You can’t toss a chicken wing these days without hitting five air fryer enthusiasts, and I count myself among them. I serve as CNET’s resident tester of all things kitchen from meal kits to microwaves, and no new appliance has garnered more reps in my kitchen or questions from acquaintances than these quick and convenient countertop cookers.
Pod-style air fryers cost as little as $25 (no, really) and as much as $300 or more. I’ve tested dozens of models — from the bare-boned to the fully bell-and-whistled — and I’m pleased to report that you don’t need to spend more than $70 or $80 to get a great air fryer.
TL;DR: if you’re dropping more than $100 on a pod-style air fryer, you’re paying too much.
Our favorite air fryer is around $70
Air fryers use simple coils and a fan to create a tornado of convection heat.
The reason a budget-friendly air fryer performs as well as an expensive model is the simplicity of the device. Air fryers use basic, electric heating coils and a fan to blow heat around the inside of the cooking chamber. That’s about it. The hull of an air fryer is equally straightforward; and there’s little need for precision control and convection settings when air-frying, although many overpriced models promise it.
Once you learn the power levels of an air fryer, you can easily manipulate it for power jobs like cooking a pound of crispy wings along with more delicate tasks such as warming leftover pizza or toasting walnuts for a salad.
With air fryers, money doesn’t always equal power
A smart air-frying toaster oven will also jump over the $100 mark, but I consider this to be another category.
I know what you’re thinking: CNET’s list of best air fryers has a few models that cost more than $100. I can explain.
My $100 rule applies to simple, pod-shaped air fryers and not hybrid appliances such as Instant Pots and multicookers that air-fry in addition to searing, steaming, slow cooking and pressure cooking. Another category is air-frying countertop convection toaster ovens like the Breville Air and Ninja Foodi. These have fancy programs and more precise settings for baking cookies (something I don’t recommend doing in pod air fryers) or evenly toasting multiple slices of bread.
These machines typically cost more than $100, but I consider them in separate categories. I’ve tested many and liked the results. Either type is worth the higher price tags for kitchens that will use them in these other ways.
The final exception is for unusually large air fryers or dual-basket models. Most homes of three or four shouldn’t require more than a five-quart single-basket oven. But if you’ve got a bigger flock of mouths to feed, you might need more capacity. Once you go above six quarts or into two-basket territory, you’ll likely edge over that price limit.
