Air fryers cook faster and hotter than a conventional oven, which is exactly why your favorite oven recipes come out overdone — or weirdly raw in the middle — when you drop them straight into the basket. The good news: converting an oven recipe to an air fryer is easy once you know the two simple rules.
The two rules of air-fryer conversion
1. Drop the temperature by about 25°F (roughly 15–20°C). An air fryer is basically a small convection oven. The fan circulates hot air right against the food, so it browns and cooks more efficiently. If a recipe says 400°F in the oven, set your air fryer to around 375°F.
2. Cut the cooking time by about 20%. Because that circulating air transfers heat faster, food finishes sooner. A tray of wings that takes 40 minutes in the oven usually needs about 30–32 minutes in the air fryer. Always check a few minutes early the first time you make something.
A quick reference
| Oven | Air fryer (approx.) |
|---|---|
| 350°F, 30 min | 325°F, ~24 min |
| 400°F, 25 min | 375°F, ~20 min |
| 425°F, 20 min | 400°F, ~16 min |
These are starting points, not gospel. Basket air fryers run hotter than oven-style ones, and a crowded basket cooks unevenly, so give food room and shake or flip halfway through.
Foods that convert beautifully
- Chicken thighs, wings, and drumsticks — crispier skin, less time.
- Roasted vegetables — cauliflower, broccoli, potatoes, Brussels sprouts.
- Frozen foods — fries, nuggets, spring rolls (skip the preheat step entirely).
- Reheating leftovers — pizza and fried food come back to life without the sogginess of a microwave.
Foods to be careful with
- Wet batters drip through the basket before they set — use breadcrumbs instead.
- Delicate baked goods can get blown around by the fan; cover loosely with foil.
- Large roasts often don't fit and cook unevenly — the oven still wins here.
Skip the mental math
Rounding "minus 25 degrees and minus 20 percent" in your head while your hands are covered in marinade is annoying. I built a free tool that does it instantly: type in the oven temperature and time, and it gives you the air-fryer equivalent — plus handy oven temperature conversions (°F/°C/gas mark) and cups-to-grams for the recipe itself.
👉 OvenMath — free air fryer conversion calculator
No sign-up, no app to install. Bookmark it next to your air fryer and stop guessing.
The bottom line
Lower the heat by ~25°F, shave off ~20% of the time, don't crowd the basket, and check early. Do that and almost any oven recipe becomes an air-fryer recipe. Once you get a feel for how your specific machine behaves, you'll be converting on autopilot.
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