Air Fryers

 But no one was fooled into thinking that the food was deep-fried. You can tell the difference. Air-fried foods, of course, lack that rich, deep-fried-fat taste. 

Despite their name, air fryers don’t fry food at all. They’re actually small convection ovens. A fan circulates hot air to quickly cook food in a basket or tray from the outside in.

If you don’t mind that final taste—and simply hope to cook (or reheat) food fast—then an air fryer may indeed be worth considering. As you decide which one is best for you, consider how much space you have for it and how much food you want to cook at once. Air fryers on the market today come in a multitude of sizes. The ones currently in our ratings range from 1.3 to 9 quarts. But as our testers discovered, the actual capacity is often smaller than claimed. (If size is your main consideration, take a look at our recommendations for the best small air fryers and the best large air fryers.)

Size aside, the real difference among air fryers comes down to convenience, so we designed our tests around that. To recommend the best air fryers, we should evaluate capacity, how easy the controls are to read and use, noise levels, and how much elbow grease it takes to clean a model.

Cuisinart AIR-200 air fryer on a marble counter with an assortment of plated food that can be made in the air fryer.

Air Fryer Buying Guide

Crispy fried food made with little or no oil is a deliciously tempting offer.

That’s the golden promise of air fryers, and it helps explain why sales for these countertop convection ovens continue to rise year over year. According to market research data from Statista, air fryers have sold at a steady rate of about 7 million units per year, and that trend is expected to continue well into the decade. Hundreds of millions have been sold already, and they remain one of the hottest countertop appliances.

And here’s the thing: Air fryers don’t fry food. Instead, a fan circulates hot air to quickly cook and crisp the food in a basket or tray. This small kitchen appliance can also bake and reheat food in a fraction of the time it would take your oven or cooktop stove, offering a convenient solution for daily meals or heating up leftovers. Over the past decade, roughly the amount of time air fryers have been on the market, the products’ functionality has evolved. Once considered a great kitchen gadget for making fries, nuggets, and wings, the air fryer has proved capable of doing so much more.

Find the Best Air Fryer for Your Kitchen

We test, evaluate, and compare the latest air fryers so you can enjoy fried food without the guilt.

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How CR Tests Air Fryers

Consumer Reports buys and tests air fryers from over 30 brands, including Cuisinart, Gourmia, GoWise, Hamilton Beach, Ninja, and Philips, to find out whether they’re worth making room for on your kitchen counter. Each air fryer is evaluated and rated based on its controls, how quiet it is while operating, and how easy it is to clean.

Controls: Our engineers judge the model based on the buttons and/or dials, and the size and clarity of the lettering on the unit. Many air fryers come with preset buttons that help guide users on cooking times and temps, while others have an analog dial that sets the temperature and counts down the time.

Noise: Our testers place each air fryer on a butcher block counter in the lab. They then use a sound-level meter to take multiple measurements of how loud each air fryer gets during operation, noting the noise at its peak. Check out the quietest air fryers from our tests.

Cleaning: No matter how well an air fryer does at cooking or reheating your food, if cleanup is a hassle, we want you to know. That’s why our testers judge how easy it is to clean each model’s interior and exterior. We also tell you how best to clean an air fryer.

Types of Air Fryers

There are two primary types of air fryers on the market today. The conventional design has a drawer-like basket where you place food to cook, while newer iterations come outfitted with a mesh tray or rack. In addition to those, there are toaster ovens with built-in air-frying modes. Choosing the right product comes down to your particular needs.

Gourmia GAF686 air fryer

Basket Air Fryers

Air fryers with baskets (or drawers) dominate the market. After all, it’s the original air-fryer design. For these models, the basket, where food is placed, typically has a handle that locks the basket into place and activates the cooking element. The handle also comes in handy when tossing the food to ensure even cooking. 

Basket air fryers are available in digital and manual forms. Digital models allow you to control the cooking time and temperature with the press of a button. More often than not, these models, equipped with digital touchpads, also have presets for common foods and indicators to let you know when the basket has reached its intended temperature.

Manual types often cost less, but they don’t come with a lot of the advanced features that digital models offer. Instead, these units are controlled by analog dials that set the temperature and the amount of time. While food is cooking, the dial ticks down and sounds a ding when the food is ready, automatically shutting off the air fryer.

CR does not currently test paddle air fryers, which are basket-style auto-stir models. Paddle air fryers allow users to “set it and forget it” as the paddle moves food around to ensure even heating.

Air Fryers Ratings

Cuisinart AFR-25 Air Fryer

Tray Air Fryers

Air fryers with mesh trays (or racks) are steadily increasing in popularity. Unlike air fryers with baskets, these units cook food in a flat or shallow receptacle, much like a countertop toaster oven. Some models have room for just one tray, but there are several models on the market that have multiple racks, and a small number even come with attachments for rotisserie cooking, dehydrating, and grilling.

These models, much like their basket counterparts, have the option of manual or digital control, with functions that work in a similar fashion.

Unlike most basket air fryers, the tray models allow users to monitor the food while it’s being cooked. Thanks to the viewing window, the cooking process doesn’t have to stop when you check to see how far your food has come. 

Another advantage to these air fryers is the amount of food you can cook at once. Models with multiple racks allow you to cook vegetables, meats, and sides—a full meal—simultaneously, and often take up the same amount of counter space as models with a basket.

Air Fryers Ratings

Chefman RJ38-6-RDO Air Fryer

Toaster Ovens With Air-Fryer Modes

As luck would have it, some toaster ovens come with air-fryer modes. On the surface, this sounds like a great deal to cut down on excess appliances, but you should know that these air-frying toaster ovens often can’t add the same level of crispy texture to food that many purpose to use one for, at least not in the same amount of time. 

That’s because basket-style air fryers can concentrate the hot air around the food with a more direct blast of circulating heat, whereas toaster ovens are designed to evenly heat the entire chamber. The air-fryer modes on many of these toaster ovens attempt to direct heat toward a specific zone in the same way, and they often come with special air-frying baskets to facilitate this. According to CR’s testers, these combo devices can still deliver good results, and not everyone desires that super-crunchy finish to their food, so don’t shy away from buying one if it makes more sense for your budget, kitchen, and culinary needs.

Air Fryers Ratings

How to Pick an Air Fryer

Our air fryer ratings tell you about the controls, noise, and ease of cleaning for each model. Here are some other factors to consider when you’re shopping for an air fryer.

Price: The air fryers in our ratings sell for $30 to $260, and we’ve seen models for as much as $400.

Capacity: Air fryers are designed to neatly fit on your counter. Most aren’t big enough to cook for a crowd, unless you cook in batches. We measure the usable capacities of the air fryers we test (despite their claimed capacity) and find that they can handle between 1.3 and 8.9 quarts. Our measurements can sometimes differ from the manufacturers’ advertised claims, so be sure to consider your needs carefully while shopping. You may need a bigger basket if you’re cooking for a larger family or hosting a large dinner party. Our guide to the best large air fryers, which focuses on models with a basket size of 5 quarts or more, is a great place to start your search.

Advanced features: There are a ton of appliances vying to occupy precious countertop space, so it’s advantageous to purchase an air fryer that can do more than one thing—if you’ll use the other features. Modes such as dehydration, baking, grilling, and rotisserie cooking combine the functionality of five-plus machines into one device. Additional presets for particular foods, and indicators to let you know when to check on your food, can also be helpful. We’ve even seen models with a “keep warm” function, so your food should stay hot and crispy, regardless of when you get to it. 

Warranty: The shortest warranty of the air fryers we tested is 60 days—not exactly a confidence booster. Others in our air fryer ratings have a one- or two-year warranty, but you may run across some with coverage up to three years. We note these specifics on the summary page of each air fryer we’ve rated.

Air Fryer Brands

Here are some of the brands you’ll see in our air fryer ratings. 

Black+Decker

Chefman

Cosori

Cuisinart

Dash

Elite Platinum

Gourmia

GoWise

Hamilton Beach

Instant

Ninja

Oster

PowerXL

What Can You Cook in an Air Fryer?

Do you know when is the best time to buy Air Fryers? 

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PowerXL Luminex AF3052

Ninja Pro AF141

So Yummy by Bella 17821

Midea Two Zone MSA11D9ABB

Gourmia GAF414

West Bend AFWB7QBK13

Salton AF2103

Kenmore KKAF8Q

Sur La Table Kitchen Essentials 5 qt.

Fritaire 209031

Bella Pro Series Slim 90190

DeLonghi Rapid Crisp FH2394.BK