Fan Oven to Air Fryer Converter
Enter your fan or convection oven recipe settings. Celsius first, because most fan oven recipes are.
Fan oven recipes convert gently: only a small temperature drop and about 15% off the time. Check a few minutes early on the first cook.
Converting from a conventional (non fan) oven instead? Use the main oven to air fryer calculator. Popular Celsius temperatures also have their own pages: 180°C, 200°C and 220°C.
Why Fan Ovens Convert Differently
A fan oven (called a convection oven in North America) uses a fan to move hot air around the cavity, which is the same principle an air fryer uses at higher intensity. Because of that fan, a fan oven at 180°C cooks like a conventional oven at 200°C. Recipes written for fan ovens already account for this extra power. Apply the standard oven to air fryer rule of minus 20°C and minus 20% to a fan oven recipe and you subtract the fan advantage twice, which leaves food undercooked in the middle or forces you to add time back by trial and error.
The correct fan oven rule is gentler: drop the temperature by only 10°C (about 20°F) and reduce the time by about 15%. A fan oven recipe at 180°C for 30 minutes becomes roughly 170°C for 25 minutes in the air fryer. British, Irish, Australian and New Zealand recipes usually state the fan temperature, sometimes written as "180°C fan" or "160°C fan/180°C conventional", so check which number you are holding before you convert.
Not Sure if Your Recipe Is Fan or Conventional?
If a recipe lists two Celsius temperatures 20 degrees apart, the lower one is the fan setting. If it lists one temperature and comes from a UK or Australian source published in the last decade, it is probably fan. American recipes in Fahrenheit are conventional unless they say "convection". When genuinely unsure, treat it as conventional and use the standard conversion chart; the worst case is food that finishes a couple of minutes early.
Fan Oven to Air Fryer Conversion Chart
Common fan oven temperatures with their conventional equivalents and air fryer settings.
| Fan Oven (°C) | Conventional Equivalent (°C) | Air Fryer (°C) | Air Fryer (°F) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 140°C fan | 160°C | 130°C | 270°F |
| 160°C fan | 180°C | 150°C | 300°F |
| 170°C fan | 190°C | 160°C | 320°F |
| 180°C fan | 200°C | 170°C | 340°F |
| 190°C fan | 210°C | 180°C | 355°F |
| 200°C fan | 220°C | 190°C | 375°F |
| 220°C fan | 240°C | 200°C | 390°F |
Time rule for all rows: reduce the fan oven recipe time by about 15%.
Fan Oven to Air Fryer: Frequently Asked Questions
180°C fan converts to about 170°C in the air fryer, with cooking time reduced by roughly 15%. So a fan oven recipe at 180°C for 30 minutes becomes about 170°C for 25 minutes.
Yes. Fan oven is the British and Australian term and convection oven is the North American term for the same thing: an oven with a fan that circulates hot air. Both convert to the air fryer with the same gentle rule on this page.
Mechanically they are close cousins, but the air fryer's small chamber and powerful fan create much faster airflow across the food. That is why even a fan oven recipe still needs a small temperature and time reduction when moved to the air fryer.
Either works if you use the matching rule. Convert the fan number with this page's rule (minus 10°C, minus 15% time), or convert the conventional number with the standard rule (minus 20°C, minus 20% time). Both land on the same air fryer setting.