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For all the popularity of pod-shaped air fryers, we've always found that convection toaster ovens, which use the same technology, can cook a wider variety of foods more evenly, if a little more slowly. But now, more companies are offering the best of both worlds in “air fryer toaster ovens,” amped-up convection toaster ovens with extra-powerful fans that produce crispy results in a shorter time. After testing dozens of models, we’ve concluded that the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro is the only one that’s both an excellent air fryer and an excellent toaster oven—but it’s pricey. Air Fryer For Home
Unlike most models, this pricey oven performs just as well on air fryer duties as it does on toaster oven tasks. It also has settings for bread proofing, slow cooking, and dehydrating.
This model offers mostly the same features as our main pick does, but its convection fan isn’t quite as powerful. We recommend saving some cash and getting this model if speed isn’t a big priority.
This appliance shares many features of models costing twice as much. It doesn’t cook quite as evenly as our other picks, but its results in our tests were still decent, especially considering its relatively low price.
Air fryer toaster ovens tend to have more powerful fans than your average convection models. You get crispier food, faster.
Toaster ovens with an air fryer function, or with convection, typically cost more than conventional toaster ovens.
We looked for models that let you adjust the convection fan’s strength or turn it off completely, for more control when you cook.
Air fryer toaster ovens can fit more than most pod-shaped air fryers—everything from whole chickens to 9-inch cakes.
If you want to save counter space, spend less, or cook smaller portions of food at a time, you may still want to consider getting a pod-shaped air fryer.
And if you’re looking for a regular toaster oven without a dedicated air fryer setting, we have a guide to toaster ovens, too.
Unlike most models, this pricey oven performs just as well on air fryer duties as it does on toaster oven tasks. It also has settings for bread proofing, slow cooking, and dehydrating.
If you’re looking for a combination appliance that can air fry as well as toast bread, bake treats, or roast larger quantities of food, we recommend the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro. Of all the air fryers and toaster ovens we’ve tested, it’s one of the very few models that effectively combine the best of both types of machines.
This Breville appliance is unique in that it offers two convection-fan speeds for more control—unlike most pod-shaped air fryers—as well as the power to crisp up food more quickly than other models in this category.
Its two-rack oven capacity is quite large, and it comes with a few additional settings: proof, reheat, cookies, slow cook, and dehydrate.
However, if speed isn’t a big priority, or if you don’t think you’d take advantage of those added features, you’re likely to be just as happy with our runner-up pick, the Cuisinart Chef’s Convection Toaster Oven TOB-260N1, which costs significantly less and delivers similar results in just a little extra time.
This model offers mostly the same features as our main pick does, but its convection fan isn’t quite as powerful. We recommend saving some cash and getting this model if speed isn’t a big priority.
The Cuisinart Chef’s Convection Toaster Oven TOB-260N1 is our long-standing toaster oven pick, but it also does a good job of air frying (even though Cuisinart doesn’t advertise it as an air fryer). It delivers results similar to what you can get from the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro, but it costs significantly less. It doesn’t have a dedicated “air fry” setting or an air frying basket, but as long as you know that speed convection equals air frying, you don’t really need those things to make an air fryer recipe in this appliance.
Like the Breville model, this Cuisinart toaster oven has two oven racks and two convection-fan speeds, but its fan is a bit less powerful, so it takes slightly longer to achieve the same level of crispiness. However, it can still do everything from roasting a beautifully golden-brown chicken to baking even cake layers.
The accessories are useful, too: This is the only model we’ve ever tested to include a ceramic pizza stone instead of a flimsy metal pizza pan.
The TOB-260N1 is slightly smaller in capacity than the Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro, but it’s still large. This oven also lacks some of the tiny details (such as rack-position markings on the door) and settings (such as proof) that make our top pick feel more luxe.
This appliance shares many features of models costing twice as much. It doesn’t cook quite as evenly as our other picks, but its results in our tests were still decent, especially considering its relatively low price.
Though still expensive compared with regular toaster ovens, the Cosori Original Air Fryer Toaster Oven CO130-AO was the best-performing air fryer toaster oven we tested under $225. In our tests it didn’t cook as evenly as the Breville and Cuisinart models, but we found its results perfectly acceptable considering its lower price.
Like our other picks, the CO130-AO offers lots of useful settings beyond baking, toasting, and air frying, such as for cookies, dehydrating, and fermenting. Its rotisserie setting, however, failed to produce an evenly cooked chicken in our tests.
This Cosori air fryer toaster oven has two convection-fan speeds, like our other picks, and is roughly the same size as the Cuisinart model. It comes with only one oven rack, though its roasting pan can act as a second rack.
The package also includes a recipe booklet, which is nice if you’re looking for some guidance when cooking with convection technology.
As a senior staff writer at Wirecutter, I’ve researched, tested, and reviewed toasters, toaster ovens, pod-shaped air fryers, and deep fryers, among other kitchen gear and gadgets, since 2016. In that time, I’m pretty sure I’ve eaten more fish sticks and french fries than the Gorton’s Fisherman and Ronald McDonald combined.
Additionally, we used an AI-powered analysis tool to scan 6,500-plus customer reviews of 12 air fryer toaster ovens to identify what made some models better or worse than others.
We also took informal polls on Instagram and on X, formerly known as Twitter, to find out more about what people liked to cook in their air fryer toaster ovens.
Overall, air fryer toaster ovens or convection toaster ovens are far more versatile than pod-shaped air fryers—especially if you have a larger household, since you can cook more food at once. But if you’re not sure which appliance is right for you, read more about the differences and compromises and check out our guide to toaster ovens.
We’ve been testing toaster ovens since 2013 and have two favorites: the compact Panasonic FlashXpress Toaster Oven and the large Cuisinart Chef’s Convection Toaster Oven .
Air fryer toaster ovens should be able to air fry just as well as they bake or toast. With that in mind, we combined our criteria for toaster ovens and pod-shaped air fryers, evaluating this category based on the following features and attributes:
We’ve been testing pod-shaped air fryers since 2017 and air fryer toaster ovens since 2019. We expect an air fryer toaster oven to do everything a pod-shaped air fryer can do, plus everything a regular toaster oven can do. With that in mind, we always begin our tests by filling each model with as many slices of white sandwich bread as it will allow, using the toasted results as a heat map: Uneven browning alerts us to any hot spots in the oven.
We also make batches of frozen french fries and taste them to see whether any pieces end up under- or overcooked; in addition, we bake frozen breaded chicken tenders and fish sticks to see whether they brown evenly or end up with soggy bottoms. We also bake pizza Bagel Bites, cookies, and brussels sprouts.
After eliminating several models, we bake a yellow cake (from a box mix for consistency) and roast whole chickens in the finalists.
We also stick an air probe thermometer inside the ovens to see how well each model maintains a set temperature.
We use all of the controls to see how easy they are to navigate. Additionally, we compare the cooking capacity of each model, and we take note of any egregiously noisy fans or annoying beeps. After testing, we wash all of the air fryer toaster oven components by hand to see how easy they are to clean.
Unlike most models, this pricey oven performs just as well on air fryer duties as it does on toaster oven tasks. It also has settings for bread proofing, slow cooking, and dehydrating.
The Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro is the best air fryer toaster oven we’ve tested (it’s also our upgrade pick in our guide to the best toaster ovens). Whereas some air fryer toaster ovens perform better as an air fryer or as a toaster oven, the Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro represents the perfect marriage of those two appliances.
It did a great job with frozen foods. In our tests, it produced crispy fries with creamy interiors and fish sticks that were crunchy on the outside and tender on the inside.
It also performed well with tasks that required gentler baking or roasting. The oven made a beautifully golden-brown roasted chicken and evenly baked cookies. It also toasted almost as evenly as the Cuisinart Chef’s Convection Toaster Oven TOB-260N1, our runner-up pick in this guide and a top pick in our guide to toaster ovens.
It has a sleek design and an easy-to-navigate interface. It offers several preset functions that you won’t find on our runner-up pick. One of those is a dedicated air fry setting; the presets also include proof, cookies, slow cook, and dehydrate. However, if you’re serious about dehydrating, we recommend getting a separate food dehydrator, since the Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro can’t hold much food in its dehydrating basket (though you could buy more baskets separately if you wanted).
It held a set temperature better than any other model we tested. This advantage is due to its PID controller, a more accurate type of temperature controller than the simple on/off variety found in most other toaster ovens. Since you can reduce the fan’s speed or turn it off, you can also control how intensely you want to blast your food with hot air.
It has an oven light. You can turn the light on or off manually; it also automatically turns on when you open the door or when the timer nears the end of its countdown (which is helpful if you don’t hear the timer beeps). If the bulb burns out, you can replace it with a 25-watt, 120-volt, G9 oven bulb.
It can adjust the oven temperature automatically midway through the cooking cycle. Breville’s “phase cook” feature allows you to program two cooking cycles back to back (Cuisinart offers a similar feature on the TOB-260N1). Let’s say that you’re baking a pumpkin pie: Using the phase-cook mode, you could, for instance, bake the pie at 425 °F for 15 minutes and then program the oven to automatically reduce the temperature to 350 °F for the remaining 30 to 40 minutes.
It has a roomy oven cavity. The Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro’s large oven cavity can fit a 5.5-quart Le Creuset Dutch oven with a lid (though if yours has a plastic knob, we recommend using aluminum foil instead) or a 6-quart Lodge Dutch oven without one.
It also fits a 9-by-13-inch baking pan (without handles) and most 12-cup muffin tins, so it’s truly capable of acting as a secondary oven in your kitchen. If you use a quarter-sheet tray on each of its two racks, that’s equal to the cooking surface of a standard half sheet you’d likely use in a full-size oven.
It has a number of other features that make it feel luxe. Magnets on the door attach to the oven rack so that it glides out when you open the toaster oven (the Cuisinart TOB-260N1 has a similar feature that uses hooks), saving you from having to reach deep into the oven to retrieve your food.
The timer automatically pauses when you open the door and resumes when you close it. And the printed directions on the oven door are handy for determining the rack placement for each setting, so you don’t have to refer to the owner manual.
Its nonstick interior is easy to wipe clean. Among all the models we’ve tested, the oven cavity in the Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro takes the least effort to clean. We’ve been using this oven for almost a year, and the nonstick coating has held up well.
It comes with a two-year warranty and access to repair services. While Breville doesn’t sell replacement parts for any of the oven’s internal components, a representative told us that the company will pay for shipping to and from its service center if your oven breaks under warranty. If the oven can’t be repaired, Breville will send you an entirely new unit. And if the warranty has expired, you can still send your oven to the service center, and Breville will still cover shipping costs; you just have to pay a service fee.
This model offers mostly the same features as our main pick does, but its convection fan isn’t quite as powerful. We recommend saving some cash and getting this model if speed isn’t a big priority.
If you want to spend less than our top pick costs, we recommend getting the Cuisinart Chef’s Convection Toaster Oven TOB-260N1 (which is the top pick in our guide to the best toaster ovens). This model has many of the same features as the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro does, and it can handle cooking a 13-inch pizza, roasting a whole chicken, or toasting up to nine slices of bread at once.
Its turbo convection fan isn’t quite as powerful. This Cuisinart toaster oven takes a little longer than the Breville model to achieve the same level of crispiness, and it lacks air-fryer-specific features such as a fryer basket and a dedicated air fry setting. That said, in our tests the TOB-260N1 toasted bread more evenly than any other toaster oven or air fryer toaster oven in its price range, and it had one of the shortest preheating times of all the models we tested, at just over three minutes.
This oven is slightly more squat than our top pick. The oven cavity isn’t quite as large as that of the Breville model, but it can still fit a 5.5-quart Le Creuset Dutch oven or 6-quart Lodge Dutch oven (with aluminum foil in lieu of the lid).
It’s the only model we’ve ever tested to come with a ceramic pizza stone. You also get two racks, a baking pan, and a broiling tray. Most other toaster ovens have only a single rack and a flimsy metal pizza pan in the box, so these extras from Cuisinart feel like a step up.
It has a three-year warranty. In comparison, the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro has only a two-year warranty, though Breville does offer repair services that Cuisinart doesn’t.
If the TOB-260N1 proves to be defective under warranty, Cuisinart won’t repair the appliance—the company will ask you to cut the cord and send a picture of it, after which Cuisinart will send you an entirely new unit. Although this policy is a wasteful downside to the otherwise excellent warranty coverage, Cuisinart will also offer you 20% off the retail price of a new oven and provide free shipping if you file a claim after the warranty expires.
To read more about the Cuisinart TOB-260N1 and how it has held up over years of long-term testing, check out our guide to the best toaster ovens.
We’ve been testing toaster ovens since 2013 and have two favorites: the compact Panasonic FlashXpress Toaster Oven and the large Cuisinart Chef’s Convection Toaster Oven .
This appliance shares many features of models costing twice as much. It doesn’t cook quite as evenly as our other picks, but its results in our tests were still decent, especially considering its relatively low price.
The Cosori Original Air Fryer Toaster Oven CO130-AO was the best-performing model we tried under $225. This oven consistently did well in our tests, in some cases performing as effectively as models costing double the price. It shares many of the same features as some of the more expensive models we tested, too, though our other picks produced better results overall.
It’s considerably lighter than our other picks. If you don’t have room to keep the CO130-AO on your kitchen counter, it’s easier to pick up and move than our other, larger picks.
It toasts and bakes evenly. The Cosori oven toasted about as well as our other picks. Frozen fries came out crispy and evenly browned, with creamy centers that weren’t overcooked or dehydrated. The fish sticks we air fried in this model weren’t quite as crispy as those from the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro, but they were perfectly adequate. The CO130-AO also baked even cake layers that turned out nicely golden brown.
The rotisserie function doesn’t work well. The spit attachments were difficult to assemble and failed to spin in a fluid motion, producing a pale, unevenly roasted chicken. (Most toaster ovens and air fryer toaster ovens don’t work well as rotisserie ovens, so we don’t think this is a dealbreaker.) But the oven turned out a golden-brown chicken with crispy skin when we roasted it on a pan instead.
The digital interface isn’t quite as intuitive to use. It isn’t as bright or as easy to read as the screens on our other picks, either. And unlike with our other picks, on this model you have to manually press the start button once the oven is preheated, as the timer doesn’t start counting down before then (which some people may prefer).
It takes longer to preheat. When we set the CO130-AO to 350 °F, the oven said it was preheated in about four minutes, but it actually took another two minutes to reach that temperature, according to our air probe thermometer.
Once the oven is preheated, the digital screen flashes “pre,” and the start button flashes red. These displays are helpful, especially if you don’t happen to hear the beeps.
If you want a smart oven that connects to a recipe app: The Breville Joule Oven Air Fryer Pro is the same size—and offers most of the same features—as the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro, except it’s Wi-Fi enabled, compatible with Alexa, and capable of pairing with your phone through the Breville+ app. It also costs $50 more. The app contains a limited number of recipes (more are added on a weekly basis), and each recipe step has a corresponding video to help guide you through the cooking process. Beginner cooks or those who are visual learners may find this feature helpful, but if you’re more experienced, the videos may seem unnecessary. Unless you really want access to those recipes and videos, we still recommend getting the Breville Smart Oven Air Fryer Pro.
The Café Couture Oven with Air Fry looks snazzy, and aside from subpar baking results, it did well in our tests. Unfortunately, the printed labels on the buttons started to wear off after only a few uses.
The Hamilton Beach Professional Sure-Crisp Digital Air Fryer Countertop Oven 31243 ran too cool and couldn’t maintain its internal temperature, so it cooked unevenly. Annoyingly, the timer on this model starts counting down while the oven is still preheating, rather than waiting until it’s finished preheating to begin.
The GE Digital Air Fry 8-in-1 Toaster Oven acts more like an air fryer than a toaster oven. In our tests, its flimsy pan warped after a couple of uses and couldn’t hold the weight of a whole chicken, causing the pan to slip out of the slots along the oven walls.
Equipped with a surprisingly noisy convection fan that can’t be turned off, the Ninja Foodi 10-in-1 XL Pro Air Fry Oven DT201 is more strictly an air fryer than a toaster oven. It did a poor job of maintaining a set temperature.
Although the Calphalon Performance Air Fry Convection Oven looks nice and baked delicious cookies in our tests, its fan wasn’t quite powerful enough to deliver extra-crispy results—the chicken fingers we air fried were soggy and lacking in color. A 6-pound chicken couldn’t fit in the narrow oven cavity without touching the heating elements.
The Instant Vortex Plus 10-quart Air Fryer Oven browned toast unevenly and produced tough, dehydrated fries and uneven, overcooked cake layers in our tests. The rotisserie basket has a small capacity and is far more trouble than it’s worth since it’s a pain to clean.
The Instant Omni Plus 18L Air Fryer Toaster Oven ran especially hot, which caused nearly everything we prepared to be overcooked and dry. This model didn’t toast as evenly as our picks.
The Cuisinart TOA-60 AirFryer Toaster Oven (which is now discontinued and being replaced by the TOA-70 model) toasted unevenly. It cooked fries well, but the chicken fingers and fish sticks we prepared were pale and soggy.
Like the larger TOA-60 model, the Cuisinart AFR-25 Compact AirFryer was good at cooking fries quickly, but its narrow interior couldn’t fit a whole chicken. It also produced soggy chicken fingers and fish sticks.
The rotisserie spit in the Emeril Lagasse Power AirFryer 360 struggled to make a full rotation while roasting a chicken. This model also had difficulty regulating its internal temperature, so nearly everything we cooked took forever to bake properly.
We had difficulty tossing fries in the shallow basket of the Black+Decker Crisp ’N Bake Air Fry Toaster Oven without spilling them, and ultimately the fries came out undercooked with burned tips. Fish sticks and chicken fingers were pale and soggy on the bottom after baking.
The NuWave Bravo XL Smart Oven has an overwhelming amount of buttons, which are confusing and overly complicated. One of the biggest issues with this model: The roast, toast, and bagel settings are all programmed to 310 °F, which is far too low—it took over 12 minutes for us to get any color on the toast we made.
This article was edited by Marilyn Ong and Marguerite Preston.
Chichi Uguru, creator of Air Fryer Yum, phone interview, September 26, 2022
Cathy Yoder, author of 150+ Yummy Air Fryer Recipes, phone interview, September 27, 2022
Michael Sullivan has been a staff writer on the kitchen team at Wirecutter since 2016. Previously, he was an editor at the International Culinary Center in New York. He has worked in various facets of the food and restaurant industry for over a decade.
The Cuisinart Chef’s Convection Toaster Oven is a versatile, powerful mini oven disguised as a toaster.
We’ve been testing toaster ovens since 2013 and have two favorites: the compact Panasonic FlashXpress Toaster Oven and the large Cuisinart Chef’s Convection Toaster Oven .
We now recommend pod-shaped air fryers for those who want to cook smaller portions of food at a time in a machine that takes up less space.
by Caira Blackwell and Michael Sullivan
If you’re looking for a pod-shaped air fryer, we recommend the Philips Premium Airfryer HD9741 .
Big Air Fryer Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times. Our journalists combine independent research with (occasionally) over-the-top testing so you can make quick and confident buying decisions. Whether it’s finding great products or discovering helpful advice, we’ll help you get it right (the first time).