If you're thinking about buying an air fryer, you might be wondering what the difference is between air fryers and convection ovens. The quick answer is, an air fryer is a simply a smaller convection oven with a catchy name. There is no actual frying going on inside an air fryer—that's because an air fryer cooks food via convection baking. So air fryers are, in essence, convection ovens. But that doesn't mean the two are exactly the same. Let's talk about what those differences are.