Air fryers are a great option if you often find yourself impatiently waiting for your oven to preheat or wishing your meals, sides, and snacks were crispier. Using about as much counter space as a microwave, these compact appliances quickly cook and crisp your food with little to no oil. Instead, they use hot air, with the best models producing evenly cooked, crispy, and golden-brown food.
Many air fryers also offer surprising versatility. Models with a wide range of temperature settings and fan speeds can roast, bake, dehydrate, and more, which is ideal if you want to multitask or avoid heating your full-sized oven on a hot day. Dual-basket models even let you cook different foods on each side of the air fryer, so you can prepare your main dish and a side simultaneously. While the capacity of the air fryers we've tested ranges from 2 to 10 quarts, larger models tend to perform better. Unlike in a deep fryer, you won't get the best results by filling the basket with ingredients. Instead, you'll want to arrange your food in a single layer as much as possible. With that in mind, you may want a bigger air fryer (or one with a wider basket) even if you only cook for one or two people.
We've tested more than 35 air fryers, and you'll find our recommendations for the best ones below. For more options, you can also check out the best small air fryers, the best large-capacity air fryers, or the best air fryers for French fries. The products here are all basket-style air fryers, but you can also see our recommendations for the best toaster oven-style air fryers. Once you've found the right model for your crispy foods, you might also want the best microwave for your popcorn or reheating needs.
Quick Look
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Best Air Fryer
Air Frying8.2Cooking Speed8.8Cooking Capacity8.6See all our test resultsCooking Versatility8.8The best air fryer we've tested is the Ninja Foodi DZ550. It's a 10-quart, dual-basket model that can handle anything from solo meals to family-size feasts. One of its main selling points is the ability to use different settings for each basket, so you can prepare a main and side dish simultaneously and have them finish cooking at the same time. It's even equipped with a temperature probe that automatically monitors the internal temperature of meats, like steak or a whole chicken.
Thanks to its roomy baskets, powerful fan, and high maximum power draw, this air fryer produces great-quality air-fried food, resulting in evenly crispy, golden-brown chicken wings, vegetables, and French fries. It preheats and cooks quickly, so you don't have to wait long for meals and snacks, and it maintains a stable temperature throughout cooking, so it's easy to accurately follow recipes. It's quite versatile, too, with a wide range of temperature settings and fan speeds, as well as six preset cooking modes: Air Fry, Air Broil, Roast, Bake, Reheat, and Dehydrate. Like most other Ninja air fryers, its crisper trays have a ceramic nonstick coating. This is more difficult to clean by hand compared to conventional non-stick coatings, but it may be a pro if you avoid PTFE materials.
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Best Large-Capacity Single-Basket Air Fryer
Air Frying8.0Cooking Speed8.2Cooking Capacity8.2See all our test resultsCooking Versatility9.2If you're cooking for a crowd, consider the Ninja Foodi DZ071. It's the best large-capacity single-basket model we've tested, offering 7.1 quarts of capacity and plenty of cooking surface area, so you can cook for five to six people at a time. You can also divide the basket into two sections to cook separate dishes simultaneously. Of course, this convertible design means that the sections won't be as well insulated as completely separate baskets, so you may notice some heat transfer between the two sections.
This air fryer preheats and cooks quickly, delivering very good results fast. Cooking air fryer favorites like onion rings, chicken strips, or cauliflower results in most of each batch being crispy and well-browned, while just a few pieces remain undercooked or wind up burnt. With impressive temperature stability, it's easy to follow recipes closely and cook delicate foods that require precise conditions. It offers outstanding versatility as well. Like the Ninja Foodi DZ550, it offers a wide range of temperature settings and fan speeds, and, being part of the same lineup, it offers the same six preset cooking modes. It also features a ceramic crisper tray.
If you need more surface area, but not necessarily more capacity, consider the Typhur Dome 2. While it has a smaller 5.7-quart capacity, it has significantly more surface area to spread food out or cook larger items, like a 12" pizza. It cooks a bit slower than the Ninja, but produces fried food with similar quality.
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Best Medium-Sized Air Fryer
Air Frying8.0Cooking Speed8.0Cooking Capacity7.7See all our test resultsCooking Versatility9.5The COSORI TurboBlaze is a 6-quart air fryer, large enough to serve approximately four people. Its square basket provides more cooking surface area compared to some options with the same overall capacity, making it easy to spread food out for optimal results.
While it doesn't perform quite as well as the Ninja Foodi DZ550, it comes close, producing very good-quality air-fried food. It's also very versatile. It offers a wide range of temperatures and five different fan speeds, allowing you to use the 'Bake' setting for a medium fan speed when you want to avoid drying out cakes or cookies, or the 'Dehydrate' setting for a very low fan speed to prevent light ingredients from blowing around. With even more preset cooking modes than the Ninja models above, it's a very convenient option, allowing you to keep food warm, proof dough, or cook straight from frozen with the press of a button. Its crisper plate has a PTFE nonstick coating, so it's very easy to clean.
However, while this model cooks faster than the Ninja Foodi DZ071, it preheats more slowly and takes longer to reheat after adding food to the basket. Its temperature fluctuates more, too, which makes it harder to follow recipes accurately.
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Best Small Air Fryer
Air Frying8.1Cooking Speed8.7Cooking Capacity7.3See all our test resultsCooking Versatility8.3Bigger is better when it comes to air frying performance, but if you have limited counter space, you might want a smaller option. The Ninja Pro AF141 is the best small air fryer we've tested. Its 5-quart basket has just enough space to cook for two to three people, but there's plenty of room to spread out ingredients in a single layer, thanks to its large surface area.
It doesn't air fry quite as evenly as the previous picks, so you risk having a larger proportion of each batch over- or under-cooked by the time most of your food is crispy. Still, it produces good results, leaving the majority of each batch well-cooked. It also preheats and cooks very fast, making it an excellent option for quick snacks. Once preheated, it returns to temperature very quickly after you open the drawer to add food and maintains a very stable temperature for the rest of the cooking cycle. While it's not as versatile as the COSORI TurboBlaze, with a smaller range of fan speed and temperature settings, it still has four distinct functions: Air Fry, Roast, Reheat, and Dehydrate. And, like our top pick, its crisper tray has a ceramic non-stick coating instead of the more common PTFE.
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Best Windowed Air Fryer
Air Frying7.8Cooking Speed8.4Cooking Capacity7.6See all our test resultsCooking Versatility7.3If you want to keep a close eye on your food while it cooks, consider the Dreo ChefMaker. This high-end air fryer has a window in its basket and a light inside its 6.4-quart cooking chamber, so you can peek at your recipe's progress without opening the drawer.
This air fryer is much smaller than the similarly priced Ninja Foodi DZ550 and cooks less evenly, but it's fast and still makes good-quality air-fried food. It doesn't have a very wide range of fan speeds for different cooking methods, but it offers a temperature range wide enough for a variety of recipes. This model also offers some unique features, including its 'Chef Mode' presets, which use a temperature probe and a water misting feature to automatically cook cuts of meat, like steak or salmon. It connects to an app that allows you to monitor the cooking process, look up Chef Mode instructions for a variety of foods, and send cooking information to the air fryer, so all you have to do on the machine itself is press the start button. Like the COSORI TurboBlaze, its crisper plate has a PTFE nonstick coating, making cleanup easy.
Unfortunately, this is an expensive air fryer. If you're willing to sacrifice a bit of performance to spare your wallet, the Cuisinart AIR-200 is our next-best option with a window. It makes less evenly air-fried food compared to the other picks listed here, but it still produces decent results.
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Best Air Fryer for French Fries
Air Frying8.1Cooking Speed8.3Cooking Capacity7.3See all our test resultsCooking Versatility8.6If crispy, well-cooked fries are your top priority, consider the Ninja Speedi SF301. It's a combo air fryer and multi-cooker, meaning you can use it as a conventional air fryer or add liquid for methods like steaming and slow cooking. Unlike most basket-style air fryers, it opens from the top, similar to a rice cooker or pressure cooker. With a 6-quart capacity and a decent amount of surface area, it can serve about four people at a time.
This model makes even better-quality fried food than the Ninja Foodi DZ550, leaving most of each batch crispy and golden brown. And while we used frozen French fries to arrive at this conclusion, you can expect the same crispy results with all sorts of air fryer classics, such as wings, onion rings, and vegetables. You won't have to wait long for meals or snacks either. While this air fryer takes a little while to preheat and reheat after adding food to the basket, it still cooks food quickly overall. When used as an air fryer, it offers great versatility. Its lowest temperature and fan settings are sufficient for dehydrating, while its highest settings help deliver those crispy results. It features a wide selection of preset cooking modes, including Air Fry and Bake, as well as options specific to its multi-cooker functions, such as Steam and Proof, although we haven't tested these options. Like the other Ninja air fryers on this list, its crisper plate has a ceramic coating.
It's worth noting that this air fryer is only available from third-party sellers and is likely to sell out soon. However, if you can find it at a good price, it's a great buy.
Notable Mentions
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Ninja Foodi DZ201:
The Ninja Foodi DZ201 is a dual-basket air fryer with a design similar to that of the Ninja Foodi DZ550. It has a smaller 8-quart capacity and doesn't come with a temperature probe. It's not as versatile and doesn't air fry as evenly as the DZ550 or the Ninja Foodi DZ071, but it's a solid, less expensive option.
See our review -
Beautiful 6qt Digital:
While most air fryers are only available in black and stainless steel variations, the Beautiful 6qt Digital comes in various pastel colors with gold accents. It doesn't perform quite as well as the Ninja Foodi DZ550 and isn't as versatile as the COSORI TurboBlaze, but it still produces good-quality air-fried food, so it's a good option if you want an air fryer that matches your kitchen.
See our review
Recent Updates
Nov 04, 2025:
We've added picks for the Best Large-Capacity, Single-Basket Air Fryer and the Best Air Fryer for French Fries. We also checked to ensure the rest of our picks are still available and made small edits for clarity.
Apr 23, 2025:
We've made minor updates to the text for clarity, but haven't made any changes to our recommendations.
Mar 25, 2025:
We've made minor updates to the text and checked that the products are available.
Feb 25, 2025:
We've made minor updates to the text and checked that the products are in stock.
Jan 28, 2025:
We've checked that our picks represent the best recommendations and that the products are in stock.
All Reviews
Our recommendations above are what we think are currently the top air fryers for most people. We factor in the price, feedback from our visitors, and availability.
If you'd like to do the work of choosing yourself, here's the list of all air fryer reviews. Be careful not to get too caught up in the details. While no air fryer is perfect, most are good enough to please almost everyone, and the differences are often not noticeable unless you look for them.