Air Fryer Accessories Worth Buying (And the Ones to Skip)
Most air fryer accessories are marketing. A handful genuinely improve cooking or cleanup. Here's the honest breakdown of what's actually worth your money — and the gimmicks that just clutter your kitchen drawer.
Within a week of buying an air fryer, you'll get recommended about forty accessories. Cake barrels, skewer racks, silicone mitts, parchment in nine shapes, "all-in-one" kits with a dozen pieces.
Most of it is marketing. A small handful genuinely improves your cooking or cleanup. The rest clutters a drawer until you eventually throw it out.
I went through accessory roundups and owner feedback from several sources — CrispyPicks (who analyzed 40+ accessories across owner reports), Salt and Umber, and a few others — and the consensus is remarkably consistent about what's worth it. Here's the honest breakdown: what to actually buy, and what to skip entirely.
The short version
Four accessories are genuinely worth buying for most people:
Perforated parchment liners — for easy cleanup without blocking airflow.
Reusable silicone liners — for sticky, saucy foods.
A stainless steel rack — to double your cooking capacity.
A refillable oil sprayer — for even, controlled oil application.
That's it. Four things that solve real problems. Everything below explains why these four make the cut and why the rest mostly doesn't.
Worth buying: perforated parchment liners
These are the disposable paper liners with pre-punched holes that sit in the bottom of your basket.
Why they're worth it: cleanup becomes nearly instant. Sticky marinades, melted cheese, and greasy residue land on the liner instead of the basket. You lift it out, toss it, and the basket stays clean. The perforations matter — they let hot air still circulate through to the food, so unlike solid liners, they don't kill your crispiness.
They're cheap (a pack of 100+ runs $8-15), and they extend the life of your basket's non-stick coating by reducing how often you scrub it.
The one rule: always put food on top of the parchment before turning the air fryer on. With nothing weighing it down, the fan can blow the liner up into the heating element and start a fire. We cover this fully in our parchment paper guide.
Worth buying: reusable silicone liners
Silicone liners (or silicone pots, which are deeper with handles) are the reusable alternative to parchment.
Why they're worth it: for sticky and saucy foods — honey-glazed wings, BBQ chicken, anything with a marinade — they prevent the mess from bonding to your basket. They're reusable, so over time they reduce waste compared to disposable parchment. The deeper silicone pots are also good for wetter dishes that would otherwise drip through the basket.
The trade-offs: they block more airflow than perforated parchment, so they slightly reduce crispiness. And there's a safety note — stick to food-grade, BPA-free silicone from reputable brands. Cheap unbranded silicone can off-gas chemicals at high heat. This is one place where buying the bargain version isn't worth it.
Most people who cook a lot of sticky foods keep both: parchment for crispy everyday cooking, silicone for the messy stuff.
Worth buying: a stainless steel rack
This is the accessory that actually changes how you cook.
Why it's worth it: a rack adds a second cooking level inside your air fryer. You can cook chicken on the bottom and vegetables on the top at the same time. For families or anyone batch-cooking, this effectively doubles your capacity without buying a bigger air fryer.
The key is buying a quality stainless steel rack, not a cheap coated one. Cheap racks warp under repeated high heat. Stainless steel ones (typically $15-28) last for years, resist rust, and are usually dishwasher safe.
One caveat: with a multi-layer rack, you need to rotate or swap the layers partway through cooking, because the layer closest to the heating element cooks faster. It's a small extra step for a big capacity gain.
Who should skip it: if you're a single person or couple who cooks one thing at a time, you may never need the second level. This is a families-and-meal-preppers accessory.
Worth buying: a refillable oil sprayer
A small refillable oil sprayer (like the Evo, around $10-15) is one of the best cheap upgrades.
Why it's worth it: it applies a light, even mist of oil instead of the uneven glug you get from pouring. Even oil coverage means better, more consistent crisping, and using less oil overall means less smoking during cooking. You fill it with your own oil — olive, avocado, whatever — so you control exactly what's going on your food.
It also avoids a real problem: commercial aerosol cooking sprays contain propellants and additives (like lecithin) that build up on and degrade your air fryer's non-stick coating over time. Many manufacturers specifically warn against aerosol sprays. A refillable sprayer with plain oil sidesteps this entirely.
For the price, it's close to essential.
Optional: baking pans and silicone pots
These earn a "maybe," depending on how you cook.
A small oven-safe baking pan or silicone pot lets you make things that would otherwise be impossible in an air fryer — cakes, egg bites, casseroles, anything wet or batter-based that would drip through the basket holes.
Why it might be worth it: if you use your air fryer instead of heating a full oven for small baking jobs, this is genuinely practical. It turns the air fryer into a mini oven.
The trade-off: a solid pan blocks airflow, which reduces the crisping that air fryers do best. So these are for baking and wet dishes, not for foods you want crispy. Buy one only if you'll actually bake in your air fryer. If you never bake, skip it.
Same logic applies to pizza pans — worth it if pizza night is a weekly habit, unnecessary if it's occasional.
Skip these: the accessories that waste money
Here's what the research consistently flags as not worth buying.
All-in-one accessory kits. These bundles contain 7-9 items, of which most people use 2-3. You pay for cake barrels, skewer racks, egg molds, and pizza pans you'll never touch. Buy the specific things you'll use instead. (Kits do make reasonable gifts for someone who just got their first air fryer — just not great value for yourself.)
Anything plastic. Plastic accessories can warp or melt at air fryer temperatures. Avoid plastic anything that goes in the cooking chamber.
Cheap unbranded silicone. As noted, the off-gassing risk isn't worth the few dollars saved. Buy food-grade from known brands or don't buy silicone at all.
Rotisserie attachments. They look impressive but rarely get used daily. Most owners use them once or twice, then never again.
Novelty molds and gadgets. Egg-bite molds, specialty shaped pans, and similar items are usually single-purpose things that take up drawer space. Buy them only if you have a specific recurring use.
Anything that covers the whole basket bottom. This blocks the airflow that makes an air fryer work. Accessories should always be smaller than the basket, leaving room for air to circulate.
The one rule for buying any accessory
Before buying anything, check your air fryer's size and basket shape.
Square baskets need square accessories. Round baskets need round ones. An accessory that's too big blocks airflow and gives you unevenly cooked food. One that's too small wastes the space.
The rule of thumb: buy accessories slightly smaller than your basket's interior dimensions, so air can still circulate around the edges. Check your air fryer's quart capacity and basket shape before ordering anything.
The bottom line
For most air fryer owners, four accessories genuinely improve the experience: perforated parchment liners, reusable silicone liners, a stainless steel rack, and a refillable oil sprayer. Together they cost under $60 and solve the real problems — cleanup, sticky foods, limited capacity, and uneven oil.
A baking pan or silicone pot is worth adding if you bake in your air fryer. Everything else — the kits, the plastic gadgets, the rotisserie attachments, the novelty molds — is mostly marketing designed to part you from your money.
Buy the four that work. Skip the rest. Your air fryer doesn't need forty accessories; it needs the handful that solve problems you actually have.
For related guidance, our parchment paper guide and aluminum foil guide cover liners in depth. For keeping everything clean, our cleaning guide walks through the process. And our complete guide to air fryers covers everything else.
Sources and further reading
The information in this article is based on the following sources:
- CrispyPicks — "Best Air Fryer Accessories Worth Buying in 2026"
- Salt and Umber — "15 Best Air Fryer Accessories for 2026"
- The Bridge Finds — "Best Air Fryer Accessories 2026 (Worth Buying or Not?)"
- Shark Fryer — "9 Best Air Fryer Accessories in 2026"
Prices reflect ranges observed during research and change frequently. Always verify current pricing and check accessory compatibility with your specific air fryer model before buying.
Four accessories genuinely earn their place: perforated parchment liners (for easy cleanup and airflow), reusable silicone liners (for sticky foods), a stainless steel rack (to double your cooking capacity), and a refillable oil sprayer (for even, controlled oil use). Everything else is mostly optional or gimmicky. These four solve real problems most air fryer owners have.
Usually not. The bundled all-in-one kits typically contain 7-9 items, of which you'll realistically use 2-3. You pay for cake barrels, skewer racks, and pizza pans you'll never touch. It's better to buy the specific accessories you'll actually use individually. Kits make decent gifts for new owners but are rarely the best value for yourself.
Only if you want to cook two foods at once or batch-cook for a family. A stainless steel rack adds a second cooking level, letting you cook chicken on the bottom and vegetables on top simultaneously. For singles or couples cooking one thing at a time, it's optional. For families and meal preppers, it's the single most useful accessory.
Food-grade silicone liners from reputable brands are safe and reusable. The concern is cheap, unbranded silicone, which can off-gas chemicals at high heat. Stick to food-grade, BPA-free silicone from known brands. They're great for sticky and saucy foods, though they slightly reduce crispiness compared to cooking directly in the basket.
Both have a place. Perforated parchment is disposable, lets more air through (better crispiness), and is ideal for everyday use. Reusable silicone liners are better for sticky or saucy foods and reduce waste over time but block more airflow. Many people keep both — parchment for crispy foods, silicone for messy ones.
Yes, a refillable oil sprayer is one of the best inexpensive accessories. It lets you apply a light, even coat of oil rather than over-pouring, which improves crispiness and reduces smoking. Refillable sprayers (like the Evo) also avoid the propellants and additives found in aerosol cooking sprays, which can damage non-stick coatings over time.
Skip: anything plastic (it can warp or melt), cheap unbranded silicone (off-gassing concerns), large all-in-one bundle kits (full of items you won't use), rotisserie attachments (rarely used daily), and most novelty molds. Also avoid accessories that cover the entire basket bottom, since they block the airflow that makes air fryers work.
No. Accessories must match your air fryer's size and basket shape. Square baskets need square accessories; round baskets need round ones. Always check your air fryer's quart capacity and basket shape before buying racks, pans, or liners. An accessory that's too big blocks airflow; one that's too small wastes space. Buy slightly smaller than your basket dimensions.
Yes, a small oven-safe baking pan or silicone pot lets you make cakes, egg bites, casseroles, and dishes that would otherwise drip through the basket. The trade-off is airflow — a solid pan reduces the circulation that crisps food, so it's best for baking and wet dishes, not for foods you want crispy. Make sure it fits with room for air to circulate.