Pellet Grill vs Gas Grill: Smoke, Speed and Running Cost

If there’s any chance you’ll want to smoke a brisket, a rack of ribs or a pork butt, buy the pellet grill. If your grill exists for burgers, brats and chicken on weeknights, buy gas, because it reaches 500°F in under ten minutes, costs less to feed and has fewer parts to fail.

A pellet grill can do most of what a gas grill does, while a gas grill can do only a small slice of what a pellet grill does. The catch is that the slice gas does better, fast high-heat searing on a Tuesday, is most of the cooking in a lot of households. This page is part of our head-to-head comparisons, and on the pellet side I lean on two grills that close the searing gap, the Pit Boss with its Flame Broiler and the Weber Searwood that runs to 600°F.

We haven’t cooked on these side by side ourselves. The temperatures and times below come from manufacturer specs and from what owners consistently report.

Before you read further, look back at the last ten things you cooked outside. If every one took under 45 minutes and you never wished it tasted of wood, a gas grill will make you happier. If even one was a smoked dish you bought from a barbecue joint because you couldn’t make it, that’s the case for pellets.

What a pellet grill does that gas can’t

Smoke is the big one. A pellet grill burns real hardwood, and at 180 to 250°F it makes the thin smoke that gives a brisket its flavor. A gas grill burns clean. A foil pouch of chips over one burner gives you a whiff for 20 minutes, and owners who’ve tried it say it’s a shadow of the real thing, partly because nobody can hold a gas grill at 225°F for 12 hours without babysitting the knobs.

The controller is the second difference. You dial in 225°F, the grill holds it, and on most models over $500 the app pings your phone when the meat probe hits 203°F. On a gas grill you are the controller, working from a lid thermometer that can read 30°F off.

A pellet grill is also a wood-fired oven, so it handles jobs gas does poorly. People bake bread on them, roast turkeys, run a pizza stone at 500°F and make smoked mac and cheese. A gas grill can roast, but with no smoke and a hot spot over every burner.

Capacity usually favors pellets as well. A $899.99 Traeger Woodridge has 860 sq in across two racks. A $949 Weber Genesis E-315 has about 670 sq in counting the warming rack, and the upper rack on a gas grill sits too close to the lid to hold much.

Where a gas grill comes out ahead

Speed matters more than pellet fans admit. Turn the knobs, push the igniter, and a Weber Spirit is at 500°F in 8 to 10 minutes. A pellet grill spends 4 to 5 minutes lighting, then 15 to 20 more climbing to 450°F, and on a school night that gap decides what’s for dinner.

Searing is the other clear win. Most pellet grills top out at 500°F through a heat deflector, which makes a very hot oven rather than a flame. A gas grill with cast iron grates puts the burner right under the meat, so a 1-inch ribeye on a Genesis crusts in about 3 minutes a side while the same steak on a standard pellet grill gets a tan. The pellet grills that fix this (Pit Boss with the Flame Broiler, the Searwood at 600°F, recteq at 700°F) are ones you have to choose on purpose.

Gas also runs without power. It works in a blackout, on a dock or on a cabin porch with no outlet. A pellet grill is an appliance, and if the power blinks during a 14-hour pork butt the fire goes out and you’re relighting at 3 am. Owners in storm country keep a small inverter for exactly that.

A gas grill is also the simpler machine. It has no auger to jam, no hot rod igniter to replace, no fan and no firmware. Weber covers most Spirit and Genesis parts for 10 years, and a 15-year-old Genesis running on new burners is a common sight at yard sales.

Cooking differences, dish by dish

Dish	Better on	Why
Burgers	Gas, unless the pellet grill sears	A plain-grate burger at 500°F on pellets cooks through before it browns
Chicken thighs	Pellet	An hour of smoke at 275°F, then 400°F to crisp the skin
Steak	Gas for crust, pellet for flavor	The reverse sear lets you have both
Brisket, ribs, pork butt	Pellet	Gas can’t hold 225°F with smoke for 8 to 14 hours
Cold, windy days	Pellet	It burns more pellets but holds low temperatures that gas can’t

Burgers are the dish where gas earns its spot. Owners report smash burgers on a cast iron griddle work fine on either grill, but grate burgers need flame. On a Pit Boss with the Flame Broiler open, or a Searwood at 600°F, it’s a fair fight, and burgers on a pellet grill covers the method for the rest.

Chicken goes the other way. Smoke at 275°F for an hour, then run the grill to 400°F to crisp the skin, and chicken thighs come off with flavor a gas grill can’t give. Gas does it faster and the skin crisps easily, but what you get is grilled chicken.

Pit tip: For steak on a pellet grill, smoke it at 225°F to 115°F internal, then sear it in a cast iron pan on a side burner or the kitchen stove. Owners who cook steak this way stop missing their gas grill.

Weather changes both grills. A pellet grill in 30°F wind burns about twice the pellets to hold 225°F, but it holds. A gas grill in the same wind struggles to hold any low temperature, because the burners can’t turn down far enough and the wind takes the rest. In August heat, both are fine.

What each costs to buy and to run

Prices checked October 2026.

Grill	Price	Key numbers
Pit Boss Pro Series II 850 (pellet)	about $500 at Lowe’s	850 sq in, 20 lb hopper, Flame Broiler, Wi-Fi
Traeger Westwood (pellet)	$699.99	653 sq in, 450°F max
Traeger Woodridge (pellet)	$899.99	860 sq in, 500°F, 10-year warranty
Weber Searwood 600 (pellet)	$999	648 sq in, 600°F, 5-year warranty
recteq Backyard Beast 1200 (pellet)	$1,199.99	1,220 sq in, 700°F, stainless
Weber Spirit E-210 (gas)	$449	2 burners
Weber Spirit E-310 (gas)	$499	3 burners
Weber Spirit E-325 (gas)	$549	3 burners
Weber Genesis E-315 (gas)	$949	10-year warranty on most parts

At $500, the Pit Boss and the Spirit E-310 are a true pair. The Pit Boss cooks more kinds of food, and the Weber gets dinner on the table faster and will probably outlast it. At $900 to $1,000, a Woodridge or Searwood against a Genesis comes down to whether you want smoke or speed.

Fuel is where gas pulls ahead. Propane runs about $20 a refill in October 2026 and lasts 15 to 20 hours, so roughly $1 to $1.35 an hour. Pellets cost about $1 a pound and burn at 1 to 2 lb an hour while smoking, and 3 lb or more at 450°F. Run the numbers on a two-hour chicken cook and you get about $2 to $2.70 of propane against $3 to $5 of pellets.

Over a season of twice-weekly cooks, expect about $60 to $100 in propane or $150 to $250 in pellets, plus a few dollars of electricity for the pellet grill. Across five years that adds up to roughly $450 to $750 more to feed the pellet grill. The pellet calculator gives a closer figure for your own cooking.

Which one I’d buy

I’d buy the pellet grill, and I’d buy one that sears. The Pit Boss Pro Series II 850 at about $500 is the cheapest way I know to get wood smoke and open flame in one box. If the budget stretches to $999, I’d take the Weber Searwood 600 over a Genesis at the same money, for the 600°F ceiling and a controller owners rate highly.

I’d buy gas in three situations. You have no outdoor outlet. You grill burgers and brats twice a week and have no interest in smoking. Or you already own a smoker and need fast heat for weeknights, in which case a $499 Spirit E-310 is the right second grill and will likely outlive most pellet grills.

If you’ve decided on pellets, our ranked list is the next stop. If you’re weighing a dedicated smoker instead of a grill, read electric smoker vs pellet smoker or pellet grill vs offset smoker.