The 8 Best Battery-Powered Chainsaws of 2026

The most useful thing about Greenworks' 16-inch saw is that it costs less than the saws it competes with and still ships with a 4.0Ah battery and charger. What you pay for is a working saw, not a body you then have to power, and for a homeowner cutting storm limbs plus a cord or two of firewood a year, that is most of the decision made.

Underneath it is a 1.5kW brushless motor on a 16-inch bar, a two-step start with no priming or pulling, a chain brake and low-kickback chain, and an automatic oiler with a flip-up cap and a transparent window so you can check the level without crouching. At 10.4 pounds it lands between the compact 12-inch saws and the big 56V and 18-inch machines — planted enough for a bucking cut, light enough to carry up a slope.

Runtime is where it gives ground. The 40V pack is fine for limbing and small rounds, but sustained cutting in hardwood pulls it down faster than the 56V saws here, and the motor is tuned for smooth, steady cutting rather than gas-saw snap. Greenworks covers tool and battery for three years, the longest coverage in this group, and we rate that as the thing that tips it. If your sessions run long, buy the second battery up front; the saw is the cheap part of the system.

Eighteen inches of bar and a boost button: that is the 350i's case in a line. Where the 16-inch saws here ask you to plan a cut, this one lets you commit to it — a 1.9 hp brushless motor, an X-Cut chain, and a button that adds roughly a quarter more power for the knot, or for the moment the chain starts to bog.

At 7.7 pounds for the body it is the lightest full-size saw in this group, and that matters more than a spec sheet suggests. Limbing a downed tree means holding a saw out at arm's length for twenty minutes, and every pound is steadiness you do not have at the end of it. The tool-less tensioner and the oiler are ordinary but quick, which is exactly what you want from a saw you will use ten times a year.

Torque is the 350i's strength. It arrives the instant you squeeze the trigger rather than building with chain speed, so bucking a 14-inch trunk feels less like wrestling a small motor and more like guiding a blade. The 18-inch bar then saves you the second pass on rounds the 16-inch saws have to walk around.

The battery is the part to go in with your eyes open. The kit ships with a single pack, and runtime in 14-inch hardwood is the most divided question we ran into on this saw — a spare Husqvarna battery is an expensive addition to an already premium kit. Our view: if your cutting genuinely runs 12 to 18 inches, the 350i earns the money, because the longest bar here comes attached to the most immediate torque. If most of your work is limbs and cleanup, you are paying for bar you will not use.

Reaching into a tangle of fallen limbs is where a 12-inch saw earns its keep, and this is the pick we make for it. Short bar, compact body, and a 2.5Ah pack that keeps the whole thing light enough to hold out at arm's length and place a cut precisely rather than sawing by feel. It is rated the equivalent of a 30cc gas saw and uses the same tool-free tension dial as its bigger sibling. Keep both hands on the handles — that is true of every saw here — but this is the one you can carry all afternoon without noticing.

What it will not do is buck a trunk. Twelve inches of bar is comfortable in six- to eight-inch wood and slow past that, so it is a limb saw first and a firewood saw second. The price is the honest objection: it sits near full-size money for half the bar, and you are paying for compactness and for the EGO platform rather than for capacity. If you already run 56V tools, that battery is a shared asset and the arithmetic improves a lot.

Tool only, and that is the point. If your garage already runs on 20V MAX packs, the DCCS621B is a 12-inch, 10-pound limb saw that does not ask you to buy into a second battery platform and starts the moment you pull the trigger. We have come to think of it as the saw that lives in the truck: it ships with a sheath, which tells you what DeWalt thinks it is for — carried to a downed branch, used for five minutes, hung back on the wall.

The oil tank is the thing to know about. This design can seep between uses, so store it upright on a shelf with a rag under the bar, or drain the reservoir before it rides in the truck. Do that and it is the easiest saw here to actually grab for a five-minute job, which is most of the jobs a limb saw gets. It is a saw you buy because you already own the batteries, and it rewards exactly that kind of frequent, casual use.

Open the box and there is a 12-inch saw, two 4.0Ah batteries, a charger, a case, goggles, gloves, and a spare chain. For a first chainsaw that is a persuasive package, because the second battery is what turns a toy into a tool — one pack cuts while the other charges, and the job does not stop for a wall outlet.

The saw is a 1200W brushless unit on a 12-inch bar with an auto-oiler that adjusts flow to the cut and a tool-free tensioner. It handles the work a suburban yard actually generates: storm branches, saplings, sucker growth, a 4x4 that needs shortening. That is a good deal more authority than the four-inch mini saws this gets lumped in with, and the battery gauge on the body means you know where you stand before you start.

Weight is the surprise. Twelve pounds is a lot for a 12-inch saw — more than the compact saws here — so it becomes a two-handed tool once you are working above shoulder height. The flip side is that it feels substantial in the cut rather than skittery, and the case keeps the whole kit together in a shed where small parts migrate.

Our take: this is the saw to buy if you want one box that covers a season of yard cleanup and you are not cutting firewood off a big trunk. Twelve inches of bar is comfortable around half that in hardwood, and you will feel the weight by the end of an afternoon. What it removes is the reason most people never start — the cost of getting into a real saw with a spare battery already in the bag.

Four more inches of bar than DeWalt's own 12-inch saw, for far less money, and no battery in the box. That is the trade the DEJUNPIOOL makes, and it is a good one if you already own 20V or 60V MAX packs and want to reach through a 10-inch limb in one pass instead of two.

Seven and a half pounds and a 1200W brushless motor make it feel more capable than the price suggests. The auto-oiler and the tool-free tensioner are the two features we care about at this end of the market, and both are here: the chain adjusts without a wrench, and the oiler keeps the bar wet without a bulb to pump. Stated chain speed is 42 ft/s, quick enough for green wood and steady enough that the saw does not chatter its way through a cut.

What you give up is polish and recourse. The body is an import, the fit and finish will not match the name brands, and the 18-month warranty leaves out chains and bars — the two parts that actually wear. It ships with three chains, which softens that considerably, along with a bar cover, goggles, and gloves. Treat it as a second saw, or a first saw for light work, and it delivers; expect a decade of hard service out of it and you will be disappointed.

Ten inches of bar is a boundary, not a spec. This is the saw for orchard pruning, saplings, brush, and the branches you can reach from the ground — which is most of what a yard asks for and none of what firewood asks for.

At four pounds it is the lightest thing here by a wide margin, and that changes what you can do with it: cutting along a fence line where a longer bar would be in the way, working overhead without your arms quitting, reaching into a shrub. It runs on DeWalt 20V MAX packs, so if you are already in that system the saw is the only purchase, and the included 4.0Ah battery and charger mean it works out of the box either way. The clear oil tank and the battery gauge on the body are small conveniences that matter twenty cuts in, when you cannot remember the last time you filled it.

We like it best as a second saw, or as a first saw for someone whose cutting is pruning rather than firewood. A 10-inch bar means comfortable work in five- and six-inch wood and two passes for anything larger, and it will warm up if you lean on it through a long uninterrupted session. Let it cool between runs, keep the chain sharp, and it handles a season's pruning without complaint.