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Keep Your Laptop Cool With The Best Laptop Cooling Pads

The ability to use a laptop from almost anywhere is a huge advantage, but have you ever tried to put a warm laptop on your legs for an extended period of time? It’s not a great experience, but luckily it’s one that you can easily resolve. Adding one of the best laptop cooling pads to your lap (or desk) can help keep the laptop running cooler which may even help extend the life of it. Our favorite laptop cooling pad, the Targus 17-Inch Dual Fan Lap Chill Mat, is perfect for most users who need something basic.

Some laptop cooling stands, like the IETS GT600 and Klim KN01, are high-performance coolers that lower the temperature of powerful gaming machines. Others carry more professional-looking designs better-suited for office use, like the Soundance Laptop Cooling Pad. Whatever the reason you’re searching, here are the best laptop cooling pads you can buy today.

Best Laptop Cooling Pad Overall

Comfortable, Quiet And Effective

MOST POPULAR

Targus 17-Inch Dual Fan Lap Chill Mat

Laptop Compatibility: 10 - 17-inch | Fans: 2 x 90 mm | Weight: 2.1 pounds | Fan control: No | Ports: 0

Best for: Lightweight, convenient and unobtrusive cooling.

Pros:

  • Attractive design
  • Comfortable to place on your lap
  • Effective, quiet cooling

Cons:

  • No additional ports or USB passthrough
  • No fan speed controls

The Targus 17-Inch Dual Fan Lap Chill Mat is lightweight and comfortable, with effective, quiet cooling, and an attractive, understated design. It doesn’t have any direct fan controls and lacks additional ports, but it only takes a single USB-A connection to power it up. The mat lifts your laptop, helping it sit at a comfortable angle as well as providing some additional room for added cooling.

The dual fans on the underside of the main metal surface provide sufficient cooling for a typical laptop, especially larger ones with a vented underside. This cooler supports laptops up to 17 inches in size. With its compact, attractive design, you can easily sit this on your lap and avoid cooking your thighs while on your laptop.

What the reviews say: One Amazon customer says, “This works exactly how I wanted it. I always have my laptop on it. It plugs in with one USB-A cable for power, and runs very quietly. When I am gaming, it dissipates heat very well and keeps my lap cool. It’s a great size for my 16-inch laptop. It also gives great peace of mind when setting the computer down on my bed and blankets, even on the floor—I know it won’t overheat. I recommend you try it.”


Best Cheap Laptop Cooling Pad

Save Big Without Sacrificing Cooling

Kootek Laptop Cooling Pad

Laptop Compatibility: 12 - 17-inch | Fans: 1 x 150 mm, 5 x 70 mm | Weight: 2.6 pounds | Fan control: On/Off | Ports: 2 x USB-A

Best for: Cooling on a tight budget.

Pros:

  • Affordable but effective cooling
  • Basic fan controls let you manage noise and performance
  • Useful USB ports

Cons:

  • No fan speed control
  • Cheap feel

The Kootek Laptop Cooling Pad is a great budget cooler with five fans and the ability to turn them on and off as you need them. It has flashy blue LED lighting (you can also disable the lighting if you prefer), and it has a USB hub built-in for powering additional accessories. The stand is ergonomic and adjustable to six different heights, so you can get the right setup just for you.

You can turn on the larger central fan for quieter cooling. When you need added performance, turn on the additional 70 mm fans for some extra airflow. This allows the overall design to be relatively quiet, though the smaller fans can get a little loud when spun up. The overall design is a little cheap feeling, with brittle plastic used throughout, but if you want to cool your laptop down without spending much, this is a great option.

What the reviews say: One Amazon customer says, “My laptop was getting hot sitting on my desk and table. When I started working from home and it was on the table, the fan started running more I saw this on Amazon so I decided to try it. This has made a huge difference—the fan hardly comes on. This plugs into your laptop and it raises it up, too. I love it.”


Best Laptop Cooling Pad For Big Laptops

Big And Bright

Thermaltake Massive 20 RGB

Laptop Compatibility: 10 - 19-inch | Fans: 1 x 200 mm | Weight: 3.38 pounds | Fan control: Fan speed | Ports: No

Best for: Cooling even the largest laptops.

Pros:

  • Large, quiet cooling fan
  • Fan speed controls built-in
  • RGB lighting effects look cool

Cons:

  • More expensive than most laptop coolers
  • Bulky

If you have a big laptop, the Thermaltake Massive 20 RGB is a great option for a laptop cooling pad. Technically it supports up to, “19-inch laptops,” so it can fit any laptop to place atop it—including the forthcoming wave of 18-inch laptops. It features a single, 200 mm fan that moves a lot of air in near silence, so you can keep your laptop cool without increasing noise levels. Direct fan controls let you raise the speed if you want more cooling, or you can lower the speed for quieter operation.

Nifty RGB lighting along the sides make it easy to customize the look and feel of your laptop cooler—just hit the RGB button to change the color profile. It has small extender feet that lets you raise your laptop up for more comfortable use, and the whole device folds flat for travel and weighs just over three pounds.

What the reviews say: One Amazon customer says, “The best thing about this laptop cooling pad is that it is not noisy. I’ve had a few others over the years and this is whisper quiet. The other great feature about this pad is that it works for all different kinds of laptops. Apparently I have different vents on each of my laptops—some are just vents at the top half, some require a side vent and others are in the center. This laptop pad works well with all of them. That was not the case with the other models I’ve used in the past, so be mindful of where your vents are before choosing. (I didn’t think of it the first time and had to do a return so I am sharing my experience.) Another cool feature is the lights. I usually keep it off but my kids seem to like toggling between the color change mode or the solid electric blue. Great glow.”


Best Gaming Laptop Cooling Pad

Serious Cooling Performance

IETS GT600 Turbofan

Laptop Compatibility: 14 - 19-inch | Fans: 1 x 2800 RPM Turbine | Weight: 2.9 pounds | Fan control: Fan speed | Ports: 3 x USB-A 2.0

Best for: Keeping high-performance gaming laptops cool.

Pros:

  • Very capable cooling
  • Fan speed controls let you fine tune performance to noise
  • Quieter and more efficient than older versions

Cons:

  • Quite expensive
  • Still noisy at top speeds

Gaming laptops are often big, loud and run hot. While a laptop cooler can’t do much about the first two, the IETS GT600 can do a lot about its temperature. With a turbofan that can spin up to close to 3,000 RPM and a smart design that builds on the success of its predecessor, the IETS GT600 is the fastest, best laptop cooling pad for gaming laptops out there. It needs bottom intakes on the laptop to be its most efficient, but is compatible with a wide range of sizes, from 14 inches to 19 inches. It’s so effective that many fans of it report drops in GPU temperatures by up to 20 degrees, leading to better performance and a more capable laptop.

It’s loud, though a lot quieter than its predecessors, and its lack of 13-inch laptop support is a shame, but the older GT500 can do that if you have a smaller gaming machine. But this new version also sports new USB ports, fancy RGB lighting (if you get the V2 version) and an HD display with controls for adjusting fan speed and lighting. It’s expensive, and loud, but if you want to cool down a powerful laptop, there’s nothing quite like the IETS GT600.

What the reviews say: One Amazon customer says, “The fan is no joke. It blows hard and and the lighting is pretty good. It goes up to 2800 RPM and sounds like a vacuum cleaner, but I would typically have it at around 1200 rpm and it’s not bad. I imagine in the future I’ll need it to go that fast, but not now. I love it.”


Best Affordable High Power Laptop Cooling Pad

Turbofans For Under $50

Klim KN01 RGB

Laptop Compatibility: 15 - 17.3-inch | Fans: 2 x 3600 RPM Turbine | Weight: 2.4 pounds | Fan control: Fan speed | Ports: 2 x USB-A 2.0

Best for: Keeping high-performance gaming laptops cool at an affordable price.

Pros:

  • High cooling performance
  • Affordably priced
  • Sturdy build

Cons:

  • Lacks performance of more expensive turbofan designs
  • Only supports larger laptops

High powered laptop cooling doesn’t have to be expensive. The Klim KN01 is a turbofan laptop cooler with twin fans, generating massive airflow over and around your laptop to help cool it down significantly—and it does this for less than three figures. You have full control over fan speeds so you can turn it down when you don’t need such high-end performance and noise levels (because it is loud), and there’s RGB lighting to help augment the look of your laptop.

It’s only compatible with larger laptops between 15 and 17 inches but it’s built solidly to accommodate that with great durability and impressive build quality. It also enjoys built-in dust filters which can help keep your laptop from becoming clogged with dust, and they are easy to take apart and clean for ongoing maintenance.

If you want even more cooling power and don’t mind spending more for it, the Klim Mistral is the latest version of this laptop cooling pad design and it increases fan speeds to 4500 RPM. It is louder, though, and more expensive.

What the reviews say: One Amazon customer says, “The Klim KN01 RGB was my direct upgrade for a laptop cooler. It has 4 levels of cooling, and I am able to literally watch the temperature go down a Celsius a second on the max power, which is dead quiet. When I first purchased the product, I had received a lemon, but Klim’s customer service is astounding. They replaced the whole unit for absolutely no charge. 10/10 would buy again.”


Best Laptop Cooling Pad For Business

Well Built, With A Professional Look

Soundance Laptop Cooling Pad

Laptop Compatibility: 10 - 17-inch | Fans: 1 x 140 mm | Weight: 3.6 pounds | Fan control: No | Ports: 4 x USB-A

Best for: A smart and professional aesthetic.

Pros:

  • Professional, clean look
  • Quality metal construction
  • Various ergonomic height options

Cons:

  • Limited cooling performance
  • No fan controls

The Soundance laptop cooling pad features a modest cooling fan and several ergonomic stances so you can adjust the slant and position of your laptop for comfortable typing and posture. It has a clean, professional look, with a metallic frame that is far sturdier and feels more premium than most laptop cooling pads. It also has four USB ports on the rear, giving you the option of plugging in a range of accessories, and is powered by a single USB-A cable that connects to your laptop.

The metal design makes this laptop cooler heavier than most, but it’s still not heavy. The fan doesn’t have any controls, but at 140 mm, it should stay quiet throughout most of your day. If you want a cooling pad for your office machine, this is a great choice.

What the reviews say: One Amazon customer says, “This is it, folks. This is the cooling pad to get. My 2018 MacBook Pro overheated just doing everyday work. It stays cool now and I don’t ever feel it getting hot. You can’t beat the value here. It also doubles as a standard USB hub with 4 inputs that can be used for a mouse, keyboard, drive and more. It’s perfect for me since I didn’t research this MacBook and didn’t realize there wasn’t a USB-A port. The customer service is also great—very helpful, quick to reply and accommodating. This seller really stands apart from the sea of other sellers with bad products and no support. Five stars, no question.”


Why Trust Forbes Vetted

  • The Forbes Vetted tech team consists of accomplished tech experts who’ve (literally) written books on the subject. In particular, this story was written by contributors Jon Martindale and Jared DiPane.
  • Contributor Jon Martindale’s background is rooted in tech journalism, including performing a stint as the owner of a PC hardware review site. Now, he shares his passion for cutting-edge tech by regularly covering and reviewing hardware and accessories, including guides on the best Chromebooks and best gaming keyboards.
  • Contributor Jared DiPane has been featured on CNET, Android Police, iMore, Android Central, Digital Trends and more. He has been in the consumer tech space for over 10 years, covering mobile, computing and everything in between.
  • The tech section is overseen by consumer tech editor Rebecca Isaacs, who spearheads tech coverage at Forbes Vetted.
  • We know tech tends to become quickly outdated. To keep this piece fresh and accurate, it’s regularly updated; its current iteration was published in May 2024 to include the Targus 17-Inch Dual Fan Lap Chill Mat and add buying advice.


How We Chose The Best Laptop Cooling Pads

  • When assembling this list of the best laptop cooling pads, we based our picks on firsthand experience and expert knowledge of the laptop space.
  • We also extensively researched each model on this list, and features including size, connectivity and design were carefully considered.
  • To make the cut, each pick had to present an excellent value, balancing features and cost; we also browsed customer reviews to make sure the majority of buyers were happy with their purchase.
  • Further, we made sure to include a variety of price points, pad sizes and features in order to offer a solid laptop cooling pad for every type of laptop user.


How To Choose The Best Laptop Cooling Pad

Power Source

You’ll want to make sure that you know where you anticipate using the laptop cooling pad the most, so that you can pick one with the correct power method. Some of them require you to be able to plug it in to a wall outlet, which can limit where you’re able to use it. Others will offer more flexibility since they are USB-powered, but that means that your laptop will likely die a bit faster depending how long you use the cooling pad for—especially if you don’t plug your laptop in

Design

The best laptop cooling pads come in a bunch of different designs, and not all of them are meant to be used everywhere. Our top pick, the Targus 17-Inch Dual Fan Lap Chill Mat, is able to be used on a desk or in your lap, where the pick for business professionals, the Soundance Laptop Cooling Pad, is better designed for lap use than on a desk surface.

Speed Controls

Some of the best laptop cooling pads will offer control over how fast the fans move, while others only operate at a single speed. In most cases, having several fan speed options is better, especially if you’ll be using your laptop for extended periods of time.