Air fryer recipes are everywhere, and plenty of good cooks have no air fryer. The conversion runs in reverse just as cleanly: raise the heat, stretch the time, and mind the rack.
To convert an air fryer recipe to a conventional oven: add 25 degrees Fahrenheit (15 degrees Celsius) to the temperature and multiply the time by 1.25. A recipe written as 375 F for 16 minutes in the air fryer becomes 400 F for 20 minutes in the oven.
Working the other direction? The calculator converts oven settings to air fryer settings; reverse the math above to go back.
The reverse rules
An air fryer cooks with a lower temperature and a shorter time than a still oven needs, so reversing a recipe means undoing both changes. Add 25 degrees Fahrenheit to the air fryer temperature to get the oven temperature, and multiply the air fryer minutes by 1.25 to get the oven time. In Celsius, add 15 degrees instead of 25.
The 1.25 multiplier is the exact inverse of the forward 0.8 factor, so a recipe converted oven to air fryer and back lands where it started. That symmetry is a useful sanity check: if the round trip does not return to the original numbers, one of the two conversions has an arithmetic slip.
Worked examples
Air fryer wings at 400 F for 25 minutes become 425 F for about 31 minutes in the oven (25 times 1.25 is 31.25; call it 30 to 32 and check early). Frozen nuggets at 400 F for 10 minutes become 425 F for 12 to 13 minutes. A vegetable roast at 350 F for 20 minutes becomes 375 F for 25 minutes.
One more, in the other direction to show the symmetry: an oven recipe at 375 F for 25 minutes converts forward to 350 F for 20 minutes in the air fryer, and reversing 350 F for 20 minutes gives 375 F for 25 minutes right back. The rules are consistent both ways.
Preheat fully, and use the rack
The oven needs a full preheat in a way the air fryer does not. Give it a solid 10 to 15 minutes past the beep, because oven thermostats routinely declare victory early. Place food on the upper-middle rack, where browning is strongest, and give breaded items a wire rack set inside the sheet pan so hot air reaches the underside. That rack trick recovers much of the crispness the air fryer would have provided for free.
What does not convert back well
Foods whose whole point is the air fryer's blast of circulating air lose something in a still oven. Ultra-crisp coatings and foods cooked in a single thin layer, like homemade chips, come out less shatteringly crisp. They are still good; they are just not identical. Compensate with the wire rack, a light oil spray, and the upper rack position.
Anything the air fryer finishes in under 8 minutes deserves skepticism in reverse: very short air fryer times often rely on intense direct heat, and the oven version may need a broiler finish rather than just stretched time. If the converted time looks suspiciously long for a delicate food, it probably is.
The convection oven shortcut
If your oven has a convection or fan mode, you barely need this guide. A convection oven is a large air fryer, and most air fryer recipes work in convection mode with little or no change: use the air fryer temperature as written, or drop it by about 10 degrees, and keep the air fryer time. Only still-oven (conventional bake mode) cooking needs the full reverse conversion above.
A full recipe, converted end to end
Take a typical air fryer recipe: salmon fillets at 400 F for 8 to 10 minutes. Reverse it step by step. Add 25 degrees: 425 F. Multiply the time by 1.25: 8 minutes becomes 10, 10 becomes 12.5, so call it 10 to 13 minutes. Preheat the oven fully to 425 F, line a sheet pan with foil, and set a wire rack inside it.
Lay the fillets on the rack with space between them, skin side down, on the upper-middle rack. Flip is unnecessary for fish this thin, but rotate the pan once halfway since most ovens have hot spots. Start checking at 10 minutes: the salmon is done when it flakes easily and the thickest part is opaque throughout. The whole conversion took four numbers and one rack, and dinner lands within a few minutes of the air fryer version.
Frequently asked questions
How do you convert air fryer time to oven time?
Multiply the air fryer minutes by 1.25 and add 25 F (15 C) to the temperature. A 16-minute air fryer recipe at 375 F becomes 20 minutes at 400 F in a conventional oven.
What is 400 F in an air fryer converted to oven temperature?
425 F. Add 25 degrees to the air fryer temperature, and stretch the time by multiplying by 1.25.
Can I cook any air fryer recipe in a regular oven?
Yes, using the reverse conversion. Expect slightly less crispness on breaded foods; a wire rack inside the sheet pan and the upper-middle rack position recover most of it.
Is an air fryer the same as a convection oven?
Essentially a small, high-speed one. If your oven has a convection or fan mode, use the air fryer temperature as written (or 10 degrees lower) with the same time, and skip the reverse conversion.
Do I still need to flip food when converting to the oven?
Yes. Ovens brown less evenly than air fryers, so the flip or shake step matters even more in the converted version.
Related conversion guides
Oven to Air Fryer Conversion: The Two Rules: Oven to air fryer conversion: the 25-degree rule with worked examples.
Air Fryer Conversion Chart: Air fryer conversion chart: every temperature and time, tabulated.
How Long to Cook Chicken Wings in an Air Fryer: How long to cook chicken wings in an air fryer: fresh and frozen times.
Microwave to Air Fryer Conversion: Microwave to air fryer conversion: times for frozen foods.