Apr 11, 2024 8:00 AM

The Best Air Fryers for Quick and Easy Cooking

Prepare flavorful fried food with little to no oil using this modern kitchen staple.

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Keep hearing about the joys of air frying? Providing a faster and healthier way to cook fried foods with little to no oil, an air fryer has become something of a kitchen staple. It works much like a convection oven to circulate hot air around your food—only it’s more compact and increases your time savings. Think guilt-free crispy chicken, homemade fries, and donuts that are not only simple to make but come with easier clean-up compared to using a traditional deep-fat fryer.

With smaller capacity interiors to heat and shorter preheating times, an air fryer can be a quicker way to cook than your standard oven—potentially saving you money off your energy bills if used wisely. (Just make sure it’s large enough to cook what you need, otherwise you’ll be using it multiple times—which will defeat its energy-saving purpose.) Multifunctional in design, some air fryers come loaded with preset cooking modes for baking, roasting, dehydrating, grilling, and reheating. They can tackle a range of meat, fish, and vegetables effectively, as well as sweet treats: steak and sweet potato fries, homemade apple crisps, a warm banana loaf. Here are WIRED's top picks to suit a range of ingredients and price points.

Check out more of WIRED's top kitchen tech and accessory guides, including the Best Electric Kettles, Best Latte and Cappuccino Machines, Best Chef's Knives, and the Best Gear for Small Kitchens.

Update April 2024: We've included three new options including the versatile Ultenic K10 Air Fryer, added information on caring for your new air fryer, and asked one of Europe's best new chefs for her air frying tips and tricks.

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Photograph: Ninja
Best All-Rounder
Ninja Speedi Rapid Cooker & Air Fryer
Ninja’s latest Speedi can cook fries with up to 75 percent less fat than a traditional deep fryer, but also offers so much more than your standard air fryer. Finished in a subtle gray colorway, it sits compactly on the worktop and has a fold-up lid that opens to reveal a deep 6-quart capacity cooking dish. The design has a 12-in-1 functionality, which includes preset cooking modes for searing and sautéing, steaming, baking, roasting, and, for anyone feeling particularly adventurous, a sous-vide setting. The beauty of the Ninja is that you can also use it to cook one-pot meals in just 15 minutes—and it comes with a recipe inspiration booklet to get you started.
I was impressed at just how neatly the Speedi Rapid Cooker and Air Fryer fit onto a kitchen worktop. It’s low enough to be placed neatly under the worktop, although you will need to pull it out and give it plenty of room to let off steam while in use. It has the premium finish you’d expect from a Ninja appliance and is very easy to operate and wash clean with warm, soapy water. You can use this for everything, from air-frying single foods to preparing complete one-pot meals. I particularly love the ingenious use of space inside, which includes a rack with adjustable legs that make it easy to raise when needed. This means you can prep rice and pasta on the base of the dish while you cook meat, vegetables, fish, and the like at the top. In other words, you can cook a complete meal in one so it’s ready to serve and enjoy straightaway.
~~$200~~ $130 at Amazon
$200 at Ninja
$169 at Walmart
Photograph: ‎Instant Pot
Handy Viewing Window
Instant Pot Vortex Plus Air Fryer Oven
With its 6-quart capacity, this air fryer is a great size for large households as it has the ability to cook up to six portions at a time. There are six cooking modes onboard: air-fry, roast, broil, bake, reheat, and dehydrate. It promises a perfectly golden finish every time and doesn’t disappoint, with crispy, tender results. What I love most about the Instant Vortex, though, is its large viewing window that lights up at the touch of a button. This means you don’t need to open the cooking drawer to check on your food and interrupt the cooking cycle midway through. I was able to see just how golden my homemade chips were turning and monitor the chicken tenders so I knew when they needed turning over and were crisp and ready to eat.
At 95 degrees to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, the temperature range on this air fryer is wide, which makes it good for both foods that require a lower temperature—ideal for dehydrating apple crisps, for example—to those that require a higher heat to give them a bit of crunch. And built-in “odor erase” filters reduce cooking smells that can linger. This comes into its own whether you’re using it in an open-plan kitchen and living area or have it on in a small kitchen. The Instant Pot app is great for inspiration, with recipe ideas such as Air Fryer Hawaiian Ham & Cheese Stromboli to Air Fryer Breakfast Bombs with bacon and cheese.
~~$170~~ $100 at Amazon
$140 at Walmart

Photograph: Ultenic
Premium Features For Less
Ultenic K10 Air Fryer
Looks-wise, this air fryer scores top marks. It has a 5.3-quart basket, big enough for five portions, but it’s not too bulky. Despite the low price it has an attractive easy-clean black finish, while the gold handle adds to the premium look. It’s quite light too, so I found it easy to store and move around.
The air fryer has a touch display and 11 preset modes, with popular ingredients—chicken, bacon, and fries for instance—neatly illustrated. It also has a dedicated preheat button, plus shake-reminders, both usually only found on premium models. At 61.3 decibels the air fryer is louder than most I've tested, but not so bad to be a deal breaker.
The settings offer pretty accurate temperature and timings too. I pressed the fries icon and it offered up 20 minutes at 383 degrees Fahrenheit, which worked well for a full basket of frozen fries. The fish cooking mode lasted eight minutes at a much lower 347 degrees Fahrenheit, which wasn’t quite enough for two salmon fillets, but I was able to adjust the timing to suit.
And being 2024, it's also Wi-Fi enabled, with voice control via Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant so you never need to press a button again—although it only works over 2.4G.
$120 at Amazon
$179 at Ultenic
Photograph: Cosori
Our Fave Smart Air Fryer
Cosori Pro III Dual Blaze
What makes this Cosori air fryer stand out is that it can be monitored and controlled remotely using a smartphone or tablet, as well as via its digital control panel. Setup was simple, and after downloading the Cosori VeSync app, I was able to pair up with ease over Wi-Fi. While, for safety reasons, I couldn’t use the app to start the air fryer, I was able to use it to check the cooking status and remotely adjust the temperature. You can also use the app to search through a wide range of air fryer recipes, such as teriyaki-glazed onigiri and black currant Irish drop scones.
While the Cosori Pro doesn’t have a viewing window, I really like the sleek, black design, which feels premium in its finish and sits neatly on the countertop. The cooking drawer slides out smoothly, and the handle doesn’t get hot while in use—although the sides get a little hot, so be sure the air fryer has plenty of space. It offers a flexible temperature range, from 175 degrees Fahrenheit to a powerful 400, with 12 preset cooking modes. The cooking space in the drawer is deep and wide, so I was able to place eight portions of chicken tenders inside, which needed 15 minutes at 400 degrees before they looked golden and ready to eat. Banana bread also did well—the Cosori dish is large enough to fit a round baking tin. Within 25 minutes on a 320-degree setting, the bread was evenly cooked on the outside and nicely spongy on the inside.
~~$180~~ $150 at Amazon
$144 at Kohl's
~~$284~~ $142 at AliExpress
$180 at Cosori

Photograph: Instant Pot
Prepare Two Dishes at Once
Instant Pot Instant Vortex 9-quart Air Fryer with VersaZone Technology
An air fryer with a dual basket can be a game changer when you want to cook a complete meal or need to whip up two dishes at once. With its simple black finish and plastic handles, this air fryer looks basic—and lacks a viewing window—but its touchscreen control panel is surprisingly clever.
Unlike some dual-capacity ovens, this has one large 9-quart basket that includes two removable cooking trays and a divider. This means that you can fit in a whole lasagne or traybake when needed, but also separate the baskets into two zones and cook two different foods at the same time.
There are six preset cooking modes with temperatures ranging from 129 degrees Fahrenheit for dehydrating, up to 401 degrees Fahrenheit for air frying and roasting. I was impressed by how little flavor transfer there was between the cooking zones, which was especially important when cooking oily salmon next to fries.
When cooking foods with different timings, I simply pressed the SyncFinish, which meant my food would be ready at the same time too, which is a neat trick. I recorded noise levels of around 58.3-dB, which isn't especially quiet, and it's worth noting the sides do get warm to the touch.
$199 at Instant Pot
Photograph: Ninja
The Compact Choice
Ninja Air Fryer Max XL
Having tried a wide range of bulky countertop kitchen appliances, it’s always a pleasure to come across a design that doesn’t take up too much space. The Ninja Air Fryer Max XL is compact enough that I wasn’t scrabbling around for usable countertop space to carry out other tasks such as prepping vegetables. The control panel doesn’t have a smart app to accompany it, but it is refreshingly simple to use and clearly illustrated so you can easily tailor the time and temperatures to suit your food. You can choose settings that include max crisp, air fry, air roast, air broil, bake, reheat, and dehydrate.
I found that the 5.5-quart, ceramic-coated, nonstick basket and crisper plate did well to make around four portions of frozen fries in one go on the air-fry setting. The results were even and satisfying after 20 minutes of cooking at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. The max crisp setting is perfect for making homemade chips with a nice amount of crunch at a super toasty temperature up to 450 degrees Fahrenheit. (Just coast evenly in oil and give the basket a shake a few times.) Keen to test the Bake setting, I made a chocolate cake using a small circular tin. To convert recipes from a conventional oven, Ninja suggests that you reduce the temperature by 25 degrees Fahrenheit and preheat for a few minutes before baking. The bake setting defaulted to 325 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes, which worked well with the cake rising evenly. After an extra five minutes, the inside cooked through without the top of the cake burning.
~~$170~~ $110 at Amazon
$170 at Ninja

Photograph: Cosori
If You Forget to Shake
Cosori Lite
I’ve tried a host of different air fryers over the past six months and the Cosori Lite really stood out for me—most notably because it isn’t too bulky on the worktop and its refreshing milk white with orange trim finish really lifts the style in my kitchen. (You can also find gray or sage finishes.) Looks aside, the air fryer comes packed with time-saving and convenient features. On its digital control panel, Cosori gives you preset cooking options for foods that do well in the air fryer with modes for Chicken, Fries, Bacon, Steak and Veggies. I’m a big fan of fish and while this is missing from the panel, this isn’t a problem as it’s easy to manually choose a temperature to suit your food—the fryer reaches a toasty 446 degrees Fahrenheit for that crispy, fried finish.
Other handy settings on the control panel include a Shake button that reminds you to open the basket and shake your fries midway through the cooking cycle—to make sure they are evenly coated in oil and come out crispy on the outside, yet light and fluffy on the inside. I also love the preheat button on this air fryer—it heats the basket for a few minutes so that your food goes in with a better chance of coming out perfectly cooked.
While the 4-quart capacity is modest, I think it’s great for up to four portions—depending on whether you’re cooking chicken tenders or a batch of fries, or getting more adventurous dehydrating apple crisps at a lower temp. It can also be paired with the VeSync app so you can control the device with your smartphone while you’re multitasking around the house—it won’t start the air fryer, but you can use it to see how long is left and browse recipe ideas. Always a bonus when you’re stuck on what to cook on a Monday night.
$115 at Amazon
$100 at Best Buy
$100 at Walmart
Photograph: Zwilling Electrics
Compact Design
Zwilling Air Fryer
At just 11.8 inches tall, this is an ideal air fryer for apartment living, as it can fit under worktops or be tucked away in a corner. Naturally, shrunken dimensions means smaller portions (4 quarts), so this could be great for anyone living on their own.
It has a plastic body, but feels solid, and its touchscreen is refreshingly simple to use, with little in the way of hidden layers to navigate through. While there’s no obvious start button here—oddly you have to use the on/off button—I do like how the display shows temperature needed and time for each of the six preset modes on the panel. These can also be adjusted using the separate time and temperature dials.
The air fryer performed admirably, although I have to admit I found the preset cooking modes of fries, chicken, shrimp, fish, pizza, and cake more than a little random. I did eventually find Zwilling recipes for mini pizzas, and for the record, shrimp cooks at 320 degrees Fahrenheit. It's not a major issue, but you should get a good air fryer recipe book as you'll need to work out temperature and timings yourself.
$129 at Walmart
$119 at Zwilling

Photograph: Breville
This One Does Pizza
Breville the Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro
Similar in style and shape to a countertop microwave oven, this brushed stainless steel Breville air fryer comes with a drop-down door that opens to reveal a large 1-cubic-foot interior. It’s roomy enough to fit large whole cuts of meat and can even take on a 14-pound turkey, or air-fry at least six portions of fries at a time on the interior tray. I found the LCD control panel here particularly easy to navigate. It comes with a dial that makes it easy to scroll through the 13 cooking functions on offer, with precise settings for everything from toasting, roasting, and warming, to cooking a pizza, reheating, making cookies, and even slow cooking.
The wide temperature offering ranges from 80 to 480 degrees Fahrenheit, and I was pleased with just how well this air fryer could tackle a range of foods with different temperature requirements, such as fries and chicken wings as well as pizza and toast—producing even, crispy results, every time. While the Breville comes with a selection of its own accessories, including a pizza pan and mesh basket rack for dehydrating and air frying, what’s great about this design is that it’s large enough to add your own pans inside—such as a cast-iron Le Creuset dish for when you’re slow cooking food. While I found it quite easy to wipe clean, you do need to clean the interior regularly after each use—particularly around the element area where the grease can set in if left.
★ A smarter alternative: Breville's Joule Oven Air Fryer Pro ($545) (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is very similar in its offering. If you pay around $100 more than the Smart Oven Pro, you can use a dedicated smart app to monitor food while it's cooking.
~~$400~~ $300 at Amazon
$586 at Walmart
$400 at Breville
Photograph: Grandbrothers/Getty Images
What to Look For
Much like a kettle, blender, or coffee maker, air fryers are designed to be a permanent fixture on your worktop, so if space is tight in your kitchen, you may want to carefully consider the measurements before you buy. The choice of size and finish is wide but some designs can be bulky, which makes them difficult to store when not in use. Remember to check the cooking capacity before you buy to ensure the air fryer will cater to the number of people you’re cooking for—a design with a 6-quart/5.7-liter capacity is ideal for making four to six portions at a time.
Standard air fryers come with a cooking drawer with a basket and grill plate inside. The drawer can be pulled out midway so you can check on your food and give it a shake to make sure it’s cooking evenly. You can also find one-pot multi-cookers that come with an air-fryer setting. These tend to have a lift-up lid that reveals a cooking pot where you can air-fry your food but also prepare stews and casseroles. Then there are those air fryers that look more like small microwaves and have the capacity to rotisserie a whole chicken, cook a pizza, toast muffins, or reheat food. The most flexible designs have a wide temperature range and settings for specific tasks such as roasting, baking, reheating, and dehydrating, on top of your standard air-fry mode.

How We Test
To get a good feel for each air fryer, we cooked a range of meat, fish, and vegetables. As fries are one of the most popular and easiest things to prepare in an air fryer, we were particularly keen to see how well these did—both homemade and frozen varieties.
We also air fried some salmon fillets to see if we could achieve results with a delicious crispy skin and a nicely flaked interior. Marinated chicken tenders were up for grabs too, as were a range of root vegetables and brassicas. We also measured how noisy each model was in operation using the Decibel Meter App.
Air Frying Cooking Tips From the Pros
Professional chef Kate Austen shares her expertise on how to get the best from your air fryer.
To help you get the best results from your new air fryer, WIRED asked leading European chef Kate Austen for some expert advice. Based in London, Kate was the world’s youngest head chef of a 2-Michelin star restaurant (AOC in Copenhagen), and has worked for Marcus Waring, Gordon Ramsey, and Franzen, recently voted Europe’s best restaurant.
Do preheat: For best results, ensure the oven is up to temperature before you start cooking, just like you would with an oven.
Don’t completely cover the grill: The whole reason why air frying works is the circulation of air, so don’t cover the base of the basket with foil or baking paper. You want those crispy bits!
Do limit oil: Make sure there is oil on most of what you are cooking, so that it doesn’t stick, but not too much as it can clog up the fryer and reduce its efficiency.
Don’t overpack the basket: Over filling the oven will hinder circulation, so keep it a little under maximum capacity for maximum effect.
Do batch cook: We all know that cooking every day can be a struggle, so double up some days and reheat for the next. And those fried foods which previously wouldn’t be nice the next day are now perfect because there’s no oil involved!
Don’t eat straight away: For jacket potatoes, turn the fryer off and leave it in for 15 minutes. The potato will rest and go perfectly soft and sweet.

Photograph: Emily Peck
How to Clean an Air Fryer
WIRED asked Jenny Tschiesche, nutritionist and author of Air Fryer Cookbook, how she keeps her air fryer in tip-top condition. Here are her four simple steps.
Step one: Turn your air fryer off and allow it to cool down completely.
Step two: Remove all detachable parts, like the basket, the tray, and any space dividers such as those you find in the Instant VersaZone. Many of these parts will be dishwasher safe, but the best way to clean all of them is with warm, soapy water. If food is burnt onto the surface, you may need to soak for up to 30-minutes before scrubbing with a nonabrasive sponge.
Step three: Use a warm, damp cloth to wipe the interior surfaces and remove any food residue. It’s a good idea to wipe the heating element at this stage as well. If you’re dealing with stubborn grease or struggling to get into the crevices behind or in between the heating element, then use a soft bristle brush such as a toothbrush.
Step four: Use another damp cloth to wipe the exterior surface, including the control panel, which may have greasy marks on it.

Emily Peck is a journalist with 20-plus years of experience writing about interiors, food, well-being, gardens, technology, and everything in between. She has held in-house positions at the BBC and Ideal Home magazine, and regularly contributes to WIRED, GQ, The Telegraph, Livingetc, Techradar and GoodtoKnow.

WIRED contributor

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