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HUB 04 · Comparisons

Air Fryer vs Microwave

These two are not really competitors. One heats the surface with hot air; the other heats the water inside with radiation. They are good at opposite things, which is why most kitchens end up with both.

By Stephen V.Updated How we rank
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We earn a commission if you buy through our links. It does not change the price you pay, and it does not decide our picks — the scoring rubric is published in full, including what disqualifies an oven. How this works.

The short answer

Quick picks

#OvenBest forScorePrice
01
Instant Brands Instant Pot Omni Plus 19QT/18L Toaster Oven Air Fryer, 10-in-1
Instant Pot Omni Plus 19QT/18L Toaster Oven Air Fryer, 10-in-1

Rotisserie without a separate machine

Wattage not published
6.9
$152.47Amazon
02
Ninja Ninja Foodi 10-in-1 XL Pro Air Fry Oven (DT201)
Ninja Foodi 10-in-1 XL Pro Air Fry Oven (DT201)

Most usable interior per dollar

1,800 W
8.1
$159.95Amazon

#ad · Prices pulled live from the Amazon Product API, last checked Jul 20, 2026. Where we have no verified live price we show none — we would rather leave a gap than print a number that has gone stale. The wattage column is what the manufacturer publishes; “not published” means exactly that, and we have not estimated one. Scores are ours, compiled from published specifications, and are not test results.

Two completely different mechanisms

A microwave emits radiation that excites water molecules throughout the food, heating it from the inside out, quickly, with no browning — there is no hot surface for the food to brown against. An air fryer blows hot air across the surface, browning and crisping the outside while the inside heats more slowly. They are not two ways of doing the same job; they are good at opposite things.

The microwave wins decisively on speed and on reheating anything you do not need crisp — soup, rice, a plate of leftovers, steamed vegetables. The air fryer wins on anything where texture matters — reheating pizza so the base is crisp rather than rubbery, roasting vegetables, finishing chips. Ask a microwave to crisp and it cannot; ask an air fryer to gently warm a bowl of soup and it is slow and pointless.

The decision rule

If you can only have one and you value speed, keep the microwave — nothing reheats faster. If you can only have one and you value texture, an air fryer oven is the more capable single appliance, because it also toasts and bakes. Most kitchens want both, and the air fryer is the one worth buying second because it adds capabilities the microwave cannot.

On running cost, a microwave draws roughly the same 1,000–1,200 watts as a small oven but for a fraction of the time, so per-task it is usually cheaper. An air fryer oven costs more per task because it runs longer, but it is doing something the microwave physically cannot.

In detail

The picks, in full

01
Instant Brands Instant Pot Omni Plus 19QT/18L Toaster Oven Air Fryer, 10-in-1

Rotisserie without a separate machine

Instant Pot Omni Plus 19QT/18L Toaster Oven Air Fryer, 10-in-1

Interior:19 QT / 18 LTemperature range:170–450°FFunctions:10-in-1, including rotisserie
Interior volume publishedNo published wattage
6.9/10

One of the few ovens here that publishes its interior in liters, which makes it the easiest in the category to compare on paper. The rotisserie is a genuine mechanical addition rather than a relabeled fan setting.

Power
5
Usable space
8.5
Footprint
6.5
Documentation
7
Value
7.5

What it gets right

  • 18 liters stated plainly, so you can compare it to a Breville's cubic foot without converting a marketing claim
  • A published temperature range, which is rarer than it should be and matters if you proof dough
  • The rotisserie spit is real hardware, not a preset

What it doesn't

  • Instant Brands publishes no wattage on the product page, so this oven gets no running-cost figure from us
  • 450°F is a low ceiling — several ovens here reach 500°F, which matters for pizza and for a hard finish on roast vegetables
  • Rotisserie is the kind of feature that gets used twice

What it costs to run

Instant Brands publishes no wattage for this oven in any document we could find, so we do not show a running-cost figure for it. We are not going to estimate one from a similar model. Here is the method we would have used.

Skip this if…

…you bake pizza at high heat. The published ceiling is 450°F, and that is fifty degrees short of where a thin crust actually wants to be.

$152.47on Amazon

$219.9931% off

Price last checked Jul 20, 2026. Prices move constantly — Amazon's at checkout is the one that counts.

#ad · we may earn a commission from this link to Instant Pot Omni Plus 19QT/18L Toaster Oven Air Fryer, 10-in-1

02
Ninja Ninja Foodi 10-in-1 XL Pro Air Fry Oven (DT201)

Most usable interior per dollar

Ninja Foodi 10-in-1 XL Pro Air Fry Oven (DT201)

Rated power:1800 WCapacity claim:Two 12-inch pizzas / two levelsFunctions:10
Two cooking levelsLarge external footprint
8.1/10

The value pick, and it is not close. Same 1,800 W as ovens costing two and a half times more, two full cooking levels, and a published capacity claim — two 12-inch pizzas — that is specific enough to be checkable rather than a vibe.

Power
9.5
Usable space
9
Footprint
5.5
Documentation
7
Value
9.5

What it gets right

  • Identical 1,800 W draw to the Breville Pro at a fraction of the price — on running cost alone they are the same oven
  • Two genuine cooking levels rather than one shelf and an optimistic second slot
  • The capacity claim is stated as objects that fit, which you can measure against your own baking sheet

What it doesn't

  • SharkNinja publishes no interior volume in cubic feet or liters, so cross-brand space comparison is guesswork
  • The external footprint is large enough that it stops being a countertop appliance and starts being furniture
  • Ten functions on a dial that mostly changes fan speed and set point

What it costs to run

About 33.9¢ an hour at full draw, or $61.86 a year at 30 minutes a day, 365 days a year and 18.83¢ per kWh.

1,800 W ÷ 1000 × 182.5 h × 18.83¢ = $61.86

1800 W as published by SharkNinja on the DT201 product page and repeated in the brand's own retail listings. This is an upper bound: the elements cycle off once the cavity is at temperature, and no manufacturer publishes a duty cycle, so we compute at full rated draw rather than invent a correction factor. The full method is published.

Skip this if…

…counter space is the binding constraint rather than money — this is one of the biggest boxes in the category, and a smaller oven that costs more may still be the right buy.

$159.95on Amazon

$379.9958% off

Price last checked Jul 20, 2026. Prices move constantly — Amazon's at checkout is the one that counts.

#ad · we may earn a commission from this link to Ninja Foodi 10-in-1 XL Pro Air Fry Oven (DT201)

How we picked

Ovens we claim to have cooked in: 0

Everyone in this category tells you they roasted forty chickens. We have roasted none, and we say so. Here is what we do instead: read the manufacturer's manual and spec sheet, record the published wattage, interior volume, temperature range and warranty term, work out what the oven costs to run for an hour and for a year, show the arithmetic so you can redo it with your own electricity rate, and cite all of it. Where a brand publishes no wattage, we print no running cost rather than borrowing a number from a similar model. Prices come live from Amazon's API and disappear rather than go stale.

The scores above are judgments from that documented research — not test results. One of the five metrics is Documentation: whether the manufacturer will tell you what its oven draws at all. The full rubric, including what disqualifies an oven, is published in full.

Questions

Frequently asked

Can an air fryer replace a microwave?
Not really. A microwave heats food from the inside out, fast, with no browning — ideal for reheating soup, rice or leftovers. An air fryer browns and crisps the surface but is slower and cannot gently warm liquids well. They do different jobs; most people keep both.
Which is cheaper to run, an air fryer or a microwave?
Per task, usually the microwave, because it heats food much faster even at a similar wattage. The air fryer runs longer, so it costs more for the same reheating job — but it can crisp and brown, which a microwave cannot.

Keep reading

Related

Receipts

Sources

We have not cooked in these ovens and we do not pretend to have. Specifications come from the manufacturer's own published documents; electricity rates come from the US Energy Information Administration; prices come from the live Amazon API. Where a figure is not published, the page says “not published” rather than guessing. Read the full method.