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Before you make that cautious, white-knuckled first drive home with your new baby, you need to be armed with the proper equipment.
You can use an infant car seat from a child’s birth until they measure around 30 inches or weigh around 30 to 35 pounds. The seat is likely to be in the mix until the child is between 9 months and 2 years of age, though this varies by family.
All infant seats sold in the US are required to meet the same safety standards. But since there are more than 60 models available to choose from, navigating the purchase can be daunting. We’ve spent the past seven years consulting safety experts, scouring reviews, talking to fellow caregivers, and putting our top contenders to the test in the real world. After testing three new infant car seats in the second half of 2024, we’ve settled on four infant car seats that do the best job of providing a safe and comfortable experience for you and your precious cargo. The Graco SnugRide SnugFit 35 DLX remains our long-time top pick, the Chicco KeyFit 35 is our runner-up, the Uppababy Aria is our new upgrade pick, and the Clek Liing is the best for people who want the security of a rigid-LATCH install. The KeyFit 30, a former pick in this guide, is still a good choice if you’re looking for an economical car seat.
An infant car seat is a bucket-like carrier that secures a baby with a five-point harness. It is designed to face the rear of the car, and the bucket carrier clicks in and out of a base that stays installed in the back seat. (The seats in the photograph above are shown clicked into their bases.) You install the bases using either the vehicle’s seat belt or the LATCH (Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children) system, which lets you attach a pair of metal hooks built into the base to a set of anchors built into the car. You can buy multiple bases, so you can use the same bucket carrier in different cars without having to reinstall anything. You can also install the seat on its own with just a seat belt (no base), if, say, you’re traveling or taking a taxi.
The best infant car seat – Graco SnugRide SnugFit 35 DLX
The Graco SnugRide SnugFit 35 DLX provides the total package of user-friendliness, quality, and value. It’s one of the simplest infant car seats to install when you’re using the base, whether you install it with a seat belt or the LATCH method. This stylish seat has some bells and whistles usually reserved for pricier models, including a removable seat pad (for quicker cleanup), harness straps that you don’t have to undo and rethread to adjust, and one-handed handle adjustment. It also has the added safety feature of an anti-rebound base (a metal bar built into the base of the seat), which can help limit the amount the seat rotates (or rebounds) after the initial impact of a crash.
At 10½ pounds, the SnugRide SnugFit 35 DLX is the heaviest of our picks. But our testers didn’t think it was too heavy to carry comfortably, and we found it was easy to operate and to click in and out of its base. The only real drawback is that we found its no-base, seat-belt-only install tricky to pull off; we had difficulty getting the seat in snugly (a common problem with infant seats that have an American belt-path configuration). Most people prefer to use the base with their infant seat anyway, so this may not be an issue for you. Also, compared with some of our other picks, the SnugRide SnugFit 35 DLX isn’t as compatible with as many strollers from various brands.
Seat weight (without base): 10½ pounds
Dimensions: 27½ inches long, 17½ inches wide, 25½ inches tall
Baby height, weight limits: 32 inches, 35 pounds
A solid, tried-and-true infant car seat – Chicco KeyFit 35
The Chicco KeyFit 35 is simple and intuitive to install, particularly when you’re installing the base with the LATCH system. It’s also easy to install the base with the seat belt, but you need to use some force to get the base in tightly (we had to sit on the base to apply enough pressure). Like our top pick, the KeyFit 35 comes with the added safety feature of an anti-rebound base. And like our other picks, the Clek Liing and the Uppababy Aria, the KeyFit 35 has a European belt path, which allows you to install the seat more securely when you’re not using the base—a major plus for families that frequently travel or take taxis. This seat also has a convenient no-rethread harness (similar to the Graco seat’s). The KeyFit 35’s main downside is that, at full price, it costs more than the SnugRide SnugFit 35 DLX. The Chicco KeyFit 30, a former pick, is a good choice if you want a slightly less-expensive seat, but it does not have a European belt path, and it has a weight limit of 30 pounds.
Seat weight (without base): 10 pounds
Dimensions: 28 inches long, 16½ inches wide, 24 inches tall
Baby height, weight limits: 32 inches, 35 pounds
A lightweight seat with extra safety features – Uppababy Aria
The Uppababy Aria is an extremely lightweight, simple-to-install car seat with lots of safety upgrades. At just 6 pounds, this infant seat is one of the lightest models available—it weighs a full 4½ pounds less than our top pick, the Graco seat. The internal ratcheting mechanism makes the Aria easy to install with LATCH. And if you’re installing it without the base, the Aria seat has a European belt path, which provides a tighter fit than you can get with the American belt path. Plus, it has an anti-rebound base as well as a load leg (a metal support rod that sits between the car seat and the vehicle floor; in an accident, the load leg absorbs some of the initial impact of the crash and limits the amount that the seat can move). The Aria has an extra-large sun canopy, as well as a no-rethread harness. The baby height and weight limits (up to 30 inches and 30 pounds) are lower than those of our other picks.
Seat weight (without base): 6 pounds
Dimensions: 24½ inches long, 17 inches wide, 18½ inches tall
Baby height, weight limits: 30 inches, 30 pounds