I've Tested 21 Air Fryers, and These 6 Are My Favorites For Faster, Crispier Cooking

My years of testing air fryers (and I've used close to two dozen) have taught me that there are plenty out there that can give you crispy-enough results—but the very best air fryers churn out not only golden brown french fries and crispy-skinned chicken wings, but tender fillets of salmon and even whole roast chickens at the touch of a button.

Don’t let the term air fryer confuse you: These gadgets are 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 are probably what come to mind when you think of an air fryer, 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.

• Best air fryer overall: Cosori Turboblaze 6.0-Quart Smart Air Fryer
• Best small air fryer: Cosori Lite 2.1-Quart Mini Air Fryer
• Best air fryer–toaster oven: Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro
• Best small oven-style air fryer: Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Compact
• If you want a basket-style air fryer with a window: Instant Pot Vortex Plus 6-Quart ClearCook Air Fryer
• A high-performing PFAS-free choice: Cosori Iconic Stainless Steel 6.5-Quart Smart Air Fryer

Both air fryer styles have their pluses and minuses, and the decision as to which one to get comes down to two 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, 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 20 models to the test to find the very best air fryers, no matter which style you prefer.

New in this update: We tested the new Cosori Iconic, which performed well and has a PFAS-free ceramic nonstick basket that helped it earn a spot on our list. One of our previous top picks, the Typhur Dome, has been discontinued and replaced by the Dome 2, so we tested the new model; however, it dropped out of our top picks because its size made a bit impractical for an average-sized kitchen. We also tested the Dreo ChefMaker and Ninja Crispi, which you can read about below under “Others We Tested.”

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Cosori

Turboblaze Smart Air Fryer

$130

Cosori

$130

Walmart

Basket-style air fryers aren’t as versatile as air fryer ovens (which we’ll get into below), but they’re also less expensive and take up less space. So if you plan to use your air fryer for, well, traditional air fryer stuff like crisping up small foods that require shaking (tater tots, french fries, or brussels sprouts), a basket-style air fryer will be far easier to maneuver and deliver better results.

What we love: After testing a lot of air fryers, I wholeheartedly recommend the 6-Quart Cosori Turboblaze Smart Air Fryer. It impressed me in every test, producing evenly browned and crispy frozen sweet potato fries, juicy chicken breasts, and perfectly cooked brussels sprouts. It has a straightforward digital interface that allows you to easily set the time and temperature and an impressive array of preset programs (Air Fry, Roast, Broil, Frozen, Preheat, Reheat, Dehydrate, Proof, Bake, and Keep Warm).

A few things set the Turboblaze apart from the competition (including our previous longtime winner, the Instant Vortex Slim). Most notably, it consistently produced the crispiest food of any air fryer we tested, and it did so in record time. That may have something to do with the fact that there’s more space between the crisper plate (where the food sits) and the bottom of the basket than there is in some of the other top-performing models we’ve tried, which allows for better air circulation.

Another standout feature is its variable fan speeds, which adjust automatically depending on the cooking function. Unlike most air fryers that use this tech behind the scenes, the Turboblaze shows you the fan speed right on the display. Air Fry, for example, is one of four “turbo modes,” running the fan at full blast (speed 5), while Bake uses a gentler speed 3 to avoid disrupting delicate foods. Low-temperature settings like Dehydrate and Proof drop all the way down to speed 1.

The Cosori Turboblaze 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).

The model I tested includes smart features, meaning you can control it remotely or use voice commands via the VeSync app. If that’s not your thing, Cosori also sells a non-smart version for about $10 less.

Useful for: Those who prefer a basket-style air fryer over a convection toaster oven.

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Cosori

Lite 2.1-Quart Mini Air Fryer

$60

Amazon

$60 $50 (17% off)

Cosori

If you’re on a tighter budget, have very little counter space to spare, or are mostly crisping up food just for yourself, consider the Cosori Lite 2.1-Quart Mini Air Fryer.

What we love: 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 on where you buy, it will only costs $50–$60 (as of publish time)—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. Like the Cosori Blaze, the Lite has a nonstick basket. Again, while the manual says the nonstick basket is dishwasher-safe, we always recommend hand-washing anything with a nonstick coating.

What we’d leave: 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 to keep an eye on the timer yourself (luckily, the digital display makes this pretty easy).

Useful for: Someone who needs a model that won’t take up much room on your counter or needs to regularly tuck it away in a cabinet.

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Breville

Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro

$400

Amazon

$400 $300 (25% off)

Breville

$400 $300 (25% off)

Williams Sonoma

If you want an air fryer with maximum versatility 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 most of 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 the best air fryer–toaster oven for most home cooks thanks to a combination of performance and value.

What we love: This midrange model has been our top pick for years now because of its versatility, build quality, intuitive design, and consistently strong performance in testing.

While it looks like an oversized toaster oven, it can air-fry, bake, broil, roast, slow-cook, and dehydrate. 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 includes Breville’s companion app for more advanced presets, including an impressive rotisserie-style chicken.)

In testing, the Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro delivered reliably great results. It excelled at foods that need to be laid in a flat, even layer across the crisper tray (think veggie burgers or salmon fillets), but also handled frozen fries, tots, and sweet potato fries well. Its interior is roomy enough to fit a quarter sheet pan or 13x9" casserole pan, which means it can effectively double your oven space (or eliminate the need to turn on your full-size oven altogether).

This model is also a favorite among BA staffers and Test Kitchen editors, as well as award-winning cookbook author Nik Sharma, who 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.

What we’d leave: As with most oven-style air fryers, it’s harder to toss or shake small foods mid-cook compared to a basket-style machine. 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.

Useful 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.

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Breville

Smart Oven Air Fryer Compact

$250

Amazon

$250 $200 (20% off)

Williams Sonoma

$250 $200 (20% off)

Breville

If you like the idea of going the air fryer–toaster oven route but (a) don’t have the space for the Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro or (b) don’t want to shell out $400 in pursuit of crispiness, here’s some good news: Breville recently came out with the Smart Oven Air Fryer Compact, which is essentially a smaller, cheaper version of our top pick.

What we love: As with most Breville products, the Smart Oven Air Fryer Compact feels thoughtfully designed, with stainless-steel finishes and a solid build. It offers fewer niche modes than the Pro—there’s no Dehydrate or Proof—but it does include four air-frying-specific presets in addition to a standard Air Fry setting.

I found the Compact intuitive to use (the guide printed on the inside of the oven door helped). I also appreciated the “bit more” button, a feature borrowed from Breville’s toasters that adds a touch of extra cooking time when your fries are looking just a touch underdone.

This model performed comparably to the Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro in most of our tests, producing juicy chicken, evenly browned cubes of tofu, and crispy veggies. I still prefer the larger model for its larger capacity and additional functionality, but this little oven would make a worthy addition to any smaller kitchen.

What we’d leave: While the Compact did well in most tests, it struggled a bit with frozen sweet potato fries. This largely came down to overcrowding due to the smaller capacity: While I tried to fit an entire bag’s worth on a single tray, the unevenness with which the fries browned is a good example of the fact that, unlike a basket fryer, countertop oven-style air fryers are best used to cook things in a single layer.

As mentioned, there’s a guide to oven inserts and placement on the inside of the oven’s door, but this was easy to miss, and these suggestions did not appear in full in the manual. Because of this, I accidentally cooked chicken with no tray underneath the wire basket to catch the drippings, which resulted in a smoking-hot mess.

It’s also worth noting that one of the major benefits of opting for an oven-style air fryer tends to be capacity, but the Compact wasn’t able to fit more food than our top basket-style pick.

Useful for: Those who want an oven-style air fryer with a relatively small footprint.

The Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Compact (L) is much smaller than the Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro (R).

Alaina Chou

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Instant Pot

Vortex Plus 6-Quart ClearCook Air Fryer

$140 $90 (36% off)

Amazon

$130 $80 (38% off)

Walmart

If a basket-style air fryer is what you’re after and you like the idea of being able to monitor what you’re cooking, the Instant Pot Vortex Plus ClearCook is definitely worth considering.

What we love: This model performed nearly identically to our old top pick, the Vortex Slim (probably because it’s a very similar build). The major difference—besides the ClearCook’s dimensions—is that it has a cooking window located at the front of its basket, plus a button that switches on an interior light, sort of like a traditional oven. 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 can 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.

What we’d leave: The square shape of the ClearCook’s basket fits one less veggie burger patty than more elongated baskets. It’s also a bit bulky.

Useful for: Those who prefer a basket-style air fryer over a convection toaster oven but still want the ability to monitor food while cooking.

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Cosori

Iconic Air Fryer

$249

Cosori

$249

Amazon

While I won't go down the PFAS rabbit hole and the notion of “nontoxic” cookware right here and now (we've got other articles for that), I know some of you might be looking for an air fryer with a PFAS-free nonstick basket—and for that, I recommend the Cosori Iconic.

What we love: Cosori's air fryers consistently perform well in our testing, and the brand's newest addition to its lineup continues that pattern. It has similar features and produced similar results to our top pick, the Cosori TurboBlaze, churning out crispy-skinned salmon and beautifully browned Brussels. Like the TurboBlaze, the Iconic allows you to choose between five different fan speeds, which means it's equally adept at turning delicate kale into crispy chips without blowing them around the basket as it is cooking hefty bone-in chicken breasts to bronzed perfection.

If they're so similar, why go for the Iconic over the TurboBlaze? Other than the Iconic's slightly larger capacity, the main draw is its PFAS-free ceramic nonstick-coated basket and crisper plate.

What we'd leave: While I appreciate that the Iconic's stainless steel matches my kitchen's stainless steel appliances, the fryer looks a bit, well, spaceship-like. But the real downside is the price, which is practically double that of the TurboBlaze.

We have spent hours and hours over the past few years researching, testing, and retesting popular air fryers from top-name brands, including Breville, Cuisinart, Ninja, Philips, and Cosori. Here's how we put each appliance to the test:

• Skin-on proteins: We cooked salmon fillets and chicken breasts or thighs in each air fryer, noting how crispy each piece became, how juicy it stayed, and how evenly it cooked.
• Fresh veggies: We cooked a batch of Brussels sprouts to test how each fryer handled moisture. We looked for crisp edges and tender—but not mushy—interiors.
• Marinated tofu: We crisped up cubes of marinated tofu to see if the air fryers could deliver crunchy, golden brown nuggets with soft interiors—and no stickage in the process.
• Frozen foods: We cooked an entire package of frozen sweet potato fries to see how each model handled cooking food from frozen (and the requisite moisture doing so creates).

When evaluating each model, we looked for a few key qualities:

• Crispiness created: One of the most crucial things I evaluated. Can it crisp food better than your average oven?
• Even cooking: Even with mid-cook shaking or stirring, I wanted consistently browned, crunchy results—I didn’t want to see any fries that are super crunchy on one end and raw on the other.
• Ease of use: Regardless of how many presets a model offers, setting the time and temperature should be simple and intuitive. Was it a simple dial and a few buttons, or did it feature a confusing and hard-to-navigate interface?
• Functional design: Square and rectangular baskets offer more surface area than round ones. I also preferred fewer interlocking pieces, which makes the appliance easier to clean.
• Easy to clean: I took these machines apart and scrubbed them after we tested. In general, the fewer pieces there are, the easier it is to clean.
• Mobility and storage: I looked for options that work for both types of cooks—those who want something light and cabinet-friendly for occasional use, and those happy to keep a larger, more versatile machine on the counter.

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Instant Vortex Slim XL 6-Quart Air Fryer

$140 $120 (14% off)

Amazon

This model from Instant was a previous top pick, and I still think it’s an excellent air fryer. Its design, although compact, offers a significantly larger cooking surface area than comparably sized air fryers thanks to the shape of its basket. In practice, this meant I was able to fit an entire extra veggie burger patty (six total) compared to 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.

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Typhur

Dome 2

$499 $340 (32% off)

Typhur

$499 $400 (20% off)

Amazon

The Typhur Dome 2 is quite spacious compared to the other basket-style fryers on this list, offering 139.5 square inches of cooking surface area. Our testers were able to fit a 12" pizza, six slices of toast, 20 chicken wings, 11 large chicken thighs, or 10 slices of bacon per batch, while maintaining enough space for airflow around each item. The relatively simple digital control panel has 15 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 dozens one-touch air fryer recipes. Another plus? The entire basket, which has a ceramic nonstick surface (not a teflon one), is dishwasher-safe.

We used to recommend the original Typhur Dome as a top pick for those looking for an air fryer with an extra-large capacity, but after testing the newer Typhur Dome 2 (which replaced the original), I felt its performance didn't quite merit a spot on our top picks. When filled to capacity, the Dome 2 took much longer to properly cook and crisp food to my desired level than most other basket air fryers. For instance, while I was able to fit an impressive 11 bone-in chicken thighs in the Dome 2's basket, they took upwards of 45 minutes to get truly golden. Because cutting down on cooking time is a big reason one might opt for an air fryer over the oven, this felt like a major red flag. That said, the Dome 2 cooks food incredibly evenly, and things do eventually get very crisp, so if you're feeding a large family and have lots of counter space to spare, it may feel worth the investment to you.

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Philips Premium Airfryer XXL

$150

Amazon

$350 $180 (49% off)

Williams Sonoma

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, and it’s 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.

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Philips 3000 Series 6.2L Air Fryer

$150

Philips

This newer model from Philips has a lot going for it: sleek touchscreen interface, helpful viewing window, and a whopping 16 settings. It did very well in our testing, producing crispy tots, tofu, and fries, but we preferred the design and the interface of the Cosori and Instant models. If you’re looking for an air fryer with a window feature, we’d recommend going with the Instant ClearCook (which is slightly cheaper at the time of writing) unless you find this model at a discount.

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Dreo

ChefMaker Combi Fryer

$359

Dreo

$359 $269 (25% off)

Amazon

The Dreo ChefMaker isn't just an air fryer—it's also got probe cooking capabilities and app compatibility that make cooking proteins pretty effortless, and is a personal favorite of senior editor Olivia Tarantino. For the purposes of this article, though, we mainly tested its air frying abilities. We found that while the Dreo performed well, the winning TurboBlaze produced crispier, more evenly-cooked results all while ringing in at a third of the price. That said, if the probe cooking feature intrigues you, this fryer might be worth a try.

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Our Place

Wonder Oven Pro

$325 $275 (15% off)

Our Place

$325

Amazon

Our Place partnered with James Beard Award–winning chef and cookbook author J. Kenji López-Alt on this updated version of the Wonder Oven, which features eight cooking functions, a touchscreen interface, and a roomy three-tier 30-liter capacity. Like all of Our Place's products, this little oven is an aesthete’s dream—but looks aside, it impressed me in testing. It’s incredibly powerful, able to crisp brussels sprouts, tofu, and fries up to twice as fast as the winning Breville. It produced tender salmon with potato-chip-like skin in just seven minutes. Despite its smaller footprint, it’s large enough to fit a quarter-sheet pan, making it a good option if you want to save a few inches of counter space.

All that said, while the Wonder Oven Pro is generally well-designed, a few features were annoying in practice. The touchscreen interface isn’t the most responsive. But the bigger issue we had was with the preheating cycle. Preheating this oven to 400°F took 8–9 minutes from cold, which is already slower than the Breville’s 4–5. But more importantly, the Breville (like most regular ovens) takes less time to preheat when it’s already at temp. The Wonder Oven Pro, on the other hand, seemed to kick off a whole new several-minutes-long preheat cycle even when it had just been heated, only after which the timer would start.

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

$150 $100 (33% off)

Amazon

The Cuisinart 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. However, its deeper square-shaped basket has less surface area than something like the Instant Vortex Slim’s rectangular one, which limits its capacity.

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Ninja SL401 DoubleStack XL 2-Basket Air Fryer

$250 $210 (16% off)

Amazon

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. Despite its space-saving design, you don’t lose out on actual cooking space. The baskets are big enough to fit a chicken, and the 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.

Alaina Chou: I’ve been testing air fryers and other small appliances for Bon Appétit and Epicurious since 2023. In that time, I’ve cooked countless batches of salmon, Brussels sprouts, and frozen fries in pursuit of an air fryer that delivers on the lofty promise of deep fryer-level crispiness without the need for a vat of hot oil. And I've blown out the power in the Test Kitchen numerous times in the process (sorry, Test Kitchen editors).

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