The 2 best small air fryers from 2025, tested and checked

Air Fryers have become a significant device in many of our kitchens – they are a player for frozen and previously fried food. We are Air Freyer enthusiasts and I tested them in detail. Not only are they well suited for cooking and recovering traditionally fried food, but they also roast perfectly. Air roast bacon Come out with fewer chaos and air fryers can cook excellently Baked potatoes (without having to switch on the oven for an hour)!

The disadvantage? Some models are large and bulky and make them less ideal for small households and kitchens with a limited meter or storage room. I have tested six popular small air fryers with a capacity of four liters or less to find models that quickly produced evenly crispy food.

The winners at a glance

Instant Pot is the winner in our review of the standard size Air fryers. This smaller version cooked the fastest and produced crispy fries and golden wings in 30 minutes after only 14 minutes. The dainty two-liter basket was flatter than some other models and brought the food closer to the heat source. There was also a wide area for even cooking. It has a dial in to control the digital control panel and four cooking settings as well as a “Flip memory” setting.

This air fryer has a flat basket with a wide cooking area. It brown fries and cooked juicy wings. It has a window and a light to look at the food while it boils, and the digital panel easily makes the cooking time easier.

The tests

• Setup test: I washed and dried the basket and the crispy rack of every small air roast. I carried out a test run on each model by switching it on at 400 ° F for five minutes so that you could cool back to room temperature before starting the tests.
• Frozen fries test: test: I cooked half a pound of fries in the air fryers with larger baskets. I cooked six ounces fries in the smaller one Cosori Air Fry 2.1 Qt and almost four ounces in the Nostalgia Personal Air Frittyer 1-liter. I cooked every batch for 15 minutes and shook the basket once seven minutes after the cooking time.
• Chicken wing test: I did a pound of chicken wings in every small air fryer. I threw the wings into a tablespoon of oil, salt and pepper before I ordered them in the basket of the air roast. For the smaller baskets I put drumettes against the basket walls. I cooked the wings for 12 minutes, turned it over and cooked it for 12 minutes before I turned it over again. I then grew it for another six minutes.
• Cleaning test: After use, I washed the baskets and crisis frames of each model by hand. Then I directed the banging racks of all models through the dishwasher on the upper rack.

What we learned

What size has a small air roast?

The small air fryers that I tested were all under four liters, with the smallest only one liter and the largest 2.6 liters. All of them were basket style, with a removable basket with a handle for simple tremors and included a crisis plate to increase the food and enable air circulation. The crisis plates were all perforations to enable air flow and grooves to channel fat. All crisis plates showed rubberized edges and helped them to remain classified. This just made it to throw fries and wings into a dish without the plate loosening.

The basket shape and size was important

My winning models that Instant Pot Vortex 2qt Mini Air Fryer And Cuisinart Air Fry oven, 2.6-qtBoth showed square baskets with a wide surface. This reduced the funding and enabled air flow, which created both the fries and the wings even crispy. Both models produced half a pound of crispy fries and a fourth pound of golden wings.

Round basket or those that were larger than wide, like that Nostalgia Personal Air Frittyer 1-liter And Cosori Air Fry 2.1 QtHad a smaller surface. They kept less than half a pound of fries and less than a pound of wing. These models also had the smallest footprint of the bunch, but had the slightest amount of food and took longer to cook.

Small details had great effects

Design and small details showed some air fryers: characteristics like rubberized edges on the crisis plates may seem low, but they helped prevent them from pouring frost and taking food on a plate (with fries).

The basket depth and width also came into play, with short and wide baskets that kept more food with less chance of high and narrow baskets. Likewise, baskets that were too flat did not excellently performed in the circulation air, which led to less brownish and noticeably longer cooking times. In addition, digital panels with clearly labeled buttons were easier to use than fully analog models.

The criteria: what you should look for in a small air fryer

A small air fryer should have a compact design, but still serve at least one or two people. The best small air fryers had wide cooking surfaces that efficiently and evenly crispy and tanned food. Find models with a crisis plate that rubberized so that you do not slide or slide when the basket is shaken. Both winning models also had a “flip memory” function with a warning from the cooking time. A display window is a beautiful but unnecessary function.

Our favorite -small air fryers

What we liked: This air fryer made the uniformly cooked and consistently crispy fries and wings in at least the slightest time. After 14 minutes, fries were even golden and crispy and wings in 30 minutes. It has a wide, square basket and a digital panel with a button for easy adjustment of time and temperature, just like the larger siblings, the immediate Vortex plus 6-in-1 air fryer, the winner of our review to larger air fryers.

What we didn’t like: Like its larger siblings, it has an automatic preheating function that gives the cooking process for a few minutes. I tested it as prompted and by adding the food from the start (in front of the pre -heat function) and led both to evenly cooked food. In principle, preheating is not necessary; It only cooks a little faster than if it is added from the start.

Key specifications

• Specified capacity: 2 liters
• Dimensions: 11.26 x 9.02 x 11.73 inches
• Temperature range: 120 ° F-400 ° F.
• Time area: 1-60 minutes
• type: Basket
• Settings/presets: Air roast, roast, bake, warm up
• guarantee: 1 year

What we liked: This air fryer cooked evenly and showed a wide, square cooking basket. It also contains a “flip reminder” setting. This was the only small air fryer that I tested with a viewing window. This is ideal to check the bone without having to open the air fryer. The control panel even has a “light” setting with an automatic timer so that you can see the fryer while cooking. This air fryer produced crispy and golden food.

What we didn’t like: While this small air fryer chips cooked into a crispy crispiness and wings into a gold crunch, it took a few minutes for the air to reach fried perfection as the instant pot.

Key specifications

• Specified capacity: 2.6 liters
• Dimensions: 13 x 13 x 8 inches
• Temperature range: 400 ° F max.
• Time area: Up to 60 minutes
• Type: Basket
• Settings/presets: Air roast, roast, bake, warm up
• Guarantee: 3 years

The competition

Faqs

How much can you fit in a small air fryer?

Small air fryers that we tested made one or two portions. We tested whether the air fryers would hold eight ounces fries and a pound of chicken wings.

How many people is a small air roast good?

Small air fryers are good for one or two people. If you want to serve more people, read our evaluation of Standard size air fryers.

How do you clean a small air fryer?

The basket and the crisis plate of all models we test are dishwasher on the upper rack. All models were also cleaned slightly with hot, soap water and a gentle scrub.

Why we are experts

• Cindy Rahe is a baker, recipe developer, writer and photographer with over a decade experience.
• She wrote recipes for Betty Crocker and simply recipes as well as Cook Smarts.
• For this overview, Cindy tested six small air fryers by cooking many frozen fries and wings.