7 Best Air Pistols (2026): CO2, PCP & Pneumatic Ranked

Last updated July 26, 2026 · By Nick Hall. For the big picture, start with our complete air rifle buying guide.

Air pistols are the most fun-per-dollar you can have in shooting. Whether you want a realistic CO2 replica for backyard practice, a purpose-built target pistol, or a small-game plinker, there is an air pistol for you, and most cost less than a box of centerfire ammo. Here are the best air pistols in 2026.

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Quick Answer: The best all-around air pistol is the Crosman 2240, a .22 CO2 pistol that is cheap, accurate, and endlessly modifiable. The best PCP air pistol is the Benjamin Marauder Pistol, the best budget pick is the single-stroke Beeman P17, and the best CO2 revolver is the Crosman Vigilante. Choose CO2 for convenience, PCP for power, or a single-stroke pneumatic for match accuracy.

Table of Contents

The Seven Air Pistols Worth Owning

Every pistol below was checked against our own live pricing before it went on the page, so these are prices a retailer we track is asking today rather than a manufacturer number. They run from about forty dollars to five hundred, and the useful thing about air pistols is how much of that range is genuinely worth buying.

Air pistol	Best for	Caliber and power plant	Street price
Beeman P17	Best budget	.177, Single stroke pneumatic	around $41 to $47
Crosman Vigilante	Best CO2 revolver	.177, CO2 revolver	around $59
Crosman American Classic	Best multi-pump	.177 and .22, Multi-pump pneumatic	around $70
Umarex Trevox	Best first air pistol	.177, Break barrel	around $80
Sig Sauer P365 Air Pistol	Best carry replica	.177 BB, CO2 blowback	around $100
Glock 17 Air Pistol	Best BB replica	.177 BB, CO2 blowback	around $130
Benjamin Marauder Pistol	Best PCP pistol	.22, PCP	around $500

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1. Beeman P17: Best budget

• Caliber: .177
• Power plant: Single stroke pneumatic
• Street price: around $41 to $47

Forty dollars for a pistol that will out-shoot things costing five times as much. The P17 is a single stroke pneumatic, which means you get one consistent charge per cock and no gas to buy, and it has a proper adjustable rear sight. It is the cheapest genuinely accurate thing in this whole category and the answer for anybody who wants to find out whether they like air pistols.

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2. Crosman Vigilante: Best CO2 revolver

• Caliber: .177
• Power plant: CO2 revolver
• Street price: around $59

A ten-shot revolver that takes both pellets and BBs, runs on 12 gram CO2 cartridges and costs less than a tank of fuel. Double action for plinking, single action when you want to hit something. It is the most fun per dollar on this page and the one most likely to still be in a drawer in ten years.

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3. Crosman American Classic: Best multi-pump

• Caliber: .177 and .22
• Power plant: Multi-pump pneumatic
• Street price: around $70

The 1377 in its current clothes, and the most modified air pistol in the world. Pump it three times for the back garden or eight for something with a bit of authority, and when you get bored there is an aftermarket of steel breeches, longer barrels and shoulder stocks that will keep you busy for years. Buy the .22 if you want it to hit harder.

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4. Umarex Trevox: Best first air pistol

• Caliber: .177
• Power plant: Break barrel
• Street price: around $80

A break barrel pistol, which is a rarer thing than it sounds, and it means no gas, no pump and nothing to run out of mid-session. Cock it, load a pellet, shoot. For somebody who wants a pistol that simply works every time they pick it up without buying anything else, this is the one.

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5. Sig Sauer P365 Air Pistol: Best carry replica

• Caliber: .177 BB
• Power plant: CO2 blowback
• Street price: around $100

A working BB copy of the P365, with the same size, the same controls and a slide that cycles. If you carry a P365, this is the cheapest draw and dry-fire practice you will ever buy, and it costs about what fifty rounds of defensive ammunition does. It is not a target pistol and it is not pretending to be.

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6. Glock 17 Air Pistol: Best BB replica

• Caliber: .177 BB
• Power plant: CO2 blowback
• Street price: around $130

Licensed by Glock, built by Umarex, and close enough to the real thing that it takes real holsters. The slide moves, the trigger feels roughly right, and an eighteen round magazine means you spend more time shooting than loading. The same caveat as every replica applies: it is practice, not marksmanship.

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7. Benjamin Marauder Pistol: Best PCP pistol

• Caliber: .22
• Power plant: PCP
• Street price: around $500

The serious end. A pre-charged pistol with a shrouded barrel and a real trigger, accurate enough for small game inside thirty yards and quiet enough that nobody looks up. It needs the same fill gear as a PCP rifle, which is the whole reason most people never buy one, and it is worth it if you already have a tank.

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Why Your Replica Has No Orange Tip

Two of the pistols on this list are working copies of real firearms, close enough that one of them takes real holsters. Neither carries a blaze orange muzzle, and people assume that is an oversight or that somebody removed it. It is neither. It is written into federal law.

Title 15, section 5001 is the rule that puts the orange plug on toy guns. It makes it unlawful to ship a toy, look-alike or imitation firearm without a marking approved by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and then it carves out, in its own words, traditional B-B, paint-ball, or pellet-firing air guns that expel a projectile through the force of air pressure. A CO2 BB pistol is exactly that, so the marking rule simply does not reach it, and the manufacturer is free to make it look identical to the gun it copies.

That matters more on a pistol than on a rifle, and it is worth saying plainly rather than burying it. A police officer, a neighbor or anybody else who sees one of these in your hand has no way of knowing it is not a firearm, because the law does not require it to look like anything else. Carry it in a case, do not draw it in public, and treat it in front of other people exactly as you would treat the gun it imitates. A few states go further and regulate air pistols as firearms outright; our air rifle guide sets out the statutes and none of this is legal advice.

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What an Air Pistol Costs After You Buy It

The purchase price is the smaller half of the decision, and nobody tells you that up front. A CO2 pistol runs on 12 gram cartridges, and one cartridge gives you somewhere around sixty shots in a non-blowback gun and closer to thirty in a blowback one, because the slide is spending gas every time it cycles. Cartridges come in at well under a dollar each in bulk, so the running cost is real but small. The thing that catches people out is that a part-used cartridge bleeds down if you leave it in, so you either shoot it out or waste it.

Pneumatics have no running cost at all beyond pellets, which is the argument for the Beeman P17 and the American Classic over anything gas powered. A tin of five hundred decent pellets costs less than a box of nine millimetre, and that is the whole reason to own one of these: it is the cheapest trigger time you will ever get. The PCP at the end of the list is the exception, because it needs the same tank or pump as a PCP rifle, and if you do not already own one then the pistol is not really a five hundred dollar purchase.

Accuracy expectations are worth setting too. A BB replica is a ten yard gun and a fun one. A decent pellet pistol will hold a group you would be happy with on a rimfire at the same distance, and the single stroke pneumatics are the ones that surprise people. See our airgun pellet guide before you decide a pistol is inaccurate, because more often than not it is the ammunition.

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Types of Air Pistol

• CO2: the most popular, powered by 12-gram cartridges. Convenient and great for plinking and realistic replicas, but temperature-sensitive.
• Multi-pump pneumatic: you pump the pistol to set the power. Self-contained, variable-power, and a modding favorite.
• Single-stroke pneumatic: one pump per shot delivers consistent, match-grade power. The choice for serious target pistols like the Beeman P17.
• PCP: pre-charged for the most power and multi-shot capability, like the Marauder Pistol. Needs a fill source. Learn more in what is a PCP.

Air Pistol FAQ

Want a realistic replica for backyard practice? See our best CO2 pistols guide. Prefer a long gun? Start with our complete air rifle guide.