🍟What does an air fryer cost to run?

✓ Tested & verified Updated: Aug 9, 2026 How we calculate this

Air fryer running cost

What you are running

Power it draws (watts)

Minutes per cook

Cooks a week

Country

Your price per kWh

$0.09 a cook ≈ $22.10 a year

Each one uses 0.50 kWh. At 5 a week that is $0.43 a week and $1.84 a month.

Cost per minute while it runs: $0.0043
Electricity a year: 130 kWh
Cost a year: $22.10

A dual-basket air fryer draws around 2,400 W, not 1,500 — and if both drawers run, it is drawing all of it. Check the label rather than assuming.

Try also

Is an air fryer cheaper to run than an oven?

Yes, and the saving is real — but it comes from time, not from wattage. A 1,500 W air fryer for 20 minutes uses 0.5 kWh and costs $0.085 at $0.17 per kWh. A 2,400 W electric oven doing the same job needs 15 minutes of preheating plus 25 minutes of cooking, so 1.6 kWh and $0.27.

Three times the cost, and the oven is not three times less efficient. It is simply much larger. An oven heats a big insulated box and everything in it before it starts on the food; an air fryer heats a space the size of a shoebox with a fan blowing through it. When you are cooking for one or two, most of the oven’s energy goes into warming the oven.

The saving inverts when the box is full. A tray of vegetables, a chicken and a dish of potatoes all cooked together in one oven beat three sequential batches in an air fryer, because the oven’s fixed cost is paid once. Air fryers win small and frequent; ovens win big and occasional.

The same dinner, four ways, at $0.17 per kWh.

Method	Power	Time	Energy	Cost
Microwave, reheat	1,100 W	4 min	0.07 kWh	$0.01
Air fryer, single basket	1,500 W	20 min	0.50 kWh	$0.09
Air fryer, dual basket	2,400 W	20 min	0.80 kWh	$0.14
Electric oven, preheat + cook	2,400 W	40 min	1.60 kWh	$0.27
Electric hob, one large ring	2,000 W	20 min	0.67 kWh	$0.11

Five air-fryer meals a week instead of five oven meals saves about $47 a year. Worth having, and worth keeping in proportion: that is roughly the price of the air fryer, once.

Frequently asked questions

How much does an air fryer cost to run per use?

About $0.085 for a 20-minute cook at 1,500 W and $0.17 per kWh — roughly £0.13 in the UK and €0.18 at €0.35. Used five times a week that is $22 a year. A dual-basket model at 2,400 W costs about $0.14 for the same 20 minutes.

Is an air fryer really cheaper than an oven?

For small portions, yes — typically two to three times cheaper per meal. The difference is mostly preheating and thermal mass: an oven spends 10 to 15 minutes and a large part of its energy warming itself before the food starts cooking. For a full oven load the maths reverses, because that fixed cost is spread over everything inside.

Does an air fryer use more electricity than a microwave?

Yes. A microwave is 700 to 1,500 W but usually runs for 2 to 5 minutes, so a typical reheat is 0.05 to 0.1 kWh against 0.4 to 0.6 kWh for an air fryer cook. The microwave is by far the cheapest way to reheat; the air fryer is the cheapest way to get something crisp.

Do I need to preheat an air fryer?

Usually 2 to 3 minutes, and many recipes skip it entirely. That is the crux of the comparison with an oven: three minutes of a 1,500 W element is 0.075 kWh, while fifteen minutes of a 2,400 W oven is 0.6 kWh. Preheating is where most of the difference between the two machines actually lives.

Does the wattage on the box mean it draws that constantly?

No. Air fryers cycle the element on and off to hold temperature, so average draw over a cook is typically 60 to 80% of the rated figure. That makes the number here slightly conservative — the real cost is usually a little lower, and treating the rating as continuous is the safe way to estimate.

Is a dual-basket air fryer twice the cost to run?

Close to it while both drawers are running — a dual model is typically 2,200 to 2,700 W against 1,400 to 1,700 W for a single. It is still cheaper than the oven for the same two dishes, and much faster, but the gap narrows. Using only one drawer draws roughly half.

How we calculate this

Cost is watts × minutes ÷ 60 ÷ 1,000 × price per kWh. Wattages are the ratings these appliances are commonly sold at: 1,200–1,800 W for a single-basket air fryer, 2,000–2,700 W for a dual, and 2,000–3,000 W for a domestic electric oven. Because the heating element cycles rather than running continuously, real average draw over a cook is typically 60–80% of the rated figure, so these numbers are a safe upper bound rather than an average. The oven comparison assumes 15 minutes of preheating plus 25 minutes of cooking at 2,400 W, which is a typical fan-oven cycle for a small tray; a well-insulated modern oven at a lower temperature will do better.

Worked example

With What you are running Air fryer, Power it draws (watts) 1500, Minutes per cook 20, Cooks a week 5, Country United States (USD), Your price per kWh 0.17, this page works out $0.09 a cook ≈ $22.10 a year. Each one uses 0.50 kWh. At 5 a week that is $0.43 a week and $1.84 a month.

Cost per minute while it runs$0.0043
Electricity a year130 kWh
Cost a year$22.10

Sources: