Efficient-yet-simple kitchen appliances have become countertop staples in recent years, and the love for air fryers specifically continues to grow. Searches for 'best air fryers 2025' have surged 200% over the past 90 days, according to Google Trends.
In order to determine which one is the best of the best, we rolled up our sleeves and got to work roasting potatoes, baking cookies, air frying dino nuggets (and even whole chickens!), among other things. Our top pick is currently less than $90 and received six perfect five-star ratings across a number of factors.
We also tapped expert chefs to discuss what qualities are worth looking for, whether or not material matters, how best to clean them and more.
Best tasting chicken & cookies$undefined$133.68
What to look for in an air fryer
Josh Archibald, executive chef of culinary development at Tillamook, and Matthew Cutolo, chef at Gargiulos in Brooklyn, New York, say you should look for the following qualities when shopping for an air fryer:
- Weight: Archibald says your air fryer “should actually feel a little heavier than you would think it would be,” as is true with any kitchen equipment in his experience. It shouldn’t feel “plastic and light,” he adds.
- Ease of cleaning: Archibald recommends taking into consideration how easy your air fryer is to clean thoroughly, so the flavors of what you’re cooking don’t blend together and you’re left with a sugar cookie that tastes like a tater tot.
- Size: Cutolo calls out size because "a larger basket or cooking space lets you cook full meals instead of just snacks."
- Temperature range: "A higher max temperature helps you get that same sear and caramelization you'd expect from an oven," notes Cutolo.
- Heat circulation: "Strong airflow and consistent heat are what make or break the final texture," adds Cutolo.
- Aesthetics: While it doesn't necessarily have an impact on how well it'll cook, Archibald says aesthetics can also be an important attribute to some consumers.
Best overall air fryer
Air fry chicken nuggets/fries: 5/5 | Air fry full chicken: 5/5 | Roast potatoes: 5/5 | Bake cookies: 3/5 | Ease of cleaning: 5/5 | Volume: 5/5 | Ease of use: 5/5 | Overall average score: 4.71/5
Cosori earned both the title of best overall and consistent 5-star ratings in almost every category. It has a screen that lights up as soon as you touch it, illuminating all of the functions you can choose from.
It cooked food thoroughly — air frying dino nuggets and french fries and roasting potatoes — to the point where they were just crispy enough, without being soggy or burnt.
There were two air fryers that produced the best looking chicken, Cosori being one of them. Some of the chickens had a hard "shell" or film once they were done cooking, however the chicken that was cooked in the Cosori air fryer had minimal charring, and was a dark brown color.
I was personally eyeing this air fryer the entire time we were testing. Not only was each setting (temperature, function, timing) easy to read and tap through on the screen, but they were easy to change for recipes where we were deferring from the built-in settings.
More air fryers to try, tested by the author
Runner-up:
Air fry chicken nuggets/fries: 3/5 | Air fry full chicken: 5/5 | Roast potatoes: 4/5 | Bake cookies: 5/5 | Dehydrate strawberries: 5/5 | Ease of cleaning: 5/5 | Volume: 5/5 | Ease of use: 5/5 | Overall average score: 4.63/5
Philips was a shining star throughout testing. It not only earned rave reviews from taste testers, its above average abilities helped it achieve the second-highest overall average score. While other air fryers burnt cookies to a crisp or left remnants stuck to the tray, Philips managed to deliver a cookie that was still soft after an hour of being left out.
It also dehydrated strawberries at a much faster rate compared to the other air fryers we tested, with crispy strawberries being ready to eat in just one hour, while others took upwards of three.
As for the whole chicken, associate editor Kamari Stewart noted its skin was the best looking (and tasting) out of the group. While the interior wasn’t quite as juicy as others, it wasn’t dry either — more of a happy medium.
In terms of non-cooking functions, it has an easy-to-navigate screen and proved easy to clean thanks to its nonstick tray and plate. It also has dishwasher-safe parts, according to the brand.
Small but mighty:
Air fry chicken nuggets/fries: 3.5/5 | Air fry full chicken: 5/5 | Roast potatoes: 3.5/5 | Bake cookies: 4/5 | Ease of cleaning: 5/5 | Volume: 5/5 | Ease of use: 5/5 | Overall average score: 4.43/5
This small space-friendly air fryer nearly earned 5's across the board when it came to baking cookies, roasting potatoes and air frying an entire chicken. Its oven-like design helps to ensure "pretty much perfect" cookies and a "juicy and delicious" chicken, according to Stewart.
It also employs a sheet pan-style (similar to an oven) rather than the traditional basket most air fryers have. This helps the food — like cookies and the chicken— to cook more thoroughly, in our experience. We also found that we didn't need to use any sort of parchment paper, wax paper or a nonstick spray for the cookies to easily slide right off the pan once they were done.
While it cooked foods well, it's worth noting that the dial operates in 10-60 minute increments, "so if you're trying to cook on an in-between temperature, you can't really get an exact measurement," Stewart says.
For crispy chicken and near-perfect cookies:
Air fry chicken nuggets/fries: 4/5 | Air fry full chicken: 5/5 | Roast potatoes: 4/5 | Bake cookies: 4/5 | Dehydrate strawberries: 5/5 | Ease of cleaning: 5/5 | Volume: 2/5 | Ease of use: 5/5 | Overall average score: 4.25/5
With every single test, we forgot that the Instant Pot had to preheat for a couple minutes before inserting and cooking food. It was the only air fryer we tested that had to preheat, lowering its overall average score.
On the flip side, it has a "turn food" reminder that pings when there's five minutes left in the cooking session. The reminder was very helpful when cooking the entire chicken. It produced a dark brown, crispy skin that was juicy on the inside.
While the Philips air fryer produced cookies that were soft-to-the-touch an hour after sitting out, Instant Pot created the best tasting and looking cookies compared to the others. I can overlook the fact that some parts of the cookies melted through the tray to the bottom of the basket and the fact that the chocolate chip cookie was a bit harder than the sugar cookie, because they tasted and felt up to par. (Plus, this may have been some user error. If we'd laid parchment paper down, they had potential to be near-perfect!)
Budget-friendly:
Air fry chicken nuggets/fries: 3/5 | Air fry full chicken: 5/5 | Roast potatoes: 4/5 | Bake cookies: 3/5 | Ease of cleaning: 5/5 | Volume: 4/5 | Ease of use: 5/5 | Overall average score: 4.14/5
Dash was the first air fryer we tested of the day, producing subpar dinosaur nuggets and soggy fries. However, it managed to cook a whole chicken with the end result being an irresistible tan color that made us want to dig in immediately.
When it came to baking cookies, Dash created a duo that had, again, an irresistible color. They weren't overdone (i.e. burnt to a crisp), or undone and dough-y in the middle.
Throughout testing cookies, a handful of the chocolate chip cookies crumbled — quite literally — under pressure, while sugar cookies remained intact. The cookies made in the Dash air fryer were no different, creating a chocolate chip cookie with a few crumbles and cracks in the foundation, while the sugar cookie is what you'd expect when baking cookies on a sheet in a traditional oven.
Its volume is a touch louder than a refrigerator hum, and noticeable enough to call out. Some of its more notable features include a pause button, so you can alter settings or stop the process of cooking food if you need to. It has a reminder to toss, shake or flip foods halfway through its allotted time for an even, thorough cook.
No elbow grease needed:
Air fry chicken nuggets/fries: 3/5 | Air fry full chicken: 3/5 | Roast potatoes: 4/5 | Bake cookies: 3/5 | Dehydrate strawberries: 5/5 | Ease of cleaning: 5/5 | Volume: 3/5 | Ease of use: 5/5 | Overall average score: 3.88/5
This air fryer proved to be the easiest to clean (or at least so much so that that was one of the first things I jotted down about it!). That ease can be attributed to its nonstick coating, one of the features Archibald called out as being key.
The Beautiful by Drew Barrymore air fryer cooked everything — potatoes, cookies, chicken, fries — averagely. It excelled in dehydrating strawberries, a process that took three hours. It’s also the most affordable air fryer we tested that managed to have respectable scores once the day was done. (A more compact, affordable air fryer that-shall-not-be-named performed below average, and even stopped working after our first test.)
Its more aesthetically-pleasing features, easy-to-clean characteristic and the fact that it only has four functions — dehydrate, reheat, air fry and roast — made this air fryer stand out among the rest. Personally, I've never needed to dehydrate foods (or felt the desire to), so the fact that this was one of the four functions on this air fryer might not be a huge pull for me to purchase it.
A no-fuss air fryer:
Air fry chicken nuggets/fries: 3/5 | Air fry full chicken: 2/5 | Roast potatoes: 3/5 | Bake cookies: 3/5 | Ease of cleaning: 5/5 | Volume: 5/5 | Ease of use: 5/5 | Overall average score: 3.71/5
Cuisinart’s biggest downfall was the fact that it didn’t cook a whole chicken thoroughly after an hour, forcing us to cook it for an additional 13 minutes. It had slight pink spots that could have used a little extra time.
Similar to the Beautiful by Drew Barrymore air fryer, it baked cookies, roasted potatoes and air fried dinosaur nuggets and fries that met expectations, yet didn’t exceed them. It doesn’t have to preheat before cooking and also has an automatic toss reminder to ensure food (hopefully) cooks thoroughly.
This air fryer performed averagely across both cooking performance and user experience. The screen illuminated when you tapped any buttons, making it easy to see and sort through settings. I was able to easily tap through the functions we were utilizing and could sneak a peek at the functions we weren't using to prepare things like vegetables and wings.
Foods perfected to a crisp:
Air fry chicken nuggets/fries: 2/5 | Air fry full chicken: 3/5 | Roast potatoes: 5/5 | Bake cookies: 2/5 | Dehydrate strawberries: 5/5 | Ease of cleaning: 5/5 | Volume: 1/5 | Ease of use: 5/5 | Overall average score: 3.5/5
Throughout testing, the Ninja XL proved that it was a little too powerful for its own good. The buttons make it easy to toggle between settings and temperatures, but you cannot customize temperature beyond the 15-minute increments already installed.
The Ninja XL created crispy (almost too crispy) dino nuggets and fries and cookies, however the potatoes proved to have the right amount of crunch while maintaining a soft interior.
This air fryer had a very noticeable noise while cooking, and not just from the pings and beeps that would emit once it was done, either. We could hear it across an entire room, which helped it to stand out in more ways than aside from creating crispy foods. Similar to Cuisinart, this air fryer has easy-to-operate buttons that are reminiscent of the buttons on a microwave.
How we tested air fryers
We tested 10 air fryers over the course of eight hours at one of our test kitchens. We air fried dinosaur nuggets, french fries and whole chickens, baked cookies, roasted potatoes and dehydrated strawberries to test the functions performed by each air fryer.
Here's how we determined what temperature and time to cook everything:
- Dinosaur nuggets and french fries: We followed instructions provided in each machine's booklet.
- Whole chicken: We followed this recipe from Spend with Pennies.
- Potatoes: We followed this recipe from Little Sunny Kitchen.
- Cookies: We used Sweet Lorens cookies, so we followed the instructions found on their site — 280 degrees Fahrenheit for 14 minutes.
- Strawberries: We followed the instructions provided in each machine's booklet, periodically checking in to see if they were completed sooner or needed more time.
We scored each air fryer in the above categories, how easy it was to use and how easy it was to clean on a scale of 1-5 — 1 being the worst, 5 being the best.
Why trust Shop TODAY?
Sierra Hoeger is an associate editor at Shop TODAY, and has written broadcast segments, Shop TODAY Awards articles and conducted other tests for Ranked, including protein bars and water pitcher filters, so she has a deep understanding and knowledge of methodology and testing processes.
Meet the experts
- Josh Archibald is the executive chef of culinary development at Tillamook County Creamery Association.
- Matthew Cutolo is a chef at Gargiulos, an Italian restaurant located located in Brooklyn's Coney Island neighborhood. Previously, he's prepared bruschetta al pomodoro on the TODAY Show and showcased holiday dishes on NBC New York.
