Best air fryer 2025: for full flavour, faster cooking and lower costs

The best air fryer is a revolutionary bit of cooking tech that has completely take over most kitchens. It's a (very) small oven that allows you to cook meals quickly and healthily, as they use little to no oil to create crispy, delicious results. Essentially, they're easy to use, versatile, and great fun to cook with.

Do air fryers really fry? Not really, and air-fried food doesn’t usually taste the same as food cooked in a deep fat fryer, despite some advertising claims. That’s because they aren’t fryers at all but rather are scaled-down versions of fan ovens.

However, an air fryer is still worth a purchase, especially if you have limited space, you're not a confident cook or you're trying to save money on your monthly bills. The Philips 5000 Air Fryer & Steamer is our current favourite for these very reasons.

Whether you're an air fryer newbie or are obsessed with them, here are the very best air fryers you can buy today.

T3's Top 3

WRITTEN BY

WRITTEN BY

Bethan Girdler-Maslen

Bethan Girdler-Maslen is T3's Home Editor and a self-proclaimed air fryer expert. She's tested plenty of air fryers in this guide and beyond, and is often seen rotating models in and out of her home, so you know you can trust her expertise.

Best air fryers 2025 ranking

The best air fryer overall

Philips came out with the first ever air fryer back in 2007, so it only seems right that our number one spot in our best air fryer guide goes to a Philips one. Our current favourite is the Philips 5000 Air Fryer & Steamer, a truly impressive model that cooks expertly and offers consistent and delicious results every time.

What we love about the Philips 5000 Air Fryer & Steamer so much is its asymmetrical drawers. It has a six litre basket and a three litre basket so you can cook a main meal in the larger drawer and sides in the smaller one. The drawers can work together or individually, and it's easy to control via the touchscreen panel.

The steam cooking and cleaning is also impressive here, and while it's not the most attractive or small design, the Philips 5000 Air Fryer & Steamer gets high point from us. Read our Philips 5000 Air Fryer & Steamer review for more.

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The best premium air fryer

As air fryers have taken over the kitchen, it only makes sense that they've started to get bigger... and bigger... and BIGGER! Case in point: the Ninja Foodi FlexDrawer Air Fryer which has a massive 10.4-litre capacity and dual-zone cooking for multiple meals at a time.

For people who like batch cooking, the Ninja Foodi FlexDrawer Air Fryer is a game changer. Unsurprisingly, the Ninja Foodi FlexDrawer is absolutely massive so you'll need a good amount of storage space or room on your counter to display it. Having said that, it's got a sleek black and silver design and an easy-to-use button and touchscreen panel display.

The best thing about the Ninja Foodi FlexDrawer is its different compartments. It comes with a divider which transforms the main compartment from DualZone to MegaZone. This allows the Ninja Foodi FlexDrawer to cook two types of foods in two ways with two independent cooking zones using DualZone technology. When you remove the divider, the Ninja Foodi FlexDrawer becomes an extra large drawer which can cook for up to eight people at a time.

Read our full Ninja Foodi FlexDrawer review for more details.

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The best cheap air fryer

Instant Vortex is the air fryer spin-off of Instant Pot. The chunky lines of its flagship Air Fryer let you know that it means business, backed up by a very generous 5.7 litre capacity. The design is wonderfully simple and needs very little in the way of manual input, especially if you're going for the one-touch settings. The 1700 watts of power means the appliance can take on fries with ease, but the size and adaptable heat settings makes the Instant Vortex Air Fryer great for other mealtime offerings too.

Indeed, choose from the likes of Air Fry, Roast, Bake and Reheat and you can cover most bases with this versatile gadget. If you spend some time familiarising yourself with the manual controls the Instant Vortex Air Fryer is actually very adept at baking. So then, this is a brilliant machine that can not only turn out the main course but it'll tackle dessert too. A quick and easy to clean design adds extra appeal.

Read our full Instant Vortex Air Fryer review for more details.

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The best single basket air fryer

While there are certainly air fryers that do more, and more affordable ones, if you have the money this is still the best 'air fryer that only air fries' you can buy. Given that it does essentially the same thing as Tower's air fryers but costs 4-5 times as much, you need to feel assured you're getting your money's worth this upmarket Philips model. Well, thanks to its excellent build quality, good looks, fast and even cooking and deliciously crisp results, we'd say you can feel thoroughly reassured on that score.

Philips Airfryer XXL packs a lot into an admittedly sizeable package in order to accommodate anyone who needs to cook on a big scale thanks to a wide basket that can handle, for example, a whole chicken. There are a handful of preset modes so you can air fry, grill, roast, bake and dehydrate foodstuffs or take the manual route and choose from heat settings anywhere between 40°C and 200°C. A lack of accessories is a disappointment but the ability of the Philips Airfryer XXL to cook food quickly and efficiently cannot be faulted.

Top marks also go to the digital display too, which works exquisitely and, thanks to simple-but-effective icons such as meat and fish, means it’s pretty hard to mess things up. Aside from the main electrical unit the Philips Airfryer XXL is dishwasher-friendly too. We loved this so much, we gave it a T3 Award two years running.

Please note: in the UK, this is technically called model HD9650/99. The version in the USA seems to be slightly different and is called HD9630/96 Airfryer XXL as far as we can tell.

Read our full Philips Airfryer XXL review for more details.

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The best dual basket air fryer

The Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer is a neat variation on the theme because it comes with twin cooking compartments. This allows you to an entire meal in one go by taking care of, say, fries in one side and a juicy salmon fillet in the other. You can mix and match the arrangement to suit your tastes and hunger pangs. There are presets if you want to take the easy route, or the machine can be manually configured to cook things just as you like them.

There's plenty of heat, more than enough power and the usual performance that we've come to expect from the Ninja brand. The appliance is quite bulky to allow for the 7.6 litre capacity of the two compartments. However, the way that you can bung everything into the one appliance more than makes up for that, especially if you're always pushed for time in the kitchen. As usual with Ninja, the finish of the Foodi Dual Zone is very plush, and this air fryer is heavily promoted on Food TV channels with 'proper' chefs using it to make great meals. However, the fact you can cook twice the normal amount of fries is probably an equally big selling point for many.

Read our full Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer review for more details and if you want this air fryer to be even bigger, take a look at our Ninja Foodi MAX Dual Zone Air Fryer review.

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The best family-sized air fryer

First, it's worth noting that this is one of the largest air fryers we've ever encountered. Designed as a direct competitor to the best-selling Ninja Foodi FlexDrawer Air Fryer, both models feature a divider and two crisper plates. Whilst the Ninja offers a slightly larger capacity, the Cosori’s 10-litre drawer is still highly impressive.

This air fryer is an excellent choice for larger families, especially those who prefer cooking entire meals in one appliance. It easily converts between two cooking zones, offers a wide variety of cooking functions to suit different types of food, and features dual heating elements to ensure even cooking throughout. The accompanying app is another highlight, particularly when controlling the Sync and Match cooking functions.

Although its larger size can make cleaning a bit more challenging, the main downside is its higher price tag, especially as it’s priced above the Ninja Foodi FlexDrawer. Nevertheless, the Cosori Dual Blaze is a fantastic option, and we highly recommend it.

Read our full Cosori Dual Blaze Twinfry 10-litre Air Fryer review for more details.

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The best personal air fryer

The Instant Vortex Mini 4-in-1 is a very decent little all-rounder, with enough basic features and functions to keep most small kitchens ticking over. The real benefit though, is its small size, which makes it perfect for anyone who is struggling for countertop space. The compact nature of the appliance does make it less appealing to anyone with more mouths to feed, but if you’re eating solo or as a couple it’ll do just fine.

Air frying and roasting are its two core skills and, interestingly, the settings stay the same each time you use it, which is great if you make chips on auto pilot. It’s also nice to have the bake feature, which has seen a little action making bread rolls for me and that reheat option is useful for warming up dinner leftovers for lunch. All in all, the Instant Vortex Mini 4-in-1 is a cracking little thing, which is good value too.

Read our full Instant Vortex Mini 4-in1 Air Fryer review for more details.

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The best space-saving air fryer

Ninja Double Stack XL Air Fryer launched in 2024 and its design seriously shocked and intrigued shoppers. Instead of having two baskets next to each other, Ninja stacked them vertically atop one another (hence the name).

The redesign meant that the Ninja Double Stack XL Air Fryer took up hardly any room in your kitchen while still offering a huge 9.5-litre capacity. The two baskets can cook together or individually, although our reviewer did find results to be inconsistent at times.

The control panel of the Ninja Double Stack XL Air Fryer located at the side took some time to get used to but its touch and dial controls are easy to customise and flick through the different modes. Many other brands have tried to replicate this design since but Ninja did it first... and best.

Read our full Ninja Double Stack XL Air Fryer review for more details.

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The best air fryer with steamer

If you’re worried about your energy costs as much as your waistline the Tefal EasyFry Grill & Steam healthy fryer is a sound investment. This kitchen appliance allows you to bypass your regular oven, ditch the need to fry anything and lets you do everything inside one mini oven.

Power-wise, the Tefal EasyFry Grill & Steam healthy fryer is 1700Watts while the one-touch presets let you tackle fries, nuggets, roast chicken, fish and more. Cooking functions include Air Fry, Grill, Steam, Rotisserie, Dehydrate and there’s a Manual setting too.

These preset programs make it a doddle to use while it gets the job done super efficiently. Cleaning the Tefal EasyFry Grill & Steam healthy fryer is similarly easy and there’s a supporting app that guides you every step of the way if you’re stuck for inspiration. If you can find one discounted it’s even better value.

Read our full Tefal EasyFry Grill & Steam review for more details.

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The best air fryer with rotisserie

Granted, the Tower 10-in-1 Air Fryer Xpress Pro Combo might not be the absolute cheapest of the cheap. But, this great value appliance is brilliant because it can do so many other things, hence the 10-in-1 status. So, it'll air fry your chips well enough - though we found this took practice to get just right, but the Tower of power does all sorts and offers 11 litres of cooking space into the bargain.

Naturally, the unit has to potential to cook food more healthily, up to 99% less fat in fact. However, the varied cooking options make it a standout, including the ability to rotisserie meat including a whole chicken if you need to. Kebabs, chargrilling and even lighter heat baking can be dine onside this touch-enabled appliance.

The Tower 10-in-1 Air Fryer Xpress Pro Combo comes with 7 cooking accessories, including a rotisserie rack, rotating kebab skewers and a multi-function wire rack. There's a 3-tier cooking system too, which effectively allows you to cook three different meals all at the same time. You also enjoy the benefit of some dishwasher safe parts that mean less time scrubbing up afterwards.

Read our full Tower 10-in-1 Air Fryer Xpress Pro Combo review for more details

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The best portable air fryer

Another revolutionary design from Ninja, the Ninja Crispi is a portable air fryer, meaning you can take it with you on the go... yes, really!

Whether you want to cook your lunch at your desk or heat up leftovers, the Ninja Crispi has a pod cooking system so you can snap the main control and cooking device onto the 3.8-litre container and cook your food. As you'd expect, it has a small capacity but it's a handy air fryer to keep at the office or leave in your bag.

See our Ninja Crispi review for more details.

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The best air fryer oven

The Sage the Combi Wave 3 in 1 is a beefy appliance but for good reason. Alongside its solid credentials for producing air fried food this model can turn its hand to a raft of varied cooking tasks. Choose from mealtime cooking options that include Fast Combi, From Frozen, Air Fry, Oven and Microwave from the sizeable onboard settings menu. Or set up everything using manual control. What's more, you can pick additional settings such as Grill, Keep Warm, Melt Chocolate and Soften Butter.

Sage has done a fab job with the design, with a delicious stainless steel exterior along with innards to match. It's cavernous too, with 25 litres of space to cook anything and everything in. You'll need to find space to accommodate it, but the trade off is you get a multi-purpose device that cooks great air fried meals and can also tackle plenty of other options too.

Read our full Sage the Combi Wave 3 in 1 review for more details.

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Best air fryers: honourable mentions

• Beko ExpertFry Dual Zone Air Fryer: insanely versatile albeit a bit complex
• Tefal Actifry Genius XL 2in1: a funny shaped air fryer that gets the job done
• Cuisinart AirTwin XXL Dual-Zone Air Fryer: bit too big, but surprisingly quiet and affordable
• Breville Halo XL 9L Air Fryer: big capacity but takes up minimal space
• Ninja AF100UK Air Fryer: one of Ninja's (few) smaller air fryers
• Salter XL Dual View Air Fryer Oven: huge air fryer with basket viewing windows
• Tower Vortx Air Fryer: easy-to-use, budget-friendly and basic
• Wilko 4L Air Fryer: small, cheap and simple

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How to choose the best air fryer

What is an air fryer? Well, it is essentially a very small fan oven. When seeking out the best air fryer for you, you’re going to be looking for the same things you look for in any kitchen appliance. First off: capacity. The size of the machine you buy will depend on the size of your family and the size of your kitchen, and the last thing you want to do is end up with a huge appliance that’s cumbersome and far too big to use for just you and your partner.

Of course, the bigger you go, the more options you get, with some allowing you to fry multiple food items at a time, or even doubling up as other appliances such as steamers and grills. One of the other major advantages of air fryers compared to deep fat fryers is that they are much less hassle to clean and low maintenance in general. Look out for models with dishwasher safe parts and intuitive controls which allow you to vary the temperature for cooking to perfection. Take a look at our invaluable advice on cleaning your air fryer too.

How we test air fryers

To review the best air fryers, we call in the latest and greatest models and take them through vigorous testing for at least four weeks. We'll look at everything from unboxing and set-up to the design and features, and most importantly: how well they cook.

Other aspects of air fryers we'll look at include the controls, how easy they are to clean, how much money they cost when in use, if they make excessive noise, and much more. We'll also cook many different foods within the air fryer but will make sure to cook meals that people most commonly associated with air fryers, like chips and chicken.

Once we've tested the best air fryers, we write and publish a review and if we think it's worthy, we'll add it to our main guide. If we're lucky enough to keep the air fryer in question, we'll continue to test it and update the review accordingly when we find out new positives or negatives that we find.

To find out more, see how we test at T3 for more.

FAQs

Are there different types of air fryers?

The two main air fryer types are basket air fryers and mini oven-style air fryers. The former has a basket where you put food before attaching it to the main body of the air fryer. The latter is bigger and features tray inserts like to an oven but in miniature form.

What size air fryer do I need?

Deciding what size air fryer you need completely depends on how often you'll use it and how many people you'll cook for.

If you’re looking for a way to reheat food and make snacks, a smaller air fryer is best, but for full meals and batch cooking, a medium or large air fryer will suit your needs. See air fryer sizes explained for more details.

Are air fryers cheap to run?

In general, yes, air fryer are cheap to run. A single basket air fryer will be cheaper than a dual basket but it all depends on the wattage and time spent using it.

To calculate how much it costs to run an air fryer, multiply its wattage by the number of hours you use it in a day, before dividing that number by 1000 to get the daily kWh. Most air fryers use between 800 - 2,000W of power.

See our comparison guide on air fryer vs multi-cooker vs oven for more details.

How do I clean an air fryer?

Unlike an oven which doesn't need to be cleaned after ever use, an air fryer needs to be cleaned regularly. After each use, you should remove and clean the baskets and any inserts or attachments you used. You should also wipe down the exterior and do a deep clean after every few use. See our full air fryer cleaning guide for more.

Reviewer panel

Bethan Girdler-Maslen

As T3's Home Editor, Beth has tested many air fryers, multi-cookers, rice cookers, and more. She's a big fan of Ninja but has also tested models from Salter, Cuisinart and Smeg.

Lizzie Wilmot

Lizzie is T3's Home Writer, and like Beth, has a constant stream of appliances coming in and out of her kitchen. She loves an air fryer and has tested models from Philips, COSORI and more.

Rob Clymo

Rob Clymo has been a tech journalist for more years than he can remember. For T3, he loves testing kitchen appliances, including air fryers, blenders and coffee machines.

Lee Bell

Lee Bell is a freelance journalist and copywriter specialising in technology, health and grooming. He's often seen testing air fryers from Ninja, Beko and Breville.

Alistair Charlton

Alistair is a freelance automotive and technology journalist. While he often reviews watches and grooming tools, Alistair has since branched out into appliances, like air fryers!