Best Air Fryers of 2025: We Tested 20 Models to Find the 7 Best in 2025

If you’re aiming to eat healthier without giving up on flavor or convenience, an air fryer is the perfect companion. They use less oil to achieve the same crispy and caramelized texture you get from pan-frying, roasting, and broiling. To help you find the best, I’ve tested models from Ninja, De’Longhi, Breville, Phillips, Cosori and Dash.

From cooking whole chickens to crisping up chickpeas, vegetables or salmon, air fryers handle it all with ease. I make no secret of my love for air fryers, and I’ve been testing various models for more than five years. My list of favorite things to make in the air fryer grows by the week, but choosing the right countertop oven to make them isn’t as simple as it seems.

What’s the best air fryer overall?

When Ninja released its Ninja glass-bowl Crispi, we got a new favorite air fryer on our list after two years. The Crispi has loads of power and is easy to clean, plus the cooking chamber doubles as a portable food container. This is hands down the best air fryer to buy in 2025. And guess what? It’s available for just $180 — a bargain.

The dynamic glass Crispi is the air fryer we now recommend most, but there are several other picks to choose from that cost less, hold more food or feature additional cooking modes and methods not available on that model.

Read more: The Air Fryer Is the Best and Fastest Way to Make a Roast Chicken

Best air fryers of 2025

Recent updates

July 2025

The Ninja Crispi glass air fryer was tested and added as best air fryer overall

The Ninja 4-quart air fryer was tested and added as the best air fryer under $75

The Our Place Wonder Oven was tested and added as the best air fryer and toaster oven

Other air fryers we tested

Dreo Chefmaker: This souped-up air fryer has a built-in thermometer and tons of smart features. It works ggreen t but I found myself just using the basic air fryer function which makes it hard to justify the $359 price.

Dash Tasti-Crisp: I don’t have major complaints with this model’s function, but it feels a little flimsy for $60.

Crux Marshmello: This compact 3-quart air fryer did well in testing and the cooking basket was easy to clean. I wasn’t a fan of the control panels, which sport cutesy LED images in place of words, and it wasn’t abundantly clear what each one was for. 

Phillips air fryer: I had no issues with this air fryer and liked the sleek design and intuitive controls. It performed similarly to the Ninja 4-quart but that model, our top budget pick, costs $100 less.

PowerXL Air Fryer: This is another small air fryer that did well in testing, but I prefer the controls and sleek design of the more budget-friendly Gourmia 2-quart.

Instant Vortex: One popular option is the Instant Vortex. It’s priced in line with the other air fryers in this group. The Vortex is made by the same company that created the groundbreaking Instant Pot electric pressure cooker. Despite that, I wasn’t blown away by its results. Chicken wings and fried chicken were acceptable but not incredible and less juicy than what other fryers produced. My Brussels sprouts ended up overdone too, and frozen fries cooked unevenly.

Dash Compact Air Fryer: We found the Dash Compact Air Fryer to be underpowered. While the larger Dash Deluxe is a powerhouse, the Dash Compact struggled to air-fry almost everything we put inside it. Both french fries and Brussels sprouts were under-done and unevenly cooked. The only bright spot was chicken wings. They took 30 minutes, but I was treated to skin with some crunch. 

GoWise USA 8-in-1 Digital Air Fryer: You may not have heard of this brand, but this offering from GoWise is a solid choice. It didn’t cook the skin of my chicken wings evenly. That said, french fries came out crispy and crunchy, with fluffy interiors. The fryer also roasted Brussels sprouts well, no mean feat for this group of appliances. 

Chefman 3.5 qt. Analog Air Fryer: Another relatively affordable choice is the Chefman Analog Air Fryer. It’s tiny, too, offering just 3.5 quarts of food-frying capacity. The appliance delivered decent chicken wings, but it undercooked the Brussels sprouts and frozen french fries. We also found the Chefman’s timer control confusing. This dial is labeled in numerical increments of 10. The numbers are separated by groups of four dots, not nine, as you would expect.

PowerXL Vortex Air Fryer: You might consider purchasing the PowerXL Vortex, but we recommend against it due to its steep price and mediocre frying performance. We had satisfactory results cooking chicken wings in it, but this machine overcooked Brussels sprouts, and the french fries were just OK.

DeLonghi Rapid Crisp: The DeLonghi Rapid Crisp was one of the most expensive models we tested, and it just didn’t live up to the price tag. While I liked the design and sturdy build and appreciated the small viewing window for watching the cooking progress, I found the buttons and interface clunky. There was no way to set an actual cooking temp, only presets, and even those weren’t very intuitive. 

Beautiful Air Fryer by Drew Barrymore: This air fryer offering from the actor’s new kitchen line performed well in the four rounds of testing. It showed good power and cooked chicken wings to a nice crispy outside and kept them juicy inside after about 25 minutes. The air fryer’s interface is slick, although I liked the Ninja’s simpler control panel more, which is one of a few reasons it edged out this unit for best air fryer overall. This is a great option and is about $30 cheaper than the Ninja. It also has a pleasing design with smooth matte plastic (which does smudge a bit). 

How we test air fryers 

To date, we’ve tested well over a dozen air fryers to curate this list. Each air fryer is evaluated for its power, consistency, ease of use, design, features and overall performance. In total, we’ve logged results for more than 20 air fryers and over 75 hours of air fryer testing.

There are hundreds of recipes that can be made with an air fryer but we stuck to the basics and focused on the most popular foods people associate with air fryers. Chicken wings are at the top of that list, but french fries, frozen snacks and dense vegetables — in this case, Brussels sprouts — are air fryer food staples. Before we began, we consulted each model’s manual for relevant cooking directions. If the manual didn’t provide specific instructions, we applied uniform procedures to each air fryer depending on the type of food we were preparing. 

For chicken wings, we followed a basic air fryer recipe. First, we preheated the air fryer to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and cooked them for 25 minutes in the basket with the included tray, then checked on them and turned them every 8 minutes. Most of the air fryers we tested had a solid showing in the wing test, although some, including the powerful Ninja and Cosori Lite models, got the wings a bit crispier in that amount of time.

For Brussels sprouts, we preheated the ovens to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and cooked them for 15 minutes. Before cooking, we rinsed and cut the sprouts in half and tossed them with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. In this test, some ovens struggled to brown the outside of the sprouts, but most got there eventually.

For the french fry test, we opted for Alexia’s frozen crinkle-cut fries and cooked 1 cup, according to the air fryer directions on the bag. Quick note: Be careful when cooking fries in an air fryer as some types, especially thinner-cut fries, can dry out easily when hit with super-convection. We recommend heftier waffle fries, tater tots, crinkle cut or potato wedges over the shoestring variety.

At the end of each test, we looked for how evenly the items were cooked, if they were cooked through and whether they had a sufficient level of crispy, crunchy, fried goodness comparable to deep frying or pan frying.

Ease of use

Beyond cooking performance, how easy an air fryer is to operate and how intuitive the buttons and controls were something we observed closely during testing. Overly complicated settings, controls and presets didn’t generally result in high marks, but certain features were appreciated. All air fryers have base-level control over the temperature and cook time, although some are controlled digitally while others require the crank of simple manual dials. From there, you’ll find preset programs for various foods such as wings, fries, fish, veggies and even baked goods.

How well they cook

To get a sense of how each air fryer in this test group handles, we ran a battery of three tests on each model. Each test focused on one food: chicken wings, Brussels sprouts and frozen french fries. 

What health experts say about air fryers

The Cleveland Clinic: “They [air fryers] won’t magically remove the saturated fat from bacon or the trans fats from a bag of processed chicken wings. To reap the benefits, reach for better-for-you options like vegetables and lean proteins….Think of the air fryer as a way to enhance healthier foods, so they’re even more tempting.”

Medical News Today: “Research on the effects of air-fried food is promising. Air fryers appear to be a healthy alternative, offering flavors similar to fried food with fewer adverse effects.”

British Heart Foundation: “If you often eat deep-fried foods, switching to an air fryer could be helpful.”

Buying guide: What to consider when choosing an air fryer

An air fryer can bring efficiency and simplicity to your nightly meal routine. It’s easy to make a quick and delicious meal with the best air fryers in your kitchen. They are not only healthier than an oven but also use less energy. Check out the complete guide to air fryers to learn more about these great kitchen appliances.

Pod-shaped air fryers vs. air-frying toasters

While the idea of a toaster oven that doubles as an air fryer is a good one, and the air frying function on many of the hybrid machines is proficient, certain foods we love cooking in an air fryer are too messy to cook in a toaster.

All pod air fryers have removable cooking baskets and most of them are nonstick. When you’re cooking chicken thighs with a sauce or even veggies drizzled with oil — a few favorites — there is going to be some inevitable splatter. Air frying mode is intense, with high convection heat circulated at a fast pace. Do this in a toaster oven, which is markedly more difficult to clean, and you’ll be dealing with some serious caked-on gunk after the first few dozen uses. 

Pod air fryers, on the other hand, take very little effort to get clean. Most air fryer baskets are now thicker and also nonstick. Beware of thin wire baskets, which can be tougher to clean. Both types can be removed to soak in the sink and some can be run through the dishwasher. The same can’t be said for the inside walls of a countertop oven.

If you’re buying a toaster oven, there’s no reason not to get one with an air fryer function. It can still be used for less splatter-prone foods such as potatoes, frozen empanadas and filets of salmon with too much risk of making a mess.

For more, read CNET’s complete guide to air fryers.

Air fryer size

While there are several features to consider, the size of your air fryer is likely the most important decision you’ll make. If you’re typically cooking for one or two people, a 2- or 3-quart air fryer should be large enough. Consider adding another quart of capacity to your air fryer for every person that you’re regularly cooking for.

A family of four or five, for instance, should be fine with a 5-quart model. If you plan on regularly cooking full meals for a family, including meat and veggies or sides, you might consider a larger, dual-basket air fryer like the Ninja DualZone.

All that said, the smaller the air fryer you can get away with the better. I’ve found that smaller air fryers such as the Magic Bullet 2- to 5-quart model and Instant Pot’s Duo Crisp net better results since food will get blasted faster and more often than inside a larger model. Smaller air fryers mean less overall capacity, so you may have to cook in batches.

Power

Most air fryers are somewhere between 1,200 and 1,800 watts. Larger air fryers typically have more wattage and smaller models have less. Your midrange 4-quart air fryer should have about 1,500 watts. The small Magic Bullet and Gourmia air fryers have 1,300, but that’s plenty of power to cook food in the petite basket. Larger air fryers should have about 100 more watts per quart to make sure they hit those hot temps of 400 to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.

Air fryer accessories

Some fancy models may come with extra accessories, but all you need is an air fryer basket with wire or nonstick grates. They come standard with most air fryer models and help the super-convection to hit all sides of your food evenly. I prefer the nonstick variety as wire baskets can be particularly tricky to clean. 

Should you just get a normal air fryer or a multifunction model?

That depends on the type of cooking you’ll do and what other appliances you already have. I like having a solo air fryer, but I’m also a fan of the Instant Pot Duo Crisp which functions as both an air fryer and a multicooker (also a pressure cooker and slow cooker).

Consider how the air fryer looks, too

Air fryers don’t have to be kept on the counter but anything larger than 3 quarts might be tricky to store when not in use. Considering that, you should get an air fryer that compliments your kitchen. Both the Ninja and Cosori models are available in a range of colors (Cosori has more). There are also glass bowl air fryers and more modern-looking machines.