Can You Put Parchment Paper in an Air Fryer?
Yes, with two conditions. Parchment is safe as long as you weight it down with food and keep it under the paper's heat rating. A bare sheet with nothing on top can lift in the airflow, and cheap paper pushed past what it's rated for will scorch.
The heat rating is printed on the box. Air fryers run hot, so read it before you assume the roll in your drawer can take it. Baking parchment made for the oven usually can. Wax paper cannot, and it doesn't belong anywhere near an air fryer.
I've cooked on a Platinum 7.6L basket-style unit almost daily for two years. Parchment has its jobs. For most of what I cook, it stays in the drawer, and I'll explain why below.
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Open Calculator →The two rules that keep it safe
Get these two right and parchment is a non-issue.
- Weight it down with food. The food is what pins the paper flat. Put it in place before the air fryer runs, never after.
- Stay under the box rating. Use paper rated above the temperature you're cooking at, and cut it a bit smaller than the basket so no edge reaches up toward the element.
One thing the shorter guides skip: a corner that sticks up past the food is the part that catches the airflow first, and it's also the part closest to the heat. Trim it so the food covers the whole sheet.
Never run an empty basket with parchment in it
This is the moment parchment turns from harmless to a problem. It isn't cooking. It's preheating with a bare sheet already sitting in the basket.
During a preheat the basket is empty, the fan is at full speed, and there's nothing holding the paper down. That's the combination that lifts a loose sheet toward the top of the chamber, where the element is. The fix is simple. Add the food and the paper together, then start the machine. Don't preheat on a bare liner, and don't cook very light things on parchment either, like a single slice of bread or a few nachos, because they don't weigh enough to keep it flat.
Does parchment stop food getting crispy?
It can, and this is the part the top guides gloss over. Every one of them tells you to buy perforated parchment for a crisp result. That's true as far as it goes. The holes let some hot air reach the underside, so perforated beats a solid sheet every time.
Here's what they leave out. Even perforated parchment covers most of the basket floor, and that floor is perforated for a reason. It exists so hot air pushes up and around every side of the food. Lay paper over it, holes or not, and the underside sits in slower, softer air. It browns less. For a lot of foods you'll never notice. For the foods whose entire point is a crunchy bottom, you will.
The first thing that ever went wrong for me in an air fryer was crowding the basket with frozen chips. Pale and floppy, because I'd choked the airflow. A lined floor does the same thing from underneath, just more quietly. So for these, skip the liner:
- Frozen fries, tots, and hash browns
- Chicken wings and anything you want a shatter-crisp skin on
- Nuggets, breaded fish, spring rolls
- Roast veg you want charred at the edges
Cook those straight on the basket and wash it after. The crunch is the whole reason you own the thing. If your food already comes out soggy, a lined floor is one of the first causes to rule out.
Parchment or foil? Pick by the food
People treat these as interchangeable. They're not. Each one is right for a different job, and choosing by the food beats defaulting to whichever roll is closer.
| What you're cooking | Use | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Acidic things (tomato sauce, citrus, vinegar marinade) | Parchment | Foil reacts with acid, pits, and can leave a metallic taste. Parchment doesn't react. |
| Sticky or delicate bakes (cookies, muffins, dough) | Parchment | Nothing sticks, and it lifts out clean. |
| A fillet you don't want to break (salmon, white fish) | Foil | A foil sling holds its shape so you lift the whole piece in one go. |
| Saucy, glazed, or very greasy things (ribs, wings in sauce) | Foil | Holds the drips without tearing or soaking through. |
| Anything you want crisp on the bottom | Neither | Both block airflow under the food. Cook straight on the basket. |
If you want the full breakdown on the metal side, I wrote a separate piece on foil in an air fryer, including the one moment it's genuinely dangerous.
The honest answer: most days you don't need it
The best liner for everyday cooking is no liner. A quick soak and a wipe cleans the basket faster than fussing with a sheet, and you keep full airflow. Parchment is a tool for the sticky, delicate, and acidic jobs, not a default you reach for every cook. If cleanup is the reason you want it, the real answer is usually the cleaning routine, not a liner.
Basket-style vs oven-style: where it goes
Placement changes with the machine, because the two types are built differently.
Basket-style (the drawer type)
The paper goes inside the basket, under the food, cut smaller than the floor so it never covers all the holes and never reaches the element above. This is the type I test on, and it's where the airflow tradeoff bites hardest, because the basket floor is your only cooking surface.
Oven-style (the door and racks type)
These hold more air and the racks sit away from the element. You can line a rack the same way, small and weighted, but you have more room to keep edges clear. Oven-style units also tend to need roughly +2 to 5 minutes more cook time than a basket unit for the same food, liner or not.
Parchment is not a doneness check
A liner changes cleanup and handling. It tells you nothing about whether food is safe to eat. The only thing that does that for a protein is its internal temperature, read with a thermometer.
- Poultry, including ground: 165°F / 74°C
- Ground beef, pork, lamb: 160°F / 71°C
- Steaks, chops, roasts (beef, pork, lamb): 145°F / 63°C, then rest 3 minutes
- Fish and shellfish: 145°F / 63°C, or until the flesh is opaque and flakes
Cooking on a liner can slow the bottom a touch, so check the thickest part a minute early rather than trusting the timer.
The short version
- Yes, parchment is fine if you weight it with food and keep it under the box's heat rating.
- Never preheat or run an empty basket with a bare sheet in it. That's the real hazard.
- Even perforated parchment softens the bottom, so skip it for fries, wings, and nuggets.
- Use parchment for acidic and sticky foods, foil for delicate or greasy ones, neither for anything you want crisp.
- A liner is never a substitute for a thermometer.