Air Fryer Pork Tenderloin
A one-pound pork tenderloin cooks at 400°F in about 18–20 minutes, and it's done the moment the thick center reads 145°F. Rest it 3 minutes before you slice. That's the whole job.
Tenderloin is a lean cut, so the space between juicy and dry is thin. A thermometer closes that gap. Treat the time as a starting point and let the number in the meat call it — this cut punishes guessing more than almost anything else you'll put in the basket.
Converting an oven recipe instead? Run the numbers through the calculator.
Open Calculator →🥩 Time & Temp Chart
| Cut / Prep | Oven Temp | Air Fryer Temp | Oven Time | Air Fryer Time | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tenderloin (~1 lb) | 400°F | 400°F | 22–25 min | 18–20 min | Turn once. Pull the center at 145°F. |
| Tenderloin (~1.5 lb) | 400°F | 400°F | 25–30 min | 22–26 min | Thicker center, longer cook. Go by the thermometer. |
| Cut in half to fit | 400°F | 400°F | — | 15–18 min | Two shorter pieces cook faster. Watch the cut ends. |
| Pork loin roast (3–5 lb) | 375°F | 370°F | 60+ min | 40–50 min | Different cut. Often better in the oven — see below. |
These are sourced starting points for a basket-style unit, not a tested-in-my-kitchen number. Tenderloin varies too much by weight and shape to trust a clock. Verify with an instant-read thermometer to 145°F before you slice.
Will it even fit? Bend it or cut it
Nobody warns you about this part, and it's the first thing you hit. A whole tenderloin is long and skinny — in a 7.6L basket it won't lie flat. You have two options, and they cook differently.
Bend it into a U or an S. Simplest fix, keeps the meat in one piece, and the time on the chart holds. The catch: where the meat folds and touches itself, hot air can't reach. That inner curve browns last and can read cooler, so put your thermometer through the thickest part of the fold, not the outside.
Cut it in half. Two shorter logs sit side by side with air on every side, which browns better. But two pieces cook faster than one — closer to 15–18 minutes — and the fresh cut ends dry out if you walk away. If you cut, check earlier.
The taper is why one number fails you
A tenderloin isn't an even cylinder. One end is a thick barrel, the other tails off to a thin point. Cook it to a single timer and the thin tail is dry and grey before the thick end is safe. This is the whole reason single-number cook charts get pork wrong — thickness moves the time more than the cut ever does.
So measure where it matters. Push the probe into the thickest part of the barrel end and cook to that. The thin tail will run a little past done; that's fine, it's a small piece. If you want the tail closer to the center, fold the thin end under so it doubles up and cooks slower. That one move evens out a cut that was never built to cook evenly.
The three things that actually matter
145°F, then rest 3 minutes. That's the USDA safe minimum for whole pork, and 145°F is faintly pink in the middle — that's cooked, not underdone. The rest lets the temperature settle and the juices redistribute. Skip it and they run out onto the board.
Measure the thick end, not the outside. The surface is always hotter than the core. The number that keeps you safe is the one in the center of the barrel.
A quick sear buys you the crust. Two or three minutes at the start, or a hot pan before it goes in, gives the outside color the air fryer alone can be slow to build on a lean, damp cut. Pat it dry first.
Basket-style vs oven-style
The times above were pulled on a basket-style air fryer. Oven-style units have more room inside and move air differently, so the same tenderloin usually needs roughly 2 to 5 minutes longer. Same target — 145°F in the center — just give it the extra time and start checking where the basket number would have finished. If your unit runs hot or cool, trust that over any chart.
When to skip the air fryer
Buy the wrong cut and no timing fixes it. A pork tenderloin is the long, lean, roughly one-pound piece. A pork loin is the wide 3-to-5-pound roast, and people mix them up at the shelf constantly. A loin roast rarely fits a basket in a single layer, cooks unevenly when you cram it, and comes out better in a real oven where it has room. Big roast, use the oven. The air fryer earns its place on the tenderloin.