Ninja has numerous Ninja Auto iQ blenders on the market with the company’s signature feature. This isn’t an exhaustive list of Auto-iQ blenders as much as it is an exaustive list of Auto-iQ features currently found on various Ninja Blenders.
Not all Auto-iQ features are found on every Auto-iQ blender. Each blender only has a subset of the Auto-iQ features listed below.
What is Auto iQ?
Ninja’s Auto-iQ presets are optimized blend programs that allow you to create different types of blends with a single press of a button. Need to blend a smoothie, press the Smoothie button on your Ninja Auto iQ Blender. Want to whip up some homemade nut butter, press the Spread Auto-iQ button. It’s that easy!
Each Ninja Auto iQ Blender feature is preprogrammed to blend at a certain speed and periodically pause for certain intervals. It takes the guesswork out of blending. It also allows a user to press a button and walk away without managing the blend process.
Popular Ninja Auto iQ Blenders
Overview of the 10 most popular Ninja Auto iQ models on the market. Pick one that fits your needs to read our full review. If you aren’t sure what each Auto iQ preset does, see here.
| Blender | Auto iQ Presets | Read Review | |
| Ninja Foodi Smoothie Maker & Nutrient Extractor | Extract Smoothie Spread Bowl | Full Review → |
| Ninja Nutri Pro Compact Personal Blender | Crush Smoothie | Full Review → |
| Ninja Nutri Personal Countertop Blender | Blend Ultra Blend | Full Review → |
| Ninja Professional Plus Bender | Smoothie Ice Crush Ice Cream | Full Review → |
| Ninja Professional Plus Blender DUO | Smoothie Ice Crush Extract | (Coming Soon) |
| Ninja TWISTi Blender DUO | Extract Smoothie Frozen Spread Bowl | Full Review → |
| Ninja Foodi Power Blender & Processor System | Extract Smoothie Bowl Spread Chop Dough | Full Review → |
| Ninja Professional Plus Kitchen System | Smoothie Ice Crush Extract Chop Dough | Full Review → |
| Ninja Foodi Power Blender Ultimate System | Spread Bowl Extract Smoothie Chop Disc Dough | Full Review → |
| Nutri Ninja BL642 Personal and Countertop Blender | Frozen Drinks/Smoothies Food Puree Blend Ultra Blend Low/Dough (does not come with dough blade) | Full Review → |
Ninja Auto iQ Blender Presets
What do they all do?
Extract
From a Ninja user manual: “Ideal for tough, leafy, or fibrous whole fruits and vegetables, including their skins, seeds, and stems.”
Use the Auto-iQ extract setting when you are making drinks with room temperature produce and a liquid base like water, milk, fruit juice, or vegetable juice.
Smoothie
A Ninja user manual states that the Auto-iQ Smoothie feature is to “combine your favorite fresh or frozen ingredients, liquids, and powders to create smoothies and proteins shakes.”
You’ll want to use the Auto-iQ Smoothie option when working with frozen fruit or ice to create a thicker, more frozen-style beverage.
Spread Button
The Spread Auto-iQ feature is for creating “anything from spreadable nut butters to zesty dressing to the perfect hummus.” Use Spread when you need to make a thick but room temperature emulsification.
Bowl Button
Ninja states that that the Bowl Auto-iQ preset is to “make thick, spoonable smoothie bowls, creamy frozen yogurt, and refreshing sorbets.” This is a feature I personally use from time to time on my Ninja Foodi Power Nutri Duo because it does an great job on smoothie bowls.
A smoothie bowl is obviously similar to a smoothie but much thicker. If made properly you’ll need a spoon instead of a straw. The Bowl Auto-iQ feature is optimized to process thicker blends.
Crush/Ice Crush Button
From a Ninja user manual: “Turn ice, juices, and fruit into expertly blended frozen drinks.“
Use Crush or Ice Crush (depending upon what your Ninja blender has) to create frozen drinks. Think margaritas, daiquiris, and milk shakes. Any type of drink that is blending with ice or frozen ingredients can be created with this Auto-iQ preset.
Blend
From a Ninja user manual: “Pulses and blends fresh or softer ingredients to create smooth consistent results. Timer counts down.“
Use this setting if you are blending fruits or vegetables with water, juice, or some other liquid ingredient. If you are blending with ice or frozen ingredients, you’ll want to use Crush, Ice Crush, or Smoothie. Blend is, in my opinion, the same thing as Extract. Extract is just a fancier word for it. I consider Blend and Extract to be interchangeable.
Ultra Blend
From a Ninja user manual: Pulses and blends frozen, fibrous or hard ingredients to create smooth consistent results. Timer counts down.
Use this setting to create blends that require a bit more aggressive blending. Fibrous and hard ingredients can be hard to break down using the Blend setting. So the Ultra Blend gives the blender a bit more time to break down the ingredients.
Use can also use ultra blend to create creamy smoothies or milk shakes if your Auto-iQ blender doesn’t have those presets but it does contain the Ultra Blend preset.
Ice Cream Button
According to the Ninja user manual, use this Auto-iQ setting to mix things like fresh or frozen fruits, milk, yogurt, or protein shakes. The manual goes on to give a grand total of three recipes for this feature. One involves heavy cream and other ingredients frozen using ice cube trays.
Author’s Note: This setting only comes on the Ninja Professional Plus countertop blender, which we haven’t tested in a few years. Until we can get our hands on one again, we consider the Ice Cream setting to be almost identical to the Soothie setting.
Frozen
Similar if not the same setting as the Smoothie setting. This setting is designed to “crush ice, frozen fruits and vegetables in seconds.“
This program is designed for creating delicious drinks in a 72-ounce Pitcher. The stacked blades will crush ice, frozen fruits and vegetables in seconds, giving you a refreshing icy beverage!
Chop
From a Ninja user manual: “Timed pulses and pauses give you consistent chopping results. Run program once for a large chop, twice for a small chop and three times if you prefer to mince.“
Use the Chop preset to make coleslaw, mince onions, or chop vegetables.
Dough
The Dough setting is “used with the Dough Blade Assembly.” You’ll use it to, “create delicious dough for pizza, bread, and baked goods like cookies.”
It should be noted here that the Nutri Ninja BL642 Personal and Countertop Blender comes with a Low/Dough setting. However, the unit does not come with a dough mixing assembly. It’s confusing and to be honest they should have just left it at Low instead of throwing in the Dough.
Food Purée
The Ninja user manual states that the Food Purée Auto iQ setting is, “designed for making foods such as dips, hummus, baby food, or soups.” So, essentially, the Auto-iQ Food Purée and Spread setting does the same thing.
Disc
This Disc Auto iQ preset only comes on select Kitchen System blenders that have a disc assembly. It is used to “slice, shred and grate using a variety of fresh ingredients.”
For instance, you can grate or shred cheese, slice onions, etc.
Comparing Ninja Blender Auto iQ Presets
Some are the same settings with different labels. Some sound similar but are for different Auto iQthings. Let’s demystify the various Ninja Blender Auto iQ Presets.
Auto iQ Frozen vs Smoothie
The Frozen and Smoothie Auto iQ presets are used for the same thing and I consider them to be different names for the same thing. The image above is on a blender model where “Frozen Drinks” and “Smoothies” appear on the same button. Most likely, Ninja uses the different names to target different types of customers even thought the settings are the same.
Auto iQ Crush vs Ice Crush
These two Auto-iQ presets are the same thing. Some Ninja Auto iQ blenders call it “Crush” and some call it “Ice Crush” but they are the same thing.
Ninja Intellisense vs Ninja Auto-iQ
Ninja’s Intelli-Sense technology allows the motor base to detect the type of container which then enables specific blending functions for that base. For example, placing a food processor container onto the base enables different functions than, say, a full-sized pitcher.
This is different from Ninja Auto-iQ in that Auto-iQ is simply a pre-programmed blend program with pre-determined pauses, timing, and length of blend.
Extract vs Smoothie
Use Ninja’s Extract button to blend fruits, vegetables, etc. with liquids such as milk, water, or juice. If you want to blend frozen fruits or fruits with chunks of ice, then use the Smoothie feature.
My blender is stuck with the chop and dough button on at the same time. I can use the settings below. (Low,med,high,pulse), but can’t seem to to other settings. I have tried what the owners manual describes without success. Any suggestions? Thanks.