Air Fryer Fried Eggs (Sunny Side Up in 5 Min)

Air fryer fried eggs give you crispy lacy edges and a soft, runny yolk in about five minutes — no skillet, no oil splatter, and no flipping required.

I started making fried eggs this way during a hotel stay with my family, when the kids wanted fried egg sandwiches and all I had was the little air fryer I’d packed. Now it’s how I make them at home most mornings. You crack the eggs into a pan, set the timer, and walk away. The stovetop version needs babysitting; this one doesn’t.

The other thing I love: the doneness is completely predictable. Once you know your machine, you can hit the same yolk every single time just by changing the number on the timer. I’ve included the full time chart below so you can dial in sunny side up, over medium, or fully set yolks without guessing.

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Naturally low carb and keto friendly at roughly 75 calories per egg.
• Five minutes, start to finish. Faster than heating a skillet.
• No flipping. The circulating air sets the top of the white for you.
• No oil splatter and almost nothing to clean up.
• Repeatable results. Pick your yolk, set the time, done.
• Works for sunny side up, over medium, and hard yolks — instructions for all three below.

Ingredients

• Eggs — Large, and ideally at room temperature. Cold eggs from the fridge need an extra 30 to 60 seconds.
• Cooking spray — Olive oil or avocado oil spray. This is the difference between an egg that slides out and an egg you scrape out.
• Salt — A pinch per egg, added after cooking.
• Black pepper — Freshly ground, also after cooking.

Equipment

You need a small vessel that fits inside your basket. Cracking an egg directly onto the basket floor sends the white through the perforations, so use one of these instead:

• A 3 to 4 inch mini cake pan
• A silicone egg mold
• An oven-safe ramekin

Silicone is the easiest to release. Metal gives you the crispiest edges.

How to Make Fried Eggs in an Air Fryer

Step 1 — Preheat. Run the air fryer at 370°F for 3 minutes with the empty pan inside. A preheated pan is what sets the bottom of the white quickly and gives you the crisp edge. Skipping this is the single most common reason people end up with a pale, rubbery egg.

Step 2 — Grease the pan. Coat the hot pan generously with cooking spray, right up the sides.

Step 3 — Crack the eggs. Crack each egg into a small bowl first, then pour it into the pan. This sounds fussy, but it’s how you avoid breaking a yolk directly into the pan and losing it. One egg per pan, and leave space between pans so air can circulate.

Step 4 — Air fry at 370°F. Start with 5 minutes for a classic sunny side up egg with a fully set white and a runny yolk. See the chart below for other doneness levels.

Step 5 — Check and adjust. Pull the pan and look at the white. It should be opaque all the way through with no clear, jiggly spots. If any remain, add 60 seconds and check again.

Step 6 — Season and serve. Slide the egg out with a thin flexible spatula, then season with salt and pepper. Salting before cooking draws moisture out of the white and can leave you with a watery texture, so wait until it’s on the plate.

How Long to Cook Fried Eggs in an Air Fryer

All times are at 370°F using room-temperature large eggs in a preheated pan:

Doneness	Time	What you get
Sunny side up	4–5 minutes	White just set, fully liquid yolk
Over easy style	5–6 minutes	White fully set, yolk still runs
Over medium	6–7 minutes	Jammy, thickened yolk
Over hard	7–8 minutes	Yolk completely firm through

Wattage matters more than you’d think. A 1700-watt air fryer will hit these marks a full minute before a 1000-watt model. The first time you make these, check at the low end of the range and write down what worked on your machine.

If you like the thickened, custardy yolk in that 6–7 minute window, you’ll probably also like air fryer jammy eggs and air fryer soft boiled eggs, which land in the same territory using the shell instead of a pan.

How to Make Over Easy Eggs in the Air Fryer

A true over easy egg is flipped, and you can do it here — but you almost never need to. The circulating air cooks the top of the white from above, so at 5 to 6 minutes you get the same result an over easy egg is after: no translucent white anywhere, yolk still liquid.

If you specifically want the flipped look, cook for 4 minutes, slide a thin spatula under the egg, flip it in the pan, and give it 45 to 60 more seconds. Flip gently — the set white is more fragile than it looks in a skillet, because there’s no fat cushioning the bottom.

For Extra Crispy Edges

The lacy, browned edge is the best part of a diner fried egg, and it comes from fat contacting the white at high heat. To get it in an air fryer:

• Preheat the pan. Non-negotiable.
• Use a metal mini cake pan rather than silicone.
• Add ½ teaspoon of butter to the hot pan and let it melt before the egg goes in.
• Bump the temperature to 390°F and shave a minute off the time.

Common Mistakes

Not preheating. The egg heats up slowly with the pan and steams instead of frying. Pale, soft, no crisp.

Under-greasing. A dry pan means the white bonds to it and tears when you lift it out.

Crowding the basket. Two pans jammed against each other block airflow, and you get one egg done and one underdone. Leave a finger’s width between them.

Salting before cooking. Salt pulls water out of the raw white, which then pools in the pan.

Cracking straight into the basket. The white drains through the holes and burns onto the heating element.

What to Serve With Air Fryer Fried Eggs

The runny yolk is a sauce, so anything you’d want sauce on works. A fried egg on air fryer chile cheese toast is a genuinely great five-minute dinner, and it’s excellent on a thick slice of air fryer Boston brown bread with butter.

For a full breakfast plate, pair them with frozen hash browns in the air fryer or air fryer pancakes and sausage on a stick, both of which cook at a similar temperature so you can run them back to back.

Sliding a fried egg onto something already assembled is where this really earns its place. Try it on top of an air fryer stuffed avocado, tucked into a copycat McDonald’s breakfast burrito with a spoonful of copycat Chipotle corn salsa, or on a split air fryer everything bagel.

It also turns a salad into dinner — break the yolk over an air fryer spinach strawberry salad and it dresses itself. And a fried egg on an air fryer cheeseburger crunch wrap is the move if you’ve never tried an egg on a burger.

Storage and Reheating

Fried eggs are best eaten immediately — that’s the honest answer. A runny yolk doesn’t survive storage.

If you’re meal prepping, cook the yolks to the 7–8 minute mark so they’re fully set, cool them completely, and refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 3 days. Reheat at 300°F for 2 minutes. Don’t microwave a whole yolk; it can burst.

Other Ways to Cook Eggs in the Air Fryer

Once you’ve got fried eggs down, air fryer baked eggs use the same pan and the same temperature with a slightly longer cook. Air fryer eggs Benedict is the weekend version of this exact technique, and air fryer egg in the hole cooks the egg and the toast together in one basket.

For a savory breakfast that uses a fried egg as a component, there’s air fryer sausage, egg, and cheese breakfast sliders and the copycat Starbucks bacon, sausage, and egg wrap.

Browse everything in the egg recipes section, or see all my air fryer recipes.

Air Fryer Fried Eggs FAQs

How long do you cook a fried egg in an air fryer? Five minutes at 370°F for a set white and runny yolk. Go to 6–7 minutes for a jammy yolk and 7–8 minutes for a firm one. Higher-wattage air fryers run about a minute faster.

What temperature is best for air fryer eggs? 370°F is the sweet spot. Lower than about 350°F and the white sets too slowly to crisp; above 400°F the edges brown before the white finishes.

Do I need to preheat the air fryer for eggs? Yes. Preheating the pan is what sets the bottom of the white on contact and creates the crispy edge. Without it you’ll get a pale, steamed egg.

Can you crack an egg directly into the air fryer basket? No. The white runs through the perforations, burns onto the heating element, and you lose most of the egg. Use a mini cake pan, silicone mold, or ramekin.

How many eggs can I cook at once? As many single-egg pans as fit in your basket with space between them for airflow. In a standard 5.8-quart basket that’s usually two to three. Crowding gives you unevenly cooked eggs.

How do I keep eggs from sticking? Grease the pan generously after preheating, coating the sides as well as the bottom. Silicone molds release most easily; if you’re using metal, be thorough with the spray.

Can I add cheese or toppings? Yes. Add shredded cheese, herbs, or everything bagel seasoning during the last minute of cooking so it melts without browning.

Can I make scrambled eggs the same way? You can, but they need attention — whisk the eggs in a greased pan, cook at 300°F, and stir every 2 minutes so the edges don’t set before the middle. Fried eggs are the genuinely hands-off option.

Are air fryer fried eggs healthier than pan-fried? They use dramatically less added fat — a spray instead of a tablespoon of butter or oil — which cuts roughly 100 calories per egg. The egg itself is unchanged.

Why is my yolk still raw when the white is done? Almost always cold eggs. Straight from the fridge, the yolk lags behind the white. Let eggs sit out for 15 minutes, or add a minute to the cook time.