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The 6 Best Air Fryer Toaster Ovens of 2023

Jan 15, 2024

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Today's air fryers come in two varieties: the traditional pod-shaped air fryers, prominently featured in our best air fryer guide, and air fryer toaster ovens. The latter are essentially convection toaster ovens, which have been around for decades, but marketed under the trendy "air fryer" name. Air fryer toaster ovens tend to have more features and a larger capacity than their pod counterparts.

From the best slow cooker to the best Instant Pot, I've tested kitchen appliances professionally for 5 years. For this guide, I talked to experts and cooked pizza, chicken, and French fries in 17 appliances to find the best for different uses and price points. Below are our top picks and how we tested to find the best air fryer toaster oven on the market.

Learn more about how Insider Reviews tests and researches kitchen products.

Best overall: Oster Digital Air Fryer Oven with RapidCrisp - See at Home DepotThe Oster Digital Air Fryer Oven excelled in all of our tests, cooking delicious food at a rapid pace.

Best budget: Cosori Air Fryer Toaster Oven - See at AmazonThe Cosori Air Fryer Toaster Oven does an outstanding job making frozen fries and comes with useful extras like a rotisserie basket.

Best for beginners: Tovala Smart Oven - See at AmazonThe Tovala Smart Oven scans items to automatically set the time and temperature for optimal results, features intuitive controls, and connects to your phone.

Best compact: Ninja SP101 Digital Air Fry Countertop Oven - See at AmazonThe Ninja Digital Air Fry Oven takes up minimal space, but still has enough room to accommodate a 13-inch pizza.

Best splurge: Ninja Foodi XL Pro Air Fry Oven - See at AmazonThe Ninja Foodi XL Pro maintains accurate temperatures and has an attractive design that features a large window and interior light.

Best versatile: Anova Precision Oven - See at AnovaYou can bake, toast, air fry, and sous vide in the Anova Precision Oven, all while controlling and monitoring the internal temperature of your food using your phone.

Pros: Preheats and cooks food quickly, has several useful presets, stays at a consistent temperature, easy to use and clean

Cons: No interior light, runs hot

None of the ovens we tested produced perfectly even results, but the Oster Digital Air Fryer Oven came out on top when we averaged all our test results. We made evenly cooked, flavorful fries in 12 minutes, pizza in 9 minutes, and a whole chicken in 1 hour and 7 minutes. All three tasted great, though the pizza and chicken could have been more evenly cooked.

The Oster ran a little hot in our temperature variance test, averaging 366 degrees Fahrenheit instead of the set 350. However, it maintained a consistent temperature, only ever varying from 366 by 3 degrees. Plus, it preheated quickly: it reached 400 degrees in under 6 minutes.

The $150 Oster Air Fryer Oven only comes with the basics, like an air fry basket and baking pan, but it has useful presets, including dehydration and baking. It also features a crumb tray and dishwasher-safe parts to speed up cleaning. The model I tested doesn't have an interior light. If that feature is a deal breaker, Oster makes a virtually identical model with one.

The bottom line is the best air fryer toaster oven cooks food quickly, evenly, and deliciously. The Oster was the best, or among the best, in all of these areas. While it may lack the extras and features of more expensive models, it performed the best in what matters most: speed and quality.

Pros: Did the best job making fries, takes up minimal counter space, comes with useful accessories and presets, preheats quickly, close-to-accurate temperatures, interior light

Cons: Only fits pizzas up to 9 inches in diameter, didn't cook chicken evenly, higher than average temperature variance

The performance of the Cosori 13-Quart Air Fryer Toaster Oven rivaled that of our top pick. However, it lost points because the small interior only fits pizzas up to 9 inches in diameter, smaller than most frozen pizzas, and it had a higher than average temperature variance.

The boxy design doesn't take up much space on your counter, though it isn't small enough to fall into the "compact" category. And, at $110, it barely falls into the "budget" category. Yet, it performed much better than the three cheaper models we tested.

The Cosori 13-Quart has a rotisserie basket that helped it produce the best fries in our tests. Unfortunately, the basket's opening is too small to fit a chicken, so we cooked one in the baking pan. The skin was burnt on top when the chicken reached a safe internal temperature, but the meat underneath was flavorful and moist. Pizza came out quickly and more evenly cooked.

Preheating was fast, taking under 5 minutes to reach 350 degrees and 7 minutes to achieve 425. The temperature variance was higher than most models in our tests, but still within reason. It averaged 7 degrees less than the set point and didn't vary by more than 6 degrees higher or lower.

If you're looking for an even cheaper toaster oven and don't mind sacrificing performance, the Black+Decker Crisp 'N Bake Air Fry Toaster Oven is about half the price. However, we didn't like that it doesn't have an oven light, and you can't adjust the temperature in air fryer mode.

Pros: Can scan some grocery items to automatically set the time and temperature, intuitive controls, app connectivity, produced delicious food, interior light

Cons: Runs hot, cooked slowly and unevenly

The Tovala Smart Oven is great for beginners because you can scan groceries from brands like Ore-Ida, Pillsbury, and Amy's. The oven automatically sets the right time and temperature for the best results. Tovala also offers a meal delivery service with over 30 options each week that are restaurant-quality and easy to prepare.

When cooking manually, the presets, time, and temperature are clearly labeled and easily adjusted. You can also just choose one of the cooking programs in the Tovala app (available on iOS and Android.) The app has hundreds of recipes ranging from the basics, like bacon and chicken wings, to fancier fare, such as Balsamic Glazed Chicken Thighs with Caprese Salad. The app automatically sets the Tovala oven once you reach the cooking phase of the step-by-step instructions.

The biggest negative with the $150 Tovala Smart Oven was it preheated and cooked slower than average. Plus, it ran hot in our temperature variance test, about 28 degrees above the set point, varying by about 4 degrees from its average of 378.

Still, the food the Tovala produced was delicious, though it could have been more evenly cooked. Fries were its strong suit. It was among the fastest to reach golden-brown goodness. The chicken turned out moist and flavorful, though the skin was burnt in spots.

Pros: Takes up minimal space while still fitting a 13-inch pizza, easy to clean and use, interior light, preheats quickly, did a great job of cooking pizza, maintains consistent temperatures

Cons: Too narrow to fit a chicken, runs hot

The Ninja Digital Air Fry Countertop Oven has a low-profile design allowing it to fit tight spaces. You can even store it vertically to save counter space. Despite its small size, it can accommodate the largest pizza (13 inches) compared to our other top picks. The bottom opens up to more easily clean the interior.

The Ninja Countertop did the best in our preheating tests, reaching 425 degrees in just over 4 minutes. In the temperature variance test, it maintained a consistent temperature, within a degree or two of 389. Unfortunately, this was much hotter than the 350 we set it to.

Another shortcoming is that it's too narrow to fit a whole chicken, so we couldn't perform that test. However, it was the fastest to cook pizza (7 minutes), which came out evenly browned and crispy. It did less well with frozen fries, but was still in the middle of the pack for speed and quality. Overall, it's a good option if you want a multifunctional small appliance without giving up a lot of countertop real estate.

Pros: Comes with useful extras and presets, attractive design with large front window and interior light, maintains consistent and accurate temperature, cooked chicken and frozen fries evenly

Cons: Preheats slowly, takes up a lot of space, expensive

The Ninja Foodi XL Pro Air Fry Oven looks good on any kitchen counter. The intuitive controls are built into the handle which frees up space for the large front window. Combined with the interior light, you can easily watch your food cook.

Yet, it is much more than just the striking design. The Ninja XL performed the best in our temperature variance test, coming the closest to maintaining the 350-degree set point. It also produced perfectly cooked chicken in an hour and 10 minutes, on the fast end of the fryers we tested. Fries also came out evenly cooked and tasty with an average cooking time. The evenness and speed with which the pizza cooked were also middle-of-the-pack.

It has an extra wire rack and is spacious enough to cook two dishes or pizzas simultaneously. I also like the useful presets, including dehydration. The $300 Ninja does take a while to preheat: it took over 9 minutes to reach 400 degrees and nearly 8 minutes to reach 350.

Our runner-up splurge pick is the $550 Breville Joule Oven Air Fryer Pro. It performed nearly as well as the Ninja Foodi XL Pro and features app connectivity. However, it's more expensive, takes even longer to preheat, and doesn't cook chicken as well.

Pros: App connectivity, probe thermometer, sous vide capabilities, maintains consistent temperatures, cooked chicken and pizza evenly, interior light

Cons: Preheats slowly, did poorly making fries, hard to use and clean

I've been using the $600 Anova Precision Oven for two years. I mainly use it to sous vide, but it does everything a standard toaster oven can, including air frying, baking, dehydrating, and proofing. With the Anova Oven app, you control the oven from anywhere, which came in handy when I wanted to preheat the oven from the grocery store.

The Anova Precision Oven did well in our temperature variance test. While it ran about 14 degrees cooler than the target temperature of 350, it only varied from that temp by 2 degrees over the course of two hours.

Of all the ovens we tested, the Anova did the best and quickest job of air-frying chicken, producing an evenly cooked and flavorful bird in just 57 minutes. It also did well making evenly cooked pizza, though it took longer than most of the units we tested. Unfortunately, it struggled with fries, taking 24 minutes and cooking them unevenly.

The Anova took the longest time to preheat and often fell short of the target temperature. It's also hard to set up and clean. If you use the sous vide function, you'll need to descale the appliance when the app notifies you to.

The best way to save money when shopping for the best air fryer toaster oven is to know what features you want and what you can do without. Here are some factors to consider:

Size: Since many of the ovens are a pain to move around, you'll want a unit that fits easily on your counter. We provide exterior and interior dimensions of all our picks so you can check for a perfect fit. The internal dimensions are important because they help determine if you can fit your favorite bakeware or how large of a pizza you can make.

Controls: No one wants to consult a user manual while cooking, so look for models with intuitive controls. Some air fryer toaster ovens feature dials, which are easy to set, but don't provide precise adjustments. Other units have digital touchscreen controls, which may involve pressing several buttons to get to the time and temp you want.

Functions: Several picks in this guide feature dehydration and proofing functions. These are great if you'll use them, but they may not be worth the additional cost if you won't. Similarly, toaster ovens often have preset buttons for fries, pizza, and other common items. These might be useful for some, but in my experience, they don't guarantee your food will be cooked well.

Racks and accessories: At minimum, all toaster ovens should have a rack, crumb tray, and baking pan. Air fryer toaster ovens tend to have an air fryer basket, which promotes airflow around your food items for even browning. Some other common accessories that may come in handy are pizza pans and stones, roasting racks, extra wire racks and baking pans, and more. You can always buy these extras separately.

I put the air fryer toaster ovens in this guide through several objective tests, similar to how I tested the best air fryers. When testing, the main factors to consider are how well it cooks various foods, how quickly it preheats, and temperature consistency and accuracy.

Ease of use: I time how long it takes to set up the air fryer toaster oven and note if I need the instructions or if any steps make it particularly hard or easy. Units with interior lights got extra points because they make it easier to monitor your food. Generally, the toaster ovens with WiFi connectivity took longer to set up and were harder to use.

Temperature variance: For recipes and consistent results, you want the temperature to remain close to what you set it for. I set each unit to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and took temperature readings every 15 minutes for 2 hours. Then, I calculated the average and deviation of the readings. Units received high scores if they maintained a temperature within 15 degrees of the target temperature.

Temperature variance

Minimum temperature

Maximum temperature

Average temperature

Difference from target

Oster with RapidCrisp

363

369

366

16

Cosori 13-Quart

340

349

343

-7

Tovala

374

380

378

28

Ninja SP101

387

390

389

39

Ninja Foodi XL Pro

349

352

351

1

Anova Precision

334

338

336

-14

Preheating: Air fryer toaster ovens preheat faster than your standard oven. To see which models preheated the fastest, I timed how long they took to preheat to 350, 400, and 425 degrees in separate tests. Most reached 350 in under 8 minutes and only needed a minute more to reach 425.

Cooking performance:

Whole chicken: I used a recipe from "Toaster Oven Takeover" to cook 4-to-5-pound chickens in each unit. I used the ThermoWorks Dot leave-in probe thermometer to gauge when the internal temperature reached a safe 165 degrees. I evaluated how long the chicken took, how evenly cooked it was, and how it tasted.

Samantha Erb, the creator of Everyday Family Cooking, said air fryer toaster ovens are worth it when you cooking for a group because the spacious interior allows you to cook large batches of food or several items at once.

Traditional air fryers have a "pod" design with the controls on top and a removable drawer on the bottom half for the food. Air fryer toaster ovens have essentially the same design as a traditional toaster oven, featuring a front door that you open to insert your food. Unlike traditional the pod design, the oven versions have a window to monitor the cooking process and also tend to have a larger capacity. However, Erb noted that traditional air fryers usually cook faster.

Air frying relies on the Maillard reaction, which crisps or browns by blowing hot air over your food. Air fryer toaster ovens have a heating element and a fan for achieving this reaction and producing food that tastes almost like it was fried, though you'd never mistake the results for deep-fried food.

"Healthy" is a loaded term that means different things for different people. That said, air frying appliances create crispy food while using less cooking oil than if you were to use a deep fryer. Also, some accessories do not have a nonstick coating, a plus since some nonstick coatings can release microplastics.

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Best overall: Best budget: Best for beginners: Best compact: Best splurge: Best versatile: Pizza capacity: Rack positions: Interior dimensions: Exterior dimensions: Presets: Extras: Warranty: Pros: Cons: Pizza capacity: Rack positions: Interior dimensions: Exterior dimensions: Presets: Extras: Warranty: Pros: Cons: Pizza capacity: Rack positions: Interior dimensions: Exterior dimensions: Presets: Extras: Warranty: Pros: Cons: Pizza capacity: Rack positions: Interior dimensions: Exterior dimensions: Presets: Extras: Warranty: Pros: Cons: Pizza capacity: Rack positions: Interior dimensions: Exterior dimensions: Presets: Extras: Warranty: Pros: Cons: Pizza capacity: Rack positions: Interior dimensions: Exterior dimensions: Presets: Extras: Warranty: Pros: Cons: Size: Controls: Functions: Racks and accessories: Here are the main attributes we look for and how we test them: Ease of use: Temperature variance: Temperature variance Minimum temperature Maximum temperature Average temperature Difference from target Oster with RapidCrisp Cosori 13-Quart Tovala Ninja SP101 Ninja Foodi XL Pro Anova Precision Preheating: Cooking performance: Frozen french fries: Frozen pizza Whole chicken: Are air fryer toaster ovens worth it? What's the difference between an air fryer and an air fryer toaster oven? How do air fryer toaster ovens work? Are air fryer toaster ovens healthier?