The Ninja Air Fryer Pro XL AF181 is a 6.5-quart air fryer with enough capacity to serve about four people. It features a square design, typical of Ninja's single-basket air fryers, and is impressively compact, making it a good choice for small kitchens. It features six preset cooking modes, including 'Dehydrate,' 'Bake,' and 'Max Crisp.'
Our Verdict
The Ninja Air Fryer Pro XL is a great air fryer. Its biggest advantage is its outstanding cooking speed; it preheats quickly and cooks faster than most other air fryers. While it leaves a significant portion of your food undercooked, it still makes decent-quality air-fried food overall, leaving more than half of each batch crispy and golden brown. It's impressively versatile, too, thanks to its wide range of fan speeds and temperature settings. This allows you to use the lowest settings for dehydrating or proofing dough and the highest settings for roasting or making extra-crispy food.
Preheats and cooks fast.
Great versatility.
Makes just decent-quality fried food.
The Ninja Air Fryer Pro XL is a good choice for large-batch cooking. Its basket has a capacity of 6.5 quarts, which is large enough to cook for about four people. However, while it has a decent amount of surface area to cook with, many similar-capacity air fryers have more room to spread food out in a single layer for the best results. It preheats and cooks very quickly, allowing you to make multiple batches of decent-quality air-fried food in a short time, and it's impressively versatile. It has a wide range of temperature and fan speed settings, along with six different preset cooking modes, making it a great choice for various cooking methods, such as dehydrating and roasting.
Enough capacity to serve about four people.
Preheats and cooks fast.
Great versatility.
Less cooking surface area than similar-capacity models.
Makes just decent-quality fried food.
The Ninja Air Fryer Pro XL delivers good frying performance. There's a decent amount of surface area in its basket, making it relatively easy to spread food out in a single layer for better results. Its maximum fan speed is very fast, too, though its top speed is only used for its 'Max Crisp' setting. It also maintains impressive temperature stability, which helps it cook more evenly. Together, this setup produces decent-quality fried food, leaving more than half of each batch crispy, though a large portion also remains mushy, while a few pieces end up overcooked. It cooks remarkably fast, so you won't have to wait long for meals or snacks.
Preheats and cooks fast.
Impressive temperature stability.
Less cooking surface area than similar-capacity models.
Makes just decent-quality fried food.
The Ninja Air Fryer Pro XL preheats quickly and cooks remarkably fast, faster than most other air fryers.
Preheats and cooks fast.
The Ninja Air Fryer Pro XL has a decent cooking capacity. Its 6.5-quart basket provides enough room to cook for about four people. While some air fryers have a larger cooking surface area, there's still a satisfactory amount of space to spread food out in a single layer for better results. Its cooking chamber is also slightly taller than average, offering more vertical space for cooking taller items.
Enough capacity to serve about four people.
Tall cooking chamber.
Less cooking surface area than similar-capacity models.
The Ninja Air Fryer Pro XL is a very compact air fryer. It won't take up too much space on your counter, and it fits in an average-sized cupboard.
Compact design.
Performance Usages
Changelog
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Updated Jan 15, 2026:
We added a comparison to the Instant Pot Duo Crisp 6.5QT in the Size box.
- Updated Dec 11, 2025: Review published.
- Updated Dec 01, 2025: Early access published.
- Updated Nov 20, 2025: Our testers have started testing this product.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The Ninja Air Fryer Pro XL 6-in-1 AF181 is available in a few different variants:
| Variant | Maximum Temperature | Preset Cooking Modes | Region | Available Colors |
| AF180 | 400°F | 4 Modes: Air Fry, Roast, Reheat, Dehydrate | U.S | 'Deep Navy,' 'Sage,' 'White,' 'Black' |
| AF180UK | 240°C (464°F) | 6 Modes: Air Fry, Roast, Reheat, Dehydrate, Max Crisp, Bake | U.K. | 'Black' |
| AF181 | 450°F | 6 Modes: Air Fry, Air Roast, Reheat, Dehydrate, Max Crisp, Bake | U.S. | 'Grey' |
| AF181C | 450°F | 6 Modes: Air Fry, Air Roast, Reheat, Dehydrate, Max Crisp, Bake | Canada | 'Deep Grey' |
| AF182AMZ | 450°F | 7 Modes: Air Fry, Air Roast, Reheat, Dehydrate, Max Crisp, Bake, Air Broil | U.S. | 'Grey' |
We tested the AF181C variant in 'Deep Grey,' and you can see the label for our unit.
If you encounter another variant, let us know in the comments, and we'll update our review.
Popular Air Fryer Comparisons
The Ninja AF181 is a compact air fryer with 6.5 quarts of capacity, or enough space in its basket to serve approximately four people. Like other single-basket air fryers from the brand, it has a squarish shape and features a ceramic nonstick coating on its crisper plate. Compared to Ninja's other single-basket models, it has a larger capacity, though most of that extra space is vertical. Its cooking surface area is similar to the 5.1-quart Ninja Pro AF141, so while it's handy for taller items, it doesn't provide any additional room to spread food out compared to Ninja's smaller-capacity offerings. Unfortunately, it can't compete with most of Ninja's other models in terms of frying performance. For example, it leaves more of each batch undercooked than the Ninja AF101, which is one of the brand's earliest models. It cooks faster than other Ninja air fryers, though, including the Ninja Foodi DZ550, a high-performing dual-basket model.
If you're looking for more options in this size range, check our recommendations for the best 6-quart air fryers. Alternatively, if you're looking for a broader overview, see our picks for the best air fryers or the best air fryer brands.
The Ninja Air Fryer Pro XL AF181 and the COSORI TurboBlaze are very evenly matched, and either could be a suitable choice, depending on your needs. They both offer approximately 6.5 quarts of capacity, but the COSORI's basket has a larger surface area, making it easier to arrange food in a single layer. It also makes better-quality fried food and offers more versatility, with a wider range of temperature settings and particularly fan speeds. Conversely, the Ninja cooks faster and maintains a more stable temperature throughout the process. It's also a little more compact.
The Ninja Pro AF141 and Ninja Air Fryer Pro XL AF181 are both impressive models from the brand, but they have small differences, and you may prefer either depending on your priorities. The AF181's taller cooking chamber provides a larger 6.5-quart capacity, but it doesn't increase the cooking surface area compared to the 5-quart AF141. This makes it great for taller items, but doesn't give you any extra room to spread food out. When it comes to frying quality, the AF141 comes out ahead, leaving more of each batch crispy and well-cooked. On the other hand, the AF181 cooks a bit faster. Both models are impressively versatile, with wide enough temperature and fan speed ranges for dehydrating on the low end or roasting on the high end.
The Ninja Air Fryer Pro XL AF181 is a better air fryer for most people than the Ninja Crispi FN101GY. The AF181 makes better-quality air-fried food, leaving more of each batch crispy. It also cooks faster and maintains a more stable temperature throughout the process. The AF181 is more versatile, too. It can reach a much lower temperature and fan speed, making it the better pick if you plan to dehydrate food or use your air fryer to proof dough. Still, some users may prefer the Crispi's innovative design, since the cooking chamber allows you to keep an eye on your recipe as it cooks and doubles as a food storage container.
The Ninja Crispi Pro AS101 and the Ninja Air Fryer Pro XL AF181 have different strengths, and you may prefer one over the other depending on what's most important to you. When it comes to frying quality, the Crispi Pro comes out ahead, leaving more of your food crispy and well-browned. Where speed is concerned, however, the Air Fryer Pro XL has the edge. It preheats and cooks faster, and it also reheats more quickly after you open the drawer to add food. Both options offer impressive versatility, making either a solid choice if you want to use your air fryer for baking, dehydrating, or roasting.
Test Results
This air fryer is very compact compared to similar-capacity models. For example, the Instant Pot Duo Crisp 6.5QT requires significantly more counter space.
This air fryer has a decent amount of space in its cooking chamber. Its 6.5-quart basket can serve approximately four people, and there's a satisfactory amount of space to spread food out for crispier results. That said, it has a smaller cooking surface area than models with a similar capacity, such as the COSORI TurboBlaze. Instead, the additional capacity comes from the chamber's height, which is handy if you want to cook something taller, but limits the amount of food you can arrange in a single layer. Its crisper plate has a ceramic coating, which is slightly harder to clean compared to other nonstick materials, but may be preferable if you try to avoid PTFE.
It's impressively versatile, with a wide range of fan speeds and temperature settings that make it a good choice for a variety of cooking methods. While you can't change the fan speeds manually, they correspond to various preset cooking modes, with the lowest speed used for dehydrating and the highest speed used for quickly crisping food:
- Max Crisp: 450°F, 30 minutes max, fan speed: 2900 -2975 RPM
- Air Fry: 300°F-400°F, 1 hour max, fan speed: 2860-2940 RPM
- Roast: 250°F-400°F, 4 hours max, fan speed: 2960 RPM
- Bake: 250°F-400°F, 4 hours max, fan speed: 1800-2050 RPM
- Reheat: 270°F-400°F, 1 hour max, fan speed: 2900 RPM
- Dehydrate: 105°F-195°F, 1 hour min - 12 hours max, fan speed: 1300 RPM
This air fryer makes decent-quality air-fried food. It leaves more than half of each batch crispy and well-cooked, but a large portion also remains undercooked, while a few pieces also wind up burnt. Notably, it can't match the frying quality of the Ninja Pro AF141, which shares a similar design. This discrepancy likely comes down to this air fryer's slower fan speed on 'Air Fry' mode, its faster cooking speed, and its slightly lower temperature stability. While a higher fan speed is available on the 'Max Crisp' setting, the 450°F temperature setting on that mode can't be changed.
It preheats quickly and cooks impressively fast, faster than most other air fryers, thanks in part to its high maximum power draw.
It offers excellent temperature stability. Although it takes a little while to heat back up after you open the drawer to add food, once it returns to the selected temperature, it remains very stable throughout the rest of the cooking process.