Preheat your air fryer to 270°F / 130°C, put the eggs in a single layer, and cook: 9 minutes for soft, 11 for jammy, 15 for hard boiled. Move them straight into ice water for 5 minutes. No water in the basket, and no waiting for a pot to boil.
15 minutes, large egg, straight from the fridge. Fully set, no grey ring.
Fully set, no grey ring
Preheat to 270°F, then start
15:00
The countdown needs JavaScript. The times below are correct without it.
Start it when the eggs go in.
Method, altitude, and other eggs
Only matters above about 3,000 ft. If your city isn’t listed, you’re fine on the standard times. Learn more
| Doneness | Medium | Large | Extra large | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soft | Runny yolk, set whites | |||
| Jammy | Custardy centre, the ramen-egg standard | |||
| Hard | Fully set, no grey ring |
Why air fryer eggs work at all
There’s no water involved, which sounds like it shouldn’t produce a “boiled” egg — and technically it doesn’t. An air fryer bakes the egg in circulating hot air, and the egg cooks from the inside out via its own moisture. The result is textturally indistinguishable from a boiled egg, with two practical differences: the shells often peel more easily, and you skip the five minutes of waiting for water to boil.
The temperature is deliberately low. At 270°F / 130°C the air is hot but not violent, so the egg heats at roughly the rate boiling water would manage. Crank it to 400°F and you get a rubbery white and a scorched shell before the yolk sets.
The method
1. Preheat to 270°F / 130°C
Actually preheat — three to five minutes. An air fryer that’s still coming up to temperature is cooking your eggs at an unknown speed, and this is a method where the whole appeal is repeatability.
2. Eggs in one layer, not touching
Air circulation is doing all the work here. Stacked eggs shield each other and cook unevenly, so if you need more than fits in one layer, run two batches. Straight from the fridge is the assumption for every time below.
3. Cook
Soft 9:00, jammy 11:00, hard 15:00 for a large egg. Start the timer when the basket goes in, not when you press the button.
4. Ice bath, five minutes
Non-negotiable, exactly as with a pot. The egg keeps cooking on its own residual heat, and the rapid cooling is a large part of why the shells come away cleanly. Have the bowl ready before the timer sounds.
Air fryer egg times
| Doneness | Time | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Soft | 9:00 | Set white, runny yolk |
| Jammy | 11:00 | Custardy centre, holds its shape |
| Hard | 15:00 | Fully set, tender |
Add about 30 seconds per egg-size step up from large, subtract 30 seconds per step down. Altitude, unusually, doesn’t apply here — dry heat at 270°F is 270°F in Denver as much as in Miami, which makes this one of the better methods for cooking at altitude.
Basket models run hotter than oven-style
This is the one real caveat. A compact basket air fryer sits the eggs close to the element and moves air fast; a larger oven-style unit is gentler. The times above are a middle position, and the first time you use a new machine, check a minute or two early. Once you know your machine’s offset it’s constant, so write it down — that’s the whole calibration.
Signs you’re running hot: browned or blistered spots on the shell, or a white that’s noticeably rubbery. Drop the temperature to 250°F / 120°C and add two minutes.
Air fryer vs boiling
| Air fryer | Stovetop | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to first egg | ~15 min hard, no boil wait | ~11 min plus 5–8 min boiling |
| Precision | Good; varies by machine | Excellent; water is a fixed temperature |
| Peeling | Usually easy | Depends on egg age |
| Batch size | One layer only | As many as fit the pot |
| At altitude | Unaffected | Needs adjustment |
Boiling water holds a fixed temperature by physics, which is why the stovetop method remains the most precise. The air fryer wins on convenience and on not having a pot to watch. Both are compared against every other approach on the methods hub.
Cooking a batch for the week? They keep up to a week refrigerated, and they store best left in the shell.
Air fryer egg questions
How long do you cook eggs in an air fryer?
At 270°F / 130°C: 9 minutes for soft boiled, 11 for jammy, and 15 for hard boiled large eggs, followed by 5 minutes in ice water. Basket-style air fryers run hotter than oven-style ones, so check a minute or two early the first time with a new machine.
Do you need water in the air fryer for eggs?
No. The egg cooks in circulating hot air using its own internal moisture — adding water to the basket does nothing useful and can damage some machines. That’s also why this method skips the wait for a pot to boil.
Do air fryer eggs peel more easily?
Usually, yes. The dry heat combined with an immediate ice bath tends to separate the shell membrane from the white more reliably than boiling does, though very fresh eggs are still harder to peel with any method.
Will eggs explode in an air fryer?
Not at 270°F in the shell — the shell is porous enough to vent the small amount of steam that builds. Higher temperatures raise the risk, which is another reason to keep it at 270°F rather than reaching for a faster setting.
Why do my air fryer eggs have brown spots on the shell?
Your machine is running hotter than the setting suggests, or the eggs sat too close to the element. Drop to 250°F / 120°C and add about two minutes. The spots are cosmetic — the egg inside is fine — but they signal the whites may be turning rubbery.
Pre-set for the air fryer
Already loaded with 270°F timings, adjustable for egg size, with the ice bath chained on automatically.