Are you a devoted air fryer user? Still to be persuaded? Not really sure how on earth they work?
This guide is here to clear any confusion and misconceptions around air fryers and whether they can save you money.
With energy prices remaining high, finding ways to cut back on our household spending remains a priority for many of us. This is why we’re answering the important questions: are air fryers cheaper to run than ovens? And are they worth the upfront cost?
Have you bought an air fryer? Do you prefer it to cooking food in your oven? Let us know your thoughts in the comments at the end of this guide.
Air fryers can be a more cost-effective option for some households, so we’ve broken down how energy usage and cost compare between air fryers and ovens to help you work out if it’s time to buy one yourself.
And if you already own one, hopefully after reading this you’ll have a clearer idea of how yours is saving you money.
We’ve also included some of our TopCashback colleagues’ experiences, as well as some extra guidance on which methods might suit you best depending on your household size and habits.
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Air fryer vs oven: putting each cooking appliance to the test
Air fryers rapidly circulate hot air, produced by the built-in heating element, through a process called convection. This hot air circulation means the food is cooked evenly and from all directions.
Investing in an air fryer has health benefits over other cooking methods like deep frying, offering a great way to enjoy healthier meals at home. They use less oil (or none) to produce deliciously crispy cooking results, so you can achieve the taste of deep-fried food without the calories or the mess.
Aside from the obvious pros of air fryers over deep fryers, they’re also often a cheaper and more energy-efficient alternative to oven cooking, helping you reduce your household’s energy costs. They can cook food in less time, and with less energy, compared to conventional ovens. This means, on the whole, it’s cheaper to run an air fryer than a standard oven.
However, they can be pricey, with the current top-of-the-range Ninja air fryer costing just shy of £270.
So, your decision might not be so clear-cut. To get to the bottom of the question ‘are air fryers worth it?’, we put a Ninja air fryer to the test.
We ran an experiment to see how much money cooking in an air fryer can genuinely save.
We cooked three dishes in an electric oven and an air fryer, comparing the time taken to cook and the energy used to get an estimate of the cost of cooking each dish. And we can’t forget about the taste, so we also included our thoughts on the quality of each dish after cooking.
These are the dishes we cooked:
One medium chicken breast
One large baked potato
One portion of roast veg (carrots and parsnips)
The rule we’re following for air frying food is to reduce the oven cooking time by 20%. While some people also swear by reducing the temperature by 20°C, we don’t think this always works (and don’t recommend risking this when cooking meat products).
So, if our large baked potato takes 60 minutes at 200°C in a fan oven, that translates to 48 minutes at the same temperature in the air fryer.
It’s very important to remember that most kitchen appliances are efficient enough to not require their full power when cooking. The calculations in this section serve to show a comparison between the amount of energy used by the two appliances. As a baseline, we’ve used the full power of each appliance, although they will almost certainly use less than this.
Here’s how we worked out the energy consumption and estimated cost of cooking each dish:
Appliance power consumption (kW) x time to cook (hours)
= total energy consumption (kWh)
The average energy tariff at the time of writing is 24p per kilowatt-hour (kWh). To calculate how much it would cost the average household to cook each dish in each appliance, we used the following calculation:
Total energy consumption (kWh) x cost of energy per kWh (£)
= total cost to cook dish (£)
The results
The below calculations are for an Indesit Aria IFW6340IX built-in electric oven (2.4 kW power) and a Ninja Foodi FlexDrawer AF500UK 10.4L air fryer (2.47 kW power).
These are the appliances I own, which meant I was able to check the cooking temperatures and times by actually cooking each of the dishes mentioned.
For each dish, I added 15 minutes of preheating time for the dishes cooked in the oven.
While some sources recommend preheating your air fryer in the same way (if for slightly less time), I don’t think it’s entirely necessary. For that reason, I haven’t factored in preheating time for the air fryer dishes.
Average-sized chicken breast
Cooking temperature: 200°C
Cost to cook in the oven: ~43p
Cost to cook in the air fryer: ~24p
Header | Oven | Air fryer |
|---|---|---|
Time to cook | 30 mins (+15 mins) | 24 mins |
Energy used | 1.20 kWh | 0.99 kWh |
Money spent | ~43p | ~24p |
The air-fried chicken breast came out a lot crispier and generally looked more appetising than the chicken breast cooked in the oven.
And while the 24-minute cooking time for the air-fried chicken gave me the exact results I’d hoped for, 30 minutes in the oven didn’t feel like quite long enough for the other chicken breast. It was fully cooked after 30 minutes at 200°C, but it wasn’t as crispy as I would have liked.
Best cooking results:
While they both did taste good, the air fryer wins for me on this one. And there were energy savings with the air fryer chicken too.
Cheapest method:
When you take into account the 15-minute preheating time and the extra six minutes needed to cook the chicken, this meant it cost approximately 19p less to air fry the chicken breast than to cook it in the oven.
Large baked potato
Cooking temperature: 200°C Cost to cook in the oven: ~72p Cost to cook in the air fryer: ~47p
Header | Oven | Air fryer |
|---|---|---|
Time to cook | 60 mins (+15 mins) | 48 mins |
Energy used | 3.0 kWh | 1.98 kWh |
Money spent | ~72p | ~47p |
Neither potato was quick to cook, with the oven potato taking an hour, and the air-fried potato taking 48 minutes (20% less time).
Both would have benefited from five or so minutes longer in order to achieve maximum fluffiness inside, but to be honest, I was starving by the point they each reached their allotted cooking time.
While the two baked potatoes looked pretty similar once cooked, the jacket on the air-fried potato was much crispier. They were both also fluffy enough to eat and enjoy, but the air-fried one was softer and fluffier.
It’s worth noting that I skipped a step for this cooking test that would have made the overall cooking process quicker. For best results, I would usually pierce the potato a few times with a knife, then microwave it for 8-10 minutes.
This will soften the inside of the potato, meaning it’ll need far less time in the oven or air fryer (as little as a third of the time used to cook them without microwaving first).
Best cooking results:
When it comes to jacket potatoes, the air fryer takes the victory. The skin was crispier and the insides fluffier, resulting in an overall nicer tasting experience.
Cheapest method:
Not to mention, the air fryer cooked the potato 12 minutes quicker, resulting in an estimated saving of 25p.
Portion of roasted vegetables
Cooking temperature: 200°C Cost to cook in the oven: ~58p Cost to cook in the air fryer: ~36p
Header | Oven | Air fryer |
|---|---|---|
Time to cook | 45 mins (+15 mins) | 36 mins |
Energy used | 2.4 kWh | 1.48 kWh |
Money spent | ~58p | ~36p |
In perhaps the biggest surprise of this experiment, the roast veg was the only dish out of the three that came out far better in the oven than the air fryer.
I cooked both portions of vegetables at 180°C and reduced the oven cooking time by 20% to find the ideal air frying time (or, what I thought was the ideal air frying time).
Best cooking results:
The air-fried carrots and parsnips were incredibly dehydrated and not particularly enjoyable to eat. While the flavour was good, the texture was a little sinewy.
To add insult to injury, when I usually oven-roast carrots and parsnips for a roast dinner, I like to add a maple and mustard glaze for the last 10 or so minutes of cooking. I really didn’t fancy spending my Wednesday afternoon scrubbing maple syrup-soaked air fryer baskets, so I skipped this step. The result? Pretty dry and flavourless veg. You can see from the pictures how much more appetising the oven-cooked portion looks.
Cheapest method:
Air-frying the vegetables was undeniably cheaper than oven-roasting them, saving me approximately 22p. In fact, I think 36 minutes was too long. I could probably have reduced the cooking time further, saving me even more.
In this instance though, I think I’d rather spend the extra 22p (or indeed more than this) to be able to enjoy those succulent oven-cooked carrots and parsnips (and not have to eat the air-fried ones).
Another important factor to consider is that roasted carrots and parsnips are often cooked as part of a roast dinner (that’s the only time I personally cook them).
You might already be using your oven to cook other things such as meat or potatoes, so you won’t actually be using any extra energy if you chuck your veg in with those.
Say you're cooking a 1kg chicken, which might take an hour at 200°C. After 15 minutes of cooking, you could add your carrots and parsnips to the same tray as your chicken (to cook for 45 minutes).
Your roast potatoes could then be put in a separate tray on the other shelf for the last half hour.
This hour of cooking (plus 15 minutes of preheating time), would use around 2.4 kWh of energy for my Indesit oven, which would cost approximately 58p in total.
If I cooked the veg in my air fryer instead, that would be an extra 36p spent powering my air fryer, on top of the 58p I'm already spending to cook the chicken and potatoes.
The verdict
The air fryer was the cheaper method for all of the dishes I cooked, although it didn’t always produce the best results.
I saved approximately 66p in total by cooking my three dishes in the air fryer. These are savings that can really add up with repeated use, especially for those with larger families than mine.
We asked our colleagues at TopCashback what they thought. Paul found that not only is his air fryer saving him money, but it also produces better cooking results, especially for chips.
And while Charlie found the cooking results to be ‘pretty much the same’ as when cooking in the oven, he also told us: ‘I like how cheap they are to run and the fact no oil is needed is pretty cool.’
Ninja Foodi FlexDrawer AF500UK 10.4L air fryer (the model used for this experiment)
But how much value you get out of your air fryer will depend on the types of foods you’re cooking. An air fryer is excellent at cooking things that will crisp up nicely, like chips, roast potatoes, meats and cauliflower.
Wetter foods, on the other hand, aren’t such great choices. These include anything with a sauce, pasta, rice and leafy veg. I’m tempted to add parsnips and carrots to that list, as in future I’ll be avoiding cooking fresh veg in the air fryer. That’s not to say you can’t cook up nice and crispy parsnips and carrots from frozen though.
What you can cook in your air fryer also depends on the capacity of your appliance. Meg at TopCashback says: ‘We cook most things in the air fryer aside from the bigger things like a whole chicken or pizza.’
Other things that make air fryers a smart choice
As our experiment has shown, investing in an energy-efficient air fryer can help you save money by reducing your household’s wasted energy. But there are other reasons why you might want to buy an air fryer if you haven’t already got one…
Quick meals and small portions
Air fryers come in a wide range of sizes, and any size air fryer can be quick to cook a small amount of food. Savoury snacks like french fries, chicken wings, chicken nuggets, roast potatoes and chunky chips all taste great when air-fried. You’ll get a better crisp than you would if you cooked them in the oven, despite it taking less time and a lower temperature to cook.
When we asked our colleagues about their favourite things to cook in their air fryer, burgers reigned supreme for Meg, Charlie preferred chips, and Paul rated chicken stuffed with red pesto and mozzarella.
Cooking for small households
Air fryer ovens are particularly handy for small households. If you live alone or with one or two other people, an air fryer can help you cut down on how often you use your gas or electric oven. If you’re really smart with how you cook, you might be able to stop using your oven entirely.
This was the case for all three of the people we chatted to, with Paul telling us: ‘We rarely use the oven and hob now. The air fryer is amazing and so many foods now have the air fryer instructions on the back of the packet.’
Meg agrees: ‘Since getting an air fryer we barely use the oven,’ and Charlie goes one step further: ‘My oven sits in the dust. I wish I could remove my oven from my kitchen. What's even the point anymore?’
Cook foods at different temperatures
With a dual-zone air fryer like the Ninja Foodi, you can cook two different foods at different temperatures at the same time – something a conventional oven can’t do.
Some Ninja air fryers even allow you to sync up your cooking times, which means it will delay the start time of one drawer so both drawers of food finish cooking at the same time.
They’re really convenient
As well as being quicker to cook food, air fryers are really simple to use. Meg at TopCashback says: ‘The best thing about an air fryer is the convenience. It takes significantly less time to cook things than in the oven.’
Less washing-up time
In theory, air frying requires less washing up than oven cooking. Cleaning the interior of an oven is also a much bigger task than washing up a removable air fryer basket, even if you do have to do it less often.
You also won’t have any large trays to cram into the dishwasher or handwash in the sink. Some air fryer components (such as the drawer and bottom trays) can even be dish-washed.
However, we’d suggest using the dishwasher sparingly for air fryer parts, as it can cause damage over time. Washing in the sink is just as good, although you may find greasier foods leave a nasty residue that’s hard to remove.
Charlie isn’t a fan of the washing up involved when cooking with an air fryer: ‘I don't like that you have to clean them after every use. Pretty annoying. I wouldn't clean the inside of my oven after every use.’
Achieving a deep-fried taste
There are some amazing air fryer recipes out there, including doughnuts, brownies and even cheesecakes. Some of these things can be cooked in an oven, but you’re unlikely to get results quite as delicious.
When traditional ovens make a better cooking method
While air fryers in general are often more energy-efficient and cost-effective than built-in ovens, there are instances where this might not be the case.
For starters, the make, model and age of your appliances will make a difference. If you’ve got a brand-new 3.6 kW Bosch oven and a five-year-old 1 kW paddle air fryer, your oven is probably going to be both more efficient and cost-effective. Here are a few more things to consider.
Cooking for large families
The more mouths you’re feeding, the higher the chance you’ll have more use for your traditional oven than an air fryer.
Right now, the highest-capacity basket air fryer for use at home is actually the same model we ran the above experiment with. The Ninja Foodi FlexDrawer AF500UK Dual Air Fryer has a capacity of 10.4 litres, making it roomy enough to cook an entire roast chicken or leg of lamb.
The average capacity of an oven, on the other hand, is 60 litres – considerably more than the average air fryer. The Indesit oven used in the experiment above has a 66-litre capacity.
Having a large family doesn’t mean an air fryer can’t work for you, but you’ll probably want to invest in a higher-capacity model. You may also find you still rely on your oven for some of your cooking. While you might be able to cook a whole chicken in your air fryer, there won’t be room left for your roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings and veg.
Batch cooking
Much like those with larger families, you may also prefer ovens if you like to batch cook a large quantity of food at once.
While you can batch cook multiple portions of the same dish in your air fryer, you might not find it so easy to cook multiple different dishes at the same time. The more food you can batch cook in one go, the less energy you’ll use, and the more money you may save. This could make oven cooking a cheaper means of batch cooking than air frying.
Depending on make, model and size, your oven (or even a slow cooker) may fit more food than an air fryer, allowing you to cook more food quickly. Even better, teaming up an air fryer, oven and/or slow cooker can enable you to cook a whole range of different dishes, at various temperatures, all at once.
Cooking big meals
As well as big families and fans of batch-cooking, air fryers won't always be the best option for larger, more complicated meals. With a traditional oven, you can use both shelves to cook more food at once.
Take your Sunday roast as an example, which might include a joint of meat, potatoes, vegetables, Yorkshire puddings and more. You['d need an industrial air fryer to be able to cook all of those things at once, and at each of their required temperatures.
Add our failed air-fried veg to the mix, and it's easy to see why we prefer to cook roast dinners in the oven.
They can take up a lot of space
While many air fryers are advertised as being ‘space saving’, they are designed to sit on your countertop, so they undeniably take up a bit of space.
Some air fryers are bigger and bulkier than others, which could be off-putting if you don’t have much space to begin with. Charlie is one of these people: ‘I don't like how big and clunky they are. Mine takes up a fair bit of room in my tiny kitchen.’
Air fryers: a recipe for savings
So, are air fryers worth it? We certainly think so, but it does depend on what you’re cooking.
Hopefully, our experiment has shown that this trendy cooking method can help you use less energy while still enjoying good food. There are so many stylish models to choose from that don’t take up too much counter space, and many also have parts that are dishwasher safe.
Some final thoughts from our TopCashback colleagues:
Paul: ‘I bought a Ninja air fryer in the Black Friday sales. I paid £145 and it’s money well spent.’
Meg: ‘I definitely think that the air fryer we got is worth the money as a huge range of things can be cooked in it.’
Charlie: ‘My air fryer was really cheap and it’s really good.’
From baked goods like brownies and sponge cake to a whole chicken with crispy skin, air-fried food is a healthy alternative that can save you money by reducing your energy consumption.
Because smaller models will have a limited capacity, if you have a bigger household, you might not find that an air fryer is right for you. If you do want to go ahead and buy one, it’s probably worth investing in a larger air fryer like the Ninja Foodi.
Don’t forget you can save money on your air fryer purchase when you take advantage of our £15 TopCashback sign-up bonus and then buy your air fryer from one of our retailers.
They’re not the perfect cooking method for everyone, so you’ll want to weigh up your household size and general cooking habits before committing to your purchase.
Have you bought an air fryer? Do you prefer it to cooking food in your oven? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Air fryers are an efficient way to cook as they use less power to cook in a small capacity fan oven. Especially if used in conjunction with a microwave oven e.g. jacket potatoe quick cook in microwave, crisp up in air fryer, makes perfect finish in combined shorter time than in an oven alone.
Hi Raphael,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I agree with you about using two methods to cook a jacket potato – I think the potato I cooked for this test would have turned out even better if it had been microwaved first!
~ Becca
Air fryers are really convenient, cook small batches of food faster for less cost, need less or no preheating time, and work well on anything needing less than 200 degrees C to cook.
However, the tray/rotisserie ones can be a nightmare to clean, particularly the front door glass (which on my model means dismantling the door assembly), and unless you have a high powered one they struggle with items like fresh Pizza or triple cooked chips needing temperatures of 210-230 degrees c.
We use ours for quick family meals, to reheat or warm, and as an oven for all the side dished a good meal needs, It is used every day without fail, ad is still going strong after 2 years, One of the best, if not the best, kitchen gadgets I have ever bought.
Thanks for sharing, Martin!
You’re right about air fryers sometimes being a nightmare to clean! I have a traditional basket-style air fryer and struggle to remove the grease from that sometimes, so can only imagine how tricky it is to clean a rotisserie air fryer!
Glad you’re finding yours a helpful addition to your kitchen though 🙂
~ Becca
Although more economical, I still prefer my oven. If I put it on I can usually cook 2 meals plus dessert and even a loaf of bread. Air fyers are useful for baked potatoes, and cooking for 1 person. But if you haven't got 2 drawers, then the oven is more useful. I wasn't impressed with air fryer frozen pasties or frozen roast potatoes. Stuffed mushrooms aren't very good either. So although a useful tool for some foods, I still prefer my oven for better results of baked foods. I didn't find it economical if you have to cook for more than 15 minutes at 200C
Hi Dianne,
You make a very valid point! Air fryers can be great, but they’re not the best method in all instances, especially when you have a few different things to cook at the same time.
~ Becca
I absolutely love my air fryer. I have two. I hardly use the oven. Food cooks quicker, saving money
We cook with an Air Fryer all the time, the kitchen is small and no room for a free standing cooker. We have found it better to use, it seals in the moisture and the cleaning is a whole lot easier than a conventional oven, but the top tip is, you don't have to warm the air fryer first before you put the food into it, as you do with a conventional oven, so you don't waste energy bringing it up to Temperature because its an instant heat,
200C is quite the average to use, mine is a cheaper brand so it only goes to 200C, and it has two drawers, one bigger than the other. But since having these 2 drawers, we found the smaller one doesn't have the same heat output, it says its 200C but it doesn't cook as well, its only for tiny portions so its a waste of space tbh.
I urred and ahhed about getting one, but we have all the smaller appliances in the kitchen now on a shelf stacking rack, the air fryer being at the bottom with lots of space around it, the microwave above it and the steamer on the top rung, as we don't use it all the time, so with the combination of both and a top counter pan boiler, it works very easily and the price of cooking is a lot cheaper using all the appliances at sometime through the meal.
Roast veggies in the air fryer are great BUT root veggies can come out hard and uncooked, you do have to have everything the same size or you get a mishmash of cooked and uncooked veg.
Chicken is brililant being cooked in the air fryer, its shorter time and it always comes out with a really crispy skin. The conventional oven comes out with a mediocre skin.
Cleaning is easier, you can clean it as you go, with the conventional over, its one massive clean of an hour or so and then wait to take the coating of the oven cleaner off, where as with the air fryer you put the metal bowls straight into a bowl of soapy water, give it a light wipe around and put it back in, its done!
After having this experimental cheaper air fryer than most, i believe its a Tower one, and cost £79.99 I wouldn't go back to a conventional oven, but next time when this one goes pop i'll buy a higher branded one that the temperature goes up as high as 240C and see how good that is.
We have cooked Pizza in the air fryer and steamed puddings, they all come out great.
Hi Kim,
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts on air fryers with us. I agree with you on the roast root veg – I really struggled to get an even cook when I air-fried those carrots and parsnips! The oven-cooked ones turned out far better for me.
Very smart move to stick to a more affordable air fryer first to see how you got on. And I’m glad to hear you’re finding the air fryer you have useful enough that you’d consider upgrading at a later date. I’d definitely recommend the Ninja Foodi FlexDrawer!
~ Becca
We now have 3 air fryers in use, 2 T home and one in our static caravan.We initially brought one of the early single draw versions and where very pleased with the limited things that it cooked. Along with the reduction in cooking time and energy costs. So when to the oven type came out we bought one of them as well. Within weeks we found that we didn't need to use our cooker, things cooked quicker and very much cheaper. We have just upgraded our single draw unit for a very nice new Ninja two drawer unit. So the saving in both time and money continue. If you haven't got one, get one, but don't just get the small one
Hi Brian,
That’s very sound advice. It seems air fryers can be a great alternative to ovens, but only if they have the capacity to cook the things you’d usually use your oven for. Glad you’re finding your three air fryers helpful!
~ Becca
I have two airfyers, both Ninjas, the 11 in 1 and the Flexi. I love both and have very rarely used my oven which is now unplugged! They compliment each other, and little tricks that you learn along the way ensure perfect cooking. Mistakes have been made, but very few. Steam airfrying a joint keeps the meat beautifully moist. My partner had to eat his words when I cooked a pork loin joint in the 11 in 1 using that method. Best he'd ever had! Max crisp in the Flexi is a very useful option for chips almost at the end of the cooking time. Carrot cake also was eaten with great enjoyment.
Hi Sandie,
Now that’s a smart move – two air fryers! I think I might need to try out a carrot cake recipe sometime too…
~ Becca
My “Air Fryer “ cost £8.00 from one of my local Charity shops!
Why does anyone want to buy from anyone else?