The best air purifiers in Australia

An air purifier is a fan pushing room air through a filter, so the honest comparison comes down to three numbers: how much air it cleans per hour, how loud it is doing it, and what the filters cost each year. Prices below are from Appliances Online, JB Hi-Fi, The Good Guys and Bunnings on 18 October 2026; for the models also on Amazon Australia, check the current price on Amazon. We compared maker specifications, retailer listings and filter prices; we have not run these purifiers in our own home.

CADR is the number that matters

CADR (clean air delivery rate) is the volume of filtered air a purifier delivers per hour at full speed, in cubic metres. Divide it by your room’s volume and you get air changes per hour, which is what actually decides whether the air in the room gets cleaner or the purifier just stirs it.

Two worked examples, both with a 2.4 m ceiling:

• A 4 x 4 m bedroom holds about 38 m³. The Philips Mini 900 (250 m³/h) changes that air about 6.5 times an hour.
• A 6 x 5 m living area holds 72 m³. The Philips 2200 (420 m³/h) manages about 5.8 changes an hour; the Mini 900 would manage 3.5.

Keep two things in mind. CADR is measured at the top fan speed, which is also the loudest, so a purifier that only meets your target on turbo will rarely be run that way. And makers do not all test the same way: Philips states its figures were tested to the Chinese standard GB/T 18801-2022, while some brands publish no CADR at all. Compare CADRs where the test is stated, and treat a missing CADR as a missing answer, not a small one.

Why the room sizes on the box disagree

The room size printed on the box is the least useful figure on it, because each brand picks its own assumption about how often the air is changed. The listings we read on 18 October show how far apart they are:

Two purifiers with almost the same CADR, the Click and the Levoit, are sold for rooms of 48 m² and 166 m². Neither is lying; they just assume very different air-change rates. EPA Victoria’s fact sheet on portable air cleaners makes the same point from the other side: purifiers work better in rooms smaller than the maker’s maximum, and high ceilings need a bigger unit than floor area suggests.

The price ladder

The Coway, Levoit, Philips, Shark and Xiaomi models are also on Amazon Australia, mostly sold by Amazon itself or the brand’s local distributor; check the current price on Amazon.

The picks

The Philips PureProtect 2200 is the one we would buy for a typical home. Philips publishes a 420 m³/h CADR tested to GB/T 18801-2022, rates the filter for up to three years, and the replacement (FY2200/30) is $109 at JB Hi-Fi, so it costs about $36 a year in filters. It runs from 13 dB(A) on its lowest setting; Appliances Online lists 45 dB when working, which is the figure to expect on a high speed. The black AC2221 was $357 at Appliances Online and the white AC2220 $423 there and $449 at JB Hi-Fi.

The Click CADR 400 is the budget pick: 400 m³/h for $159 at Bunnings, a HEPA 13 filter with a carbon layer, and a room rating (28 to 48 m²) that already assumes several air changes an hour. What you give up is information: Bunnings lists no noise figure, filter life or replacement filter.

The Levoit Core 400S sits between them at $399, with a 433 m³/h CADR on Levoit’s Amazon listing, a laser PM2.5 sensor and a $79 yearly filter. Bunnings sells it as a special order. The Philips 3200 is the step up for open-plan rooms: 520 m³/h from 36 W in a 52 cm tower, and the same $399 at JB Hi-Fi and The Good Guys on the day we checked. Its two filters cost $159 a year, and Philips’ own filter page carries owner complaints about FY3200 stock, so buy a spare before summer.

For a bedroom, the Philips Mini 900 (250 m³/h, 20.5 dB in Sleep mode, 23 W) and the Coway Airmega 150 (281 m³/h, 20 dB on low, 16.5 cm deep) both cover a standard room several times an hour. The Shark NeverChange5 trades a published CADR for no filter purchases for up to five years; Shark’s footnote says that life is measured to a 50 percent drop in CADR at 12 hours a day. The Xiaomi Air Purifier 6 (443 m³/h) was only on Amazon among the retailers we checked.

Choosing between the two premium brands? The Dyson vs Philips comparison goes model by model.

Running costs

Power is the small part. The purifiers here draw 23 W (Mini 900) to 66 W (Levoit Core 600S) at full speed, and much less on auto. A 36 W purifier running around the clock uses about 0.86 kWh a day at full speed; multiply by the rate on your power bill. Filters are the real cost: $69 to $179 a year for the genuine Philips and Levoit filters at JB Hi-Fi, less for the Philips 2200’s three-year filter, nothing for up to five years on the Shark. Philips notes that filter life depends on air quality and use, so a smoky summer shortens it.

What to skip

Skip anything sold on ionisers or “purifying” fragrance alone. NSW Health’s bushfire smoke advice says humidifiers, negative ion generators and odour absorbers do not remove the fine particles in smoke, and EPA Victoria advises a True HEPA filter. A purifier reduces airborne particles at the stated CADR; it does not fix damp, so if the problem is condensation or mould, start with the dehumidifier guide. Anything that plugs into the wall should carry the RCM electrical safety mark.

The one trap

Buying on the room size printed on the box. The same 400-odd m³/h of CADR is sold for 48 m² by one brand and 166 m² by another, and Dyson and Shark both state their headline room sizes at one air change an hour. Measure the room, multiply by the ceiling height, and divide the CADR by that. If the answer is under four, buy the next size up or a second unit.