Air Fryer Running Cost Calculator
Enter your air fryer's wattage, how long you cook for and what you pay per kWh. You get the cost per cook and per year, next to the same meal in an oven.
Published by the RecipeAirFryer editorial team · How we source times
Your electricity
Air fryer
Oven, for comparison
Air fryer
12.5p
per cook · 0.50 kWh
£32.50 per year
Oven
37.0p
per cook · 1.48 kWh
£96.20 per year
With these numbers the air fryer costs 24.5p less per cook, or £63.70 less over a year. Both figures assume the element is on for the whole cook, so they are upper limits.
How the cost is worked out
Energy used is power multiplied by time: kWh = watts ÷ 1000 × minutes ÷ 60. Cost is that figure multiplied by your unit rate. Nothing else goes into the calculation, which is why the three inputs matter more than the brand of air fryer.
Wattage is the maximum the appliance draws. Once the chamber reaches temperature the thermostat cycles the element, so the real figure is lower. That applies to ovens too, and more so on long cooks, which is one reason the gap between the two narrows for a roast.
Getting a fair comparison
The oven defaults assume the same food takes about 25% longer than in the air fryer, plus a preheat. Change them to match your own oven. If the food will not fit in one basket, add the minutes for every batch to the air fryer side before you compare.
For the reasoning behind the numbers, read do air fryers use a lot of electricity? and the air fryer vs oven comparison. To turn an oven recipe's time into air fryer minutes for this calculator, use the oven to air fryer converter.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to run an air fryer?+
Multiply the wattage in kilowatts by the hours it runs and by your electricity rate. A 1500 W air fryer running for 20 minutes uses 0.5 kWh at most, so at 25p per kWh that is about 12.5p, and at 17 cents per kWh about 8.5 cents.
How do I work out the kWh an air fryer uses?+
kWh = watts / 1000 x minutes / 60. For example 1700 W for 15 minutes is 1.7 x 0.25 = 0.425 kWh. The wattage is printed on the rating plate underneath the appliance and in the manual.
Why is the real cost usually lower than the calculator shows?+
The calculator assumes the heating element is on for the whole cook. In practice a thermostat switches it off and on once the chamber is at temperature, in an air fryer and in an oven alike, so both figures are an upper limit.
Is an air fryer always cheaper than an oven?+
No. For one basket of food it usually is, because it preheats in two or three minutes and cooks faster. If the meal needs two or three batches, enter the total air fryer minutes for all batches - a single oven load is often cheaper at that point.