5 Best Small Air Fryers, According to Our Lab Testing

When we test products in the Kitchen Appliances Lab, we evaluate their performance and ease of use. We believe that all air fryers should cook quickly, including preheat time, and make food crispy without drying it out.

To assess these features, we first narrowed down our testing to include to air fryers smaller than six quarts, which is the average size of air fryers.

✔️ Size: Average air fryers have a capacity around six quarts. They can cook food for around four people at a time. The small air fryers on our list have a capacity between two quarts and four quarts. They're great for two people or one person. They take up less counter space as well and we find them easier to clean since the baskets are smaller.

✔️ Style: Like average-sized air fryers, small air fryers come in basket-styles or toaster oven-style. Basket styles allow you to air fry smaller ingredients that benefit from shaking, while toaster oven styles often have trays that offer more cooking surface so you can spread more food out in a single area. More cooking surface allows for more even browning and crispier results. The toaster oven trays are also a little easier to flip food on, since they have shorter walls, and they're typically made of stainless steel versus nonstick like the baskets.

Air fryer toaster ovens also offer more versatile since they're equipped to bake, toast and more, like a standard countertop oven.

✔️ Mechanical vs. digital display: Air fryers with dials versus buttons and a digital display cost less than their counterparts. They work perfectly well, but are often less precise. They also typically offer less bells and whistles like pre-programmed settings, halfway timers that remind you to flip your food and more.

✔️ Settings: Oftentimes when an air fryer offers different settings, it's a way to cook food more easily since they're usually programmed at a recommended temperature and time. Most of the times, these settings are also adjustable. They can be helpful if you're not familiar with air frying, but the more you air fry, the more easy it will be to use the manual function. Sometimes, the settings can control the fan speed, aka making it slower so you can bake, but that's not always clear from the marketing.

Another thing to keep in mind with settings is they often go hand in hand with how low of a temperature an air fryer can cook at or how high. For example, if it has a dehydrate setting, it can often cook as low as 100ºF or less, keep warm is around 200ºF, air fry typically maxes out around 400ºF and roast or broil is usually higher.

While the advertised capacity remains relatively the same amongst small air fryers, what you can fit in them varies on the shape and size of the basket itself.

Round air fryer baskets offer less cooking area than square air fryer baskets. From our experience with small, two-quart air fryers, you can fit two to three chicken thighs snugly. You can also pile in a pound of fries, though eight ounces yield more consistent results. You can also fit at least a pound of wings, which is about 10 medium-sized wings. Square baskets can fit a little bit more and offer more room to spread ingredients out.

The air fryer toaster oven we recommend can fit up to two and a half pounds of food, according to the brand.

The packaging often offers a good idea of how much food you can fit, but we recommend referring to the user guide for recommended amounts.

Air fryers are often considered healthy because they require the use of significantly less oil to cook than many other cooking methods. Oil helps food brown and adds flavor, so we often use a small amount on items that are fresh and not processed. Overall, they can be used to cook healthier recipes, especially if you choose to air fry whole foods, veggies, lean proteins and more.

We love using them to cook root veggies like potatoes and sweet potatoes, cruciferous veggies like broccoli and even Brussels sprouts, chicken, pork chops, salmon and more. They can even be used to make desserts like apple crisp.

Nicole Papantoniou is the director of the Good Housekeeping Kitchen Appliances Lab where she oversees all content and testing related to cooking tools, gadgets and appliances. She has been testing air fryers since before they made their way to the U.S. market. She's the lead air fryer tester at Good Housekeeping and has tested all sorts, including basket-style air fryers, oven style air fryers and air fryer toaster oven styles, as well as air fryers built into ovens, microwaves and more. She has developed recipes for them and uses them often at home.