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See why.The Best Air-Fryer Toaster Ovens
Air-fryer toaster ovens can air-fry and toast—and do a whole lot more besides. Which is best?
Our new Best Buy is the Instant Oven 18L Air Fryer Toaster Oven. It performs nearly as well as our favorite by Breville, at a fraction of the price. For full details, see the chart below.
Top Picks
What You Need To Know
Our favorite air-fryer toaster oven—the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro—excelled in all our cooking tests: air frying, roasting, baking, broiling, and toasting foods perfectly. It’s also one of the most user-friendly machines we’ve tested, with intuitive controls, an easy-to-read digital display, and a host of other features that make it a pleasure to operate.
We also loved the Ninja Foodi 10-in-1 XL Pro Air Fry Oven, which performs just as well as our favorite and is generally less expensive. Oddly, while it’s got a slightly bigger footprint than our favorite, its actual capacity is slightly smaller.
Finally, our Best Buy is the Instant Oven 18L Air Fryer Toaster Oven. It does a great job of air frying, roasting, and broiling, though it’s a little underpowered as a toaster. Its digital interface is not as easy to navigate as those of our top options, but considering that this model is less than half the price of our winner, we think that’s a fine tradeoff.
Want a simpler, less expensive option for air frying? Read our review of air fryers or watch our video comparing the two best types of air fryer options.
What You Need to Know
What can’t the best air-fryer toaster ovens do? Serving as both air fryers and toaster ovens, these hybrid machines are more versatile than either of those appliances, allowing you to air-fry, toast, bake, roast, and broil different types of food. They’re also bigger than both air fryers and toaster ovens, providing plenty of room to air-fry mozzarella sticks for a crowd, roast a whole chicken, or even bake a 9-inch round cake. Because they’re bigger, you have to preheat them before many applications, unlike with conventional air fryers. But they still preheat more quickly than a standard oven, saving you time and helping you get a faster start on your meal.
Like air fryers, air-fryer toaster ovens don’t actually fry your food. Instead, they’re essentially powerful countertop convection ovens, using fans to circulate hot air so that food cooks swiftly and evenly, its exterior crisping and browning while the interior remains tender and moist. (A mesh basket holds the food in the air-fryer toaster oven so that the air can circulate above and below.) And in contrast to smaller convection toaster ovens, air-fryer toaster ovens have fans that operate at higher speeds, allowing them to crisp and cook the surfaces of food more quickly when air frying, baking, or roasting.
Not all air-fryer toaster ovens are good at all tasks. In fact, only a few excel at everything from air frying to roasting. We’ve tested dozens of models over the years, and we’ve found that a few simple features make all the d...
Everything We Tested
Highly Recommended
- Cleanup: 2 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 3 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 3 stars out of 3.
Our top pick had intuitive controls and consistently made the best food in the bunch. We liked its clearly labeled knobs and digital interface that displayed the time, temperature, and cooking setting. It made excellent toast (it has adjustable settings that you can customize depending on your slice of bread); produced tender, browned broiled asparagus; yielded roasted chicken that was golden all over; and made air-fryer french fries and chicken Parmesan on par with recipes made in our favorite traditional air fryer. Because it's such a large enclosed space, and the air-fryer basket is made from uncoated metal, the oven can be a bit of a pain to clean, especially after roasting chicken or doing anything with melted cheese. This model can also accommodate more food than our favorite air fryer, which is helpful if you frequently cook for more than two people.
- Cleanup: 2 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 3 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 3 stars out of 3.
This model has a similar capacity to our winner, though its external footprint is about 10 percent larger. It offers an array of functions, including air frying, broiling, and toasting. Its digital controls are intuitive and straightforward, with a display that lights up to clearly show the time elapsed. Its air-fried food was as good as the food made in our winning air fryer, and it also excelled at toasting bread to different doneness levels, broiling asparagus, and roasting chicken. Like all the air-fryer toaster ovens we tested, it was a bit hard to clean. Though it’s a tad larger than our winner, we still recommend this model for those who have room in their kitchens and are looking for a great multipurpose appliance that will maximize their cooking capabilities.
Recommended
- Cleanup: 2 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 2 stars out of 3.
- Ease Of Use: 3 stars out of 3.
This air-fryer toaster oven did a great job of air frying, producing crisp, evenly golden french fries and chicken Parmesan. It put a good char on asparagus while broiling and made a gorgeous roast chicken too. Rack positions for each cooking mode were indicated on the door, helping us cook food properly. The cooking countdown conveniently paused when we opened the door to flip food. We especially appreciated its temperature probe attachment, which automatically cooked the chicken to our preferred temperature and then prompted the machine to shut off. Its large touch-screen interface was easy to navigate and select settings from; we liked that we could choose from two different fan speeds for convection settings. Our main complaint? Like many of the machines we’ve tested, it doesn’t make great toast, routinely requiring us to use the darkest setting just to get lightly colored toast, and it wasn’t particularly consistent when we used it to toast multiple pieces. A few minor quibbles This model’s viewing window is on the small side, with more of the oven’s facade used for the touch-screen display than we’d prefer. And its rotisserie was somewhat underpowered, struggling to rotate 3-pound chickens.
- Cleanup: 2 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 2 stars out of 3.
- Ease Of Use: 2.5 stars out of 3.
This roomy, relatively affordable air-fryer toaster oven performed beautifully on most tasks, air frying, roasting, and broiling well. Rack positions for each cooking mode were indicated on the oven door, making it easy to cook properly. We liked that the cooking countdown paused when we opened the door to flip food. But like many of the machines we’ve tested, it seemed underpowered when it came to toasting, producing very light toast even when we’d selected the darkest setting. Its digital interface was a bit of a pain to navigate and took up nearly a third of the machine’s front, leaving a smaller window for us to monitor our food’s progress. Despite having a big control panel, the time and temperature display was so small that time and temperature didn’t both fit on it at the same time; instead, the display alternates between the two readings as food cooks, a minor inconvenience.
Recommended with reservations
- Cleanup: 2 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 1.5 stars out of 3.
While this machine was easy to use and made decent air-fried french fries, it struggled with traditional toaster-oven functions and more complicated air-fryer tasks. Chicken Parmesan required an extra 13 minutes of air frying (pretty much doubling the recipe’s stated cooking time of 13 to 17 minutes), roast chicken needed an extra 10 minutes, and toast turned out too blond even on the darkest setting. The air-fryer basket was also hard to clean, trapping cheese and breading. We did like that this oven had a digital screen (its controls closely resembled the Breville’s) and found its clear display helpful when setting the cooking setting, temperature, and time.
Not Recommended
- Cleanup: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Cleanup: 2 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 1 stars out of 3.
- Cleanup: 1 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 1 stars out of 3.
- Cleanup : 2 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 1.5 stars out of 3.
This toaster oven had a quirky design that ultimately affected its performance. At about half the height of our favorite models, its limited interior space could not accommodate a whole 4-pound chicken. And while it made medium toast well, it made only medium toast, whether it was on the lightest or darkest setting. It did produce lightly browned broiled asparagus and crispy fries. We also appreciated that it took a minuscule amount of time to preheat before air-frying, but the oven ran a bit hot and some french fries at the edges of the basket burned. Like other models, it was sometimes tough to clean. While we liked this model’s digital controls and screen, we disliked the position of its door handle, which was located at the left of the door rather than in the center. This is a space-saving measure that allows you to store the oven on its side against your kitchen’s backsplash when not in use, but we found that the handle wasn’t as functional or easy to grasp as the handles of other models, and we burned our hands a few times as we adjusted to its placement.
Discontinued
- Cleanup: 2 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 2 stars out of 3.
While this machine made excellent toast, air-fried french fries, and chicken Parmesan, it could not broil asparagus—which was not browned at all even after 20 minutes. Its top rack was positioned 5 inches away from the heating element, which made successful broiling impossible. We also had to roast the chicken for 20 minutes longer than the time specified in the recipe. Though the oven was easy to clean, it took a bit more elbow grease to remove the melted cheese from the air-fryer basket. The labeling of the knobs was less than precise: The cooking temperatures were listed in 50-degree increments and the cooking times were listed in 5-minute increments.
- Cleanup: 2 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 2 stars out of 3.
This model did a good job with toast, broiled asparagus, and air-fried french fries and chicken Parmesan, but it produced a less attractive roast chicken, which was cooked through but pale all over. It was a bit hard to clean as well, since the air-fryer basket wasn’t nonstick and trapped bits of hardened cheese. When toasting, the oven’s control knobs got very hot; we didn’t experience this with any other model’s cooking functions.
- Cleanup : 2 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 2 stars out of 3.
While this oven cooked food decently, it had some odd quirks that were tough to overlook. It mistakenly flashed warnings that food was burning when we were air-frying, roasting, and broiling. The oven was also noticeably loud and made an annoying whirring sound. Despite these flaws, it did produce good light and medium toast (the dark toast was more medium than dark), lightly broiled asparagus, crispy air-fried french fries, and a nicely browned roast chicken. We also liked that the oven’s timer paused when we opened the door and that its big, bright control panel was easy to read. However, the oven ran a bit hot, so we had to remove air-fried foods from the oven before the ends of their stated recipe times to keep them from burning. Also, its air-fryer basket wasn’t nonstick, making it tougher to clean.
Reviews you can trust
Reviews you can trust
The mission of America’s Test Kitchen Reviews is to find the best equipment and ingredients for the home cook through rigorous, hands-on testing. We stand behind our winners so much that we even put our seal of approval on them.
Chase Brightwell
Chase is an associate editor for ATK Reviews. He's an epidemiologist-turned-equipment tester and biscuit enthusiast.
Miye Bromberg
Miye is a senior editor for ATK Reviews. She covers booze, blades, and gadgets of questionable value.