Best Air Fryers (2025), Reviewed By Our Experts

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There are plenty of air fryers out there that can give you crispy-enough results, but the very best air fryers churn out golden brown french fries, crispy-skinned chicken wings, tender fillets of salmon, and even whole roast chickens at the touch of a button. Forming And Coating Processing Line

Best Air Fryers (2025), Reviewed By Our Experts | Bon Appétit

Don't let the term air fryer confuse you: These things are pretty much just small convection ovens that use fans to circulate hot air around your food in order to cook it evenly and efficiently. They can take many forms; the robot-esque basket-style models probably come to mind, but there are versatile countertop convection ovens that add bake, broil, toast, and slow-cook options to the air fryer functionality. Some even dehydrate and steam too.

Both air fryer styles have their plusses and minuses, and the decision as to which one to get comes down to a few key things: How much counter space do you have? And are you primarily looking to crisp up frozen tater tots and meal-prep a couple chicken breasts at a time, or do you want a more versatile appliance that can handle personal pizzas, bake batches of cookies, and also toast your morning bagels?

Through the years, we’ve put over 15 models to the test to find the very best air fryers no matter which style you prefer. Read on for our top picks and scroll down for more information on what an air fryer actually is, anyway.

New in this update: We tested two new air fryers: the Instant Vortex ClearCook and the Our Place Wonder Oven. The ClearCook impressed us, performing similarly to the Vortex Slim has been a previous top pick, and we are recommending it as another great basket-style air fryer.

Instant Vortex Slim XL 6-Quart Air Fryer

Pros: Moderately priced, large capacity; small countertop footprint; user-friendly interface; easy-to clean Cons: Comparatively narrow temperature range (from 120°F–400°F) Best for: Those who prefer a basket-style air fryer over a convection toaster oven.

Basket-style air fryers are less versatile than air fryer ovens (which we'll get into below), but they’re also less expensive and take up less space. And, if your plan is to use your air fryer for, well, traditional air fryer stuff like crisping up small foods that require frequent shaking (tater tots, french fries, or Brussels sprouts), a basket-style air fryer will be far easier to maneuver and deliver better results.

After testing lots of models, we wholeheartedly recommend the 6-Quart Instant Vortex Slim. It impressed us in every test we threw at it, producing crispy-on-the-outside, fluffy-on-the-inside hand-cut french fries, juicy chicken breasts, and golden brown tater tots. It has a straightforward digital interface that allows you to easily set the time and temperature or select between preset programs (Air Fry, Roast, Bake, Broil, and Reheat).

In addition to being powerful and easy to use, its design, though compact, offers quite a bit more cooking surface area than comparable models thanks to the design of its basket. In practice, this meant our testers were able to fit an entire extra veggie burger patty (six total) than they were with models of a similar size and generally cook more food in each batch without sacrificing any of the airflow that makes air-fried food so crispy.

The Vortex Slim is also a real value. The top performer in its price range ($100–$150) by a wide margin, it’s powerful, versatile, quiet, lightweight, and easy to clean (both the nonstick basket and cooking tray are dishwasher-safe, though we recommend hand-washing anything with a nonstick coating).

One important note: Not all Instant Vortex air fryers are created equal. We also tried the Instant Vortex Mini Air Fryer, the Instant Vortex Plus 4-qt. Air Fryer, and the Instant Vortex Mini 2-qt. Air Fryer, and none impressed as much as this Instant Vortex Slim 6-qt. air fryer.

While the “slim” nature of this model makes it a bit easier to store, this isn’t a small appliance. It still takes up a decent amount of counter space. Other than that, we found nothing else to complain about with this model.

Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro

Pros: Most versatile cooking functions; large capacity Cons: Large footprint; high price point Best for: If you want an air fryer oven with a large capacity, a variety of functions, and don’t mind that it will always sit on your countertop.

If you want a versatile air fryer and have some counter space to spare, spring for the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro. A countertop convection oven, or air fryer–toaster oven, combines all the crisping power of the basket-style air fryers you know and love with the functionality you get from an actual oven, making it a bona fide do-it-all kitchen appliance. Breville makes a few different models (which can be found in the home kitchens of many of our editors), but this one is our top pick for most home cooks based on function, performance, and value.

This midrange model is also the top pick for award-winning cookbook author Nik Sharma, who’s developed some of BA’s favorite air fryer recipes. “I prefer toaster-oven-style to basket-style air fryers, because they’re easier to use for more common tasks like baking, toasting bread, and roasting more efficiently,” Sharma says. Though it does indeed look like an oversized toaster oven, this countertop cooker can also bake, broil, roast, slow-cook, dehydrate, and, of course, air-fry. The air fryer function is one of 13 presets on the digital control panel, and each one employs the right combination of heating elements for perfect toast, bagels, cookies, pizza, slow-cooking, and more. (A smarter, pricier model allows you to use Breville’s companion app for more advanced presets, including an impressive rotisserie-style chicken).

In our testing, we put the Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro through its paces and found that it delivered consistently great results test after test. It worked particularly well for foods that need to be laid in a flat, even layer across the crisper tray (think veggie burgers or salmon fillets), but did a good job handling frozen sweet potato fries, tots, and french fries too.

As with any oven-style air fryer, it’s worth noting that the Breville’s design makes it notably harder to toss small food items around midway through cooking when compared to a basket-style machine, where a quick shake of the basket does the trick. We also found that, in general, food benefited from a higher cooking temperature (and often slightly longer cook time) relative to the basket-style winners.

Instant Pot Vortex Plus 6-Quart ClearCook Air Fryer

Pros: Moderately priced, large capacity; user-friendly interface; helpful basket window; easy-to-clean Cons: Bulky Best for: Those who prefer a basket-style air fryer over a convection toaster oven but still want the ability to monitor food while cooking.

If a basket-style air fryer is what you’re after and counter space isn’t a pressing concern (i.e., an extra couple of inches in width is NBD), the Instant Pot Vortex Plus ClearCook is definitely worth considering. This model performed nearly identically to the Vortex Slim in our testing, which makes sense because it’s a very similar-looking model. The major difference—besides dimensions—is that the ClearCook has a cooking window located at the front of its basket, plus a button that switches on an interior light. This makes tracking the progress of your tots, fries, or chicken wings possible without removing the basket and disrupting the cooking process. Considering that providing a certain level of brownness is one of the chief concerns in air fryer cooking, this really comes in handy.

A few more bonus points for the ClearCook: It adds dehydrate to its list of functions and is able to hold temperatures as low as 95°F (the low end of the Vortex Slim’s range is 120°F). The ClearCook also happens to be $30 cheaper than the Slim at full price.

Despite having the same quart capacity as the Vortex Slim, the ClearCook’s basket fit one less veggie burger patty due to its more square dimensions. It’s also a bit bulky.

The Instant Vortex Plus ClearCook (L) versus the Instant Vortex Slim (R).

Pros: Extra-large capacity; self-cleaning; powerful heating; wide temperature range; Bluetooth connection and a useful app; long warranty Cons: Expensive; heavy; low height makes large protein cooks hard Best for: If you want a super advanced, techy-looking air fryer with an ultra-big capacity.

If you want something sleek and spacious and have room in the budget, the Typhur Dome offers just over 150 square inches of cooking surface area in its squarish basket. Our testers were able to fit a 12" pizza, six slices of toast, 20 chicken wings, or 10 slices of bacon per batch, while maintaining enough space for airflow around each item. It’s powerful and fast as well; the Typhur Dome doesn’t require any preheating, and the construction retains heat incredibly well. We found it cooked french fries, chicken, and bread several minutes faster than any other machine we tried. Because it can maintain a temperature as low as 140ºF, it can be used for dehydrating foods too. The relatively simple digital control panel has 10 presets, plus arrows to adjust the temperature and cook time, and the companion app has even more settings—including a self-cleaning function—as well as 50 one-touch air fryer recipes. Another plus? The entire basket, which has a ceramic nonstick surface (not a teflon one), is dishwasher-safe.

It's quite pricey, and its low height means it’s not the best option for cooking something large like a whole chicken. And, because it’s so roomy, this air fryer does take up a lot of space—but if you’re into kinda cute, futuristic small appliances, you might not mind making the space for this on your countertop.

Cosori Lite 2.1-Quart Mini Air Fryer

Pros: Low countertop profile; lightweight for easy storage; inexpensive; easy controls Cons: Only room for 2 servings of food; few cooking functions Best for: If you need a smaller model that’s easy to use and won’t take up much room on your counter—but is also lightweight enough to easily move back into a cabinet.

If you’re on a tighter budget, have very little counter space to spare, or simply want to reheat restaurant french fries every now and then, consider the Cosori Lite 2.1-Quart Mini Air Fryer. This compact air fryer did a beautiful job crisping and browning small servings of frozen tater tots and fries, sliced zucchini, and veggie burger patties (two at a time, max). Depending where you buy, it only costs $50–$60 at the time of publishing—not at all bad for a lightweight, quiet, digital air fryer with four easy-to-use presets (air-fry, roast, bake, and reheat). It’s easy to tuck into a cabinet and to clean. Again, while the manual says the nonstick basket is dishwasher-safe, we always recommend hand-washing anything with a nonstick coating.

Per its name, it’s quite small—don’t expect to be cooking enough food for more than two people in this thing. It also won’t remind you when it’s time to shake your food, so you’ll need ot keep an eye on the timer yourself (luckily, the digital display makes this pretty easy).

An air fryer is a countertop oven that uses hot air, circulated by a fan, to give foods crisper textures than you can achieve in a regular oven or toaster oven. What makes an air fryer an air fryer is a built-in convection fan that blows the hot air around the food to crisp it up. It’s the combination of heat and moving air that produces the kind of crispy exterior you’d otherwise get from deep-frying or pan-frying. But unlike a deep fryer, an air fryer requires far less oil to achieve the desired effect—and it doesn’t leave your house smelling like a grease trap for days or weeks.

So, technically speaking, yes, air fryers are simply small convection ovens, but the most classic form of air fryer isn't really oven-shaped. Products marketed as air fryers are traditionally egg-shaped, with small removable baskets that you shake, as you would a deep-frying basket, in order to get an even cook on, say, french fries or zucchini slices.

Whether you’re a purist and only consider products that contain baskets and have that classic round shape to be true air fryers, or you find the term air fryer to be stupid marketing jargon for a convection oven is up to you to decide. For the purposes of this review, we’ve included both toaster ovens that contain convection, or “air fryer” settings and the classic basket-containing air fryers. You can read more about each type below, and decide which might be right for you.

We have spent countless hours over the past few years researching, testing, and retesting popular air fryers from top-name brands, including Breville, Cuisinart, Ninja, Philips, and Cosori. When we tested these machines, we cooked hand-cut fries, slices of zucchini, cubes of marinated tofu, chicken breasts, salmon fillets, and myriad frozen foods in each model (sweet potato fries, tater tots, and veggie burgers), and assessed the following factors. We also solicited enthusiastic recommendations from our own test kitchen editors and recipe developers who use air fryers both in their Bon Appétit work and in their own homes. Here’s how we judged them:

This was one of the most crucial things we evaluated. We wanted to assess if each machine could crisp food better than your average oven.

While an air fryer basket needs to get shaken or stirred at least once while cooking, we also wanted to make sure each model produced evenly browned and crunchy results—we didn’t want to see any fries that are super crunchy on one end and raw on the other.

While a lot of air fryers come with additional presets, we focused mostly on how easy it was to set the time and temperature on each model. Was it a simple dial and few buttons or did it feature a confusing and hard to navigate interface?

Square- and rectangular-shaped air fryers tend to offer more surface area than round ones. We also preferred models with fewer interlocking pieces, which makes the air fryer easier to clean.

We took these machines apart and scrubbed them after we tested them. Like we said above, in general, the fewer pieces there are to the air fryer, the easier it is to clean.

Some home cooks will want an air fryer that’s light, with a slim profile that makes it easy to store in a cabinet and take out only for occasional use. Others won’t mind a larger appliance that they can keep out on their countertop, especially since a larger machine can accommodate more food and likely offer more versatility. We looked for options that would suit both kinds of air fryer users.

DEAL: Philips Premium Airfryer XXL

What we think of the Philips Premium Digital Air Fryer

The Philips almost took a top spot—almost. It’s got a generous capacity, the control panel is easy to navigate, and it performs well with minimal user intervention. In other words, you won’t have to do a lot of shaking or stirring to get crispy fries from the Philips. This model did have a smaller yet heavier basket. It’s also loud and harder to clean due to a bunch of interlocking parts. It’s a good air fryer but with its higher price tag we feel like there are better deals on this list.

DEAL: Cuisinart Air Fryer Oven - 6-Qt Basket Stainless Steel Air Fryer

What we think of the Cuisinart Air Fryer Oven 6 Qt

The Cuisinart ran neck and neck with the Instant Vortex Slim—it was easy to use, didn’t whir too loudly, included a nice preheat feature, and was about the same price. We also really liked the viewing window you could use to check the progress of your food. But while it technically has the same capacity as the Slim, the shape of the basket is awkward, making it tougher to use.

What we think of the Our Place Wonder Oven

Like all of DTC darling Our Place’s products, the Wonder Oven is cute. Unfortunately, it failed to impress us enough to earn our recommendation here. While it did fine at cooking tater tots and french fries, it produced unevenly browned, ultra mushy zucchini and tofu that never quite got the crisp exterior we were looking for. The analog controls are aesthetically pleasing, but make selecting an exact temperature impossible (and knowing when the unit is at temperature impossible too). It did, however, make a shockingly good fillet of crispy-skinned salmon.

DEAL: Ninja SL401 DoubleStack XL 2-Basket Air Fryer

What we think of the Ninja DoubleStack XL 2-Basket Air Fryer

The DoubleStack takes the idea of a dual basket air fryer to a whole new level—literally. Like the Vortex Slim, the DoubleStack’s design prioritizes using vertical space. It’s skinny with the baskets stacked on top of each other instead of side by side like most other dual models. This makes it narrow and tall instead of wide, but not so tall that you can’t nestle it under your cabinets. The space saving design doesn’t mean you lose out on actual cooking space either. The baskets are big enough to fit a chicken, and wire racks in each mean you can really maximize how much you’re cooking. (Though you do need to remain mindful of not overloading it with food, otherwise you’ll block the airflow and mess up the whole air-frying process.) You can also program the baskets separately and utilize the machine's “Smart Finish” feature—which delays the start of the basket with the shorter cook—to have a whole meal ready at the same time. The one thing we didn’t like was the somewhat confusing interface.

DEAL: Instant Pot Vortex Plus 4QT Air Fryer

What we think of the Instant Vortex Plus 4-Quart Air Fryer

This Instant Pot air fryer model is a fine option if you need something with a smaller capacity. The rectangular shape of its basket made it easy to fit plenty of food inside. It is sleek and has a short profile, which are nice features too. The Vortex Slim just offered better performance.

What we think of the Ninja AF101

This Ninja is what we think of when we think of a basic basket air fryer. It’s lightweight and simple to use, and it does a nice job crisping up fries. The round shape of its basket, though, makes it less versatile than other models on this list. If you’re trying to cook raw proteins or a tray of vegetables, you give away a lot of space with a round basket.

GoWISE USA Ming's Mark GW22621 Electric Air Fryer

What we think of the GoWISE USA 3.7-Quart 7-in-1 Programmable Air Fryer

Another budget-friendly option, the GoWISE is best for one person who’s making small amounts of food at a time. Filling it with a meal for two-to-four people results in food. One other thing to note: The GoWISE claims to be a 7-in-1 air fryer, which isn’t quite true. It doesn't offer seven different cooking methods, but rather just presets to make things like chicken or fish.

Instant Pot Vortex 2QT Mini Air Fryer

What we think of the Instant Vortex Mini 2-Quart Air Fryer

The Vortex Mini performed as well as the Cosori in our compact air fryer testing. However, it’s louder, heavier, and bigger. It’s just an inch smaller than our pick for best full-sized air fryer.

DASH Compact Air Fryer Oven Cooker

What we think of the Dash 2-Quart Compact Air Fryer

While the Dash looks cute with its retro silhouette and poppy colors, it just didn’t perform that well. Sweet potato fries came out soggy and greasy. Tofu cubes got crisped on one side but were raw on the other, and the round basket could only fit one veggie burger. The two dials, controlling time and temperature, also prevented us from getting more specific in the cook settings.

COSORI Air Fryer 4 Qt, 7 Cooking Functions Air Fryer

What we think of the Cosori 4-Quart Air Fryer

While this Cosori performed as well as other inexpensive models, it didn’t offer many additional settings to enhance the cooking experience—though it does feature an app to monitor your cooking progress.

Nuwave Brio 10-in-1 Air Fryer 7.25Qt

What we think of the Nuwave Brio 7-in-1 Air Fryer Oven

The Nuwave Brio uses a wire basket instead of a nonstick-coated or ceramic-coated metal basket, like most other air fryers. This made it a lot harder to clean. Plus, it has a confusing interface.

A few of our favorite air fryer recipes

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Best Air Fryers (2025), Reviewed By Our Experts | Bon Appétit