After Testing 70+ Models, These Are the Best Air Fryers

• Bella Slim Air Fryer: This compact air fryer takes up little space, but its long basket fits foods like salmon and asparagus. It comes in several colors, including a creamy oat and a pretty pastel pink. The controls are easy to use, and while it performs well, it takes longer to cook than our top picks.
• Breville Joule Oven Air Fryer Pro: This large toaster oven is ideal for tech-savvy cooks. It connects to an app packed with recipes and videos. However, it’s not the best air fryer because it doesn’t make the crispiest wings.
• Chefman Crispinator 8-Quart Air Fryer: We made excellent wings and fries in this model, but it has a boxy design and takes up more space than others with similar capacity. 
• Cosori Iconic Stainless Steel Air Fryer: We were impressed by the design of this sleek stainless steel air fryer with ceramic nonstick coating. It’s powerful, but its all-silver, futuristic design may not appeal to everyone.
• Dash Tasti-Crisp Infrared Digital Air Fryer: Compact and straightforward, we liked this air fryer's design, but it wasn’t as durable as others we’ve tested. 
• Ninja Crispi: This was one of the first glass air fryers we tested that worked well. It works by placing the heating element on the cooking vessel. It has fewer features than the Cuisinart Glass Air Fryer we recommend, but we liked that it comes with a smaller “bonus” container for air frying single portions or on the go.
• Ninja Crispi Pro: This large glass air fryer comes with two containers—one large, deep one and one more shallow one—plus two lids for storage. It air fries well. But the smaller vessel can be a little tricky to position into the air fryer.
• Ninja Foodi DualZone Air Fryer: This model's dual baskets are handy for cooking large portions by using both baskets for the same items, preparing two foods at once by using each basket for something different, and making something small for one person in one basket. You can program the baskets to cook separately or at the same time. This was one of the few dual-basket air fryers that produced crispy wings in both baskets simultaneously. One con? It’s tricky to set up, but once you choose the right side, you're good to go.
• Philips Air Fryer 3000 Series: This air fryer makes crispy wings and fries, and its small window lets you monitor food as it cooks. However, it’s a bit bulky.
• T-fal Infrared Air Fryer 7.3 Quart: We like the window on this compact model, which uses infrared to heat food rather than convection. It took longer than others to cook food during testing.
• T-fal Infrared Air Fryer Surface XXL: This fryer has more surface area than most basket-style models, which is great for cooking large batches, but its wide design takes up a lot of counter space. 
• Thyme & Table 6-Quart Air Fryer: You can get this cute, 6-quart air fryer for under $100. It cooked chicken wings well, but it didn’t make the most even grilled cheese or mozzarella sticks.

In the Kitchen Lab, my team and I assess both performance and ease of use through the following tests.

✔️ Type of air fryer:

• Basket air fryers are now the most common style. The basket pulls out like a drawer, so you can easily shake your food for even cooking.
  Best for: Most people and families
• Air fryer toaster ovens have an air fryer function built into a toaster oven so they can air-fry and toast, bake, roast, and more. They sound like a dreamy, multifunctional appliance, but only a handful, like our top recommended pick, can air fry as quickly or as well as a dedicated air fryer. (Conversely, many air fryers claim they can perform all of these functions, but they're not quite built to do so.) We find the toaster oven style a little harder to clean compared to basket-style models, because the oven units are often made of stainless steel without a nonstick coating.
  Best for: Families and people who like multifunctional appliances
• Glass air fryers are the newest air fryers on the block and have glass cooking vessels rather than nonstick metal ones. They still tend to have nonstick cooking trays, however. They let you view the food as it cooks, and they might come with a lid for storing your leftovers right in the cooking vessel.
  Best for: People who want to avoid cooking on nonstick and to easily store their leftovers.
• Dual-basket air fryers are big and bulky, but they offer two baskets so you can simultaneously air fry different items at different temperatures and for different lengths of time. You can also use one side at a time for smaller batches.
  Best for: Families who want to cook multiple dishes or a lot of the same item, but also single-person households, since you can cook in small batches.
• Oven-style air fryers were more prevalent when air fryers first came out. They feature multiple trays that allow you to spread out your food. They’re bulky and require rotating your food during cooking. They offer easy cleanup because the trays are slim.
  Best for: Cooking in large batches.

✔️ Size: Six-quart models are the most common and are good for a family of four. Smaller two- to four-quart models are better for smaller portions or households, while larger families could benefit from 10-quart models or larger.

✔️ Price: You can get a good air fryer for $80 to $200. Small air fryers cost less if you're looking to save. Digital air fryers tend to cost more than mechanical models, and stainless steel options cost more than plastic.

It depends!

"An air fryer uses significantly less oil than deep frying and pan frying, so it can provide a lower-calorie and lower-fat alternative that still delivers a crisp texture," says GH Nutrition Lab Director Stefani Sassos, M.S., R.D.N., C.D.N. "But air fryers are only as healthy as the foods you choose to cook in them. They won't magically remove saturated and trans fats from your meals."

To get the most health benefits from your air fryer, Sassos recommends using it to add more veggies and lean proteins to your diet. One of her favorite uses is to air fry frozen veggies. "I couldn't believe how easy it was the first time I tried it," she says.

Some people worry about cooking in air fryers because most have nonstick baskets. Some nonstick coatings contain PTFE, a.k.a. Teflon, which has been linked to certain health concerns. The FDA authorizes the use of Teflon in pots and pans and states that “studies show negligible amounts of PFAS in this coating can migrate to food.”

If you prefer to avoid Teflon, choose an air fryer with ceramic nonstick, glass, or stainless steel cooking surfaces. But take note that glass units might still have a nonstick rack.

You might not love this answer, but you should clean your air fryer every time you use it. Think of the basket like cookware—you wash your pan every time you cook, right? (I hope so!)

When you air fry, grease drips into the bottom of the basket and needs to be emptied and washed with soap and water. It’s also best to gently scrub down the tray so residue doesn’t accumulate. This residue can cause sticking and even smoking during use.

After serving your food, let all parts cool. Then carefully empty any grease into the trash, and place the basket and/or tray in the dishwasher (if recommended by the manufacturer). You can also wash the pieces by hand with warm, soapy water.

I like using a bottle brush to get into all the nooks and crannies. Allow all pieces to dry completely before placing them back into the air fryer.

Use a damp cloth to wipe the interior bottom of the air fryer and the control panel as needed. You can also follow our tips for a deeper clean.

Nicole Papantoniou is the senior director of the Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen & Cooking Lab. She’s a culinary school grad and former food editor. She has worked at kitchen appliance companies, where she helped develop popular air fryers as well as many recipes for them. Since joining Good Housekeeping, she has had her hands on all the new air fryers that come through the Lab, whether testing them herself or overseeing testing. She's an avid air fryer user at home, too, where she has at least three to choose from on any given day.

Lizzy Briskin is a contributing analyst in the Kitchen Lab who conducted the most recent air fryer testing in the Lab and updates to this article. She uses her glass air fryer at home several times a week for quick dinners.