The 2 Best Paper Shredders of 2025
Top pick
For home offices and households, the Royal 14MC 14-Sheet Micro Cut Paper Shredder is the best value for a paper shredder.
It has a high capacity for its price, and it can handle (almost) anything you may throw at it. This 14-sheet shredder can handle nearly twice as much paper at a time as similarly priced shredders, including our former pick, the Amazon Basics 8-Sheet Micro Cut Paper Shredder. It has enough room to shred several bank and credit card statements in one go.
And although the 14MC is rated for 14 sheets, we were able to run through batches of up to 17 sheets of paper, including stapled stacks, without jamming it. (Note that we do not recommend doing this at home.) It chomped through stapled credit card statements, folded documents, and plastic credit cards like a champ, producing minuscule, undecipherable bits of paper and plastic. The only thing it can’t devour is CDs.
Clearing jams, when they happen, is easy. When we fed the shredder a stack of 18 sheets of paper, it finally jammed, but we easily cleared it using the large, round forward and reverse buttons. We preferred this shredder’s buttons to the more common sliding switch for the reverse and forward actions, because the buttons offer finer control over how long the gears spin, potentially reducing wear and tear.
By contrast, some shredders, such as the Aurora AU870MA, don’t have a manual forward option, which might make clearing tough jams more difficult.
It can shred continuously without overheating. We were able to feed the shredder stacks of sheets for about 15 minutes straight before the bin indicator said it was full. At that point, we had to empty the wastebasket before continuing.
As a result, we were never able to overtax the shredder enough to force it into a 40-minute cooldown mode. We continued to shred paper after emptying the 14MC’s bin, and the shredder still showed no sign of stopping.
It has an on/off switch. The dedicated power switch at the back prevents the machine from running inadvertently, which offers peace of mind if you have pets or children around.
It runs quietly. This shredder produced exceptionally low noise levels in our testing, with decibels in the mid 60s (akin to the volume of a washing machine). In this regard, it was second only to our upgrade pick, which ran in the high 50s. We also found this shredder’s sound less grating than that of most other models, which seemed to clank angrily.
It has a long warranty. The Royal 14MC comes with a long three-year warranty on the cutter and a one-year warranty on parts and labor. Many shredders don’t have an extended warranty on the cutting blade.
As a Costco-exclusive item, this shredder is part of the company’s 100% satisfaction guarantee. The additional cost of the shredder for non-Costco members is only $4 (at this writing).
Flaws but not dealbreakers
- The Royal 14MC’s 4.5-gallon bin is slightly smaller than those of other shredders that we looked at, including the Aurora AU120MA’s 5-gallon wastebasket and the Bonsen ShredPro-Model S3106’s 5.3-gallon bin. Still, 4.5 gallons is about a third of a tall kitchen garbage bag, so it offers plenty of room for most people’s needs.
- The attractive white bin’s window is smaller than those on most other shredder bins, which makes it not very useful. The bin-full warning light will force you to empty the shredder anyway once it’s about three-quarters full.
- Because this model has no bin-open or bin-ajar warning, you need to make sure that you push the bin in completely after emptying it.
