Air Fryer vs Oven: Energy Cost — Is It Actually Cheaper to Run?
Yes, an air fryer is cheaper to run than a conventional oven. By a meaningful amount, for the kind of cooking it's suited to.
But the size of the saving depends on what you're cooking, how long you're cooking it, and where you live. Here's the breakdown.
The Numbers: Wattage Comparison
| Appliance | Typical Wattage |
|---|---|
| Conventional oven | 2,000–2,400W |
| Air fryer (household) | 1,400–1,800W |
| Mini/compact air fryer | 900–1,200W |
| Microwave | 700–1,200W |
An air fryer uses roughly 60–75% of the electricity of a conventional oven at the same time. But that's only half the equation — the other half is time.
Air fryers cook faster. A chicken breast that takes 20–25 minutes in the oven takes 12–15 minutes in the air fryer. Shorter cooking time means less total electricity used, even before accounting for the lower wattage.
Calculating Running Costs
To calculate the cost of running any appliance:
(Wattage ÷ 1000) × hours of use × cost per kWh = cost in your currency
Using average UK electricity rates as an example (approximately 24p per kWh in early 2026):
| Cook | Oven | Air Fryer | Saving |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicken breast (20 min oven / 13 min AF) | 2,200W × 0.33hr × £0.24 = ~17p | 1,600W × 0.22hr × £0.24 = ~8p | ~9p |
| Chips (25 min oven / 14 min AF) | 2,200W × 0.42hr × £0.24 = ~22p | 1,600W × 0.23hr × £0.24 = ~9p | ~13p |
| Roast vegetables (30 min oven / 12 min AF) | 2,200W × 0.5hr × £0.24 = ~26p | 1,600W × 0.2hr × £0.24 = ~8p | ~18p |
| Reheating pizza (12 min oven / 4 min AF) | 2,200W × 0.2hr × £0.24 = ~11p | 1,600W × 0.07hr × £0.24 = ~3p | ~8p |
For US users: multiply watts × hours × your state's rate (the US average is around $0.16/kWh). The proportions are the same.
When the Air Fryer Saves the Most
Short, high-heat cooks. Chips, vegetables, chicken portions, fish fillets. These are the core use cases for air fryers, and they're also where the efficiency gap is largest — the oven has to preheat to full temperature to cook a 12-minute portion of chips, while the air fryer is ready in 3 minutes.
Reheating. An oven takes 10–15 minutes to reach temperature and then another 10 minutes to reheat food. The air fryer does the same in 4–6 minutes total. The difference in running cost for a daily reheating habit adds up over months.
Small portions. Using an oven to cook for one person is inefficient — you're heating a large space for a small amount of food. An air fryer's compact size means it reaches temperature faster and requires less energy to maintain it.
When the Oven Is More Economical
Large roasts and big batch cooking. A 2kg joint of beef that needs 2 hours is better in an oven. Not because the oven is more efficient per unit of energy, but because it can hold a large roasting tin, multiple dishes, and multiple racks. The air fryer would need multiple batches — total cooking time would exceed the oven, and total energy use might too.
Multiple dishes simultaneously. An oven can cook a roast, a tray of vegetables, and a bread roll at the same time. An air fryer cooks one thing in one basket at a time (or two zones in a dual-basket model). If you're running an oven anyway for a large meal, adding extra items costs almost nothing extra. Running the air fryer multiple times to achieve the same result costs more than a single oven cycle.
Slow low-temperature baking. Long bread proves, slow-rise baked goods, low-and-slow meat cooking — these are genuine oven tasks.
The Preheating Factor
A conventional fan oven takes 10–15 minutes to preheat to 200°C. Running at 2,220W for 12 minutes to preheat is:
2,200W × 0.2hr × £0.24 = ~11p just for preheating, before cooking starts.
An air fryer preheats in 3–5 minutes. 1,600W × 0.07hr × £0.24 = ~3p.
For one daily cook, the preheating difference alone is around 8p. Across a year of daily use, that's roughly £29 just in preheating costs — before counting the shorter actual cook times.
Annual Savings: A Rough Estimate
Assumptions: air fryer used once daily, average cook of 15 minutes; oven alternative would take 25 minutes plus 12 minutes preheat.
- Daily saving: approximately 20p (UK) / $0.17 (US)
- Annual saving: approximately £73 (UK) / $62 (US)
This is approximate and will vary a lot based on your usage patterns, model wattage, and local electricity rate. But the ballpark is meaningful — especially given that air fryers typically cost £50–150 new. The appliance can pay for itself in energy savings within one to two years for a regular user.
Other Factors Worth Knowing
Air fryers don't heat up the kitchen. In summer, this matters. A conventional oven running for an hour raises the ambient temperature of a kitchen noticeably, which increases any air conditioning load. An air fryer's compact size and shorter run time has much less impact.
Air fryers have no standby cost. They only use power when running. Some older oven models with digital clocks use a small amount of power in standby — negligible but worth knowing.
Gas oven users: Gas is priced differently from electricity (and the pricing differential varies considerably by country and year). The comparison methodology is the same — wattage equivalent × time × rate — but you'd use your gas unit rate rather than electricity rate. As of early 2026 in the UK, electricity is more expensive per kWh than gas, which means the air fryer advantage may be smaller for households currently running a gas oven.
The Bottom Line
For everyday cooking — portions of protein, vegetables, chips, reheating — an air fryer costs roughly half to two-thirds as much per cook as a conventional oven. The shorter cook times amplify the wattage advantage.
The oven remains better for large-batch, multi-dish, or long slow cooking. The two appliances aren't in competition for those tasks.