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Head-to-head · Best Paper Shredders

Amazon Basics 8-Sheet Micro Cut Paper Shredder vs Fellowes Powershred 99Ci

Which is the better buy? Side-by-side on rating, price, strengths, and watch-outs — with the published ratings we averaged to get there.

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The short answer

Fellowes Powershred 99Ci comes out ahead by a clear margin (4.7 vs 3.9). Fellowes Powershred 99Ci is best for: A shared office that shreds daily and does not need micro-cut security. Read the strengths below before deciding.

Amazon Basics 8-Sheet Micro Cut Paper Shredder
Ranked #4 in Best Paper Shredders
Amazon Basics 8-Sheet Micro Cut Paper Shredder
1 source$75as of Oct 17

A micro-cut shredder rated for eight sheets, with a 4-gallon pull-out bin and a separate CD slot. Wirecutter names it its budget pick, reporting that it never jammed on junk mail, credit cards or CDs and outperformed some models at twice the price. TechGearLab gives it its Best Bang for the Buck award, found it shreds 10 to 11 sheets despite the 8-sheet rating, and scored it 68/100, marking it down mainly for speed. It suits households with light, intermittent shredding; anyone clearing large backlogs should look elsewhere, because it stops after five minutes and needs a 30-minute rest.

Strengths
  • — Micro-cut blades handle paper, credit cards and CDs; Wirecutter saw it never jam
  • — Shreds beyond its 8-sheet rating: TechGearLab fed 10-sheet stacks easily and 11 with a slowdown
  • — Very small 0.18 x 0.5 in shreds, the highest-security cut in TechGearLab's comparison
Watch-outs
  • — Runs only five minutes before a 30-minute cooldown, so it suits light, occasional jobs
  • — Slow: 41 sheets per minute at most and 9 seconds for a single sheet in TechGearLab's tests
  • — Cutters kept running for almost a minute after the last sheet, a concern around toddlers
$75 · Check Price on AmazonFull review →
Fellowes Powershred 99Ci
Higher ratedRanked #2 in Best Paper Shredders
Fellowes Powershred 99Ci
2 sources$299.99as of Oct 11

The Powershred 99Ci is a shared-office cross-cut shredder rated for 18 sheets a pass and 30 minutes of continuous running. PCMag made it an Editors' Choice in 2017, reporting no jams and unusually low noise, and TechGearLab ranked it 3rd of 15 shredders it tested. Forbes Vetted named it the best paper shredder overall in 2026. It is cross-cut rather than micro-cut, so PCMag advises against it for genuinely secret documents, and at $299.99 and 36 pounds it is a lot of machine for a single desk.

Strengths
  • — Rated for 18 sheets per pass with a 30-minute continuous run time before a 40-minute cooldown — PCMag called that "impressively long" in its 2017 test
  • — PCMag reported no jams at all in testing, and shredded plastic cards, staples, CDs and DVDs alongside paper
  • — Unusually quiet for its class: PCMag noted most shredders are "loud enough to be disruptive to nearby workers, but not the 99Ci"
Watch-outs
  • — Cross-cut, not micro-cut: PCMag was explicit that it is "not secure enough for secret documents"
  • — Large and heavy — 36.4 lb and roughly the footprint of a large kitchen wastebasket, per TechGearLab
  • — Expensive at $299.99, and PCMag measured 13.1 ft/min — good, but slower than its Editors' Choice pick at the time
$299.99 · Check Price on AmazonFull review →

How they stack up

Amazon Basics 8-Sheet Micro Cut Paper Shredder

At about $75 it costs well under half the Aurora AU120MA, which Wirecutter credits with a 120-sheet auto feeder and a 5-gallon bin against this model's hand-fed 8-sheet slot and 4-gallon bin. Unlike the Fellowes Powershred 99Ci and 79Ci, which the page lists for buyers who do not need micro-cut security, this is a micro-cut machine, but its five-minute run time makes it a poor fit for the high-volume jobs those models are listed for.

Fellowes Powershred 99Ci

The 99Ci is the heavy-duty option in this category: more sheets per pass and far more continuous run time than the desk-side models, at roughly five times the price and three times the weight.

Specs side-by-side

SpecAmazon Basics 8-Sheet Micro Cut Paper ShredderFellowes Powershred 99Ci
Cut TypeMicro-cut (0.18 x 0.5 in)Cross-cut, 5/32" x 1-1/2"
Rated Sheet Capacity8 sheets—
Bin Capacity4 gallons (15 litres)9 gallons (approx. 550 sheets), pull-out bin
Run Time5 minutes, 30-minute cooldown30 minutes continuous, 40-minute cooldown
ShredsPaper, credit cards, CDs—
Dimensions13.2 x 8.9 x 18.1 in25.19" H x 11.44" W x 17.31" D
Weight14.2 lb36.4 lb
Sheet Capacity—18 sheets per pass
Security Level—P-4
Also Shreds—Staples, paper clips, credit cards, CDs and DVDs, junk mail
Warranty—2-year machine, lifetime cutters
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