Air fryer running cost · key figures
18p
per 30-minute cook
£48
a year (5 cooks a week)
1,500W
typical air fryer power
24.67p
per kWh (price cap)
Rate: Ofgem price cap, 1 Apr–30 Jun 2026, Direct Debit (Ofgem). One kWh is what a 1,000W heater uses in an hour; a 1,500W air fryer for 30 min uses 0.75 kWh.
How much does an air fryer cost to run?
Here is the simple sum. Cost equals power × time × your rate. A typical air fryer pulls about 1,500 watts, which is 1.5 kilowatts. Run it for half an hour and it uses 0.75 kWh. At the price-cap rate of 24.67p per kWh, that one cook costs about 18p.
Cook most days and the maths stacks up gently: 5 cooks a week is roughly £48 a year. Use it twice a day and you are closer to £96. None of these are scary numbers, and that is the first honest point most articles skate over: an air fryer is cheap to run almost however you use it. The interesting question is not "is it cheap?" but "why, and what does that tell me about everything else in my kitchen?"
The belief that costs people money
Most people assume an air fryer is cheap because it is a low-power gadget. It is not. At 1,500 watts it pulls more power than a 50-inch TV running for ten hours, and only half as much as a fan oven. If air fryers were cheap because they sip electricity, that 1,500W rating would tell a different story.
The real reason is about space, not power. An oven heats a big metal box, around 60 litres of air plus the heavy walls and shelves. An air fryer heats a small drawer, maybe 5 litres. Same idea as warming one room with a plug-in heater instead of firing up central heating for the whole house. The air fryer wins because it stops heating things you are not eating.
Why most "air fryer running cost" articles get it wrong
Open the top results for this search and you will find the same article copied a dozen ways: one wattage, one price-cap rate, a fixed table, and the line "that's cheaper than running your oven!" Three problems with that:
- ✓It uses their rate, not yours. If you are on a fixed deal at 22p, or a higher-standing-charge region, every number in their table is wrong for you.
- ✓It treats "an air fryer cook" and "an oven bake" as the same job. They rarely are. An oven cooks a whole tray for a family; an air fryer drawer cooks for one or two.
- ✓It never tells you the crossover point, the moment the oven actually becomes the cheaper choice. That is the one fact that would change your decision.
That is why the calculator below uses your rate. Type the price per kWh from your latest bill and the whole table re-prices for your home.
Your air fryer's running cost, at your rate
Costs you about
a year · · £
Each
A month
Cheapest live electricity rate
British Gas is offering 23.85p per kWh — about 3% below the 24.67p price cap. Apply it to see every cost above drop.
A lower unit rate cuts the cost of every appliance above at once.
Default unit rate: Ofgem price cap, 1 April to 30 June 2026, Direct Debit. Costs are estimates based on typical power ratings.
Every appliance at a glance
at the 24.67p/kWh price cap| Appliance | Power | Typical use | kWh/yr | Per use | Per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air fryer | 1,500 W | 30 min, 5×/wk | 195 | 18.5p | £48 |
| Electric oven | 2,100 W | 60 min, 5×/wk | 546 | 51.8p | £135 |
| Broadband router | 10 W | all day, 7×/wk | 87 | 5.9p | £22 |
| TV (50-inch LED) | 90 W | 300 min, 7×/wk | 164 | 11.1p | £40 |
| Tumble dryer | 2,500 W | 90 min, 3×/wk | 585 | 92.5p | £144 |
| Washing machine | 1,000 W | 60 min, 4×/wk | 208 | 24.7p | £51 |
| Dishwasher | 1,200 W | 90 min, 4×/wk | 374 | 44.4p | £92 |
| Kettle | 3,000 W | 3 min, 21×/wk | 164 | 3.7p | £40 |
| Fridge-freezer | 17 W | all day, 7×/wk | 149 | 10.1p | £37 |
| Electric heater | 2,000 W | 240 min, 7×/wk | 2,912 | £1.97 | £718 |
| Portable air conditioner | 1,200 W | 240 min, 7×/wk | 1,747 | £1.18 | £431 |
| Split air conditioner | 750 W | 240 min, 7×/wk | 1,092 | 74.0p | £269 |
| Electric shower | 8,500 W | 10 min, 7×/wk | 516 | 34.9p | £127 |
| Desktop / gaming PC | 200 W | 240 min, 7×/wk | 291 | 19.7p | £72 |
All figures at the Ofgem price-cap electricity rate of 24.67p per kWh (1 April–30 June 2026, Direct Debit). Standing charges are paid whether or not you switch anything on, so they are not included here. Change the rate in the calculator above to re-price every row for your own tariff. The cheapest live electricity rate we can see today is 23.85p per kWh from British Gas, about 3% below the cap; at that rate every cost above falls by roughly the same share.
Air fryer vs oven energy cost: the honest comparison
This is the comparison everyone wants, so here it is with the numbers shown, not hidden:
Air fryer vs electric oven
cost per use, at 24.67p/kWh| Appliance | Power | Time | Energy | Cost per use |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Air fryer Cheapest | 1,500 W | 30 min | 0.75 kWh | ~18p |
| Electric oven | 2,100 W | 60 min + preheat | 2.1 kWh | ~52p |
For a quick meal for one or two, the air fryer is roughly two-thirds cheaper per use. It also skips the 10-15 minute preheat an oven needs, which is energy spent before any food goes in. Over a year of daily dinners, choosing the air fryer over the oven for those meals saves a typical household around £80 to £100.
The crossover point nobody mentions
Here is the non-obvious bit. The air fryer's advantage is per portion of space heated, not absolute. The moment you need to cook a full meal, a Sunday roast, a tray of veg, a whole chicken plus potatoes, the oven's big cavity stops being a weakness and becomes the point. One oven run cooks five things at once. To match that, an air fryer has to run several batches back to back, and three or four 1,500W batches can quietly add up to more energy than a single oven bake.
The rule of thumb the ads won't give you An air fryer wins when you are cooking small and fast. The oven wins when you are cooking big and together. The crossover is roughly the point where you would fill more than two air fryer batches: beyond that, batch the oven instead. The gadget is not magic; it is just the right-sized tool for small jobs.
Cost of running an air fryer per hour
If you want the per-hour figure, it is straightforward: a 1,500W air fryer run flat out for a full hour uses 1.5 kWh, which is about 37p an hour at the price cap. Most cooks are shorter than that, which is why the per-meal number is closer to 18p. A bigger 1,800W or "dual basket" model costs proportionally more: scale the number by its wattage, which is printed on the rating plate on the back.
What to actually do
Match the tool to the job
Air fryer for small, fast meals; oven for big batch cooks. That single habit, not the gadget, is where the saving lives.
Check your real wattage
It is printed on the rating plate on the back. Put that number into the calculator above instead of guessing.
Use your real unit rate
Not the price cap. A lower fixed-deal rate cuts the cost of the air fryer, the oven and everything else you own at once.
Skip the preheat
Unlike an oven, most foods do not need it, and skipping it shaves a few minutes off every cook.
The bottom line
An air fryer costs about 18p a cook and £48 a year for most homes: genuinely cheap. But it is cheap because it heats a small space fast, not because it is a low-power device. Knowing that tells you the one thing the running-cost tables never do: use it for small meals, use the oven for big ones, and the gadget pays for itself in the right jobs. The biggest single lever on the number is still your electricity rate, which is why it is worth checking you are not overpaying for the kWh in the first place.
Appliance cost FAQ
The Selectra expert answers your questions
About 37p an hour for a typical 1,500W air fryer at the 2026 price-cap rate of 24.67p per kWh. Most cooks are 15 to 30 minutes, so a single meal is closer to 9p to 18p. A higher-wattage model costs more in proportion to its rating.
Around £48 a year if you cook five times a week, and about £96 if you use it twice a day. Put your own rate and frequency into the calculator above for your exact figure.
For small, quick meals, yes: roughly two-thirds cheaper per use, because it heats a 5-litre drawer instead of a 60-litre oven and skips the preheat. For a full family meal cooked in one go, the oven can be cheaper, because one bake replaces several air fryer batches.
Only if it is a higher-wattage or dual-basket model. Running cost depends on the watts on the rating plate, not the brand. A 1,500W Ninja costs the same to run as any other 1,500W air fryer; a 2,400W dual-basket model costs about 60% more per hour.
It tracks the electricity unit rate. At 24.67p per kWh (April to June 2026) a 30-minute cook is about 18p. When the price cap moves each quarter, scale the figure with it: cost is simply power × time × your rate.