Screenshot of the Instant Pot app on iOS, displaying its -Activating Your Smart WiFi- page.

How to Set Up Instant Pot Smart WiFi Pressure Cooker

When you get a new Instant Pot, it’s so tempting to just dive right in and make the best tasting recipes around, in the shortest time.  But note that this electric pressure cooker need some preps before you can use it to fullest advantage.  If you take the time to learn how to connect it to the internet, you’ll then be able to monitor and control the cooking remotely, from anywhere that you have internet access.  So in this piece, we show how to set up Instant Pot smart WiFi pressure cooker, covering how to get it online using its companion Instant Pot app.

Summary of How to Set Up Instant Pot Smart WiFi Pressure Cooker

  1. Plug your Instant Pot into AC Power
  2. Put it into APP Mode
  3. Connect Mobile Device to 2.4 Ghz WiFi Network with Internet Access
  4. Install the Instant Pot App
  5. Run the Instant Pot App
  6. Select your Instant Pot Model
  7. Create a New Instant Pot Online Account in the App
  8. Allow the App to Send you Notifications
  9. Name your Pot and Create a Password for It
  10. Connect your Smart WiFi Instant Pot to your WiFi Network
  11. Select your Instant Pot Model — Pick the Smart WiFi Cooker
  12. Begin Using your Pressure Cooker

How to Set Up Instant Pot Smart WiFi Pressure Cooker, Detailed Instructions

1. Unpack your Instant Pot and Connect it to AC Power

Picture of the Smart WiFi Instant Pot, plugged in and powered ON.
Smart WiFi Instant Pot, plugged in and powered ON.

2. Put the Cooker into APP Mode

Set the Instant Pot to APP (ready for setup) operation by pressing the Pressure Level button for approx. ten seconds.

You should then see the the word APP on the LCD display, as shown next.

Picture of the The Instant Smart WiFi Pot, front view, showing what the LCD screen looks like when the cooker is in APP mode, and ready for WiFi setup.
The Instant Smart WiFi Pot, front view, showing what the LCD screen looks like when the cooker is in APP mode, and ready for WiFi setup.

3. Connect Your Mobile Device to the Same 2.4 Ghz. WiFi Network you Plan to Connect your Instant Pot To

The Instant Pot app transfers the WiFi network credentials for the network your mobile device is currently connected to, to the Instant Pot’s memory during setup.  The pot does not scan for available WiFi networks the way many other smart devices do.  Instead, it relies on your mobile device to do the scanning, and then to tell it which network it should log into.  This means that your mobile device as well as the Instant Pot, must be in range of the WiFi network you desire. It also means that before you begin the Smart WiFi Instant Pot setup proper, you must connect your mobile device to that same wireless network.





Note also that this Instant Pot can only connect to 2.4 Ghz. wireless G WiFi networks. So, be sure to log your mobile device into 2.4 Ghz. WiFi before you proceed to the next step.

The network you choose should also have internet access.

4. Install the Instant Pot App to your Mobile Device to Continue with How to Set Up Instant Pot Smart WiFi

The app is named Instant Pot, and is available on both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.  Note that the app that controls  this  Instant Pot is a different app than that for the Bluetooth version of this pressure cooker.  So be sure you install the correct app.  We’ve included an App Store screenshot next, that shows exactly what the download page for the Instant Pot app looks like.

Screenshot of the App Store, showing the correct Instant Pot app to use with the Smart WiFi pressure cooker.
Instant Pot app in the App Store, circled.

The right app has a red and white icon with a picture of an Instant Pot inside its red boundary.

5. Find the Instant Pot App Once Installed

You may run it right from the App Store page after installation finishes.  Or, yo can pick it up later by finding in your mobile device Home pages.  We’re running this demo on an iPad Air tablet, and we found the Instant Pot app on the recent used app shortcuts bar, as pointed at by the green arrow in the next picture.

Screenshot of the iOS -Home- page with the -Instant Pot- app icon highlighted.
The iOS -Home- page with the -Instant Pot- app icon highlighted.

 

6. Run the Instant Pot App

Tap the Instant Pot app icon to start it up.

You then should see the app’s Welcome screen, as shown in the next picture.

Screenshot of the Instant Pot app on iOS, displaying its -Welcome- page, with the -Continue- button highlighted.
Instant Pot app on iOS, displaying its -Welcome- page, with the -Continue- button highlighted.

7. Tap the  Continue  Button to Move Forward with How to Set Up Instant Pot Smart WiFi

Touching Continue brings up the  Select Model  screen, as shown next.

Screenshot of the Instant Pot app on iOS, showing its -Select your Instant Pot Model- screen, with the -Smart WiFi- model highlighted.
Instant Pot app on iOS, showing its -Select your Instant Pot Model- screen, with the -Smart WiFi- model highlighted.

8. Tap the  Smart WiFi  Icon

Find the Smart WiFi cooker in the list of Instant Pots that the app presents to you, as shown in the last screenshot above.  The  Smart WiFi  Instant Pot is pointed at by the green arrow in that picture.





Touching the  Smart WiFi  model brings up the  Connect Smart WiFi  screen, as shown next.

Screen shot of the Instant Pot app on iOS, showing its -Connect Smart WiFi- page, with the -Continue- button highlighted.
Instant Pot app on iOS, showing its -Connect Smart WiFi- page, with the -Continue- button highlighted.

9. Tap the  Continue  Button

Find the  Continue  button near the center of the screen, but just a little bit closer to the bottom.

Touching Continue then brings up the first   Your Account  screen, as pictured next.

Screenshot of the Instant Pot app on iOS, displaying its -Your Account- page, with the -Continue- button highlighted.
Instant Pot app on iOS, displaying its -Your Account- page, with the -Continue- button highlighted.

The Your Account page tells us that we must sign up to connect your Instant Pot to the internet.

10. Again, Tap the  Continue  Button to Continue with How to Set Up Instant Pot Smart WiFi

This time, the   Continue   button is almost exactly in the center of the  Your Account  page.

When you tap it, you should get the  Create Your Account   page, as shown next.

Screenshot of the Instant Pot app on iOS, showing its -Create Your Account- page, with the -Sign Up- and -Sign In- links highlighted
Instant Pot app on iOS, showing its -Create Your Account- page, with the -Sign Up- and -Sign In- links highlighted.

Now if you already have an account, tap the Sign In link near the bottom center of the Create Your Account page shown in the last picture.  Then, skip ahead to step   14.  If not though, continue on with the next step.

11. Enter your Name, Email Address, and Password you Want for the New Account

After you type in this info, your screen should look something like the following.  Note that we’ve blanked out the name and email address we used.  But you can till that these fields are indeed filled in.

Screenshot of the Instant Pot app on iOS, displaying its -Create Your Account- screen with the new account Info boxes filled in. The -Sign Up- button is highlighted.
Instant Pot app on iOS, displaying its -Create Your Account- screen with the new account Info boxes filled in. The -Sign Up- button is highlighted.

12. Tap the   Sign Up   Button

Once you enter your preferred email address, password, and name to use to create the new Instant Pot account, touch the  Sign Up  button, found just beneath the center of the screen, as pointed at by the green arrow in the last screenshot.





The app then displays the   Consent Notice   page, as shown next.

Screenshot of the Instant Pot app on iOS, displaying its -Consent Notice- prompt, with the -I Agree- link highlighted.
Instant Pot app on iOS, displaying its -Consent Notice- prompt, with the -I Agree- link highlighted.

Read over the agreement, and if you do agree with the terms of service documented, then move on to the next step.  If you don’t, then exit the app.  Note that you’ll still be able to use your Instant Pot.  But if you don’t complete setup, you won’t be able to use the remote access features that agreeing to these terms affords you.

13. Tap the   I Agree  Link to Continue with How to Set Up Instant Pot Smart WiFi

This link is red in color, formed from rather small print. So it may be difficult to find if you’re vision impaired or using a screen reader.  However, you can find it just left of center screen, about one third the way down from the top of the screen.

At any rate, touching the   I Agree  option brings up the   Signup Complete  window, as pictured next.

Screenshot of the Instant Pot app on iOS, showing its -Signup Complete- window, with the -OK- button highlighted.
Instant Pot app on iOS, showing its -Signup Complete- window, with the -OK- button highlighted.

14. Tap the  OK  Link

The OK link is very close to center screen, but just a hair beneath it.

Touching  OK  then brings up the  Instant Pot Would Like to Send You Notifications   window, as shown next.

Screenshot of the Instant Pot app on iOS, showing its-Send Notifications Prompt for Permission- window, with the -Allow- button highlighted.
Instant Pot app on iOS, showing its-Send Notifications Prompt for Permission- window, with the -Allow- button highlighted.

15. Tap the   Allow   Link

Find the   Allow  link a little to the right of center screen in the screenshot above, pointed at by the green arrow.

Following the  Allow   link brings up the   Secure and Name Pot   page, as shown next.

Screenshot of the Instant Pot app on iOS, displaying its -Secure and Name Pot- page.
Instant Pot app on iOS, displaying its -Secure and Name Pot- page.

16.  Enter a PIN code for your Instant Pot Smart WiFi Cooker

Enter a security key that’s at least six characters long.  We made the mistake of entering just four characters, as shown next.  The  Continue  button remained unavailable.

Screenshot of the Instant Pot app on iOS, showing its -Secure and Name Pot- screen, with all fields filled in.
Instant Pot app on iOS, showing its -Secure and Name Pot- screen, with all fields filled in.

But once we chose a six character password, the button brightened, as shown next, and we were then able to move on to the next step.

Screenshot of the Instant Pot app on iOS, displaying its -Secure and Name Pot- Page, with the entered PIN long enough filled in, and the -Continue- button highlighted
Instant Pot app on iOS, displaying its -Secure and Name Pot- Page, with the entered PIN long enough filled in, and the -Continue- button highlighted.

17. Touch the   Continue   Button to Continue with How to Set Up Instant Pot Smart WiFi

Find the  Continue  button exactly in the center of the screen above, as pointed at by the green arrow.





Tapping   Continue   on the screen above takes you to the   WiFi Password   page, as pictured next.

Screenshot of the Instant Pot app on iOS, displaying its -WiFi Password- page. Prompting for a 2.4 Ghz network passkey, with the password edit box highlighted.
Instant Pot app on iOS, displaying its -WiFi Password- page. Prompting for a 2.4 Ghz. network passkey, with its password edit box highlighted.

The  WiFi Password  screen prompts you for the password of the WiFi network you want to sign your Instant Pot into.  It’s also the network that your mobile device is connected to at this time.

18. Enter WiFi Password

The edit box you enter the WiFi password into is horizontally center on the screen, and vertically half way between the top of the page and its center.

Picture of the Instant Pot app on iOS, displaying its -WiFi Password- page. Passkey edit box filled In for the 2.4 Ghz. network.
Instant Pot app on iOS, displaying its -WiFi Password- page. Passkey edit box filled In for the 2.4 Ghz. network.

19.  Touch the   Continue   Button

Again, find the  Continue  button exactly in the center of the screen above, as pointed at by the green arrow.

Tapping   Continue  takes you to the   AP Mode   page, as pictured in the next screenshot.

Screenshot of the Instant Pot app on iOS, displaying its -AP Mode- page with the -Continue- button highlighted.
Instant Pot app on iOS, displaying its -AP Mode- page with the -Continue- button highlighted.

This pages tells you to make sure your Instant Pot is in APP mode. So, now is a great time to do that.  If your display panel is not showing the letters APP, then your pot is not in APP mode.  So, to get it into APP mode, press and hold in the  Pressure Level  button for around ten seconds, until the pot sounds a single long beep, and the APP letters appear on its screen.





Here is what our smart WiFi Instant Pot looked like when we put it in APP mode.

Picture of the The Instant Smart WiFi Pot, front view, showing what the LCD screen looks like when the cooker is in APP mode, and ready for WiFi setup.
The Instant Smart WiFi Pot, front view, showing what the LCD screen looks like when the cooker is in APP mode, and ready for WiFi setup.

Now, go back to the Instant Pot app on your mobile device, and continue with the next step.

20. Tap the   Continue   Button

This time, find the   Continue   button near the bottom but in the center of the  AP Mode  screen.

Touching that button then brings up the   Connect to Instant Pot   page, as shown next.

Screenshot of the Instant Pot App on iOS, showing its -Connect To Instant Pot- screen.
Instant Pot App on iOS, showing its -Connect To Instant Pot- screen.

21. Visit your Mobile Device’s  WiFi Settings  Page to Continue with How to Set Up Instant Pot Smart WiFi

When the Instant Pot is in APP (setup) mode, it established an ad hoc WiFi network that you need to connect to with the same mobile device you’re running the Instant Pot app on, before proceeding to the next step.

In our demo here, we went to Settings->WiFi on our iPad Air, and spotted the Instant Pot’s wireless network, as shown in the next screenshot.  We circled that network in green.  That network is named  Instant_Pot_F0C9D17BEC97.

Screenshot of the iOS WiFi settings page, showing an Instant Pot setup network discovered and circled.
iOS WiFi settings page, showing an Instant Pot setup network discovered and circled.

22. Connect to the Instant Pot WiFi Network

Tap the pot’s wireless network to connect to it.  It’s unsecured, so you won’t have to enter a password.

When we touched the Instant_Pot_F0C9D17BEC97   network on our iPad Air, the Air connected within a couple seconds, and the  Wifi Settings  screen changed to show this connection successfully made, as pictured next, circled.

Screenshot of the iOS WiFi settings page, showing connected to an Instant Pot WiFi setup network highlighted.
iOS WiFi settings page, showing connected to an Instant Pot WiFi setup network highlighted.

23. Go Back to the  Instant Pot  App

Once you’ve connected your mobile device to the Instant Pot ad hoc network, close the Settings app and again bring up the Instant Pot app.  You’ll notice that now, the app is trying to activate your Instant Pot on your Instant Pot account.  See this pictured next.  This page shows a mobile phone and a cloud, with a line between them where a blip of light is running back and fourth between them. Presumably, this means that your mobile device, the Instant Pot, and the cloud servers at the Instant Pot company, are exchanging data to establish the linkage.

Screenshot of the Instant Pot app on iOS, displaying its -Activating Your Smart WiFi- page.
Instant Pot app on iOS, displaying its -Activating Your Smart WiFi- page.

After perhaps fifteen seconds, your smart WiFi cooker connects to the WiFi network you picked when you connected your mobile device to it in step 3 above.





When that happens, you get the  Connection Successful  page in the Instant Pot app, as shown in the next screenshot.

Picture of the Instant Pot app on iOS, showing its -Connection Successful- page, with the -Next- button highlighted.
Instant Pot app on iOS, showing its -Connection Successful- page, with the -Next- button highlighted.

24. Tap the  Next  Button

Find the next button near the bottom center of the  Connection Successful   page, pictured just above.

Touching   Next   brings up the   Initial Test Run   screen, as shown next.

Now, if you tap   Continue   on this page, you’ll receive instructions on how to conduct this test run.  In short, they ask you to put a bit of water in the inner pot, lock the lid, and start the Instant Pot to heating.  Eventually, the steam pressure builds up inside, and you can then observe the float valve on the lid to pop up, and get a feel for what it’s like to use an electric pressure cooker such as this one.

Screenshot of the Instant Pot app on iOS, prompting to do an test run of the pot, with the -Skip Initial Test Run- button highlighted.
Instant Pot app on iOS, prompting to do an test run of the pot, with the -Skip Initial Test Run- button highlighted.

However, we did not run through that exercise for this demo, since you don’t need to do that in order to get your Instant Pot online, which our focus in this post.  So instead of touching   Continue,  we move on to the next step, where we tap the   Skip Initial Test Run   button.

25. Tap the   Skip Initial Test Run   Button to Continue with How to Set Up Instant Pot Smart WiFi

This button is found near the bottom and in the center of the page, as pointed at above with the green arrow.

Touching the   Skip Initial Test Run   button brings up the   Before You Begin   page, as shown in the next screenshot.  Here, you can browse through several screens that talk about how to verify cooker status and some of the actions you can take with it using the Instant Pot app.  We will not however, show all these windows here.

Screenshot of the Instant Pot app on iOS, showing its -Verify Cooker Status- page, with the -Start Cooking- button highlighted.
Instant Pot app on iOS, showing its -Verify Cooker Status- page, with the -Start Cooking- button highlighted.

26. Touch the  Start Cooking   Button

Find this option near the bottom and horizontally in the middle of the screen, as pictured above.

When you tap the   Start Cooking   button, this takes you to the Instant Pot app’s  Home   screen, as shown next.

Screenshot of the Instant Pot app on iOS, showing its -Home- page with the main menu button highlighted.
Instant Pot app on iOS, showing its -Home- page with the main menu button highlighted.

27. Check your Smart WiFi Instant Pot’s Cooking Status

To see what the pot, now online, is doing, tap the main menu hamburger control in the top left corner of the app’s Home page, as pointed at above by the blue arrow.





This brings up the main menu, as pictured next.

Screenshot of the Instant Pot app on iOS, displaying its main menu with the -My Devices- option highlighted.
Instant Pot app on iOS, displaying its main menu with the -My Devices- option highlighted.

28. Touch the   My Devices   Option

We find the   My Devices    item near the left edge of the screen, about a third of the way down from the top.

Tapping this menu item brings up the   My Devices   page, as pictured next.

Screenshot of the Instant Pot app on iOS, showing its -My Devices- list page, with a smart pot online and ready to cook highlighted.
Instant Pot app on iOS, showing its -My Devices- list page, with a smart pot online and ready to cook highlighted.

This screen lists all the Instant Pot devices that you’ve configured on your mobile device using the Instant Pot account.  Our cooker, named Carmen’s Instant Pot, appears as ready to cook.

29. You’re Finished with How to Set Up Instant Pot Smart WiFi !

If you see the screen in the last step, then your Instant Pot Smart WiFi pressure cooker has now been completely set up.  Thus, you can now cook with it via the Instant Pot app.

One final warning though.  You can only access your Instant Pot with one mobile device at a time.  A surprising limitation to be sure, especially since so many internet-enabled devices these days allow multiple devices to log in and access the appliance in question.  But we hope they’ll code away this limitation in the app at some point later.

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References for How to set up Instant Pot Smart WiFi

  1. Instant Pot Official Product Web Site

Revision History

  • 2019-07-16: Added more links and tags.
  • 2019-05-02: Tuned the targeting for ‘How to Set Up Instant Pot Smart WiFi’.
  • 2019-02-09: Originally published.