What Every Air Fryer Button Does—and When You Should Use It

Air fryers have quickly become one of the most popular countertop appliances among home cooks and my expert colleagues in the Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen & Cooking Lab. But if you’ve ever been stumped by the buttons on your air fryer, you’re not alone. While the terminology varies between brands and models, certain settings appear on most air fryers. And we should know—we’ve tested over 70 in our mission to find the best air fryers!

I made a grilled cheese sandwich and a boxed cake on several common air fryer settings to see how they differ. I also pinged Lab Director Nicole Papantoniou to decode the most commonly used buttons on the air fryer. Here’s what you need to know to ensure crispy fries, juicy chicken, and gooey mozzarella sticks every time.

Air Fry

Use this setting to mimic fried food (think French fries, fried chicken, and frozen appetizers). The “air fry” setting uses a high fan speed and high heat, often up to 450°F, to quickly crisp and brown food. Be aware that the strong fan can move lightweight foods like sandwich bread.

Grilled cheese results: For each air fryer setting, I made a grilled cheese with American cheese and white bread coated with a thin layer of mayonnaise. I cooked the sandwich at 400°F for five minutes, flipping after three minutes.

During the first three minutes on “air fry,” the fan blew the top slice of bread off. I replaced it and flipped the sandwich, but it still came out unevenly toasted, and the cheese was slightly burned.

Our verdict: This setting cooked quickly, but a little too powerfully for a light item like white sandwich bread.

Bake

In a traditional oven, “bake” means the fan is off for a gentler cook. This is great for delicate baked goods that need time to rise. In an air fryer, however, the fan still circulates on “bake.” As a result, cakes and quick breads can dome, and desserts may brown or dry out faster than you’d like.

“True ‘bake’ takes place using heating elements on the top and bottom, but air fryers don’t typically have heating elements on the bottom (air fryer toaster ovens do),” says Papantoniou. Still, the “bake” setting is the gentlest option on most air fryer models and is your best bet for lightweight foods (like bread) and baked goods. You may just need to increase the cooking time and/or decrease the temperature to ensure the food cooks through before browning too much.

Grilled cheese results: This was my winning setting for a grilled cheese in the air fryer. The bread stayed put, the cheese melted evenly, and the sandwich became crisp and golden.

Our verdict: This setting cooked more gently and evenly than “air fry,” allowing the bread to crisp and the cheese to melt nicely.

Roast

On “roast,” the fan is often less powerful than “air fry,” though this is still a high-heat setting. It’s great for cooking meats or veggies that need more time to cook through but still benefit from a browned, flavorful exterior.

Grilled cheese results: The roasted sandwich fared better than my air-fried sandwich because the bread stayed in place. However, the exterior still had darker patches that suggested uneven heating.

Our verdict: This setting sits in between “air fry” and “bake.” The fan is less powerful than “air fry,” but it still gets quite hot for nice caramelization.

Reheat

“Reheat” runs at a lower temperature, around 250°F to 350°F, Papantoniou says. Use this to revive yesterday’s pizza or gently warm up an already-cooked meal.

Broil

“Broil” isn't common on air fryers (the one I used, the Ninja Air Fryer XL, doesn’t have a broil function), but if you’ve got it, it uses very high heat from the top cooking element. This setting is best for browning food on one side or melting cheese on an open-faced sandwich or small casserole.

Dehydrate

This setting is low and slow, around 150°F, according to Papantoniou, and is best for making long-cooked, dried foods like fruit leather or jerky.

Most air fryers have a fan above the cooking basket that works in tandem with a strong heating element. With this combination, you can cook various foods at different temperatures. “The buttons help make clear what you can use your air fryer for and make it easier to program,” she says.

Sometimes, air fryers have preprogrammed settings such as “chicken” or “French fries,” which set a cooking temperature and time with one button.

The difference between baking a cake on the “bake” setting (left) and “air fry” (right).

I made a boxed cake mix in a 6-inch springform pan using the “bake” and “air fry” settings. The result was a great visual representation of how these two functions differ. My air-fried cake was cooked through (and on the verge of drying out) after 20 minutes at 350°F, but it baked at a severe angle; clearly, the fan blew the batter in one direction while the cake was rising and setting.

On “bake,” my cake was still soft in the center after 20 minutes at 350°F, but it had risen evenly into a dome and was uniformly colored, if not a little cracked on top. Though it took another seven minutes to bake through, the cake was moister, airier, and better looking than its air-fried counterpart. Next time, I’d decrease the oven temperature to 325°F to prevent early browning.

While most settings are similar, choosing the right one can be the difference between a melty, gooey grilled cheese and a charred sandwich with one slice of bread hanging askew.

• Air fry is your most powerful option and great for already-cooked, frozen foods and small pieces.
• Roast will cook larger foods through before crisping the outside.
• Bake is the gentlest option for high-moisture foods like batters and doughs. Just remember that the cooking space is much smaller than a traditional oven, so food will brown faster.

Lizzy Briskin is a contributing product analyst in the Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen & Cooking Lab. She’s tested dozens of air fryers and air fryer toaster ovens, including the most recent models in the Lab. She’s a firm believer that leftovers, frozen pizza, and homemade croutons should always be made in an air fryer.

Nicole Papantoniou has been the director of the Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen & Cooking Lab since 2019. She oversees all appliance testing and has been using air fryers since before they came to the U.S. market.

Jessica Wrubel is a contributing writer who wrote an earlier version of this story.

Expert consulted:Nicole Papantoniou

Kitchen Appliances Lab Director

Nicole (she/her) is the senior director of the Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen & Cooking Lab. She oversees all content and testing related to kitchen products, food, and recipes. She has worked at GH since 2019, and is a trained cook, published recipe developer, and seasoned product tester with nearly 15 years of experience. She has worked in test kitchens for national magazines and kitchen appliances brands, where she also helped develop products for the home cook. She earned a degree in journalism from SUNY New Paltz, graduated with a Grand Diplome in Classic Culinary Arts from the French Culinary Institute, and studied culinary nutrition at the Natural Gourmet Institute (both now part of the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City.)