The Best Air Fryer
Everything we recommend
Top pick
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Philips 3000 Series Airfryer L HD9252/91
The best air fryer
This air fryer totally outshone the competition, especially for its price, because it made fries with a nice crisp, quick and even cooking. The only downside was the finicky touchscreen.
Buying Options
Buy from AmazonBest for...
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Instant Mini Vortex 4-in-1
Best for single servings and small spaces
The Instant Vortex Mini is small yet powerful; it is the least expensive model we have tested. The small basket fits only a single serving of food, yet it effectively circulates heat and cooks food well without drying it out.
Buying Options
Buy from AmazonWhat Some Things to Consider Are
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What is an air fryer?
Air fryers are mini convection ovens. They use fans to circulate rapidly hot air and make your food crisp.
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Pros
• Air fryers are small. They do not require preheating time thus, you save time in the kitchen.
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Cons
• The capacity of the machines is relatively less, and they may not cook the food evenly.
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Other options
If you're looking for a larger, more versatile appliance, a air fryer toaster oven may fit your bill.
Philips 3000 Series Airfryer L HD9252/91
The best air fryer
This air fryer truly stood out from the rest of the crop, especially at its price, while cooking food in no time with crispy finished results all over. Only its slightly quirky touchscreen could be its major negative point.
Best for...
The Instant Vortex Mini is small but powerful and one of the best, if not the cheapest, tested. While the machine is not large enough even to fit one serving at a time in its tiny basket, it does circulate the heat really well to cook the food without drying it out.
With a capacity of 2 quarts, it is the smallest air fryer we've tested, though it performed well in direct competition against much bigger players. Despite being slightly smaller than the Philips Airfryer L, the Instant Mini's square basket accommodates, without difficulty, one or two servings of food because of its wide, shallow shape.
This air fryer cooked pretty fast and nearly as evenly as our other picks. Its simplified interface has only four preprogrammed settings air fry, roast, bake, and reheat all operated by a single dial, which makes the Vortex Mini straightforward to use out of the box. It's lightweight, has the smallest footprint, and is equipped with the lightest basket of any air fryer that we've tested.
Why you should trust us
I researched and tested more than a dozen air fryers, cooking frozen french fries, frozen chicken nuggets, and chicken wings.
Who this is for
Air frying is simply a marketing term for high-heat convection baking: that is, cooking in which high-temperature air is moved about food. Therefore, one can obtain air-fried results through other convection appliance types including convection ovens and toaster ovens.
At the other end, the small peapod-type air fryers are more compact; they are typically faster and relatively easy to use-and even a tiny bit fun. Great for snacks, ideal for small households or maybe one meal, or all in all for people who do not want to use the oven for whatever reason.
Pod-shaped air fryers can make speedy work of getting food ready to feed your craving for the crisp, cooking quickly without all the preheating.
Pod-type air fryers aren't without their pitfalls: Limited in how much food they can cook compared with how much might fit on a half-sheet tray in an oven or on a quarter-sheet tray in a toaster oven.
To make things quicker, air fryers sacrifice temperature accuracy. During our testing, the air fryers would consistently overshoot a target temperature by up to 30 degrees-some cooled down and never approached the target, sometimes within 50 degrees of its ideal temperature.
The programmed settings on air fryers-wide-ranging from "vegetables" to "bacon"-are nothing more than meaningless guidelines, as they are unable to calculate their reference temperatures based on weight. Often, air fryers tend to fail in achieving their target temperatures and subsequently conversely fluctuate from those values.
Lastly, cleaning the air fryer baskets can be tedious. Though some may be advertised as dishwasher-safe, in the end virtually all come with a nonstick coating that usually suffers once placed in the dishwasher and, eventually, wears off completely.
When to consider a toaster oven
An air fryer toaster oven should be considered if you are not married to the idea of a pod-shaped air fryer, if you have a little space in your kitchen and money in your budget, and you would like one that'll grill, broil or toast in addition to air fry.
Convection oven and air fryer toaster ovens usually cook more evenly than pod-shaped air fryers, and you can make more food in them. The larger-capacity pod-shaped air fryers—anything over about 5 quarts—generally take longer to cook food and do so less evenly. If you want to air-fry for the entire family at once, you should consider a convection oven or air fryer toaster oven.
The ovens also give you incremental control over the way you cook-your foods; many give you the ability to turn the powerful convection fan off so your baked goods do not become dried out. Such devices also offer the option to input the weight or quantity of food item in question during programmed cooking for a more exact bake.
Air fryer toaster ovens may require preheating, often take longer to cook, frequently have a bigger price tag, and usually take up more counter space than a pod-shaped air fryer.
If your top priority is simply to get your hands on a small, inexpensive appliance that crisps food better than a microwave, you may be fine with a small, simple non-convection toaster oven. They're cheaper and a more compact alternative to convection toaster ovens, and many are less than air fryers. They work better than microwaves at achieving that desirable crispness, but not as good as air fryers.
What we search for in a good air fryer
Temperature control: We made sure each of the air fryers we reviewed could reach their maximum temperature and maintain pretty much the same temperature while cooking. Those machines would not be considered as candidates if they were too cool or waved around too much.
Even cooking: We noted whether the air fryer produced even browning and crisping, rejecting those that left food burnt or soggy and those that were so powerful the air dried out the meal.
Compact design: While we tested everything from compact models with large capacity to smaller machines, we focused on those with a small footprint that showed balancing efficiency with size and shape.
Square basket: Round baskets don't hold as much food as square-shaped ones. If there is a proper way to maximize the food-cooking space of an air fryer, it is through the use of square baskets.
Ease of usage: An air fryer should be easy to operate. Models with obvious controls, an easy-to-read display, and easy-to-remove baskets were preferred.
Easy-to-clean basket: Most air fryer problems stem from improper cleaning, and since the air fryer needs regular clean-ups, we would usually eliminate machines that have a lot of detachable parts-a kind of deterrent to proper cleaning after every use.
For many years now, we’ve been cooking combinations of common air-fried foods to check these machines: frozen and home-cut french fries, frozen chicken tenders, frozen fish sticks, pork chops, chicken wings, brussels sprouts, leftover pizza, break-and-bake cookies, and boxed brownies.
We checked for even cooking to find machines that can cook a whole tray of ingredients consistently, with no overdone or underdone pieces. We wanted food to come out crisp on the outside and moist internally, without burning or dehydrating.
We inserted air probe thermometers in every oven to test temperature stability. We used all controls to evaluate how easy they are to navigate and how accurate their cooking guidelines were for common foods such as french fries and chicken nuggets. We also gauged the cooking capacity of each model, and noted any obnoxiously loud fans or obnoxious beeping noises. Finally, we washed all the fryer components to find out how easy they were to clean.
Our pick: Philips 3000 Series Airfryer L HD9252/91
Philips 3000 Series Airfryer L HD9252/91
The best air fryer
This air fryer outperformed the competition, especially for its price, crisping food quickly and evenly. Its slightly fussy touchscreen is its main drawback.
It quickly makes crispy food. We found that the Philips Airfryer L, which has an unofficial capacity of just below 3 quarts, would turn nuggets into darkly browned, crispy ones without getting mushy spots or oily bottoms, churned whole baskets of crisp golden fries, and served juicy chicken wings-all without adding extra cooking time.
Really quick with the crisping. The Philips Airfryer L made crisped and brown nuggets without any mushy areas or oily bottoms; nice, whole baskets of crisp, golden fries; and juicy chicken wings-all without needing to add any extra cook time.
It's an easy-to-use touchscreen. Some air fryer touchscreens are unresponsive and incredibly annoying, with a dozen small, indecipherable pictograms. This model has, by comparison, a fairly responsive touchscreen that's not too busy with information and never interfered with quickly and easy cooking.
The price is just right. Philips Airfryer normally retails for a little over $150, which we think is about the right price for an air fryer, given how limited they are in utility and all the plastic and nonstick parts which would probably need replacing.
The basket is easy to take on and off. You can take out the tray without pressing any button, while the air fryer does not move away from the table when the basket is taken out or inserted; thus you can also enlist your other hand to do this.
Very large square basket. The basket can fit at least two to three servings of food in either one of the three streamlined compact baskets.
The basket is easy to clean. With the added convenience of the usual nonstick coating combined with small rectangular holes on the bottom of the Airfryer L basket that allow for the circulation of air instead of the confinement of oil and food in some other air fryer baskets, cleaning the Airfryer L basket took a very quick minute.
The machine is about the sleekest pod-shaped air fryer. Philips Airfryer L is compact in terms of counter space, given that it's a square and a bit angular-shaped with its deep square basket.
Comes with a two-year warranty. That's a pretty decent warranty for an air fryer, but Philips isn't exactly known for good customer service.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
The touchscreen may prove to be irritating, and this is no exception. The touchscreen of this air fryer displays the temperature, arrows up and down for time and temperature settings, and a round menu and power button, with eight icons representing preset programs like baked goods and fish.
While they serve little purpose and add visual clutter, we nevertheless found this touchscreen easy enough to operate.
The controls were sometimes hard to press with greasy fingers, but overall were more responsive than other models we've tested.
The basket is very weighty and off-balance. The basket of the Philips Airfryer L weighs in at about 2.8 pounds, at least half a pound heavier than those of most of the other air fryers we tested.
The weight has a tendency to tip toward the front of the basket, away from the handle, which will put strain on your hand. If you want a full-size air fryer that has a lightweight basket, you should consider the Cosori LE.
Best for small spaces: Instant Vortex Mini 4-in-1
Best for...
The Instant Vortex Mini is small, powerful, and one of the cheapest models we tested. While the wee basket can fit only one serving of food at a time, the machine circulates heat fairly well and manages to cook food without dehydrating it.
The Instant Vortex Mini 4-in-1 Air Fryer is literally a miniature powerhouse, measuring in at just two-quarts but still producing some solid cooking results.
The Vortex Mini is compact and well-designed, taking up a small surface area on your counter. It is almost two-thirds smaller than most of our selections, making it ideal for small kitchens or dorm rooms.
It's light and easy to store, or it can sit on the counter without overwhelming your other equipment. But if you are cooking anything larger than one or two portions, you may want to look for something bigger.
It cooks quickly and fairly evenly. The Vortex Mini cooked as fast as the Philips air fryers, delivering consistently good, super-crispy results. It cooked a little less evenly than our other picks, but with such a small, shallow, square-shaped basket, the food still turned out surprisingly crispy but not dried out.
The interface of the machine is quite simple and intuitive. It comes with four buttons for air fry, roast, bake, or reheat, and a dial for setting cooking time and temperature. Balancing the temperature just right is easy and straightforward. Every fifty minutes, the Vortex Mini emits a slight beep as a reminder to turn the food halfway through the cooking session.
This basket may be little, but it really is surprisingly spacious. Like our other picks, this square basket does increase the capacity of the Vortex Mini. We were able to fit four large wings inside without too much of a stretch-simply a little shy of what made it into the larger fryers. It is best for those cooking for just one or two at a time and would suit someone who had a single snack to share with a loved one.
This small air fryer is quiet, easy to clean, and fairly foolproof to use. The basket is very easy to take out and put back in, and among our three options, this was clearly the quietest. We found cleaning-up effortless (and we tackled sticky chicken wings).
The Instant Vortex Mini is backed by a one-year limited warranty. If you need to replace any parts, you’d need to get in touch with Instant Brands’s customer support (although the company does not sell replacement trays right now).
Other air fryers worth considering
If you're okay with a light basket, and you don't mind the compromise in crispiness: Our $100 Cosori LE used to be our budget pick, but it has been outperformed by our new top pick, which does not cost drastically more.
Nonetheless, this could be the air fryer for you, especially if you're wary of how the Philips baskets weigh. The empty Cosori basket is quite spacious with just under 2 pounds weight - the lightest of all the full-size air fryers we tested.
Even with that, it still suffers from the unsteady balance of most air fryer baskets. It feels better in the palm of your hand compared to those of the Philips air fryers (even if those perform better). Beware, though: sometimes, the tray inside the basket will slide out, which could be startling and quite dangerous if it's hot.
The trade-off with this might be the not-so-great results. The Cosori cooked wings really well, but their crispiness proved inconsistent, one minute rendering some soggy nugs and the next producing some limp fries. The Cosori also had trouble coming up to and staying at set temperatures.
I like the matte, sleek look of this air fryer. Sometimes the touchscreen was a little unresponsive, but we did enjoy the giant typeface on the screen.
If you find on sale, or if you prefer physical buttons: The Ninja Air Fryer Pro AF141 was one of the fastest-heating air fryers we tested, reaching its highest temperature in less than 2 minutes.
A little bit too hot, so pay attention to it if you fry any delicate foods. Cooked food was universally crispy, no soggy fries or mushy chicken nuggets, but this was not as even in browning compared with our picks.
We loved that this air fryer was such a simple interface-no touchscreen with just a handful of manual buttons-making it refreshing and easy to use, even with greasy fingers. The downside? This was louder than most of the rest we tested, projecting a good low whooshing as it worked.
The competition
This is not an exhaustive list of every air fryer we've tested. We have tended to remove any machines that were discontinued or that no longer fit our criteria.
The rounded 4-quart Dreo Aircrisp Pro Air Fryer crisped decently well, but it could not achieve consistent cooking and browning across the basket, resulting in a couple of soggy fries. We did not like using it; its LCD screen was cluttered, the beeps were very loud, and the mechanics are difficult to decipher.
We have found that most Philips air fryers crispen nicely but that the more extensive weighty variants take a wee bit longer. So moist, Philips 5000 Series Airfryer XL HD9280/91, a 6.5-quart air fryer with a big (but heavy) capacity, more prominent dimensions regarding the other two Philips air fryers we recommend in this guide is no exception. It did take a longer time to crisp, taking about five minutes longer to achieve results that were almost similar. As for this air fryer, since it connects to Wi-Fi, prepare your temperature, set a cooking time, and turn it off from an app on your phone, but you still need to push start on the machine itself. An air fryer toaster oven is probably preferable at this size and price.
The Gourmia Air Fryer Oven Digital Display took an eternity to preheat and would not get to maximum temperature producing very soggy food at the end.
At nearly 7 quarts, the Cosori Dual Blaze Smart Air Fryer took longer than its competitors to cook, and everything came out mushy and oily.
The Cuisinart Air-200 comes from one of our favorite companies making convection toaster ovens, so our expectations were pretty high for it. The Cuisinart Air-200 had the strange tendency to run 30 to 50 degrees below its designated temperature, resulting in uneven trays of chicken nuggets and fries with some pieces burned to a crisp and others somehow both mushy and floppy.
We do not recommend Instant Pot air fryer lids or other pressure-cooker air fryers as a primary air-frying appliance because they usually have even less internal capacity than pod-shaped air fryers, take up even more counter space, and lack the convenience of drawer and basket design. The Instant Pot Duo Crisp is no exception: small tray and a sizeable footprint. Good air-frying results but dry fries, nuggets, and wings as compared to pod air fryers.
The Ultrean 4.2 Quart Air Fryer featured buttons that were noisy and hard to press, a basket that was hard to insert, and was too space-consuming.
The Hamilton Beach 3.7 Quart/3.5 Liter Digital Air Fryer can barely fit a full-size meal, and it didn't deliver much crispness.
The 3-quart and 6-quart versions of the Dash Deluxe Air Fryer and the 2.6-quart Dash Tasti-Crisp Air Fryer performed lesser in maintaining the set temperature and were the most unevenly cooked food items; he said they performed poorly in an earlier round.
We liked the breathable square basket of the Instant Vortex 6-quart Air Fryer and appreciated the quieting beeps, whereas the user interface is terrible with buttons awkwardly stiff to press.
Here, we have the "Instant Vortex plus Dual Basket Air Fryer," featuring two 4-quart baskets capable of cooking two separate portions of food simultaneously. The error found here was that the baskets wouldn't get hot enough to keep food crispy and browned but would leave it soggy.
The Ninja AF101 air fryer evaporated all oil left in the basket via a removable flat tray liner, but the tray had a nasty tendency to fall out while turning food out of the basket, as at any moment, one might fall off and carelessly burn someone. It ran way too hot, and the capacity was less than that of our picks.
All food prepared in the Ninja AF161 Max XL air fryer was both overcooked on the outside and raw in the inside to varying degrees of dehydration.
The food I tested, "Ninja" DZ201 Foodi 2-Basket Air Fryer, too, has two 4-quart baskets. It's easier to use than the "Instant," but it didn't run sufficiently hot in either basket to really crisp or cook food nicely.
Unlike most air fryers, the 7-quart Gourmia GAF798 Digital Air Fryer had to be preheated to be able to cook well; this really is because of its size, which means that every preheat cycle will restart upon adding additional time. We also didn't like the basket design, with a tray in the bottom of the bucket that falls out and natural finger holes big enough for french fries to fall through.
Inside the GoWISE USA GW22621, the french fries cooked burning hot on the inside of the cooker and burned at the bottom while cooked almost entirely and properly on the inside. Upon reinserting the basket, the apply seemed to slide across the table without decent weight or grip to keep it there.
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