I just tested this compact pizza oven — and it's perfect for small outdoor spaces

In my dreams, I'd live in a country cottage with a massive oven range, a giant vegetable garden and a wood-fired pizza oven. But in reality, I live in a tiny apartment in London with a yard so small I can barely fit a patio set. And I'm learning to make my peace with that, because now I have an equally tiny pizza oven, and it makes a great pie.

The Gozney Arc Lite was made for people like me: foodie city-dwellers who want to cook up a storm, but can't spare enough room for the likes of the Gozney Arc or Dome. At just 26 pounds, it's half the size of Gozney's regular Arc oven, and it's so compact that it will perch happily on even the tiniest bistro set. And at $399 in the U.S. and £349 in the U.K., I think it's competitively priced for a gas pizza oven.

I used Gozney's latest oven in my yard for a few days, cooking everything from a delicious margherita to sizzling ndjua prawns. Here's what I thought.

Gozney Arc review: Price and availability

The Arc Lite costs $399 in the U.S. and £349 in the U.K., which is significantly cheaper than the original Arc, which retails for $699 or £599. It launched in February 2026, and fits 12-inch pizzas. By contrast, the original Arc can fit 14-inch pizzas, and the Arc XL fits 16 inches.

You'll need to use a propane tank with your Arc Lite. If you want to use wood, you'll be restricted to Gozney's more premium Dome line.

The Arc Lite is best compared to Ooni's classic Koda 12 gas pizza oven, which is also a lower-end gas oven with a 12-inch internal capacity. The Koda 12 is certainly larger than the Arc Lite, but its legs do fold down, making it more portable than it might first appear. The Koda 12 retails for $449, so the Gozney beats it on price (and in my opinion, style.)

Gozney Arc Lite review: What I liked

It heats up fast

Some say time is money, but I say time is pizza. And when a classic Neapolitan pie can cook in just a few minutes, I don't want to lose precious time to pre-heating my oven. Fortunately, the Gozney Arc Lite features a super lightweight pizza stone. At 12mm thick, the corderite stone heats up in record time.

Gozney suggests pre-heating at max strength for 20 minutes before cooking, so I dutifully left it to warm up while I stretched my bases and prepared my toppings. 15 minutes later, my infrared thermometer read 420°F / 215°C, which was perfect for cooking my thicker sourdough bases.

The flames come from the left side of the oven, so I was concerned that my pizza wouldn't cook evenly in the Arc Lite.

While I did turn my pizza throughout the cooking process, I didn't notice as significant a difference as I thought I would when looking at the side that cooked closer to the flame. This is because it rolls under the domed top of the oven to create a consistent heat. The result is a surprisingly forgiving oven, making it ideal for beginners.

It's so user-friendly

Just press the dial on the front of the Arc Lite to ignite and then twist to choose your desired intensity. Gozney advises that you use the red portion of the dial for Neapolitan-style pizzas with a thinner base. The higher heat will turn the moisture in this base to steam, leading to a chewy leopard-spotted crust. It's also great for searing foods like steak or prawns.

The blue section is designed for thicker bases, such as a New York-style pizza with a crispier crust, as well as deep-dish pies. I'd recommend using an infrared thermometer to check the temperature of your oven before and between cooking, but these are easily bought from the likes of Amazon.

It won't damage your furniture

I say this with a caveat: Gozney suggests that you don't use the Arc Lite on a combustible surface, which does feel like a sensible idea. I used mine on my long-serving patio table, lifting it easily from my storage container using the handles under each side of the oven.

While the top of the oven gets very hot, the underside doesn't. My table is a thin metal, so I touched the underside of it while my pizza cooked, and it wasn't even warm. Reassuring, but also impressive for an oven that can hit up to 930°F / 500°C.

You can cook more than pizza

Because of the open-mouth design of this oven, you can also use it to cook dishes in cast iron pans or baking trays. I used mine to pre-heat my Lodge cast iron until it was smoking, then added some prawns I'd tossed in ndjua paste. They cooked in a matter of minutes, and came out juicy and sizzling. So easy, and just as delicious as if I'd cooked them on the grill.

Gozney Arc Lite review: What I didn’t like

There's no temperature display

The Gozney Arc has a lovely full-color temperature display which allows you to easily track your oven at a glance. With the Arc Lite, you'll need to get more manual. I used an infrared thermometer to check that the oven was at my desired temperature, and that it was ready for more pies between uses, but it would have been nice of Gozney to keep the display for the Arc Lite.

You can't make XL pizza

This downside is baked into the concept of the Arc Lite, but for some people, the 12-inch capacity might feel limiting. Personally, I'm happy to stick to smaller pies in the Arc Lite, but if you've got the space and you want to experiment with larger pizzas, it might be safe to opt for the regular Arc oven.

Gozney Arc Lite review: Bottom line

If I didn't get to review this oven, I'd definitely have bought it. It's just as portable and compact as Gozney claims, can still kick up enough heat to make amazing pizza, and the price is right for an oven with these specs.

Sure, I'd have preferred if Gozney kept the display monitor it features on the Arc for this smaller model, but considering the $300 price difference between these two models, I can understand the rationale.

One day I'll escape from the city and live out my pizzaiolo dreams, but until then, the Arc Lite is staying firmly atop my patio table.