Air Fryer Steak
Temperature
400°F
200°C
Time
12 min
2 steaks
Safe internal
145°F
63°C · piping hot
Prep
5 min
Cook
12 min
Total
17 min
Steak works well in the air fryer when the stovetop's busy - you get a decent crust while keeping an eye on the inside. It suits thicker cuts best, and a quick sear in a hot pan afterwards lifts the crust further.
Ingredients
Quantities for 2 steaks - the times on this page assume that much in the basket.
- 2 steaks, about 1 inch thick
- 1 tsp oil
- Flaky salt and coarse black pepper
- 1 garlic clove and a knob of butter, to finish
How to air fry steak
- Take the steaks out of the fridge, pat them dry and rub with the oil, then season heavily with the flaky salt and pepper. The butter and garlic go on at the end, not in the basket.
- Preheat the air fryer to 400°F (200°C).
- Add the fresh steak to the basket. Don't stack the steaks.
- Cook for about 12 minutes, flipping it once halfway through.
- Check it has reached a safe internal temperature of 145°F (63°C) before serving.
Pro tip
Rest for 5-10 minutes after cooking-crucial for tenderness.
How to tell when it's done
Go by temperature, not the clock: 130°F (54°C) for medium-rare, 140°F (60°C) for medium, with 145°F (63°C) the safe minimum. Always a five-minute rest before slicing.
Safe internal temperature
Cook to 145°F (63°C) at the thickest point. An instant-read thermometer is the only reliable way to confirm it.
How to air fry a steak: the air fryer cooks it evenly, the pan gives it colour
How to cook a steak in an air fryer is mostly a question of what you ask it to do. Pat two 1-inch steaks dry, oil and season them heavily, then cook at 400°F (200°C) for about 12 minutes, flipping once halfway, and pull them by temperature rather than by the clock - 130°F (54°C) for medium-rare, with 145°F (63°C) the safe minimum. That much is straightforward. The part worth understanding is why this reliably gives you a good steak with an average crust, and what to do about the crust.
Air is a poor way to build a crust, and the reason is physics rather than a fault in the machine. Browning needs the surface itself driven well past boiling, and heat reaches that surface either by contact with something solid or by air moving across it. Metal is enormously better at this than air is - a cast-iron pan at 450°F pushes heat into the steak the moment they touch, while 400°F air has to work at it for minutes. This site makes the same argument the other way round almost everywhere else: the perforated basket is an advantage on wings and sprouts precisely because metal conducts so well. On a steak that identical physics becomes the limitation, because the surface is in a race with the middle, and here the middle wins.
So split the job. The air fryer is genuinely good at bringing a thick cut evenly up to temperature without leaving a cold band through the centre, which is the hard part and the part a ripping-hot pan is worst at. Let it do the cooking, then give a smoking-hot dry pan sixty seconds a side purely for the colour. That is the same division of labour as a reverse sear, though not the same method - a true reverse sear runs much lower and much longer, nearer 225°F for half an hour, and the 400°F on this page is the quicker weeknight version of the idea rather than the full one. It also explains the thickness rule: a steak an inch thick or more has enough mass that the middle lags behind the surface, so there is time for some colour to develop, whereas a thin steak is at 145°F throughout before it has browned at all. Thin steaks belong in a pan. Thick ones are where the air fryer earns its place.
Converting from an oven recipe
If your recipe is written for a conventional oven, lower the temperature by about 25°F (15°C) and reduce the time by roughly 20% to land near 400°F for 12 minutes. Need a different starting point? Use the conversion calculator.
Air fryer steak: FAQ
Can you air fry steak?
Yes, and it works better than most people expect - a 1-inch steak at 400°F (200°C) for about 12 minutes, flipped once halfway, comes out evenly cooked with no grey band under the surface. What it will not give you is the dark, brittle crust of a pan sear, because air moves heat into a surface far more slowly than hot metal does. If that crust matters, use the air fryer for the cooking and finish with sixty seconds a side in a smoking-hot dry pan. Either way go by internal temperature rather than the clock: 130°F (54°C) for medium-rare, 145°F (63°C) as the safe minimum, then rest it for five minutes.
Should steak come to room temperature before air frying?
It matters less than it is usually claimed, but taking the steaks out of the fridge is still worth doing - just not for the reason most recipes give. A 1-inch steak left on the counter for thirty minutes rises only a few degrees in the middle, nowhere near enough to change the cooking time. What those thirty minutes genuinely do is dry the surface, and a dry surface is the prerequisite for any browning at all. So the honest version of the instruction is: take them out, pat them dry, salt them and leave them uncovered. If you are short of time, skip the waiting and just dry them thoroughly - that was the half doing the work.
How long does it take to air fry steak?
Air fry steak at 400°F (200°C) for about 12 minutes, flipping it once halfway through. That's for 2 steaks in a single layer; adjust slightly for a fuller basket or a different model.
What temperature do you air fry steak at?
Set the air fryer to 400°F (200°C). If you're converting an oven recipe, that's roughly 25°F (15°C) below the oven temperature, with the time cut by about 20%.
Do I need to preheat the air fryer for steak?
A 2-3 minute preheat gives the most accurate timing and the best browning, but it isn't essential - if you skip it, add a minute or two to the cook time.
What's the safe internal temperature for steak?
Cook steak to a safe internal temperature of 145°F (63°C), measured at the thickest point with an instant-read thermometer. Cooking time is a guide; internal temperature is what confirms it's safely done.