The 7 best air fryers of 2024, tested and reviewed
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James Brains/Business Insider
With the advent of air fryers, you no longer need a deep fryer or a pan full of oil to achieve the comforting crunch of fried foods. The best air fryers circulate hot air to make crispy treats with minimal oil but can also be used to cook protein and roast veggies quickly. I consulted with three experts and tested 60 units for cooking capabilities, ease of cleaning, and user-friendliness to find the best air fryers.
The Instant Vortex Plus Air Fryer Oven is my top pick because it cooks quickly and evenly and has a window for monitoring your food's progress. For a value pick, I recommend the Beautiful Touchscreen Air Fryer. It's about $60 cheaper and makes perfect broccoli, but it lacks the window and doesn't cook frozen fries as well.
Learn more about how Business Insider Reviews tests and researches kitchen products.
Our top picks for the best air fryers of 2024
Best overall: Instant Vortex Plus Air Fryer Oven — See at Amazon
Best value: Beautiful Touchscreen Air Fryer — See at Walmart
Best toaster oven: Ninja Foodi XL Pro Air Fry Oven — See at Amazon
Best small: Dreo Aircrisp Pro Air Fryer — See at Amazon
Best multitasking: Instant Pot Duo Crisp + Air Fryer — See at Amazon
Best large-capacity: Ninja Foodi DualZone XL Air Fryer — See at Amazon
Best two-drawer: Midea Two-Zone Air Fryer Oven — See at Walmart
Different types of air fryers
The two main air fryer types are basket and toaster oven. Basket air fryers feature a drawer in the bottom half for the food, the controls are on top, and an internal fan blows hot air down onto the food to cook it. The best air fryer toaster ovens look just like traditional toaster ovens with a transparent door that you open to insert your food. Air fryer toaster ovens have a fan on the side or top that blows hot air to "air fry" your food.
A third type is the pressure-cooking air fryer. These appliances look like Instant Pot pressure cookers but have air-frying functionality. For more on these units, check out my Instant Pot vs. Ninja Foodi article.
Best overall
From the makers of the wildly popular Instant Pot, the Instant Vortex Plus Air Fryer Oven with ClearCook combines the best features of an air fryer and a toaster oven. It has a window in the front like a toaster oven, but it cooks quickly like a basket air fryer.
Even factoring in the time it takes to preheat, the Instant Vortex Plus cooked food the fastest in our tests, including producing evenly cooked hand-cut fries in just 14 minutes. Best of all, it did a good job of making moist and evenly cooked broccoli and frozen fries.
The oven is also easy to use. Select one of the six presets, use the temp/time button to adjust how long and hot the air fryer cooks, and press start. It was mildly annoying how the cook time countdown only starts once the unit preheats. You can't just have it count down once you press the start button.
James Brains/Business Insider
The Vortex Plus has an air filter to prevent odors from escaping. While I didn't systematically test this feature, it did a good job of containing smells. If removing odors isn't important, you can often find the model without the air filter at a lower price. Both models feature a light to see your food through the window easily.
The basket and crisping plate are both dishwasher-safe. I much preferred cleaning the basket by hand because it takes up a lot of dishwasher space, and the nonstick surface makes clean-up effortless.
Read our full Instant Vortex Plus Air Fryer Oven review.
Best value
We're always a little skeptical about products sporting a celebrity's name. However, we'd recommend the Beautiful 6 Quart Touchscreen Air Fryer by Drew Barrymore, even without the endorsement of the "Donnie Darko" star.
The controls are intuitive, with only the relevant buttons illuminated. First, you press the power button, which illuminates the presets. Once you select a preset, you can adjust the time and temp, and the flashing start button begins the cook. The unit is attractive and comes in seven colors: white icing, cornflower blue, black sesame, and more. It's also available in 3-quart and 9-quart options.
James Brains/Business Insider
The $69 Beautiful air fryer was one of only two units to cook hand-cut fries in 15 minutes, and the results were evenly cooked and delicious. It was also among the fastest at cooking broccoli and frozen fries. The frozen fries were a little dry, but the broccoli was just right.
The basket and crisper plate are dishwasher-safe, though the basket, with its jutting-out handle, will take up significant space in your dishwasher. Thanks to the nonstick coating, hand washing is an effortless alternative.
Read our full Beautiful Air Fryer review.
Best toaster oven
I tested over 20 units for my best air fryer toaster ovens guide, and the Ninja Foodi XL Pro Air Fry Oven (DT201) came out on top. The intuitive controls are built into the handle, freeing up more room for the massive front window. Thanks to this window and the interior light, monitoring your meal as it cooks is easy.
In my temperature variance test, the Foodi XL Pro outperformed the pack. The average temperature during the two-hour test was only half a degree off the 350-degree target. It ranged from 349 to 352, varying by two degrees from the goal temperature.
This air fryer oven was among the fastest at cooking chicken, producing a perfectly cooked bird in an hour and 10 minutes. The pizza and french fry cooking times were average, though the fries were crispy and evenly cooked.
James Brains/Business Insider
The $200 Ninja Foodi XL Pro has a spacious interior, fitting two pizzas or other dishes using the included second wire rack. It also dehydrates and features other useful presets. The main negative is that it takes longer to preheat than most air fryer toaster ovens, taking eight minutes to reach 350 degrees and nine minutes to reach 400.
Our previous best air fryer toaster oven was the Oster Digital Air Fryer Oven with RapidCrisp, which was recently discontinued. The Oster wasn't nearly as attractive and ran hotter than the target temperature, but it cooked and preheated faster than the Ninja.
Best small
For our guide to the best small air fryers, we considered 11 compact air fryers. Due to size constraints, we used different tests from the full-size units. We used half as much fries, broccoli, and chicken wings.
No matter the test, the Dreo Aircrisp Pro Air Fryer was among the best in quality and speed. While broccoli is a challenge for air fryers, the Dreo did the best at balancing tender stems and crispy-yet-not-burnt florets. The fries and wings were evenly cooked and perfectly crispy.
Lights illuminate the buttons for time and temperature adjustments. However, the presets are confusing as they rely on ambiguous symbols, like an orange representing the dehydration mode. Still, we were happy to see a dehydration function since most air fryers don't have one.
James Brains/Business Insider
You can wash the tray and basket in a dishwasher. If you wash them by hand, the debris slides right off. However, the rubber feet that hold the tray in place and protect the nonstick basket from scratching kept falling off during washing.
The $90 Dreo Aircrisp Pro used space efficiently with the best exterior-size-to-food-capacity ratio of the small basket air fryers I tested. The air fryer is flat on top, so you could store items on top, though you'll need to remove the items to cook. Its 3.6-quart capacity makes it ideal for two people.
Read our full Dreo Aircrisp Pro Air Fryer review. Check out our guide to the best small air fryers.
Best multitasking
Air fryers often get a bad rap for being uni-taskers, but Instant Pot has bucked the trend by adding air fryer functionality to its already versatile multicookers. The $170 Duo Crisp comes with two separate lids — a traditional Instant Pot lid for pressure and slow cooking and another lid equipped with an electric heating coil and fan that you'll use for air frying, broiling, dehydrating, and more.
If you've used an Instant Pot, you're already familiar with the Duo Crisp's pressure cooking. In our guides to the best pressure cookers and best sous vide cookers, we rated it the best multitasking unit.
The air fryer function excelled in my tests, producing tender broccoli and crisp frozen fries, though the tall cylindrical basket had some downsides. The basket allows you to stack two layers of food to compensate for the lack of horizontal space, but because the heat comes from above, the food on the bottom layer is often less crisp than the top. The air fryer basket also lacks a handle, which makes agitating the food difficult.
Jen Gushue/Business Insider
When you remove the lid, the heating coil is exposed, which is a burn hazard. The unit has a special plate for safely setting the lid down on your counter, but you must still be careful.
The Ninja Speedi Rapid Cooker & Air Fryer was also one of the best air fryers for multitasking, with sous vide and slow cooking capabilities. However, it doesn't pressure cook and costs more than the Duo Crisp.
Check out our Instant Pots vs. Air Fryers review and our full Instant Pot Duo Crisp review.
Best large-capacity
The Ninja Foodi DualZone is like having two full-size basket air fryers in your kitchen. It features two 5-quart air fryer baskets that you can program to heat independently or for the same time and temperature. A "smart finish" function ensures that both baskets finish cooking simultaneously if you're cooking two different types of food.
Most importantly, the Ninja Foodi DualZone cooks food evenly without drying out the food. While it was one of the slowest units preparing frozen fries, it quickly produced delicious broccoli and hand-cut fries.
Lauren Savoie/Business Insider
With so many functions, we assumed this $190 air fryer would have a steep learning curve, but the controls are intuitive. We had it up and running without referencing the instructions. Clean-up is also a snap since the baskets and crisper plates are dishwasher-safe. We like that the baskets are smaller than the traditional 6-quart models, so fitting them in the dishwasher is easier.
Another high-capacity option is the Ninja Foodi FlexBasket Air Fryer with MegaZone. It works similarly to the DualZone model, only instead of having two baskets, there's a divider splitting the 7-quart basket, so you can more easily cook larger items. It's more affordable but has a smaller capacity.
Read our full Ninja Foodi DualZone Air Fryer review.
Best two-drawer
I've tested a few two-drawer air fryers that allow you to cook two items independently, and they tend to cook slower overall than if you used two separate air fryers. That wasn't the case with the Midea Two-Zone Air Fryer Oven, thanks to a unique design. The upper cooking chamber is your classic basket air fryer, and the lower is like a tiny toaster oven. Both sections have windows and interior lights for monitoring your food.
The cooking speeds were average for a basket air fryer, which is much better than other two-basket air fryers we tested. More impressively, the food items came out virtually perfect. The wings were as crispy and even as it gets, and the frozen fries were the same: crispy, not too dry, and restaurant-quality. The broccoli came out about as well as you can expect from an air fryer: close to even, though the florets were more done than the stems.
James Brains/Business Insider
I tried the dehydration function and loved it. The two-drawer design made it easy to dehydrate larger quantities of food without crowding. In two hours, it turned cherry tomatoes into deliciously tangy sun-dried tomatoes.
Unfortunately, the Midea Two-Zone Air Fryer Oven is harder to use than most air fryers. Since I refuse to read user manuals, it took some trial and error to figure out how to program it. You must select which drawer you want to heat and press the knob once you've chosen your cooking function before you can adjust the time and temperature. Setting the unit with the SmartHome app (iOS and Android) was easier, though you can't start it with the app.
None of the components are dishwasher-safe. Fortunately, the nonstick coating makes clean-up a breeze. Overall, the Midea is smart for large families wanting to air-fry multiple dishes simultaneously.
What to look for in an air fryer
Size: Choose a 4- to 6-quart unit if you're only cooking for yourself or another person, says Laurie Fleming, the author of one of the best air fryer cookbooks in our guide and creator of Fork to Spoon. For larger families, use air fryers that are 6 quarts and up. She recommends larger air fryers when possible because they give you more flexibility in what you can make.
Type: There are two main types of air fryers: traditional basket units and air fryer toaster ovens. Air fryer toaster ovens are more versatile and perform several tasks, including non-convection baking. Basket air fryers are usually smaller and cook food faster but have limited functionality.
Price: The air fryers in myguide range from $70 to $200. Higher prices generally equate to more functions and a larger capacity. If you don't need fancy functions and only cook for one or two people, you can save a few dollars with a cheaper model.
Functionality: Manufacturers continually introduce new functions. Some common ones are dehydration, dual-zone cooking, and WiFi connectivity. More and more appliances offer air fryer cooking, including some toaster ovens and pressure cookers, like the Instant Pot Duo Crisp. However, more functions usually lead to a higher price tag.
How we test air fryers
Jen Gushue/Business Insider
When testing air fryers, I considered three main factors: cooking capabilities, ease of use, and ease of cleaning.
Cooking: Early in my testing, I discovered that even the best air fryers varied wildly in cook times. One unit charred broccoli to an undesirable crisp in 6 minutes, while another took 13 minutes to reach al dente. So, I cooked three recipes in each machine and evaluated how quickly and evenly they cooked.
- Broccoli: I cooked broccoli in each unit, assessing for doneness and even cooking. Each batch was air-fried for 8 minutes at 375 degrees after being sprayed with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper. Additional cooking time was added if necessary. The air fryers struggled with fresh vegetables, but a few units produced tender broccoli with crisp florets. More often, the result was incredibly dry.
- Frozen french fries: In each unit, I cooked Ore-Ida Extra Crispy Fast Food French Fries, assessing for doneness and even cooking. I cooked them for 8 minutes at 400 degrees, jostling halfway through. Additional cooking time was added if necessary. This was the most successful test. I didn't get a single bad batch of frozen fries. You should buy an air fryer if you eat many frozen finger foods.
- Fresh-cut french fries: I soaked the cut fries in cold water for 30 minutes before cooking, patted them dry, sprayed them with olive oil, and seasoned them with salt. I cooked them for 15 minutes at 375 degrees, adding additional time when necessary. Overall, the air fryers had trouble getting fresh potatoes crispy, but most units produced a satisfying baked-style fry.
- Chicken wings: Making chicken wings is a popular use for air fryers, so I recently added this test. I toss a pound of wing dings with canola oil, garlic salt, and lemon pepper, then cook them for 16 minutes at 400 degrees, flipping halfway through. I assess how evenly cooked and crisp the wings are. Every air fryer I've tested has finished cooking in 16 minutes. However, they vary significantly in crispiness.
Ease of use: I tried to set up and use each unit without referring to the user manual. Each air fryer was easy to set up and featured intuitive controls, especially if you have air fryer experience. If you are new to air fryers, get acclimated by reading the user manual.
Cleaning: I tracked how many parts there were to disassemble and clean. A unit with dishwasher-safe accessories got bonus points.
Air fryer FAQs
Are air fryers worth it?
If you have the counter space, an air fryer is worth it for its versatility and efficiency in roasting and baking. However, it won't trick anyone into believing your food is deep-fried. The best air fryers take very little time to preheat, saving time and electricity.
An air fryer is one of the quickest cooking appliances besides the best microwaves, making it a real time-saver, especially for weeknight meals. Plus, it's more versatile and produces crisper results than a microwave. Air fryers cook almost anything you'd typically roast in an oven: vegetables, fish, whole chicken, and more.
How do air fryers work?
Air fryers work like convection ovens, using a fan to circulate hot air. This browns the food and makes it crispy, similar to deep-frying. Air-fried food's texture and taste won't be the same as something deep-fried, but it's as close as you can get without a tub of oil. One benefit of using an air fryer is you don't have to monitor food too closely or cook it for that long. To learn more, check out our article on how air fryers work.
What can you make in an air fryer?
Since they rely on the same technology, air fryers can make anything a convection oven can make, including baking, convection baking, air frying, roasting, and toasting items. Some models can also broil and dehydrate your food. Consider purchasing one of the best air fryer egg molds to make a quick and easy breakfast.
What cannot be cooked in an air fryer?
Liquid foods, including soups and wet batters, should not be cooked in an air fryer. Fresh greens and other loose items should also not be cooked in an air fryer, as they will fly around and potentially catch fire on the heating element. This article covers the best and worst things to make in an air fryer.
What's the best way to clean an air fryer?
It depends on your air fryer model, so consult the user manual. Generally, you should clean the fryer basket and grease catcher with hot, soapy water and a soft sponge after each use. You can simplify cleanup by air frying your food on aluminum foil or parchment paper.
For more details, check out our article on how to clean an air fryer. For easy cleaning and grease-free cooking, look at the best silicone air fryer liners.
How much does an air fryer cost?
The cheapest air fryer we recommend in our best small air fryer guide costs $50, but they can cost up to $600. Expect to spend between $130 and $160 for the best air fryers. However, they're deeply discounted during Black Friday and other big sales events.
What size air fryer do you need?
Fleming recommends buying the biggest air fryer you can afford and have space for because it gives you flexibility in what you can make. She advises against anything smaller than four quarts, even if you just cook for yourself. Big families might consider air fryer toaster ovens, which have more capacity than basket air fryers.
James Brains/Business Insider
From the makers of the wildly popular Instant Pot, the Instant Vortex Plus Air Fryer Oven with ClearCook combines the best features of an air fryer and a toaster oven. It has a window in the front like a toaster oven, but it cooks quickly like a basket air fryer.
Even factoring in the time it takes to preheat, the Instant Vortex Plus cooked food the fastest in all of our tests, including producing evenly cooked hand-cut fries in just 14 minutes. Best of all, it did a good job of making moist and evenly cooked broccoli and frozen fries.
The oven is also easy to use. Select one of the six presets, use the temp/time button to adjust how long and hot the air fryer cooks, and press start. I did find it mildly annoying that the cook time countdown only starts once the unit preheats. You can't just have it countdown from when you press the start button, but that was a minor nuisance.
The Vortex Plus has an air filter to prevent odors from escaping. While I didn't systematically test this feature, it did a good job of containing smells. It also has a light to see your food through the window easily.
The basket and crisping plate are both dishwasher-safe. I much preferred cleaning the basket by hand because it takes up a lot of space in the dishwasher, and the nonstick surface makes clean-up effortless.
Read our full Instant Vortex Plus Air Fryer Oven review.
James Brains/Business Insider
The Ninja Foodi DualZone is like having two full-size basket air fryers in your kitchen. It features two 5-quart air fryer baskets that you can program to heat independently or for the same time and temp. A "smart finish" function ensures both baskets finish cooking simultaneously if you're cooking two different types of food.
Most importantly, the Ninja Foodi DualZone cooks food evenly without drying out the food. While it was one of the slowest units preparing frozen fries, it quickly produced delicious broccoli and hand-cut fries.
With so many functions, we assumed this $230 air fryer would have a steep learning curve, but the controls are intuitive. We had it up and running without referencing the instructions. Clean-up is also a snap since the baskets and crisper plates are dishwasher-safe. We like that the baskets are smaller than the traditional 6-quart models, so fitting them in the dishwasher is easier.
James Brains/Business Insider
We're always a little skeptical about products sporting a celebrity's name. However, we'd recommend the Beautiful 6 Quart Touchscreen Air Fryer by Drew Barrymore, even without the endorsement of the "Donnie Darko" star.
The controls are intuitive, with only the relevant buttons illuminated. First, you press the power button, which illuminates the presets. Once you select a preset, you can adjust the time and temp, and the flashing start button begins the cook. The unit is attractive and comes in seven colors: white icing, cornflower blue, black sesame, and more.
The $79 Beautiful air fryer was one of only two units to cook hand-cut fries in 15 minutes, and the results were evenly cooked and delicious. It was also among the fastest at cooking broccoli and frozen fries. The frozen fries were a little dry, but the broccoli was just right.
The basket and crisper plate are dishwasher-safe, though the basket with its jutting-out handle will take up significant space in your dishwasher. Hand-washing is an effortless alternative thanks to the nonstick coating.
James Brains/Business Insider
We tested 18 contenders for our guide to the best air fryer toaster ovens. Due to their size and popular uses, air fryer toaster ovens underwent different tests from traditional basket air fryers. You can find more details here.
While none of the air fryer toaster ovens produced perfectly even food, the Oster Digital Air Fryer Oven did the best on average. A juicy, delicious whole chicken only took an hour and seven minutes. The pizza was ready in nine minutes, and crispy, evenly cooked fries came out in 12 minutes. Plus, the oven preheated faster than most. The flavor was terrific in all three tests, though the chicken and pizza could have been cooked more evenly.
Using an oven thermometer, we found the Oster ran hotter than the temperature we set it at, but the temperature stayed consistent, only varying by plus or minus three degrees from its average.
Only the basics are included with the $190 Oster Digital Air Fryer Oven. Yet, there are several useful presets, like baking and dehydration. Cleaning is a snap thanks to the easy-to-remove crumb tray and dishwasher-safe accessories.
Overall, the Oster was the best air fryer toaster oven for cooking food evenly, deliciously, and quickly. It doesn't have the features or extras of pricier appliances, but it's a solid workhorse for producing quality food in minimal time.
Read our full Oster Digital Air Fryer Toaster Oven review. Check out our guide to the best air fryer toaster ovens.
James Brains/Business Insider
We considered 11 compact air fryers for our guide to the best small air fryers. Due to size constraints, we used different tests from the full-size units. We used half as much fries and broccoli and added a chicken wings test.
No matter the test, the Dreo Aircrisp Pro Air Fryer was among the best in quality and speed. While broccoli is a challenge for air fryers, the Dreo did the best at balancing tender stems and crispy-yet-not-burnt florets. The fries and wings were evenly cooked and perfectly crispy.
Lights illuminate the buttons for time and temperature adjustments. However, the presets are confusing as they rely on ambiguous symbols, like an orange representing the dehydration mode. Still, we were happy to see a dehydration function since most air fryers don't have one.
You can wash the tray and basket in a dishwasher. If you wash them by hand, the debris slides right off. However, the rubber feet that hold the tray in place and protect the nonstick basket from scratching kept falling off during washing.
The $88 Dreo Aircrisp Pro used space efficiently with the best exterior-size-to-food-capacity ratio of the small basket air fryers I tested. The air fryer is flat on top, so you could store items on top, though you'll need to remove the items to cook. Its 3.6-quart capacity makes it ideal for two people.
Read our full Dreo Aircrisp Pro Air Fryer review. Check out our guide to the best small air fryers.
Jen Gushue/Business Insider
Air fryers often get a bad rap for being uni-taskers, but Instant Pot has bucked the trend by adding air fryer functionality to its already versatile multicookers. The Duo Crisp comes with two separate lids — a traditional Instant Pot lid for pressure and slow cooking and another lid equipped with an electric heating coil and fan that you'll use for air frying, broiling, dehydrating, and more.
If you've used an Instant Pot, you're already familiar with the Duo Crisp's pressure cooking. We rated it the best multitasking unit in our guides to the best pressure cookers and best sous vide cookers.
The $185 air fryer function excelled in my tests, producing tender broccoli and crisp frozen fries, though the tall cylindrical basket had some downsides. The basket allows you to stack two layers of food to compensate for the lack of horizontal space, but because the heat comes from above, the food on the bottom layer is often less crisp than the top. The air fryer basket also lacks a handle, which makes agitating the food difficult.
The lid's heating coil is exposed when you remove it, which is a burn hazard. The unit has a special plate for safely setting the lid down on your counter, but you must still be careful. If you own an Instant Pot, you can purchase an air fryer lid separately for a 6-quart model.
The Ninja Speedi Rapid Cooker & Air Fryer was also one of the best air fryers for multitasking, with sous vide and slow cooking capabilities. However, it doesn't pressure cook and costs more than the Duo Crisp.
Check out our Instant Pots vs. Air Fryers review and our full Instant Pot Duo Crisp review.
Jen Gushue/Business Insider
The main factors we considered when testing air fryers were cooking capabilities, ease of use, and ease of cleaning.
Cooking: We discovered early in our testing that even the best air fryers varied wildly in cook times. One unit charred broccoli to an undesirable crisp in 6 minutes, while another took 13 minutes to reach al dente. So, we cooked three recipes in each machine and evaluated how quickly and evenly they cooked.
To choose the best air fryers, here are the cooking tests we put each unit through:
| Food | Testing Process | Result |
| Broccoli | We cooked a basket of broccoli in each unit, assessing for doneness and even cooking. Each batch was air fried for 8 minutes at 375 degrees after being sprayed with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper. Additional cooking time was added if necessary. | The air fryers struggled with fresh vegetables, but a few units produced tender broccoli with crisp florets. More often, the result was incredibly dry. |
| Frozen french fries | We cooked a basket full of Ore-Ida Extra Crispy Fast Food French Fries in each unit, assessing for doneness and even cooking. We cooked them for 8 minutes at 400 degrees, jostling them halfway through, per the air fryer-specific instructions on the french fry bag. Additional cooking time was added if necessary. | This was by far the most successful test. We didn't get a single bad batch of frozen fries. You should buy an air fryer if you eat many frozen finger foods. |
| Fresh-cut french fries | We cooked a basket of hand-cut french fries in each unit, assessing for doneness and even cooking. We soaked the cut fries in cold water for 30 minutes before cooking, patted them dry, sprayed them with olive oil, and seasoned them with salt. We cooked them for 15 minutes at 375 degrees, adding additional time when necessary. | Overall, the air fryers had trouble getting fresh potatoes crispy, and a few units created leathery exteriors on the fries by the time they were cooked in the middle. But most units produced a satisfying baked-style fry. |
Ease of use: We tried to set up and use each unit without referring to the user manual. Each air fryer was easy to set up and featured intuitive controls, especially if you have air fryer experience. If you are new to air fryers, get acclimated by reading the user manual.
Cleaning: We tracked how many parts there were to disassemble and clean. A unit with dishwasher-safe accessories got big bonus points in our test for best air fryer.