Can you put ramekins and small oven dishes in an air fryer?

Only if all of these are true

• Must be rated for the purpose. Use oven-rated ceramic, stoneware or borosilicate glass. Decorative ramekins and serving dishes are not necessarily either.
• Must fit with space around it. Leave space between dishes and between the dishes and the walls.
• Your manual must permit it. One manufacturer prohibits ceramic-coated and stoneware pots for air frying in its machines. If yours is that manufacturer's, a stoneware ramekin is out.
• A temperature limit applies. Avoid thermal shock: do not put a fridge-cold dish straight into a preheated chamber, and do not run cold water over a hot one.

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.

• Instant: Prohibits it

  The manual states that a ceramic-coated or stoneware pot must not be used for air frying. It gives no reason.

  Instant Vortex Plus Dual Air Fryer 7.6L — User Manual — read for a dual-basket air fryer

• Tower: Permits it

  The manual instructs readers to place a baking tin or oven dish in the drawer for baking or for fragile and filled food.

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

What can go wrong

A ramekin succeeds in an air fryer for the reason a full-size dish fails: it is small. Two or three of them fit in a drawer with real air space between them, which means the chamber still behaves like an air fryer rather than a small oven with the door shut.

• Can crack from sudden temperature change

  Let a refrigerated dish stand for a few minutes before it goes in, and let a hot one cool on a rack rather than in the sink.

• Can block airflow

  Space the dishes and do not fill the basket floor with them.

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.

• Dual-basket air fryer — Depends on your model

  One manufacturer of this architecture prohibits ceramic-coated and stoneware pots for air frying. A borosilicate glass ramekin is a different material and is not covered by that prohibition, but a stoneware one is.

Your manual governs

Evidence and confidence

Use this instead

• Oven-safe glass — Explicitly permitted by one manufacturer for baking. Thermal shock, not heat, is the thing to manage.
• 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.
• Metal tins, trays and cookware — Explicitly permitted by one manufacturer for baking, and recommended by three others whenever a batter is involved.