How to Choose an Air Fryer: Capacity First, Everything Else Second

An air fryer is a small, fast convection oven. A heating element sits above a basket and a fan drives hot air past the food quickly enough to brown and crisp the surface. That is why a brushing of oil replaces a panful — the browning comes from hot air and the Maillard reaction, not from immersion.

It follows that an air fryer does not reproduce deep-fried texture. Chips come out closer to oven-roasted: crisp outside, drier inside, without the glassy crust that hot oil gives. Anything in a wet batter does not work at all, because there is no hot oil to set the coating — it drips through the basket. Frozen coated food, which is pre-fried at the factory, works extremely well.

Buyers told 'fried food without the oil' are the ones who end up disappointed. Buyers told 'a fast, small oven that crisps things' are almost always happy with it.

This is where most of the regret in this category comes from. The litre figure on the box is the volume of the basket, not the amount of food the appliance cooks well. Air frying needs the food in roughly one layer so hot air can reach every surface; pile it up and you are steaming the middle while browning the top.

So usable capacity is nearer half the stated number. Of the 84 air fryers verified on this site, capacity clusters hard at 4 L and 5 L, which is a two-to-three person size — and that is why a family of four who buys the popular 4 L model ends up cooking in two batches every time.

• Basket — a pull-out drawer, the standard format and 70 of the 84 models here. Fastest to heat, easiest to shake and wash. Bakes badly: the cavity is small and the airflow turbulent.
• Dual basket — two independent drawers, so two dishes cook at different settings without sharing flavour. Rare and physically large.
• Oven style — a front-opening cavity with racks. Slower to preheat, larger footprint, but it genuinely bakes and grills.
• Air fryer OTG — an oven-toaster-griller with an air-fry mode, 15-36 L here. The most versatile and the most counter space. If you would otherwise buy an OTG as well, this replaces both.
• Lid type — a lid that converts a pressure cooker or pot into an air fryer. Space-saving and cheap; the least capable of the formats.

• Wattage (1,200-1,800 W here) — decides how fast it preheats and how quickly it recovers when you open the drawer. It does not make food crisper.
• Dishwasher-safe basket — the single specification most likely to decide whether the appliance stays on the counter or goes in a cupboard.
• Viewing window — lets you judge browning without opening the drawer and dropping the temperature. Genuinely useful.
• Shake reminder — a small thing that meaningfully improves results, because shaking halfway is what evens out browning.
• Preset menus — convenience only. Each preset sets a time and temperature you could dial in yourself, so a 12-preset model is not more capable than a two-dial one at the same capacity and wattage.
• '90% less oil' — a marketing comparison against deep frying with no standard test behind it. Ignore the number; the oil saving is real, the percentage is not measured.

Smaller than people expect, because the run time is minutes rather than hours. A 1,500 W fryer for a 20-minute batch draws about 0.5 units, which is roughly ₹4 at ₹8 a unit. That is less than bringing a full-size oven up to temperature for the same food, since there is far less air and metal to heat.

Air fryers carry no BEE star rating in India — unlike air coolers, which gained a star-labelling programme in 2025 — so there is no certified efficiency figure to compare. Rated wattage is the only comparable number, and it is published on only 33 of the 84 models here.

Philips more or less created this category in India and is absent from this site, along with Havells, Inalsa, Prestige, Borosil, Glen, Instant, Pigeon and Usha. The reason is the same in each case: no price we could read from the maker. Philips's own site returns 404 on both its product API and its air fryer category path; Havells refuses automated requests; Inalsa, Prestige and Pigeon do not resolve on any obvious store host.

We would rather name that gap than fill it by copying specifications from a retailer listing, which is how products get mis-paired. The nine brands listed here are the ones that publish a catalogue with prices attached.