Best wireless headphones under $100 in 2024

If there's one thing the best wireless headphones under $100 prove, it's that you don't have to shell out hundreds of dollars on premium audio gear to enjoy listening to your music. Sure, you might miss out on a few nice-to-have features but for the most part, these affordable options come with all the essentials such as Active Noise Cancelation (ANC), app-based customization, and much more.

What's even better is that if you don't like traditional headphones, there are a lot of true wireless earbuds and even neckbuds to choose from. Our top vote goes to the Anker Soundcore Life Q30, a pair of headphones that offer amazing sound quality, long battery life, and ANC at an excellent price. If you'd rather prefer true wireless earbuds, we suggest the Anker Soundcore Life P3. These come with a balanced soundstage, offer a comfortable fit, and have a case with wireless charging support.

At a glance

Best overall

Need long battery life? We got plenty when we reviewed the Anker Soundcore Life Q30, so you can expect up to 40 hours of playback while ANC is enabled, with that number going up to a ridiculous 60 hours when ANC is off. That's impressive for a pair of budget headphones and adding USB-C now makes fast charging possible. Plug in for five minutes and get four hours of playtime.

That kind of long battery life makes comfort a more significant factor, and thankfully, Anker delivers there. It has improved the design and materials from the previous iteration, with a nice headband with deep and wide ear cups to accommodate even the biggest ears. That combination makes longer listening periods a lot easier on your head and ears. It also means they deliver better passive noise isolation and effective ANC.

The ANC is still best at dealing with higher-frequency sounds, with minimal improvement in handling lower-frequency ones. Usually, it's the opposite, especially at this price range, which makes these unique. If you live with screaming kids, you might appreciate the help. You also get three distinct settings on the app as well.

Still, sound quality is excellent for the price, thanks to a lively soundstage out of the box that doesn't skew too far one way or the other. If you want bass, you can get even more of it through the great Soundcore app that includes a customizable equalizer and over 20 presets. It changes the overall sound to find a combination that better suits your ears.

Best true wireless

Although wireless earbuds often get the most attention at the higher end of the pricing bracket, good ones are now easier than ever to find on a budget as well. The Anker Soundcore Life P3 stand firmly in that category with a nicely balanced sound signature. You will hear bass punch through with a slight boost to the highs, and fairly consistent mids for exceptional performance.

The comfortable design is helpful, but you need to get a good seal to get everything the sound can offer you. That way, you can hear more of what the larger drivers inside are capable of delivering, which is impressive at this price. It doesn't hurt that there's ANC onboard, with a pretty effective ambient mode to work with when you need to hear the background around you.

Make good use of the Soundcore app and the deep equalizer to change how these earbuds sound. Bluetooth connections are pretty sturdy for phone calls on top of that. The IPX5 rating isn't especially rugged, so these are maybe not the ideal pair to work out with, but they're not super fragile, either.

Battery life is OK at up to six hours with ANC on (seven when off) and another three full charges in the case to keep the music playing for a reasonable amount of time. An extra perk is wireless charging support.

Best value

Creative has a real knack for delivering great value for the dollar, and the Zen Hybrid over-ears follow the trend. For well under $100, you get solid audio quality with a nice mix of highs, mids, and bass. Sadly, you can't tailor the audio in the Creative app, and Bluetooth codecs are also limited to SBC and AAC, so you won't be able to enjoy hi-res audio. The SXFI spatial audio technology only works on audio files you have downloaded on your phone or tablet, so you won't get all the audio goodies without some caveats, but there are other features to enjoy.

ANC performance should meet your measured expectations for more affordable headphones, which is to say that it will muffle background sounds without heavily dampening lower or higher frequencies. The headphones feel comfortable to wear for longer periods of time and since they also fold up, you can take them with you on a commute or trip without issues.

Battery life holds up well at up to 27 hours per charge with ANC turned on, and up to 37 hours with it turned off. If you feel like going old school with a wired connection, plug in the included 3.5mm line-in cable to listen that way — assuming you have an adapter for the USB-C port on your phone. 

Best workout buds

JLab Audio has been making workout earbuds for some time now, and the Epic Air Sport ANC earbuds are among its latest pair made to use routinely while breaking a sweat — something we noticed when we reviewed them, too. The IP66 rating gives them enough ruggedness to work out or go on a run in such scenarios. However, they're not made to be waterproof, so you need to be careful around water.

The combination of ear hooks and six pairs of ear tips make these comfortable and stable enough to stay in your ears, provided you don't mind a little extra bulk in size. What's cool is that JLab also changes things up with the tips, so you get different sizes, lengths and materials, including foam. A good passive seal always helps, though you do have ANC support to block out background noise when you need to. If you need to hear your surroundings, you can also use the Be Aware mode.

The default soundstage is mostly balanced, with bass getting an extra boost, which is par for the course for a pair of JLab earbuds. If you're not feeling that, you can easily change it via JLab's smartphone app, which offers a nice mix of ANC controls and an equalizer to customize the sound.

JLab claims up to 15 hours of battery life per charge, which is really high, though that number is relative because it applies when ANC is off. Keep it on, and that number goes down to about 10 hours. Raise the volume, and it drops down further, but it's still a very respectable figure. Interestingly, the USB-A charging cable is built into the case, though you can also use wireless charging.

Best on-ear

On-ear headphones aren't as common or popular as over-the-ear cans, but they are lighter and easier to wear in most cases. On the other hand, they won't give you too much in the way of passive noise isolation, allowing you to hear what's happening around you. Jabra didn't make the Elite 45h fancy on the outside, but it's what's on the inside that counts.

The Jabra Elite 45h headphones play it safe by default with a balanced and neutral soundstage, but the sound quality is still superb. You can tweak it more to your liking through Jabra's Sound+ app and its equalizer, which gives you existing presets or the ability to create your own. Unfortunately, phone call quality doesn't follow suit, and that might be because the two-mic array needed a third one to amplify your voice. It's one of the trade-offs of a product in this price range.

Battery life hits crazy levels if you listen to the default volume throughout the day. It's the only way you'll get to 50 hours but even if you were to raise it, you'd still be getting north of 30 hours without blinking an eye. On top of that, Jabra has included a modern USB-C port with them for convenient charging.

Best neckbuds

Even though neckband earbuds aren't that common these days, you can still find good options like the Beats Flex Wireless. It might be easy to pass on them if you're an Android user, especially since you can't derive any benefits from Apple's W1 chip that they come with but look a little closer, and they may be worth a look. The key is the Beats app, which enables faster pairing, access to settings, and even firmware updates.

Per their reputation, the Beats Flex Wireless offer plenty of bass if you're looking for it, with a vibrant soundstage that at least gives some life to the highs and the mids. Lightweight and easy to manage, you can wear them for leisure, but be careful when it comes to workouts because there is no IP protection here. There's also no ANC on board. The good news, however, is that the two ends connect with magnets, which is super convenient for those times when you're taking a break from listening to tunes.

The neckbuds support multi-point pairing with up to two devices at the same time, like your phone and computer, for example. Listen to audio coming from your PC while picking up a phone call whenever it comes in — a switch that happens on its own. if you need Google Assistant, press the button on the neckband to wake it up and get the voice assistant talking. Also, you get up to 12 hours of battery life, based on volume levels.

Best battery life

1More usually comes up with pleasant surprises at budget-friendly prices, and the SonoFlow headphones are no different. These headphones can play up to a whopping 70 hours at their default volume with ANC off; with it on, you can still get an amazing 50 hours of use on a full charge. That's enough to listen to your music for weeks before having to charge these up again. And when you have to, plug in for five minutes, and you'll get up to five hours of playback, depending on volume levels.

The good news here is that they also sound good for all that time you're listening to them. That's in part because the 1More SonoFlow generously support Sony's LDAC codec for hi-res audio, in case you want that kind of flexibility. Once you get into the 1More Music app, you can tweak the sound even further using the equalizer.

ANC is fantastic for the price, drowning out noise in ways that remind you of what a bargain these cans are. That's great, considering how comfortable they are to wear for longer periods of time. Plus, they fold up and come with a protective case.

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Good sound doesn't have to cost you a fortune

There are plenty of worthy headphones out there that won't break the bank and as you can see from the list above, the best wireless headphones under $100 come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Our top pick — the Anker Soundcore Life Q30 — have the right balance of sound quality and battery life. You can also take a look at the Anker Soundcore Life P3 if you want great sound in a more compact package.

The timing couldn't be better, either. Headphones aren't just on the premium side, especially when there's plenty to like in the affordable category. They also come in different types, be they over-ear, on-ear, or wireless earbuds. With this list, there are many choices for you to consider.