The 8 Best Air Fryers of 2024, According to Our Tests

Our Favorite Air Fryer

The Instant Vortex Plus 6-Quart Air Fryer has impressed us time and time again as the best air fryer available. It’s the right balance of a generous capacity with a manageable overall size, boasts the blasting convection power necessary for crispy results, and, of course, has a user-friendly interface. If you're looking for something slightly smaller with similarly excellent results, we'd recommend the Ninja 4-Quart Air Fryer.

How We Test Air Fryers

Over the past few years, our editors at home and our testing lab have had their hands full with air fryers from dozens of brands. We’ve noticed that in the second, third, and further generations of products, models with the same name changed significantly, so we keep testing and re-testing our winners to make sure they're still tops. This list of the best air fryers reflects our historical data and the most recent models we’ve tested — over the years, some brands have held strong, others have dropped out of the ranks, and new machines have shown up on the list for the first time.

Our original test included 11 popular models from go-to brands: Instant, Philips, Ninja, Cosori, Chefman, GoWise, Dash, Cuisinart, and Breville. We focused on the bread-and-butter air fryer staples of frozen French fries, vegetables, and chicken tenders. To test their baking capabilities, we also made cornbread, and once we found the top performers from the first four rounds, we used them to try roasting a whole chicken.

Since then, we've performed lots of additional tests, taking on more than 20 basket-style air fryers and 10 combination air fryer/toaster ovens with the same five dishes. In our most recent round of tests, previous winners went head-to-head with the new Typhur Dome using Food & Wine recipes for miso air fryer salmon with baby boy choy and bacon-wrapped air fryer pork tenderloin.

Though the exact ingredients and recipes have varied, our methodologies for testing air fryers always focus on a few main factors:

• Crisping: A golden, crunchy exterior and properly cooked interior are essential for almost every fried food. We've used classics in testing including frozen and fresh-cut French fries, breaded proteins like shrimp and chicken tenders, and vegetables.
• Heating consistency and accuracy: Nothing reveals hot or cold spots or a lack of convection power like toasting several slices of bread or baking a batch of cookies, and we did one or both with all the tested machines. This made it easy to spot where some items browned more than others, or where there were undercooked areas. We also monitored temperature using thermometers to see if various settings hit the mark accurately or not.
• Nonstick capabilities and cleanup: If you're popping cinnamon rolls or a flaky fish into your air fryer, you need to know you won't spend 15 minutes after dinner digging bits out of the basket. Between each round of testing, we always cleaned the air fryers thoroughly and noted whether there were easy-to-wash parts or if anything required extra effort.

Aside from these performance factors, we also rated the machines' size, weight, noise level, and general feel, looking for any features that are especially helpful or especially annoying to deal with. We only considered value after assigning grades in all the other categories, and we compared pricing across the overall air fryer category as well as between comparably sized and advanced models.

Air Fryers We're Testing Right Now

• Ninja Crispi 3-in-1 Portable Glass Air Fryer Cooking System: We're looking at this new product from Ninja because of its portability and the glass container, which is a change from the usual nonstick and stainless steel baskets and trays we're used to with typical air fryers.

What We Learned About the Best Air Fryers

The price isn't always right. These days, basket-style air fryers can range from $50 to $350, and toaster ovens with air-frying capabilities generally run from $100 to $400. Most of our favorites land in the middle, between $100 and $200. The cheapest models lack decent performance or capacity, but more expensive machines than this range generally don’t add much for their increased cost. Air fryers don’t generally need to be flashy to be efficient, and the prices of our top picks reflect that.

A noisy air fryer isn't a great dinner guest. The powerful fan in many air fryers can make a bit of a racket, so we noted the models that were noticeably loud or quiet while running. If you’d rather not yell over the whirr of the air fryer during your dinner party, this can be an important consideration.

There is a sweet spot for capacity. Knowing the volume of what you’ll want to cook in an air fryer is just as important as the type of food itself. If you’re slinging standard grocery-store frozen fries, you can generally manage with 4 to 6 quarts, as long as you give them a good shake halfway through cooking. For more finicky recipes like homemade air fryer chicken wings and hand-cut fries, the more surface area inside your air fryer, the better. If the air isn’t circulating while it’s cooking, you’re not going to get the crispy, consistent results you’re looking for. At the same time, you won’t want to give up too much countertop or cabinet space. Our winners strike the right balance between the size of the basket and the actual cubic feet of space needed for the machine.

Extra features are nice, but more is not always more. Most air fryers can also tasks besides air frying, including broiling, roasting, and dehydrating. However, similar to pressure cookers, they may not perform every function especially well. You may, for example, be better off purchasing a good dehydrator if you're into making jerky, dried vegetables, and fruit roll-ups. Other features to look for include a timer and an easy-to-use interface. Smart features vary widely, so it's hard to compare machines directly; we did give special consideration to models with helpful presets and Wi-Fi connectivity. Ultimately, the flashy additions don’t hold as much weight as basic cooking results, but they definitely add some value.

The Best Air Fryer Brands

After years of testing, we've seen new brand emerge and established brands waver in our various air fryer tasks. We're wary of recalls on popular brands like Cosori, as well as newcomers that need more long-term trials. We can say with confidence that you generally won't be disappointed with air fryers from a few different brands:

• Instant: Our steady best overall pick, plus many others in various sizes and configurations, come from the maker of the Instant Pot. Superior consistency, easy-to-use controls, and decent pricing are what make this brand's air fryers a constant winner.
• Ninja: Another frequent winner in our air fryer tests, Ninja’s basket-style air fryers are excellent for the price, and the brand’s dual-compartment models are unique to the category.
  
• Chefman: In the small air fryer category, Chefman is a regular winner. We're a fan of the brand's two-quart model if your needs are something built for small portions and cooking for one.
  
• Philips: For large-capacity basket-style air fryers, Philips has been a favorite of ours since the beginning of our testing process. Its products are fast and consistent — no soggy fries left behind — but they're expensive.
  
• Breville: Breville’s a hallowed name in the smart kitchen appliance arena, and it's cornered the market for high quality air fryer toaster ovens that can do it all. These multifunctional machines are large, effective, and pricy.

Signs It's Time to Replace Your Air Fryer

If you've had your air fryer for a number of years or use it frequently enough that it has wear and tear, there are a few things to look out for:

• Heating elements not working correctly causing overheating, longer cooking times, or sparks
• Nonstick coating is scratched or damaged in any way
• Odd smells when in use (beyond the initial first use where some smells can happen from dust/particles from manufacturing)
• Electronic interface starts glitching or controls begin to fail in any way

Other Air Fryers We Tested

Strong Contenders

Philips Essential Air Fryer XL ($200 at Amazon)

With decent performance, good nonstick capabilities, and great French fry results, this is a machine we'd keep in mind if there's a great sale. The large temperature-adjustment increments (25 degrees), loud operation, and lack of versatility keep it out of the top rankings right now.

Chefman TurboFry Digital Air Fryer, XL 8-Quart ($120 at Amazon)

Despite the generous capacity and nice ergonomics, the Chefman 8-quart left a bit to be desired for cooking consistency. It doesn't handle smaller quantities as well, which isn't ideal for versatility at home.

Ninja Max XL Air Fryer ($170 at Amazon)

A larger version of the star performer Ninja 4-quart, this model delivered truly great results for basic functions. It was touch-and-go on Brussels sprouts in our tests, but we can forgive it for the excellent fries, shrimp, and wings.

Cosori 4-Quart Smart Air Fryer ($100 at Amazon)

The fries, Brussels, and biscuits were all slightly lacking here, but it was extremely easy to use with a great basket for easy cleanup. The dreaded dishes after cooking are an underrated factor in all appliance needs, and this model made that infinitely easier.

Cosori Pro Gen 2 Air Fryer 5.8-Quart ($120 at Amazon)

A little lacking in the Brussels and garlic arena, this air fryer won't do you wrong if you're not too worried about caramelizing vegetables. Great ease of use and smooth operation is a bonus.

What Didn't Make the List

We've tested dozens more air fryers, including more Cosori models, the Philips Premium XXL, the tiny Dash Compact, and the Ninja Foodi Dual Zone. We were surprised to see a few of these struggle with the most straightforward food, like fries and chicken wings. Others had decent performance but lacked some of the features that our winners included as a default, like presets, large baskets, and easy cleanup processes. Some we felt the cumbersome size outweighed the results, and others were simply too small to recommend for most household uses.

Air Fryer Cooking Tips

Senior food editor Breana Killeen has tested dozens of air fryers and created recipes designed for basket-style and toaster oven air fryers. According to her, you have to know your machine and how well it evenly circulates the air. Just like every home oven has its hot spots, every air fryer has its own quirks. Basket-style air fryers tend to cook slightly faster and get all sides of the food crispier than toaster oven air fryers. That's why you should always give your food a quick shake or stir halfway through cooking.

Here are her top five tips for getting the most out of cooking in your air fryer.

Don’t forget to preheat. It's worth it to take a few minutes to preheat the air fryer before adding the food, so the food gets that initial blast of hot air when it goes in. This helps crisp everything up.

Cooking spray ensures crunch. For an extra hit of crunch, coat the food in cooking spray as you put it in the air fryer. You also want to make sure to coat the air fryer basket in cooking spray so nothing sticks. So much better than those silly paper liners.

Make sure you space things out. Don't overcrowd the air fryer or it won't work as you'd like, and the food will steam instead of becoming crispy. If you regularly cook for a family or large group, go with one of the XL models.

Remember to flip and turn your food. Flipping (or stirring) the food halfway through cooking is important for making sure all sides are hit with the hot air, so they crisp up

Finally, look for recipes developed specifically for the air fryer. The cooking times are different than those for recipes created for a traditional oven.

More Air Fryer Categories

• The Best Air Fryer Accessories
• The Best Air Fryer Cookbooks
• The 6 Best Large Capacity Air Fryers
• The 6 Best Small Air Fryers
• The 5 Best Air Fryer Toaster Ovens

Our Expertise

• Megan Soll is the Associate Editorial Director at Food & Wine and a frequent air fryer user at home. For this piece, she referenced multiple rounds of testing data and research to rank our favorite air fryers in several categories.
• VP of Commerce Taysha Murtaugh also contributed to this piece and interviewed recipe developers and testers Anna Theoktisto and Julia Levy for their insights.
  
• Senior writer Jason Horn updated this story further with additional test results. He's been writing about food and drinks for nearly 20 years and makes a mean eggplant Parmesan, which he prefers to deep fry if he's being honest.
• Senior food editor Breana Killeen also contributed to this piece, offering air frying cooking tips. She is a recipe developer, farmer, and dietitian who has worked in all facets of the food world. She has tested dozens of air fryers and created recipes designed for basket-style and toaster oven air fryers.

Air Fryer Recipes to Try Now

• Air Fryer Fried Chicken with Hot Honey
• Air Fryer Coconut Shrimp
• Air Fryer Buffalo Wings
• Air Fryer Baked Potato
• Air Fryer Steak Frites
• Air Fryer Basque Cheesecake
• Air Fryer Brownies