Can an Air Fryer Replace a Toaster Oven? Here’s the Honest Answer After Testing Both Every Day

An air fryer can handle a surprising amount of what a toaster oven does, but it can’t fully replace one for everyday cooking — at least not without real trade-offs. Air fryers circulate heat fast and crisp things beautifully, but they’re cramped, they can’t toast a slice of bread evenly, and they fall short on anything that needs radiant heat from above and below simultaneously. If you cook a variety of things daily, you’ll probably miss the toaster oven more than you’d expect.

Safety First: Both air fryers and toaster ovens reach temperatures of 400°F or higher and have exterior surfaces that get dangerously hot during and after use. Always place either appliance at least 5 inches from walls and cabinets, never leave either running unattended with high-fat foods (grease fires are a real risk), and keep children away from the exterior casing. Unplug before cleaning and let cool completely — at least 30 minutes — before touching interior surfaces or wiping near heating elements.

Quick Facts: Air Fryer vs. Toaster Oven

• A standard basket air fryer holds roughly 4–6 quarts of cooking space; a mid-size toaster oven holds a 9×13 inch pan or larger.
• Air fryers preheat in about 3–5 minutes; toaster ovens take 5–10 minutes to stabilize at temperature.
• Toaster ovens can broil, bake, toast, and keep warm with radiant heat — air fryers rely almost entirely on convection.
• Combo units (like the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer or Ninja Foodi XL Pro) exist, but they cost more and take up more counter space than either standalone appliance.
• For a solo cook or couple, an air fryer covers maybe 70–80% of daily toaster oven tasks. For a family of four or more, that number drops closer to 50%.

What I Actually Tested (And How)

I ran both a Ninja Foodi 6-quart basket air fryer and a Cuisinart TOA-70 toaster oven air fryer side by side in my kitchen for about six weeks. The Cuisinart was my main appliance, the Ninja was supposed to be a replacement experiment. I cooked the same meals — reheated pizza, roasted broccoli, sheet pan salmon, frozen fries, toast, baked potatoes, a small batch of cookies — in each, back to back, and kept notes on time, texture, and cleanup.

The first week I was genuinely impressed with the Ninja. Chicken thighs at 400°F for 22 minutes came out with skin that crackled. Frozen fries were done in 14 minutes and were better than what I’d get in the toaster oven. I thought this might actually work. Then I tried to make toast.

Toasting in a basket air fryer is a mess. No browning element on top means you get pale bread with dry edges. I tried 350°F for 4 minutes, then 375°F for 5 minutes. The middle was fine; the top looked like it gave up. That was the first crack in the replacement theory.

Where the Air Fryer Genuinely Wins

Speed and crispiness. That’s the honest answer. If most of what you’re cooking is proteins, vegetables, frozen snacks, or leftovers that need to crisp back up — an air fryer is faster and produces a better texture than a toaster oven’s standard bake setting. For reheating food in a toaster oven, the toaster oven is still solid, but the air fryer gets leftover fries back to edible in about 6 minutes where the toaster oven takes 10–12 and still doesn’t nail it.

Specific wins from my testing:

• Chicken wings at 390°F for 25 minutes — genuinely restaurant-quality crisp.
• Roasted cauliflower florets at 400°F for 15 minutes — charred edges without steaming, which is what a crowded toaster oven pan often produces.
• Frozen egg rolls at 380°F for 10 minutes — no comparison, the air fryer wins easily.
• Reheating a slice of pizza at 375°F for 5 minutes — crust came back crispy, cheese re-melted properly.

Also: cleanup is faster with a basket air fryer. Pull the basket, wash it. Done. The toaster oven accumulates crumbs and splatter across a bigger interior and needs more regular attention to avoid smoke from burning grease.

Where the Toaster Oven Holds Its Ground

Capacity, first and foremost. A 9×13 inch baking pan slides into most mid-size toaster ovens. That means sheet pan dinners, a half-dozen cookies, or a whole small chicken. None of that fits in a 6-quart basket. Not even close. For a family cooking dinner, the toaster oven isn’t optional — it’s the only appliance that makes sense short of firing up the full oven.

Toasting and Broiling

Toaster ovens have top heating elements. That’s what makes toast brown on both sides, what gives a broiled salmon fillet that caramelized top, and what makes a gratin bubble properly. An air fryer without a top element simply can’t replicate this. I’ve seen workarounds suggested online (flip halfway, use foil tents, etc.) — I tried them, they’re annoying and produce inconsistent results. If you toast bread every morning, do not swap your toaster oven for a basket air fryer unless you hate yourself a little.

Baking

Cookies, small cakes, biscuits — these need even, ambient heat from all sides without a hurricane of hot air blasting directly at the surface. Air fryers run high-velocity convection. It can cause cakes to dome unevenly and cookies to spread weird. I baked a batch of oatmeal cookies in the Ninja at 325°F and they came out too dark on the bottom and underdone in the middle even after I dropped the temp to 300°F. The same recipe in the Cuisinart toaster oven at 350°F for 12 minutes? Perfect. Serious Eats notes this as a consistent difference in their appliance testing too.

Keeping Things Warm

Toaster ovens have a “keep warm” or “warm” setting, usually around 150–170°F. That’s useful. Dinner’s ready but someone’s still in the car? Slide the plate in. Air fryers don’t do this well — their minimum temperature is usually 200°F or higher, which keeps cooking food rather than just holding it.

The Models That Blur the Line

There’s a category of appliance that’s trying to be both, and honestly some of them do a decent job. These are toaster ovens with a built-in air fry mode — high-speed convection fans added to a traditional toaster oven chassis. If you’re debating between the two appliances, this might be your actual answer.

Model	Type	Capacity	Air Fry?	Toast?	Price Tier
Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro	Toaster oven / air fryer combo	Extra large (fits 13″ pizza)	Yes — excellent	Yes — excellent	Premium
Cuisinart TOA-70	Toaster oven / air fryer combo	Large (fits 12″ pizza)	Yes — very good	Yes — good	Mid-range
Ninja Foodi XL Pro Air Oven	Air fryer oven (no basket)	Large	Yes — excellent	Yes — decent	Mid-range
Hamilton Beach Sure-Crisp	Toaster oven / air fryer combo	Medium	Yes — acceptable	Yes — acceptable	Budget
Ninja Foodi 6-qt Basket	Standalone basket air fryer	Small (basket only)	Yes — excellent	No	Budget–mid

My honest verdict: if you’re starting from scratch and you want one appliance to do it all, the Cuisinart TOA-70 is the sweet spot. It’s not as big as the Breville, doesn’t have as many preset modes, but it air fries well, toasts properly, and doesn’t cost a fortune. The Breville is better in almost every measurable way, but you pay for it. The Hamilton Beach is fine for light use — I wouldn’t rely on it daily for a household of four. And the standalone basket air fryer, as much as I like it for certain tasks, doesn’t replace a toaster oven. It complements one.

For more ideas on what to look for in a compact appliance, see our roundup of the best mini toaster ovens if counter space is tight.

The Edge Case Most Articles Skip: Proofing Dough and Dehydrating

Here’s something I haven’t seen many comparison articles mention. Some toaster ovens — especially the better mid-range and premium models — can proof bread dough at very low temperatures, around 80–100°F. That’s a legitimate, useful function for anyone who bakes bread even occasionally. Air fryers generally can’t go that low. If you’re into home bread baking at all, this tips the scales toward the toaster oven hard.

On the flip side, some air fryers have a dehydrate setting (usually 130–160°F) that toaster ovens don’t typically offer. If you want to make beef jerky or dried fruit at home, the air fryer actually has an edge there. It’s not a common use case, but it’s real, and it’s the kind of thing that might matter to you specifically.

Also worth mentioning: cooking smell. Air fryers concentrate odors inside a smaller chamber and exhaust them through a small vent, which can make your kitchen smell pretty intensely of whatever you’re cooking. Toaster ovens dissipate heat more gradually and the smell is less concentrated. Small thing, but after six weeks of both I genuinely noticed it.

So, Which Should You Actually Get?

If you mostly cook for one or two people, rarely bake, and want faster reheating and crispier results on weeknight proteins and frozen foods — a basket air fryer plus a cheap 2-slot toaster for bread is probably enough. You’d be giving up capacity and broiling, but you might not miss them.

If you cook varied meals, feed more than two people, bake occasionally, or want one machine that genuinely does everything reasonably well — get a toaster oven with air fry capability. The Cuisinart TOA-70 or the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro depending on your budget. Either one keeps the toasting, adds the air frying, and doesn’t make you choose.

Don’t get the standalone basket air fryer as your only countertop cooking appliance unless your cooking is very limited in scope. You’ll feel the gaps pretty quickly.

And if you want to understand how heat output affects cooking performance between these appliances, it helps to understand how hot a toaster gets and how that compares to convection airflow. The numbers matter more than most people realize.

The Food Network’s air fryer guidance also has some useful pointers on adjusting time and temperature if you’re converting toaster oven recipes to air fryer use — worth a read if you’re making the switch.

The Bottom Line

No, a basket air fryer can’t replace a toaster oven for everyday cooking. Not entirely. It handles some tasks better — crispy things, fast reheating, small portions — but it fails at toasting, baking, broiling properly, and cooking in larger quantities. The appliance that actually replaces a toaster oven is a better toaster oven, one with an air fry mode built in.

I kept the Ninja. It lives next to the Cuisinart. Some nights I use both. But if I had to choose one? The toaster oven. Every time.

?Frequently Asked Questions

Can an air fryer toast bread the same way a toaster oven does?

No. Basket air fryers don’t have top heating elements, so bread gets dried out rather than properly toasted with browning on both sides. You can get close by using very high heat and flipping the bread halfway, but the results are inconsistent and honestly annoying to manage. If toast is a daily thing for you, keep the toaster oven.

Is an air fryer faster than a toaster oven?

For most tasks, yes — by about 20–30%. The high-speed convection in an air fryer moves heat to the food faster, and the smaller chamber preheats in 3–5 minutes vs. 5–10 for a toaster oven. Frozen foods and proteins especially come out faster and crispier in an air fryer.

Can I bake in an air fryer instead of a toaster oven?

You can, but the results are noticeably different for delicate baked goods. The intense convection fan causes uneven rising and over-browning on bottoms. For sturdy things like muffins or small cakes it’s workable; for cookies or anything layered, the toaster oven bakes more evenly. Drop your temperature by about 25°F and check early if you’re adapting a toaster oven recipe for an air fryer.

What is the main disadvantage of an air fryer compared to a toaster oven?

Capacity is the biggest one. A 6-quart basket air fryer physically can’t fit a standard baking pan, more than one layer of food, or a meal for a family. Toaster ovens also offer broiling with top-down radiant heat, which air fryers lack. For high-volume or varied cooking, these gaps add up fast.

Are there air fryers that can fully replace a toaster oven?

Toaster oven / air fryer combos like the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro or the Cuisinart TOA-70 come the closest — they offer true air frying alongside traditional bake, broil, and toast functions in a single unit. A basket-style air fryer alone can’t replicate the full functionality of a toaster oven, but these hybrid appliances genuinely can for most households.