Ninja’s newest countertop gadget, the Swirl by CREAMi, has been one of the buzziest small appliances of the year — a machine that promises both scoopable, hard-packed ice cream and true soft-serve from the same box. After launching earlier this year at $349.99, the Swirl has quietly hit its lowest price yet: $299.99 at Amazon and Target (and about $306.99 at Best Buy), marking the first meaningful discount since the product debuted in February.

Ninja Swirl ice cream maker

This is the lowest price yet for the Ninja Swirl ice cream maker, now $299.99 for the first time since its release.

$300 at Amazon

$300 at Target

$307 at Best Buy

If you’ve followed Ninja’s Creami line, the big selling point has always been flexibility: dial in recipes for indulgent scooped ice cream, or use lighter bases for lower-calorie, high-protein or dairy-free desserts. The Swirl takes that promise a step further by adding a built-in soft-serve dispensing mechanism — so you can churn a pint and either scoop it straight away or attach a nozzle and pull a proper swirled cone. That soft-serve functionality is the headline feature here, and it’s what sets the Swirl apart from many other home machines on the market.

The Swirl uses the same workflow as the rest of the Creami family: you mix your base, pour it into one of the supplied pint containers, freeze that container solid (Ninja and retailer pages recommend freezing the pint overnight — roughly 24 hours — to reach the right temperature), then mount the frozen pint to the machine and run a churn program. For soft-serve, you first spin the base in the Swirl, then attach the pint’s nozzle and pull the handle; the machine dispenses a three-speed soft-serve swirl. It’s simple on paper, but it does require freezer planning — you’ll need room to store pints for a day before you can serve.

There are cheaper soft-serve machines — notably the Cuisinart ICE-48 series — but they don’t replicate the Swirl’s whole-product promise. Cuisinart’s ICE-48 and similar soft-serve units are focused on quick soft-serve output (they rely on a frozen bowl or a compressor design) and don’t have the Creami-style pint workflow that yields scoopable, hard-packed ice cream the way the Swirl does. Put bluntly: if you want the option to make both scoopable, dense pints and soft-serve cones from the same device, the Swirl is one of the few mass-market machines built to do both.

A few buyer tips before you click “buy”

• Freezer space is everything: the Swirl requires pints to be frozen to a tight temperature window (retailer and manufacturer notes recommend freezing to between about 9°F and −7°F and often cite a 24-hour freeze). Plan for at least a day’s lead time.
• Recipes transfer: one advantage to the Swirl being part of the Creami family is compatibility — existing Creami recipes (including non-dairy and high-protein formulas) will work with the Swirl. That’s helpful if you’ve already been collecting Creami recipes on TikTok or recipe hubs.
• Size and cleanup: it’s not small. The Swirl has a larger footprint than the original Creami machines, and most removable parts (pints, paddle, nozzle) are dishwasher-safe — still, factor in storage and cleanup if counter real estate is scarce.

If you were waiting for a discount and you value the combination of scoopable pints and real soft-serve, this is as good a time as any: the current sub-$300 price is the lowest yet and the first clear sale since the product’s February debut. If your priority is only cheap soft-serve or you want instant, compressor-style “no pre-freeze” convenience, there are other (cheaper or more instant) machines — but few of them double as a Creami-compatible hard-pack maker.

Ninja doubled down on versatility with the Swirl — and for the first time since launch, you can get that versatility without paying the full $350 premium. If you’ve been wondering whether to upgrade your weekend-dessert routine, $299.99 is a sensible place to start.

Disclaimer: Prices and promotions mentioned in this article are accurate at the time of writing and are subject to change based on the retailers’ discretion. Please verify the current offer before making a purchase.