The Ninja AF101 is a small air fryer suitable for cooking for one or two people. As you might expect from a 4-quart fryer, it has a compact design that makes it suitable for smaller kitchens. It's one of Ninja's first air fryer models, and has a simple design, with four modes and no extra features like a preheat mode or shake reminder.
Our Verdict
The Ninja AF101 is a good air fryer. It's very versatile, with a wide range of temperature settings and fan speeds, making it useful for cooking methods besides air frying, like dehydrating. It's fast. That said, it doesn't have the best air-frying performance, as quite a big proportion of air-fried foods like chicken wings or vegetables end up under or over-cooked. It has a small cooking surface area because of its small capacity, and cooking less food at once might produce better results.
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Cooks food quickly.
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Good range of fan speeds and temperature settings.
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Somewhat small cooking surface area.
The Ninja AF101 air fryer is decent for large-batch cooking. It's a 4qt air fryer, so it's not intended for people who need to cook for a crowd. However, for its capacity, it has a reasonable amount of surface area in its basket, so you have more room to arrange your food in a single layer compared with some air fryers with similar overall capacities. It's also very versatile and makes decent-quality air-fried food quickly.
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Cooks food quickly.
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Good range of fan speeds and temperature settings.
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Small overall capacity.
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Somewhat small cooking surface area.
The Ninja AF101 air fryer has a decent air frying performance. While it has a fast maximum fan speed and cooks food quickly, a large proportion of air-fried foods like vegetables, breaded meat, or fish come out either under or overcooked. It has a small overall capacity and, as a result, a small cooking surface area, which affects its performance. It also requires a long time to come back up to temperature after you add food, which can make it harder to follow recipes and means your food gets cooked at a lower temperature for longer than most air fryers.
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Cooks food quickly.
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Somewhat small cooking surface area.
The Ninja 4qt air fryer is fast. It preheats in less time than the recommended three minutes, and it cooks food quickly.
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Cooks food quickly.
The Ninja 4qt air fryer has a reasonable cooking surface area for its capacity, but it's a small air fryer that isn't intended for cooking for big groups.
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Small overall capacity.
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Somewhat small cooking surface area.
The Ninja 4qt air fryer is a small air fryer well-suited for cramped kitchens and crowded counters.
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Compact design.
- 7.7 Air Frying
- 7.2 Large Batch Cooking
Performance Usages
- 7.4 Frying Performance
- 8.3 Cooking Speed
- 6.8 Cooking Capacity
- 7.5 Size
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
The Ninja AF101 comes in 'Grey' (AF101) or 'Charcoal Grey' (AF100). We tested the 'Grey' version, and you can see the label for the unit we tested.
If you encounter another variant, let us know in the comments, and we'll update our review.
Compared To Other Air Fryers
The Ninja AF101 is a compact air fryer with a small 4-qt capacity. It offers great versatility, with a wide range of temperatures and fan speed settings, although it doesn't get as hot as the similar (but bigger) Ninja Max XL AF161. It produces decent-quality fried food, but compared to other air fryers, it takes a very long time to heat back up to the selected temperature after you add your ingredients. This can affect frying quality if your food needs to be cooked quickly at high heat and makes it more difficult to accurately follow recipes.
If you're looking for a recommendation, check out our list of the best air fryers.
Test Results
It has a small 4-qt capacity overall and, as a result, doesn't have a huge cooking surface area. You have limited space to arrange food in a single layer. Like most other Ninja air fryers, its crisper tray has a ceramic non-stick coating, which you might prefer if you avoid PTFE materials. The ceramic isn't as easy to clean by hand as traditional non-stick coatings.
It has great versatility. While it only has four modes for different cooking methods, it offers a wide range of temperatures and fan speeds. The maximum fan speed is quite fast, which helps with quickly crisping food, and its lowest fan speed is much slower, which is useful for dehydrating. However, it doesn't get as hot as the Ninja Max XL AF161, a similar model with a bigger overall capacity.
Each mode has a different default temperature and time, which you can then adjust.
- Air Fry: Maximum fan speed. Default settings are 390°F and 20 minutes
- Roast: Default settings are 375°F and 15 minutes
- Reheat: Default settings are 350°F and 15 minutes
- Dehydrate: Minimum fan speed. Default settings are 150°F and six hours (time is adjustable only in 15-minute increments)
The Ninja AF101 air fryer makes decent-quality fried food. When you air fry foods like Brussels sprouts or chicken wings, most of them come out well-cooked and golden brown. However, almost as many are either undercooked or overcooked, so this model doesn't air fry very evenly.
It has decent temperature stability. However, it doesn't recover its temperature quickly after opening the drawer to add food. As a result, your food gets cooked at a lower temperature for longer than most air fryers, which can affect the quality of the results and make it more difficult to follow recipes accurately. That said, once it heats back up, it does a good job of maintaining a stable temperature during cooking.