The best herbs to grow indoors are the ones that can adapt well to container life while giving you useful harvests in the space and light you actually have.
There isn't a single winner.
When comparing the best herbs to grow indoors, think about four things:
Some herbs reward you with quick, generous growth but expect plenty of light in return.
Others grow more steadily or tolerate indoor conditions differently.
That's why choosing according to your apartment is more useful than simply buying whatever herbs happen to be available.
Here's a quick comparison before we look at them individually.
Basil
Why grow it indoors?: Productive and useful in many dishes
Main consideration: Needs plenty of light
Mint
Why grow it indoors?: Vigorous and easy to harvest repeatedly
Main consideration: Give it its own pot
Parsley
Why grow it indoors?: Versatile and practical
Main consideration: Can take time to establish
Chives
Why grow it indoors?: Compact and easy to snip as needed
Main consideration: Needs enough light for good growth
Oregano
Why grow it indoors?: Compact and flavorful
Main consideration: Prefers a bright location
Thyme
Why grow it indoors?: Small plant with lots of culinary uses
Main consideration: Good drainage and strong light matter
Cilantro
Why grow it indoors?: Useful when you want fresh leaves close at hand
Main consideration: Can be relatively short-lived
Lemon balm
Why grow it indoors?: Fragrant and vigorous
Main consideration: Can grow enthusiastically
Basil is a classic windowsill herb for good reason.
It grows quickly when conditions are right, responds well to regular harvesting and gives you leaves that are useful in everything from pasta and salads to sauces and sandwiches.
The catch is light.
Basil appreciates a bright position and may become weak or disappointing when kept somewhere too dark. It also likes warmth, so a cold, drafty windowsill isn't necessarily the ideal location just because it's bright. If you have a sunny indoor spot and regularly use fresh basil, it can be one of the most rewarding plants to grow.
We'll cover its particular needs separately in our future Basil Indoors Success Guide.
Mint has a reputation for vigorous growth, which can be an advantage indoors. Regular harvesting encourages you to make use of that growth in drinks, salads, sauces and cooking. One of the simplest rules is to give mint its own pot. That lets you manage the plant independently and prevents its enthusiastic growth from competing with another herb in the same container. Mint is particularly appealing if you want an herb that can provide repeated cuttings rather than one occasional harvest.
Our future Mint Indoors Container Rules guide will look more closely at keeping it productive without letting it become unruly.
Parsley isn't always the herb that grabs your attention first, but it earns its space through usefulness. You can add fresh parsley to an enormous range of meals, which makes having a living plant close to the kitchen genuinely practical. It doesn't need to race along to be worthwhile. Give parsley time to establish, provide consistent care and harvest from an established plant without stripping it bare. For someone who regularly cooks with parsley, steady usefulness can matter more than spectacular growth. We'll explore its individual requirements later in our Parsley Indoors Care Guide.
Chives have a useful characteristic for apartment growers: they don't demand much horizontal space. Their narrow leaves grow upright, making a pot of chives relatively easy to fit among other plants. You can also snip what you need for potatoes, eggs, salads, soups and other dishes while leaving enough growth for the plant to continue. That combination of compact shape and practical harvesting makes chives an attractive windowsill candidate. We'll cover their ongoing care and harvesting separately in our Chives Indoors Grow Guide.
Oregano is worth considering if Mediterranean flavors regularly appear in your cooking. Its leaves carry plenty of flavor, so even a relatively compact plant can be useful. Give oregano a bright location and avoid treating its pot as though the soil must remain constantly wet. If you already have basil on your shortlist, oregano can also give your indoor herb collection a different growth habit and flavor without requiring a huge container.
Thyme packs a lot into small leaves. It's useful in soups, roasted dishes, sauces and many other recipes while remaining relatively compact. Indoors, the challenge is providing the conditions it prefers rather than simply finding somewhere the pot fits. A bright position and a container that drains properly are important starting points. Thyme can be a good choice when windowsill space is valuable and you want an herb that doesn't produce enormous leaves or sprawling top growth.
Cilantro can be a very useful indoor crop if you enjoy its distinctive flavor. Unlike a long-lived houseplant, however, it makes more sense to think of cilantro as something you may grow in successive batches rather than expecting one plant to supply leaves indefinitely. That changes how you approach it. Instead of trying to preserve one plant forever, you can focus on producing and harvesting useful fresh growth. If cilantro is something you buy regularly at the supermarket and struggle to use before it deteriorates, growing smaller amounts yourself can be particularly appealing.
Lemon balm brings something slightly different to an indoor herb collection. Its leaves have a fresh lemony fragrance, and the plant can grow vigorously when it's happy. That enthusiasm means regular harvesting can be useful for keeping the plant manageable. Give it enough room for its growth and remember that a productive herb isn't necessarily a tiny herb. Lemon balm is worth considering if you'll genuinely use its leaves rather than simply choosing it because it smells good at the garden center.
The "best" herb and the "easiest" herb aren't necessarily the same thing. Your available light, room temperature and watering habits can make a supposedly easy herb frustrating - or make another plant surprisingly simple. If this is your first attempt, choose a small number of herbs rather than trying to master all eight at once. That gives you time to notice how quickly the pots dry, how the plants respond to your windows and what regular harvesting does to their growth. We'll compare the easiest herbs for apartments separately, with beginner-friendliness as the main criterion rather than trying to squeeze that ranking into this guide.
Light is one of the biggest filters when deciding which herbs belong in your apartment. Sun-loving herbs won't become shade plants simply because you want them beside the kitchen sink. Basil, oregano and thyme are examples where a bright position is particularly valuable. If your apartment doesn't offer strong natural light, don't immediately give up on indoor herbs. First identify the brightest usable location you have. Then choose plants accordingly or consider whether supplemental lighting makes sense. Our future guide to Low-Light Herbs That Thrive will focus specifically on choosing herbs when natural light is limited.
You can, but separate pots are often simpler for a beginner. A mixed planter may look attractive, yet the plants inside it share the same soil, watering and root space. Separate containers let you move one herb to a brighter location, water it independently or replace it without disturbing everything else. They also make vigorous growers such as mint much easier to manage. Once you understand how your individual herbs behave, you can make more informed decisions about which plants might share space successfully.
A windowsill packed with eight different herbs looks impressive on day one. It also gives you eight plants to learn at the same time. Starting with two or three is usually more useful. Pick herbs you genuinely cook with, make sure their light requirements suit your available space and spend some time learning how they respond. Once those plants are growing well, add another. If your priority is frequent harvesting, our future guide to fast-growing herbs for cutting will help narrow the choices even further.
The best herbs to grow indoors aren't necessarily the same for every person. A sunny kitchen and a darker studio apartment present different opportunities. So do the cooking habits of someone who uses basil every day and someone who reaches for parsley or chives instead. Start with the conditions you have. Choose herbs you'll use. Give them appropriate containers and enough light. Then learn from the plants before expanding your collection. That's a much better recipe for an indoor herb garden than choosing plants from a generic list and hoping they'll adapt. If you'd like to choose primarily on simplicity, continue with Easiest Herbs for Apartments.
Or return to Best Herbs for Apartments for the broader apartment herb selection guide.