Can you put baking tins in an air fryer?

Only if all of these are true

• Must fit with space around it. Measure your basket before buying a tin. Air must pass around the outside of it, and the usable footprint of a drawer is considerably smaller than its capacity suggests.
• Must be rated for the purpose. Use an oven-rated tin. A loose-bottomed or springform tin will leak a thin batter onto the chamber floor, where it burns.
• Your manual must permit it. Two manufacturers instruct readers to use a tin for baking. Where your manual restricts accessories to its own, that restriction governs.

What the manufacturers actually say

The manufacturers do not always agree, and silence is not permission. Each row below is what one company’s own manual says — or, where it says nothing, the fact that it says nothing.

• Tefal: Permits it

  The manual directs the cook to "Place an oven dish in the appliance's bowl if you want to bake a cake or quiche or if you want to fry fragile ingredients or filled ingredients", and states: "You can use an oven dish in silicon, stainless steel, aluminium, terracotta."

  Tefal Easy Fry Oven & Grill FW5018 — instruction manual (manufacturer copy) — read for a countertop oven with air fry

• Tower: Permits it

  The cake, quiche, muffin and sweet snack rows in the settings table all carry the instruction to use a baking tin or oven dish.

  Tower T17067 4L Digital Air Fryer — Safety and Instruction Manual

• Instant: Permits it in specific conditions

  A metal or glass baking dish is permitted for the Baking programme.

  Instant Vortex Plus Dual Air Fryer 7.6L — User Manual

What can go wrong

A distinct record from metal cookware in general, because a baking tin is not merely permitted — it is instructed. Four manufacturer charts publish cake at 160°C and every one of them specifies a tin, which makes this the most consistent instruction of any kind found this sprint.

• Can block airflow

  This is the intended effect for a batter and it is why the tin is specified. Keep a clear gap around the outside so the chamber still circulates.

It depends on your appliance

The answer is not the same in every machine. Where the element sits relative to the food, and how hard the fan blows, change what this material does.

• Basket air fryer — Safe only in specific conditions

  Fit is the whole problem. Most standard tins are too wide for a drawer, and tins sold specifically for air fryers exist for this reason.

• Oven-style air fryer — Safe only in specific conditions

  A shelf takes an ordinary small tin comfortably.

Your manual governs

Evidence and confidence

Use this instead

• Silicone liners and moulds — Heavy enough not to be lifted, and rated above the temperatures these appliances reach. The airflow question is the one that remains.
• Oven-safe glass — Explicitly permitted by one manufacturer for baking. Thermal shock, not heat, is the thing to manage.
• Ramekins and small oven dishes — Small enough to leave airflow around them, which is what makes them the most practical cookware for a drawer machine.