The smallest amount is a portion of rice. It is more of a large appliance if you only use it for small portions.

1 cup. but the good thing is that you can do this. you can cook 2cups for 2 day and leave it in keep it warm. the rice will keep nice and fluffy. for me the basmati rice in this cooker is amazing.

That's not a problem at all. We often only cook one or two portions in our family. The rice cooker is very easy to use and cooks the rice perfectly every time.

I ordered the rice cooker as a gift for a household of 1 person.
So far I've only had positive feedback about the function and handling.
But the "rice hunger" is different. :-)