Best Air Fryers in Australia 2026

An air fryer is a small convection oven with a fan hard enough to crisp a chip. That is the whole trick, and it explains both why the food works and why the marketing around it gets silly.

The decision that matters is not which brand. It is how much food you need to cook at once, because basket size determines whether the thing saves you time or adds a second round of cooking to every dinner.

Manufacturers quote total basket volume, which overstates what you can cook. Food needs air around it, so a 6L basket holds about 4L of food in a single layer. Stack it higher and you get steamed chicken with a crisp lid.

Work backwards from the meal you cook most. A tray of roast vegetables for four needs more surface area than a family sized portion of chips, and surface area is what the fan is working on.

Dual zone models split the drawer into two independent baskets with their own fans and timers. Ninja built the category around this and the reason is timing: chips need 20 minutes at 200C, salmon needs 12 at 180, and one basket forces you to cook them in sequence.

The cost is footprint and money. A dual zone unit takes about as much bench as a microwave, and each basket is smaller than the single drawer on a comparable model. If you cook one thing at a time, you are paying for a divider you will not use.

Bench space is worth costing out before you buy. Kitchen appliances that live on the bench get used and ones that live in a cupboard do not, which is the same reason a budget you can see beats one in a spreadsheet you close.

Every model below sells on Amazon Australia and clears 4.2 stars. Ratings and review counts were checked in March 2026.

Air fryer baskets carbonise. Fat drips through the mesh onto the drawer below, bakes at 200C, and turns into a brown film that soaks rather than wipes off. Owners who stop using their air fryer stopped because of this, not because the food disappointed them.

Two things reduce it. A drawer that separates from the basket lets you wash the messy half on its own, which is the argument for the Healthy Choice glass pot and the Instant Vortex. Baking paper cut to size catches the drip, though it has to sit under food or the fan lifts it into the element.

Check the coating too. Ceramic, as on the Cuisinart and the Ninja, tolerates a soft brush. Traditional non stick does not, and once it scratches the basket sheds. A model you can put in the dishwasher will outlast one you have to soak, for the plain reason that you will keep cleaning it.

This is the claim manufacturers make loudest and quantify least. The maths is simple enough to do yourself.

A 1800W air fryer running 20 minutes draws 0.6kWh. An electric oven at 2400W, with the ten minutes of preheat you cannot skip, draws about 1.6kWh for the same meal. At 35c per kilowatt hour that is 21c against 56c.

Cooking four dinners a week that way saves about $1.40, or $73 over a year. Real, and smaller than the marketing implies it. Your rate matters more than your appliance does, so it is worth checking what electricity costs in your state before you credit the air fryer with the saving.

Every product below sells on Amazon Australia and clears 4.2 stars from at least 150 buyers. Capacity figures come from manufacturer specifications, and running costs are calculated from published wattage rather than quoted from a brand. Ratings and review counts were captured in March 2026 and move over time, so treat them as a shape rather than a score.

We rank on review volume ahead of star average. A five star rating from eleven buyers tells you less than 4.5 from four thousand, and the listings with a handful of reviews are the ones that vanish a month later.

Properfolio earns a commission when you buy through a link on this page. That commission does not decide what ranks where, and no brand has paid for a position in this guide.

For one or two portions, yes. An air fryer reaches temperature in under a minute where an oven takes ten, and it heats a box the size of a shoebox rather than a cavity. For a Sunday roast the oven still wins on capacity and on browning a large joint.

They use less than deep frying, which is the comparison the brands are making when they claim 98 per cent less. Against oven baking, where you were already using a tablespoon, the difference is close to nothing. Buy one for speed and texture rather than for health claims.

6L in a single basket, or 7.6L split across two zones. Below 5L you will cook in rounds, which removes the time saving that made you want one.

If you cook a protein and a side together on weeknights, the second basket pays for itself in the first month. If you use an air fryer for chips and nothing else, put the money towards a larger single drawer instead.