You can use a glass bowl in an air fryer if it is oven safe. Don’t put it when the glass bowl is cold as it will cause thermal stress and will shatter the Pyrex. Also pre-heat the glass bowl with mild hot water before using it in an air fryer for added safety.

Caution: Air fryers’ temperature rises too much within a few minutes and most of the ordinary glass bowl will not be able to withstand the temperature changes and shatter or explodes. So it’s better to check the label and put it in an air fryer without food.

What is a Glass Bowl is made of?
Pyrex bowls were originally made of borosilicate glass, which is very resistant to thermal shock. Currently, Pyrex is made of soda-lime glass, presumably as a cost-cutting measure, as soda-lime glass is very inexpensive.

Most of the Pyrex bowls are oven-safe & freezer safe labeled but they are not entirely thermal shockproof.

When a Pyrex bowl is heated or cooled rapidly, different parts of the bowl expand or contract by different amounts, causing stress. If the stress is too extreme, the bowl’s structure will fail, with a shattering effect.

To prevent it, you need to be mindful of how quickly you change the temperature of Pyrex. Stovetops and broilers conduct heat quickly, and will likely cause the bowls to fail.

Why does glass shatter?
Here is a cool video with an experiment & describing why glass shatters in extreme temperature changes:


How to Keep Glass from Breaking in the Air Fryer?
If you really want to keep your glass bowl from breaking in an air fryer, there are some precaution that you can take.

Don’t change Temperature suddenly
Sudden temperature change is the primary cause of glass breaking. For example, you’ve put a glass bowl full of leftover food from the freezer to the air fryer. It can cause glass shattering and possibly harmful.

You can wait for the glass to come to room temperature and then at the lowest possible temperature you’ve put it in the air fryer.

Look for Structural weakness of the glass
If a glass bowl is weaker, even a oven safe glass can shatter. Hold the glass bowl in light and look for small cracks, unevenness of the glass surface & color change. All of them is a indication of weaker glass.

To enjoy your food, get a new oven safe glass bowl which you can use in your air fryer.

Use Tempered or Oven-Safe Glass
Drinking glasses and serving glass bowls are typically not made to withstand oven temperatures, so never put these in your oven or air fryer, unless they are specifically labeled as oven safe.

For safety reasons use an oven-safe or tempered glass bowl that can withstand a much higher temperature than normal glass bowls.

Avoid high temperatures
Oven-safe glass bowls operate under 350 F to 450 F and always read the label properly to know the limits of the bowl. At high temperatures, the glass starts to lose its shape or start cracking and maybe explode.

So try to stay well below the temperature limit to be on the safe side.

What are the benefits of heating food in glass containers?
You can heat and re-heat glass containers over and over without worrying about any chemical leeching into your food. Glass containers are non-toxic, easy to clean, retains heat longer & has transparent surface. Thus making it best choice for many of us.