Best Chainsaw Chains of 2026

This is the chain you buy when the saw is a 562 XP or a 592 XP and the weekend is a truckload rather than a few limbs. Three 24-inch loops, 3/8-inch pitch, .050 gauge, 84 drive links, full chisel — the professional end of the Husqvarna range, for the 555, 562 XP, 390 XP, 585 and 592 XP saws.

Pre-stretching is the detail that earns its money on a long bar. A 24-inch loop that stretches during its first tank means stopping to tension it, and a chain running loose on a long bar is the one that jumps the sprocket. These arrive pre-stretched, so you spend less of the first tank bent over the saw.

The golden tie strap is a small thing we appreciated: it marks where to start and stop filing, which matters when you are running a file down 84 cutters and lose your place halfway. Full chisel gives the aggressive cut these saws are built to deliver, and the trade is the usual one — clean timber only, and a stroke or two of the file before the chain is properly dull rather than after.

Three loops at this level is the right quantity for anyone cutting for a living or heating with wood: one on the saw, one sharp, one at the shop. It is the biggest outlay on this list and the cheapest way to run a professional saw through a season without ever facing a dull chain.

Five chainsaws, and no others: the 450 Rancher, 445(E), 450(E), 545(MII) and 550XP(MII). That short list is the first thing to know about the X-Cut SP33G, because it is factory chain built for one family of Husqvarna bars — 20 inches, .325-inch pitch, .050-inch gauge, 80 drive links.

For a 450 Rancher owner this is the loop we keep on the saw. X-Cut chains are pre-stretched at the factory, so you spend less of the first tank with a wrench in your hand taking up slack, and the semi-chisel cutter touches up with a round file between refuels without any fuss. Husqvarna builds and tests these beside the saws themselves, and the semi-chisel profile is a deliberate choice for people cutting felled timber rather than clean dimensional stock.

If your saw is a 450-class Husqvarna, the money is well spent: you get the cutter geometry the saw was set up around instead of a drawer of loops you will never wear out. A .058-gauge bar or a 3/8-pitch sprocket takes a completely different chain, and no amount of clever ordering changes that.

Eighteen inches, 3/8-inch low-profile pitch, .050-inch gauge, 62 drive links. Those four numbers decide whether a chain is a fit or a return, and they are why this Oregon loop is our default pick: that combination covers a long stretch of the small gas and battery saws people actually own. Oregon names them, too — Husqvarna 240 and 120 Mark II, Ego CS1800 and CS1804, Ryobi RY3818 and RY40580, Poulan PR4218, Echo CS310, Greenworks GCS80420, plus Craftsman, Homelite, Remington and Sun Joe models. Being able to run your eye down a list before you order beats finding out at the drive sprocket.

Three loops come in the box, which changes how you work. When one starts throwing dust instead of chips, you hang it on a nail, fit the next, and file the dull ones in a batch on a wet afternoon. The cutters are semi-chisel, with the rounded corner that shrugs off grit — the stuff you meet cutting storm limbs off the ground or a stump near the driveway. It gives up a little speed in clean timber; it keeps cutting when a square corner would be grinding its edge away on dirt.

The bumper drive links and depth gauges are the low-kickback part, and we think that matters on an 18-inch saw that gets handed to whoever in the family is willing. It will not turn a small saw into a big one, and it is not meant to.

It is also not the loop for a pro saw or a 20-inch bar, and it will not satisfy anyone chasing full-chisel speed through clean softwood. For the 18-inch saw that comes out for storm cleanup and a winter's firewood, it is the one we hand people first.

Two 20-inch Stihl bars can take different chains, and the difference is the gauge — .050 inch here, .063 on others. This is the 33RS-72: 3/8-inch pitch, .050 gauge, 72 drive links, one loop, Rapid Super full chisel. Order it by that part number against the stamp on your bar, not by the bar length alone.

Rapid Super is Stihl's full-chisel cutter, and we understand why people pay for it: a square corner that takes a proper bite, long chips instead of dust, and an edge that comes back with a few strokes of a round file. On a mid-size saw with a 20-inch bar it pulls hard and cuts straight.

What you do not get is margin. One gauge and one link count means a mistake in the order costs you a return rather than a spare. Keep the protective oil that comes on the chain, and wipe a used loop down and re-oil it before it goes back on the shelf.

For a Stihl owner who wants the factory cutter geometry and does not mind buying one loop at a time, this is the right chain. If your bar is stamped .063, or your saw runs .325 pitch, it is the wrong one however good it is.

The cutter on this KAKEI loop has a rounded corner, and that is the whole reason we keep a set for the 16-inch electric saw. Semi-chisel holds its edge through the material a small saw actually meets: a limb that has been lying in the yard, a stump with grit in the bark, the bottom foot of a trunk where the chain picks up soil.

Fifty-six drive links in 3/8-inch low profile and .050 gauge is the fitment a lot of 16-inch saws take, and these go on without a fight — three loops, oiled from the packet, tensioned and running in a couple of minutes. We were glad to see the listing state that the chain meets the ANSI B175.1-2012 kickback performance requirements, because a 16-inch saw is often the one a first-time user picks up.

What you are buying is a working set rather than a forever chain. German steel, chrome-plated cutters, and they file up fine, but the point of a three-pack is that you never cut with a dull loop because you did not get around to sharpening it. If you want one chain that holds an edge through a full day of clean hardwood, the OEM loop further down this list is the better buy.

Full chisel is the fast cutter: a square corner that takes a bigger bite and throws real chips instead of sawdust. This KAKEI pack puts three of them on a 20-inch bar in 3/8-inch pitch, .050-inch gauge and 72 drive links — the fitment behind saws like the Stihl MS311 and MS391 and the Husqvarna 455 and 460 Rancher.

Seventy-two links is a lot of cutter to keep sharp, which is why the three-pack matters more here than it does on a small saw. Run one until it stops pulling, swap it, and file the pair on the bench with a cold drink. The cutters are German steel with a chrome plate, packed in protective oil, and they arrive sharp enough to go straight to work.

We rate this as the value play for anyone feeding a wood stove: full-chisel speed on a 20-inch bar for the price of a couple of shop sharpenings. Full chisel is also the cutter that dulls fastest in dirty wood — if your logs come off a skidder with sand in the bark, a semi-chisel loop keeps cutting longer even though it is slower.

Five loops in one box changes how you own a chain. Instead of one loop you baby, you get a stack to burn through: fit a fresh one when the cut starts to wander, drop the dull one in a can, and deal with all of them at once at the end of the season. That is exactly how we treat this pack — as a consumable, not as five chains to be preserved.

The cutters come sharp out of the wrapper and cut fast while they last, and the hard chrome outer layer and hardened rivets are there to slow the wear that follows. The fitment is the common one: 18-inch bar, 3/8-inch low profile, .050 gauge, 62 links, which covers Echo, Poulan, Homelite, Ryobi, Kobalt, McCulloch, Remington and Greenworks saws built for that size.

Where the pack stops is edge life, and that is the trade you are making for a stack of loops at this money. For storm cleanup, a brush pile, or a saw that comes out four weekends a year, a box of loops you can swap without thinking is the right way to spend. For a firewood business, one loop that holds a fine edge matters more than five that do not.