thing cooked in this pot so seal is brand new. I appreciate your time so wanted to add in my experience with the Nova to the mix of comments that might help someone in the future. Have a blessed day!
Hello Carol, thank you so much for sharing that info with us. That is definitely very useful and I’m sure will be useful to others here. We appreciate your input!
We make 7 hard boiled eggs with our IP every Sunday. My wife eats one a day at work where she used to purchase them at her hospital cafeteria for $.75 apiece.
Even when egg prices rise, we’re still saving so much money. The IP method is so easy and quick.
Regarding eggs that break–they probably had a hairline fracture in their shells to begin with.
That is definitely more economical to make them at home. I’m excited to pack them for our kiddos lunch this year!
I’m a boiled egg snob! It’s such a staple in out house, but I’m blown away at how perfect the 3 minute instant pot eggs turned out.
I count find the rack (just moved) so I wadded up foil so that the eggs were elevated and it worked perfectly!
Awesome! Thanks for giving this recipe great feedback, Carol.
Hi,
Tried multiple times for hard boiled eggs. started from 8 min, worked down to 6 min. half of the eggs had exploded, the other half were cracked. Also, the eggs (including the eggs that had not been damaged) tasted odd. Almost fishy?
Thoughts?
-RB
Hi RB, I haven’t had that experience – make sure the eggs aren’t touching the bowl (they should be on a rack). Also, could it be that your package of eggs went bad? The only time I’ve ever noticed an off smell with eggs if they had gone bad.
What is a is and where is the indicator pop up. I’m so new to this and have no clue! Help me!!!
Hi Delilah, since some models function differently, It is really important to go through the user manual and do the test run for your specific machine as indicated in the instructions. The popup is next to the sealing valve at the top of my machine and it rises when the pressure has built up adequately. I hope that helps. You might also watch a youtube tutorial on your specific machine which will help to get started.
If my instant pot is only 3 qt., should I just put enough water on the bottom to keep the eggs from touching it? I’m assuming that 1cup would be too much for a 3qt
Hi Brianna, I haven’t tried using a 3 qt instant pot but it would probably be too much since you don’t want the eggs sitting in or touching the water. you might do some googling to see if anyone else has experimenting with a 3Qt but I would assume half the amount of water for half the size of instant pot.
I made hard boiled eggs in my IP for the first time today following your recipe. The 1 cup of water the recipe calls for did not look sufficient so I added an additional half cup of water to the IP and set the IP to 10 minutes on Manual High Pressure. When time was up I vented it but was surprised at the lack of steam? All the water had dissipated and the bottom of the IP was burned…. the eggs are on ice so we shall see, I hope the do not taste burnt…
Hi Jen, this was for a 6Qt pressure cooker. It sounds like you maybe used a larger pressure cooker? I had one person report that a larger instant pot needs 2 cups of water and less time in the pressure cooker. I hope that helps for next time!
On my 8 qt pressure cooker I use the 5 -5 – 5 method and that is cooking 18 eggs at a time and they are great.
5 minutes (5-5-5) and they peel easy
Thank you for sharing that with us!
Hi Natasha,
Do you have a method for eggs that doesn’t require an Instant Pot? Many of us are seniors or disabled and live on very small incomes. An Instant Pot unfortunately is just a luxury item. Thanks Ellen
Hi Ellen, yes you can find that method following this link here I hope that helps!
Seems like a lot of hassle just to boil eggs. I have compared the time it takes in total to do this and the boil in the pot is far quicker. Getting the Instant Pot out of the cupboard, setting it up, programming, locking, and then letting the eggs rest 5 min. is way slower than boiling them in a pot on my induction stove top. Why waste the time?
Hi John, we get consistent results with this method and it is also a very valuable method if you are using fresh eggs. The instant pot makes the eggs easier to peel since they are cooked in steam versus in water.
A double boiler/ steamer can do the same thing. I am not criticizing the pot that you are advertising for, but, my double boiler has never caused a fire or burned up as some Instant Pots have done. Mine was just one such pot. I got a new one free and have not had a problem since.
So i have the exact same instant pot as in the picture and 4 min for me is the 9-10 min mark in the photo.
5 min gives me the blue/ gray yolk edges too.
This is really unusual. I have the 6quart model as well.
Hi AG! I’m wondering if there is an additional setting that is making this so? I haven’t experienced that.
I am wondering if it is time of machine manufacturing and how new the sealing ring is or the quality of the seal ring . Over time the seal ring becomes worse and needs to be replaced. Maybe if it takes longer to come to pressure ? I have been using it for eggs for about 4 years and have replaced the rings many times, (this is my 6th ring) .When I was searching for egg times years ago I saw the 4 min number and it was ideal so I kept using that. I notice when I search now that it seems to be split with people cooking them longer , like the times you mention and then others with the shorter time, this leads me to believe something maybe different internally between more recent machines and the older ones . Unless of course you had your same machine for many years too in which case this is a mystery .
How interesting! That may be the case. Now I’m curious!
My eggs all cracked! All 12 of them! 🙁
Hi Nina, I’ve never had that happen before – did you use a rack and make sure they weren’t touching the wall? Also, are you using a different kind of instant pot? larger maybe? I’m not sure if it’s the culprit, but I’ve heard the larger ones cook faster.
I do my eggs for 2 min at high pressure with a 4 min hold on low and they are fully cooked hard boiled eggs. (I have the 6qt Instant Pot duo). I can’t imagine what they would look like at 5min high pressure!
***Although I haven’t tried it (I don’t have instant pot) it looks like it works well. I am wondering if a regular pressure cooker could be used for that recipe.
Hi Ernie, technically it should work the same way since an instant pot is essentially a pressure cooker. You might have to experiment depending on the type of pressure cooker you have (i.e. if it takes longer to come to pressure, the eggs might take less time to cook once they have reached pressure).
***Something to think about, thanks. Love your recipes, they’re all 6star rating.
You’re so nice! Thank you!
It does work in any pressure cooker.
I have one from Presto that is 55 yrs old and came with an egg rack that holds 10 eggs. It still works fine and parts are still available after 55 yrs.
I doubt that my Instant Pot will be working for my grandchildren 55 yrs. from now.
Thank you John!
Hi Can you do recipes for the air fryer too? Thanks
Hi Irene, we just purchased our first air fryer over the weekend at Costco and can’t wait to start experimenting! If you have any suggestions or requests, let me know!
Hi Irene
I just cooked 2 Jumbo eggs in my air fryer. Did not pre- heat. Placed eggs in and cooked for 13 minutes. Placed in ice water bath after. Peeled with an over turned spoon. Eggs were perfect to my liking, semi dried yolks with the center a tad creamy. Hope this helps!
Love how easy it is to make eggs in the IP. The chart for how many minutes is awesome too!
I’m so glad you enjoyed that! Thank you, Heather!
***Is it possible to do the same recipe in a regular pressure cooker?
Hi Ernie, I haven’t tested that in a standard pressure but I think it could work. If you experiment, let me know how you liked the recipe
I have yet to try making eggs with my instant pot! They look super easy & delicious!
hope you get to try that soon! So so easy in an Instant Pot
This is the BEST guide to IP boiled eggs ever! Came out perfect 🙂
I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for sharing your great review!
My favorite way to make boiled eggs. Super fast and so good
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for the wonderful review!
I love this! It’s so fast and easy, which is perfect since my family loves hard boiled eggs.
Thank you so much Julie!! Same here. We love to keep a steady supply of boiled eggs in the fridge and the instant pot makes it so easy to make batch after batch!
I do an instant press release…if i let it naturally release even by 1 minute they would be way overcooked (blueish gray inside). As soon as I get them out I get them into really cold water, yes.
Are you starting with room temp or cold eggs? Is there anything else different in your process (using a rack? smaller egg size?)? I’m wondering if it’s just due to the different type of machine or something different in the method?
I start with refrigerated eggs. I have tried different sized eggs. If they are large to extra large I set for 3 minutes, for medium sized ones 2 minutes, and for small (from quail eggs to small chicken eggs) I do 1 minute.
Yes, it is interesting. I realized pretty quickly when following recipes online (that are mainly intended for use with 6 quart instant pots) that my 8 quart cooks everything faster. I learned to adjust liquid (adeing more then it calls for), but minutes to be a little less…(sometimes way less in the case of these eggs.)
That is really so helpful to know! Thank you for sharing that with us!
I wanted to share that I use an 8 quart instant pot (duo 7 in 1) and if I cooked on HP for 5 minutes my eggs are always overcooked. I do 3 minutes to make them the consistency of your “10 minute eggs” (in your picture at the bottom) and my eggs cooked for 2 minutes turn out like your “9 minute eggs”. I also use 2 cups of water instead of 1 because of the larger size. I’m not sure if it’s just my specific brand instant pot that tends to cook things faster than others or just the bigger size (or both!)? Anyway, hopefully this can help someone trouble shoot;)
Hi Anna, that is so great to know! Thank you for sharing that with me. Definitely interesting and surprising! Are you doing an instant pressure release or a natural pressure release. Also, are you putting the eggs into ice water right away or letting them sit and cool down naturally?