Elevate your cooking routine with one of the best air fryers, with these genius appliances bound to make your mealtimes quicker and easier. In this round-up, we've prioritised only the top-rated models that excelled during our testing program, meaning that every single one of these buys is guaranteed to be great value for money, and have enough power to make a noticeable difference to your kitchen's ability.
These appliances, which often feature baskets for easy cleaning, essentially act as a countertop oven - but are far speedier and less complicated to use. We've been reviewing air fryers for two years now, from brands like Ninja and Instant as well as newcomers from Tower and Amazon brands like COSORI, so that we've covered every type of air fryer you can buy.
Our favourites below, as well as delivering an incredible cooking performance, have features that make them truly excellent, from space-saving designs to dual drawer capacities. You can also click through to read our in-depth reviews, where we've nailed down exactly why that model might suit you. If you're already sure you need a bit more space, our dedicated best dual zone air fryers guide has a whole host of two-basket fryers for you to browse.
We're serious about air fryers, which is why we're continuing to test the best air fryers on the market all the time to make sure that our recommendations are up-to-date. For appliances that can air fry as well as slow and pressure cook, take a look at the best multi-cookers. For recommendations on the best air fryers on the market, simply read on.
Where to find air fryers in stock and on sale
Why you can trust Ideal Home Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
Sometimes it can be difficult to find air fryers in stock, especially during sales periods. Below we've curated a list of our top retailers to browse, where you might also find discounts.
- Shop air fryers at Amazon (opens in new tab)
- Shop air fryers at AO (opens in new tab)
- Shop air fryers at Currys (opens in new tab)
- Shop air fryers at John Lewis (opens in new tab)
- Shop air fryers at Lakeland (opens in new tab)
- Shop air fryers at Robert Dyas (opens in new tab)
- Shop air fryers at Very (opens in new tab)
Best air fryers
The Instant Vortex Plus Air Fryer with ClearCook got a rare five-star from Helen McCue, one of our expert appliance reviewers, and from the Ideal Home team during independent testing too. Helen loved its generous capacity and found that it browned food evenly and quickly. When making chips she was able to get an even crisp in just 25 minutes, and even with the tray full of vegetables, it was able to roast in just 20 minutes. Most impressive of all, frozen chicken goujons took just 8 minutes to cook as opposed to the suggested 20 - yes, we used a temperature probe to check!
This air fryer has a touch screen with a dial to adjust timings and temperatures. The control panel has a bar that shows the cooking progress, and we like that this air fryer pre-heats. Because the touch-screen panel slopes towards you this is a great air fryer to place under kitchen cabinets.
A really innovative touch is the see-through air fryer drawer, which allows you to simply turn on the internal light to check on your food as it cooks. It has a dishwasher-safe basket and non-stick insert that lifts away easily. Our only real gripes are the control panel and grill tray, the former of which has shiny plastic that can mark easily if you're cooking with greasy fingerprints, whilst the latter has rubber feet that can attract grease very easily.
Read our full Instant Vortex Plus 6-in-1 air fryer review for more.
What's better than one air fryer? Two, in one. The Ninja AF300UK Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer comes with two distinct air frying zones that allow you to air fry your fish and chips individually, or bake a side dish such as mac and cheese while you air fry chicken. You can match or sync these two drawers to make sure all elements of your meal are complete at the same time. With all that going on, it's no wonder that this air fryer is the best Ninja appliance on the market right now.
Its Max Crisp setting gave us crispy chips and wedges every time, and always cooked our meat through completely. We even used it to make cauliflower wings, which were an unexpected triumph. The trays can be a little deep to reach into, so make sure you use non-stick utensils to take your food out when it's done.
The exterior stays cool even when it's cooking at 240 degrees. It is on the large side at 35 x 37.5 x 31.5cm, but if you can spare the space, it's a total game-changer.
Read our full Ninja Foodi Max Dual Zone air fryer review for more.
The Ninja AF100UK Air Fryer is Ninja's cheapest air fryer, and it's also the smallest. It has a cooking capacity of 3.8 litres and a circular basket, which will be fine with most meals but could struggle if you're cooking bacon rashers or chicken breasts. The air fryer was fast, easy to use, and comes with four pre-sets that won't be too overwhelming for first-time air fryer users.
You can choose to air fry, roast, reheat and dehydrate in this air fryer, and because the basket insert can be removed, you can also reheat or cook food that has a bit more sauce or moisture without having to worry about it dripping through the grates. The exterior is simple, small, and grey, which may not be the most attractive addition to your kitchen but it will be very easy to store if you want to put it in a cupboard.
Cooking times with this air fryer were brilliant, with some of the speediest chips we've made. It's a simple model that seems reasonably priced with an RRP of £129.99, and we were impressed by the cooking times: 23 minutes for homemade chips, and just five minutes for back bacon.
Read our full Ninja AF100UK air fryer review for more.
Instant Brands is known for creating amazing air fryers and smart countertop appliances in the US, so we were first in line to review this new model when it launched in the UK. The Instant Vortex Mini Air Fryer not only wowed us with its value-for-money, but it also impressed us in testing. Despite the limited capacity, it was able to air fry our (somewhat crammed-in) chips evenly.
This air fryer is perfect for small kitchens. It has a removable basket liner that can drain away fat from bacon and juices from the chicken, but take it out and suddenly you can bake, roast and even reheat in this beauty.
You can pick up the Instant Vortex Mini Air Fryer in a range of fun colours. We tried it in red, but the blue option is pretty fetching. There is also a white for clean kitchens, and a failsafe matte black. The display is very intuitive, and can be controlled with touchscreen settings and a tactile dial. The only con? It's too small for families.
Read our full Instant Vortex Mini Air Fryer review for more.
We're not afraid to say that we think the Instant Vortex Plus Dual Drawer air fryer deserves more hype than it currently has. This pick is a real contender to the Ninja for the crowning glory of being the best dual basket air fryer out there, with a design that is understated, clever and better looking than the Ninja (or so we think).
The front of both baskets has those magical ClearCook see-through windows that allow you to check on the progress of whatever is inside without losing any heat at all, a feature that the Ninja actually doesn't have. The interface is a dream to work with - and during testing, we've loved how easy it is to set up.
Like the Ninja, this air fryer has five other functions, and all of them are perfect for everyday cooking. The bake function is ideal for bread, the reheat function works for leftovers and you can even dehydrate oranges inside with the ability to set the temperature low for a long period of time (up to 12 hours).
This is the air fryer that our Ecommerce Editor Molly now uses every single day, saying that it is a miracle for midweek meals. User reviews agree that this air fryer is a genius buy too, with many saying that they are impressed with the high quality of the appliance, as well as the range of different foods they can experiment with cooking inside.
Read our full Instant Vortex Dual Zone air fryer review for more.
If you want the best air fryer for a small kitchen or two-person household, the Philips Essential Air Fryer is the one for you. In terms of the cooking quality, it was pretty much on par with some of the larger and more premium brands in this guide. There's plenty of cooking modes, including fish, meat, frozen food and reheat, and you can choose your temperature manually too.
The basket and drawer can both be washed in the dishwasher, which makes cleaning that much easier. We found the controls a little confusing at first but they're fine once you're used to which button indicates which cooking mode.
One complaint we had was the price, which was pretty high when compared to other small air fryers. It is clearly designed for smaller kitchens and homes though, with grooves that make it easy to carry and store, and a lightweight design.
Read our full Phillips Essential Air Fryer review for more.
The Tower Vortex 5-in-1 Digital Air Fryer is more of an American-style air fryer. It's designed to look like an oven and comes with a drip tray and multiple shelves to cook your food as you would in a regular oven. There are some perks to this design though. Our favourite was the rotisserie function which made some of the most delicious chicken we've ever made. A game-changer for roast dinners.
The shelves need to be taken out and switched around mid-cook if you want to achieve an even crisp, which is not ideal and can be a little fiddly. The oven did a great job of creating crispy food though, especially when it came to the frying setting. It can also bake and roast like you'd expect in a regular oven.
A nice touch is the door, which you can see straight through. There is a button to illuminate the fryer as it cooks which allows you to look in and check on your food without opening it. It's a large option, but a versatile one too. Our top tip for using this air fryer? Using foil on the shelves will save you a lot of time when it comes to cleaning up.
Read our full Tower Vortex 5-in-1 Digital Air Fryer review for more.
If you need your air fryer to be a reliable, dependable workhorse for family meals, then you won't go far wrong with the Zwilling Air Fryer, which is as competent as it is stylish.
The things that set it out as a family-suitable model from the rest of the crowd include exceptionally straight forward LED controls and preset programs, meaning that you can get dinner going with the touch of a button. Whatever our reviewer Rachel threw at the Zwilling air fryer was air fried with ease, from burgers and chips to corn on the cob and halloumi.
It favours a classic basket design, with 4 litres of space. That's plenty of room to cook dinner for a family whilst also not being overly obstructive in size. Our reviewer thought the build quality of this Zwilling pick was second to none, and that the cleaning process kept things very low maintenance too.
Read our full Zwilling air fryer review to find out more.
The COSORI Lite takes the crown as our favourite Amazon air fryer thanks to its wonderfully affordable RRP and phenomenal performance in our tests. It's not the biggest in terms of capacity, at 3.8 litres, but it would suit small to medium families or homes perfectly.
The first thing that we loved about this air fryer when we reviewed it was its design. It's small, super sleek and has a lovely contrasting colour control panel, as well as being available in a number of great colours. The control panel itself holds many jewels, including access to preheat, shake and keep warm functions. These are the kind of settings that are sometimes even missed on the super high-end models, adding great value to this affordable COSORI number.
Everything we cooked in this air fryer emerged perfectly cooked, which was probably helped by the range of different presets that we experimented with. If you're a newbie to air frying, these programs can really help you to get to grips with frying up different foods, and COSORI have more up its sleeve too - with a comprehensive recipe book and access to an app also included.
Our main drawback with this model? It can hold fingerprint marks on the control panel, and its size isn't optimal for everyone. If you're looking for a standout middle-of-the-road sized air fryer, however, we couldn't be more complimentary.
Read our full COSORI Lite Air Fryer review for more.
Challenge yourself to see just how much you can fit into this generously sized air fryer, with a seven-litre capacity capable of whipping up six portions of food at a time. Ideal for families and kitted out with a number of presets, this large appliance can be mastered with just the touch of a button, thankfully.
We've been testing this air fryer at home for a number of months, and have been consistently impressed with its fuss-free performance. OK, it's not the prettiest, but it's sturdy and intuitive to use, and it's never let us down when it comes to cooking veggies, fish, sausages and more.
One of the reasons it's so reliable is the presets located on the top panel. If you're cooking chips for example, just select the appropriate illustration on the top, and simply wait for the air fryer to adjust to the temperature and time you need to cook for.
Once your chosen fried food is ready, you'll find cleaning so easy with this air fryer too. During testing, there was no dishwasher on hand, but handwashing the basket and the grill takes a matter of seconds, and stains and excess food can be worked away with ease. Compared to other units, we also found that the cooking time of chips was very speedy, and that it gives a true even cook all over.
Editor's note: We have tested the Tower T17072 Digital Vortx Vizion air fryer.
Is countertop space at a premium in your home? It's a common problem for shoppers looking for an air fryer, especially in flats or shared accommodation. That's why the design of the Instant Slim Air Fryer is really pretty genius, with a long chamber for cooking that maintains a sizeable capacity (5.7 litres) whilst also fitting excellently into smaller spaces.
We love Instant air fryers at Ideal Home, with both single-drawer and dual-drawer options consistently topping our 'best of' lists. The high quality is the same with the Instant Slim, and the cooking results are always reliably excellent. We tried cooking asparagus, bacon, vegetarian nuggets, and chips in this and all of them were cooked pretty much to perfection.
It's got a great amount of power, and finishing touches that make it feel worth the investment, including a preheat setting and a progress bar, so that you can keep an eye on how your dinner is coming along. With an RRP of £99.99, we also think this is a standout choice for those on a budget of under £100, with the kind of quality you'd expect for a much higher pricetag. Our one gripe? The cooking trays proved difficult to clean in our tests, with rubber feet that become a magnet for grease. Cleaning might be improved by using a dishwasher with this one.
Editor's note: We have tested the Instant Vortex Slim-5.7L Digital Health Air Fryer.
This Lakeland air fryer was a sell-out success when it first launched, and after testing it out it's easy to see why. With a sleek interface and a good range of custom presets that are perfect for when you need a quick mid-week meal, the Lakeland Digital Crisp Air Fryer is a star for low-effort cooking. It's also got an auto-off function to help with safety and efficiency too.
We tried a range of foods to get the most from this air fryer, including halloumi, fish, bacon and the all-important chip test. Going head to head with brands like Instant and Ninja, this Lakeland air fryer really held its own, and there was a noticeably lovely all-over browning to every food we tried. The only other thing we'd love to see as part of the cooking process with this air fryer? A shake reminder halfway through, to prevent over-browning or burning.
When you're done cooking, cleaning up after mealtimes couldn't be easier with the Lakeland Digital Crisp; thanks to the grill within the basket which lifts out separately so that you can thoroughly clean both elements. If you want an air fryer to make your life easier, this one is a good choice (at a fairly affordable price point too). With a capacity of 2.8 litres, however, families requiring more portions may have to look for a larger model.
Read our full Lakeland Digital Crisp Air Fryer review for more.
How we chose the best air fryers
Every air fryer in our roundup has been tested hands-on by the Ideal Home team for a minimum of two weeks, or using four thorough recipes, in line with our testing protocol.
This allowed us to compare air fryers directly when compiling our top 12 list, and it also helped us when deciding which air fryers will be the right pick for different living situations. Because all air fryers claim to do very similar things, it's important to us that we put them through their paces before recommending any air fryer to our readers. We used a standard recipe for air fried homemade chips across all air fryers, recording the cooking timings and considering how evenly the chips came out, and how well cooked they were.
Another test we replicated across different air fryers was cooking bacon. Bacon cooks brilliantly in air fryers, allowing fat to drip away and leaving crispy rashers in the basket. We used the speed and evenness of cooking as a way of measuring how well an air fryer distributed heat and how fast it circulated hot hair. Based on our findings, we gave every air fryer a rating out of five and then sorted them into a top list (some did not make the list!) to recommend to our readers. Below you can find out more about exactly which members of the team tested the air fryers within this round-up.
Millie is the Head of Reviews for Ideal Home, working to ensure that the products we feature have been thoroughly tested before we recommend them to you. Previously Small Appliance and Cookware Editor, she remains our go-to expert for all things air fryer related. She's constantly reviewing the latest and greatest kitchen appliances, and has tested the large majority of options in this guide to tell you exactly what you need to know about them.
Molly is the Ecommerce Editor for Ideal Home and is always on the lookout for the next must-buy product for your home. Covering all things appliance related, with an emphasis on floorcare and air fryers, she regularly joins Millie at Future's Test Facility in Reading to thoroughly put products through their paces.
She's tried a huge range of air fryers in her role, from brands such as Ninja, Instant, COSORI, Tower and more. The air fryer she loves best and uses at home every day is the Instant Vortex Dual Basket.
Helen is a freelance contributor who trained as a Home Economist. After starting her career in the food industry, she moved into home appliance reviews, utilising her cooking skills and experience to put all kinds of products to the test, and over the years has reviewed hundreds of home and kitchen appliances for a variety of publications.
Having completely renovated her current house, Helen reviews kitchen appliances from her open plan kitchen at home in a beautiful Berkshire village. When she’s not working, Helen can be found enjoying the local countryside or dreaming about her next house renovation project.
From this guide, Helen has tested out the Instant Vortex Plus Air Fryer with ClearCook (opens in new tab), which instantly earned the top spot in this list following her review. She loved the viewing window and intuitive controls, as well as the array of functions to choose from.
How do air fryers work?
Air fryers work like a convection oven to circulate air around your food and cook it evenly from every angle. That means any fat you add to the air fryer will circulate around your fries, chicken or fish as it cooks, making it crisp and crunchy.
Air fryers typically come with an in-built basket that has space for air to get underneath your food, as well as cooking it from above and the side. In the Ninja Dual Zone for example, you can remove this and use the tray like a regular oven tray to add a crisp cheesy top to a pasta bake or roast vegetables and potatoes for convenient mealtimes. Check out the best microwaves for more easy meal prep appliances.
How to buy the best air fryer for you
Look for easy-to-use controls for both temperature and time, as these are the most important features on any air fryer. Auto-stop and keep warm functions can be useful but chips, if left for any amount of time will soon lose their crispness. More expensive machines will feature touch screens rather than dial controls, which will help with accuracy.
The bigger the basket capacity, the more people you’ll be able to cook for. So if you’ve got a family, then a 5 litre machine (which usually provides a chip capacity of around 800g to 1kg) is probably a must.
A loud beep to signal the end of cooking time is a good idea if you’re using the time to wander off and do something else. Most air-fryers will only cook one food group at a time (ie meat or veg) but some will cook a whole meal in one go if you’re after a one-pot solution.
Why is everyone buying air fryers?
The convenience and fast results that air fryers can produce in a kitchen mean that they've taken over the home cooking scene in the past few years.
'Meals are completed in a much shorter amount of time and the cooking process is far easier than traditional methods. Consumers are reaping all these benefits without having to compromise the quality of cooking results,' explains Lilie Nguyen, the Senior Product Marketing Manager at Vesync, the parent company of one of our favourite air fryer brands COSORI (opens in new tab).
The exact timing of the air fryer boom seems to have had an effect too, according to Lilie Nguyen.
'The pandemic is a major factor in the rise of the popularity of air fryers. It left consumers without the option to freely dine out and led to more people cooking at home. Social media is a major factor; content creators, both small and large, are sharing their recipes and meals. It also helps promote the benefits of cooking with an air fryer in very creative ways.'
How much oil do I need to use in my air fryer?
While most recipes call for a teaspoon or half a teaspoon of oil. We found we got a more even coating on some foods by decanting our choice of oil into a small spray bottle and using that. Never use one-calorie oil spray, which is a step too far in the diet stakes we found, producing nasty, chewy fries.
Most of the machines we tested couldn’t be used with fattier meats such as sausages or chicken or duck with the skin on. This sometimes results in meats being drier on the outside. This was where a spray oil came in handy and definitely improved results if not making them as good as if they’d been fried.
What can you cook in an air fryer?
Whether you're a meat eater, a vegetarian or even a vegan, there's an air fryer recipe out there that's bound to become your new favourite. Homemade chips come into their own in an air fryer, taking far less time and emerging crisp with far less oil applied in the cooking process. You can achieve succulent results with meat too, like chicken, which ordinarily takes much longer in an oven.
If you love cooking up quick breakfasts and lunches with freezer foods, then an air fryer will make an ideal match for you. Breaded foods (think fish fingers, goujons, mozzarella sticks) are a guaranteed win with an air fryer, as well as frozen staples like hash browns and veggie sausages. Grilled cheese sandwiches in an air fryer are a total revolution too, as well as halloumi.
Looking for healthy air fryer ideas? Once you've tried cooking up Mediterranean veg, carrots, broccoli and even sprouts in an air fryer, you won't look back, with the speed of cooking times for quick veg to add to a midweek meal completely unmatched compared to your oven.
Vegetarian and vegan recipes are a triumph with an air fryer, especially if you love getting a good crisp on your tofu, or if you want to make mock chicken wings with coated oyster mushrooms. Often, veggie cooking requires you to get inventive, and an air fryer is the perfect tool for that.
Wondering which foods to avoid with your new air fryer? Anything that cooks in a sauce may be a little disappointing, as the grill design means that liquid tends to end up lost on the bottom of your fryer. Things that need a hot oil to get super crispy might also fall a little flat, such as roast potatoes. While you can make delicious, low-fat roasties in an air fryer, it's worth noting they won't have that same sought-after crisp.
Are air fryers economical?
We've explored how much it costs to run an air fryer in our deep dive, but in short, we've found that air fryers can be an economical way to cook depending on the given voltage of any model. That's partly thanks to the fact that they usually cook food in 60% of the time of the time your oven takes, meaning that your electricity is in use for less time.
To get into the specifics, basket air fryers tend to smaller and therefore may be a little more economical than countertop oven models, but it really depends on voltage and how long you'll be using your air fryer for, so bear that in mind.
Can you put foil in an air fryer?
In a word: yes. Any oven-safe dish as well as tinfoil is fine to put in your air fryer.
Though we would broadly recommend against the use of air fryer liners, as they can prevent the circulation of air, there are a few accessories that we would endorse picking up to make your air frying journey a little easier. A spray bottle to help with the even distribution of oil is one, and an air fryer conversion chart is another.
Need more options?
As we mentioned because we've reviewed so many of them, not all of the air fryers we've tested have made it into this top ten list. Here's a look at the other models we've had hands-on experience with, with links to go and read up more on them.
This is a very good affordable option for one to two people. When we tested this air fryer, we loved how powerful it was, and that the basket detaches from the handle, so that you can get in for a thorough clean.
Read our Dreo Air Fryer review.
Want access to the healthier side of air frying? This pick from Tefal allows you to grill, steam and bake and has a nice generous capacity too.
Read our Tefal Easy Fry 3in1 review.
Another great Lakeland air fryer, this one is spectacularly small, meaning it has a small impact on your countertop and your energy bills. An essential for compact kitchens.
Read our Lakeland Compact Air Fryer review.
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