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Air Fryer Conversion

With oven temperature 350 °F, oven time 20 min, air fryer conversion comes to 16 min — air fryer time. It is reached in 5 steps, the last of which is 20 * 0.8, and each one is printed on the page with its numbers filled in. The formula is the one published by Cuisinart, not an approximation fitted to it.

Converts an oven temperature and time to air fryer settings — 25 °F cooler and about a fifth less time — and gives the point to start checking.

Formula and sources checked · How we check

Oven temperature 350 °F, Oven time 20 min

16 min

Air fryer time for the example below. Editing a field recomputes the calculator below; this figure holds the answer the page was loaded with.

It is written into the HTML rather than drawn by a script, so a search engine reading this page without running JavaScript still finds an answer.

Air fryer time
16 min
Air fryer temperature
350 - 25325 °F
Air fryer temperature in Celsius
round((350 - 25 - 32) * 5 / 9)163 °C
Air fryer time
20 * 0.816 min
Start checking at
max(1, 16 - max(2, 16 * 0.15))13.6 min
Minutes saved
20 - 164 min

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Worked example

Cookies at 350 °F for 20 minutes become 325 °F for 16 minutes, which is the example Cuisinart prints for the same rule. Start looking at 13.6 minutes: baskets are small and the fan is close, so the last two minutes are where a batch goes from browned to burnt.

How to work it out yourself

  1. 1.The temperature drop is fixed at 25 °F and the time cut is proportional, so a long roast saves more minutes than a short bake — 45 minutes becomes 36, but 10 becomes 8.
  2. 2.Cook in a single layer. The conversion assumes air can reach every surface, which is the whole mechanism; a crowded basket cooks like a covered oven dish and takes longer, not less.
  3. 3.Doneness is a temperature, not a time. Poultry still needs 165 °F inside and ground meat 160 °F whatever the basket says, and a thermometer is the only thing that settles it.

The formula

  1. Air fryer temperature350 - 25
  2. Air fryer temperature in Celsiusround((350 - 25 - 32) * 5 / 9)
  3. Air fryer time20 * 0.8
  4. Start checking atmax(1, 16 - max(2, 16 * 0.15))
  5. Minutes saved20 - 16

Source: Cuisinart — the air fryer conversion chart, USDA FSIS — safe minimum internal temperature chart

Questions people actually ask

Why 25 degrees and not more?
An air fryer is a small convection oven: the fan moves heat onto the food faster than still air does, so the same browning happens at a lower set point. 25 °F is the figure appliance makers publish for the swap, and it is the same adjustment ovens ask for when you switch the convection fan on.
Does the conversion work in reverse?
Yes. Add 25 °F and divide the time by 0.8 — an air fryer recipe of 375 °F for 12 minutes is 400 °F for 15 minutes in an oven. The single-layer caveat disappears going this way, because an oven has room.
Do I still need to preheat?
For anything under about 10 minutes, yes: a basket that starts cold spends the first two minutes heating instead of cooking, which is most of a short bake. For a 40-minute roast it makes little difference.
Why does my food come out drier than the oven version?
The moving air carries moisture off the surface faster. Lightly oiling the surface, or covering for the first half, gets it back. It is also why the time cut exists at all — the same doneness arrives sooner because the surface dries and browns sooner.

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