If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission. While cheap earbuds make great workout companions, I like reaching for Bluetooth headphones for noisy commutes and listening to music during long flights. That being said, over-ear headphones have long been associated with over-the-top prices. But the reality is that you don’t have to search too long to find a wide selection of top-rated wireless options — all for under $100. At A Glance: The Best Wireless Headphones Under $100 Believe us when we say we’ve tested a ton of personal audio gear, and some of the best wireless headphones promise impressive sound, high-tech features like voice assistance and sound customization, as well as compact designs that are great for travel. We all want to get the most out of our headphones, but sometimes, those top-tier picks can be a bit out of budget. The best wireless headphones under $100 aren’t meant to replace your big-budget audiophile or top-of-the-line noise-cancelling headphones, but they should still cover all your audio needs and handle jobs like wireless calls, streaming music with better-than-average quality, and perhaps most importantly, saving you some cash along the way. How We Tested & Selected The Best Wireless Headphones Under $100 To determine the best headphones under $100, our music and product editors tested several best-selling pairs over the course of one month, rating them based on battery life, audio quality, wearing comfort, and overall value at its price point. All of the wireless headphones in this guide currently retail for $50 to $100 at time of publication (but keep in mind that prices on sites like Amazon can fluctuate). While budget noise-canceling headphones don’t have to be loaded with features, we rewarded those that incorporate additional quality of life touches like touch controls or transparency modes. Wireless over-ear and on-ear headphones now feature better batteries than even a few years ago, so there’s no excuse to for poor performance even on a budget. This is why we chose picks with a minimum of 35 hours of battery life (ANC off), but included options of up to 70+ hours of runtime. A longer battery life also means you’ll have to charge your headphones less, which is ideal for commuting and traveling. Build quality is also important for under $100 headphones — budget headphones can be flimsier than more premium models and feel, well, cheap and plasticky. We wore the headphones on and off for eight hours at a time to see which ones felt the most comfortable long-term. While offering active noise cancellation does often drive up the price, similarly to battery life, there are a range of options now that let you fully immerse yourself in your favorite album and tune out ambient noise. We focused on picks that feature some form of noice cancellation (besides the kind that naturally comes from wearing cans), either ANC, hybrid or adaptive. When testing these picks we considered the noise cancelling performance relative to the value of the headphones, as you won’t achieve the same “bubble of silence” level results as you would with picks over $100. We evaluate sound quality by listening to a set playlist of tracks curated by our music team that are meant to highlight performance over a variety music styles, from complex house arrangements to sonically rich Seventies harmonies. Cheaper materials can sometimes hinder audio production, but we evaluated performance based on headphones within the same price range, and not audiophile offerings from the same brands. The Best Wireless Headphones Under $100 We’ve rounded up some of the best wireless headphones under $100 that you can buy online, tested by our editors. (Note: Prices were accurate as of this writing). An affordable pair of Sony headphones might seem too good to be true, but we actually love the WH-CH720N for their high-quality sound (and feel) at a not budget-busting price. Audio performance is excellent for a pair of budget headphones, although you won’t achieve nearly the same clarity and detail as you would with Sony’s flagship XM5 line or other contenders for the best-sounding headphones. Support for Qualcomm’s aptX HD or Sony’s LDAC codecs is missing here too, however Sony’s DSEE is designed to enhance audio performance from lower-resolution sources, and it’s better than you’d expect. While they’re still a bit of a plasticky-feeling, the sleek matte finish is nice, we found these to be lightweight and comfortable enough to wear for hours on end thanks to some faux-leather padding (weighing less than half a pound also helps). But the star here is under the hood — Sony’s V1 chip offers better digital processing, so the ANC performance is strong. It does a good job of reducing background noise, and while you’ll still hear louder voices and sounds in the background, you won’t have to drive up the volume to compensate in noisy environments. A pair of built-in beamforming microphones and the under-$100 price tag also put these Sony wireless headphones at the top of the list for remote work calls and any virtual meetings you’ll be leading. If you forget to charge them up, plug them in for three minutes to get up to an hour of juice. Meanwhile, you can even do things like ask Siri to call someone without ever touching your phone. Overall, these are another hit from one of the most dependable brands in audio, with great sound and ANC for a great value. Anker’s audio brand Soundcore makes some of the best value headphones in the game, with a premium look (and plenty of premium features) that punch above their price point. Even with the Space One coming right up to the $100 mark, we’ve got to give it to Anker for designing budget headphones that don’t feel cheap. With sleek metallic detailing and soft silicone headbands and ear pads (especially in the gorgeous Latte Cream colorway), we wouldn’t be surprised if at a glance you thought these were a $300+ release from the likes of Sony or Bose. Yes, the exterior construction is mainly plastic construction, but it has the added benefit of keeping these headphones lightweight and comfortable for hours (if not a little sweaty from the silicone), which came in the clutch wearing them over a cross-country flight. Even being on the slightly larger side, the ear cups swivel, and the whole pair folds down pretty compactly, making it a solid option budget-conscious travelers. But beauty isn’t just in the eye of the beholder — it’s in the ears of the listener too, and under the hood the Space One features impressive ANC for the price. You can adjust the level of the noise canceling from within the Soundcore app, as well as enable adaptive ANC, which automatically adjusts the strength of the noise canceling depending on how loud your environment is. While it wasn’t as strong as the best noise-canceling headphones, it’s shockingly good at dialing back low-end frequencies, from the rumble of a plane to busy office spaces. Sound-wise, they’re similar to other budget headphones that over-emphasize bass and treble frequencies, but including LDAC support for Hi-Res wireless audio is a huge plus (Soundcore’s HeardID test also uniquely tunes the sound profile to your ears). Bottom line? If you’re looking for a smart design (and smart features) for less, then the Space Ones are worth it. Listening to your go-to albums for hours on repeat won’t be a problem for the latest high-quality budget headphones from Earfun. The Wave Pro can run through all the hits (and the deep cuts, too) for up to a whopping 80 hours when you power them up after a full charge (that’s over three days of music with ANC off, but ANC on still provides a commendable 55 hours of listening). When I was in a pinch during a layover, a 10 minute quick charge gave me ~10 additional hours of playback for my next flight (compared to the pricier AirPods Max, where 10 minutes would have only really gotten me three hours). They also feature dependable, customizable ANC to reduce background noise. You won’t get the premium noise-canceling of Bose or Sony, but you can toggle between three respectable levels of ANC, and voice calling performance is pretty good for the price thanks to five AI-powered mics (I was still able to be heard clearly while walking outside on a windy day in the city). Compared to their contemporaries, the audio quality is stellar, with non-teeth-shattering bass that matches very well with the treble. You lose the clarity of a more premium model here, but they don’t sound “tiny” and rarely did the lower-end frequencies overwhelm the way some budget headphones can. But there’s lots to appreciate here already baked into the design: 40mm drivers, a High-Res Audio certification, and LDAC support for improved Bluetooth streaming. It does come with a cable for wired listening, but noise-canceling is disabled when you switch to wired, which was a bit of a let-down. Overall, though, these headphones just feel great to wear. They’re not the lightest headphones by a fair margin, but that doesn’t mean they feel heavy, and soft cup padding makes them comfortable to wear for all those hours of listening time. Plus, their easily foldable construction means they’re ideal for flying and commuting, and with such an impressive battery life, the Earfun Wave Pro makes for an excellent travel companion. Belkin’s first-ever ANC headphones are a real hidden gem, entering the game with an eye-catching price and undercutting most competitors thanks to some key features. Even at just $60, Belkin paid particular attention to comfort here for their Soundform Isolate, from using pillowy soft ear cups to keeping them light to prevent strain on your temples. The ANC is decent, and it did the job functionally lowering the volume of bus engines and subway noise (although passive isolation from the ear cups does most of the heavy lifting here). But most unique here is a built-in “Isolate” mode — by pressing both volume buttons simultaneously on the headphones, it plays a loop of relaxing ocean-wave sounds, so you can chill out whenever you’re not enjoying your tunes. At its price point, you’re also getting some pretty excellent battery life and connectivity options. You’ll get up to 60 hours of playback time (over two weeks on and off, we got about 55 hours with ANC off during our testing), which outperforms most competitors still considered “budget” at a higher price. We also appreciate that the headphones support Bluetooth 5.4 and wired connectivity with the included 3.5mm aux cable and USB-C cable, along with support for Bluetooth Multipoint (which made it easy to switch between my laptop and phone without reconnecting). You won’t find this level of care in most headphones around the same price, so if you’re in the market for a solid, no-frills pair, this should be your first choice. For a pair of headphones that cost a mere $50, JLab got a lot of things right with the Go Lux ANC. Designed to fit right on your ears, these are by far the cushiest on-ear headphones we’ve tried in a while (the earcups are ergonomically shaped to the natural outline of the ear, but after several hours, do get a bit sweaty). The ear cups also fold into the headband, which makes them great for commuters or storing them in a small desk drawer. If you prefer bass-heavy tracks, JLab packed these affordable cans with its Bass Boost mode, which you can access on the companion app. In fact, these headphones offer plenty of app-controlled customization, from ANC/Be Aware settings, touch controls, and setting EQ level to your personal preference — or just using presets for JLab Signature, Balance or Bass Boost. A safe hearing option also allows you to protect your ears from hearing damage with volume limits. Its Hybrid ANC leverages mics on the exterior and interior of the headphone for optimal noise cancelation across a broad frequency range, and we were pleasantly surprised to see how well the Go Lux ANC blocked out low frequencies like a noisy washing machine or car engine. The ANC and audio quality won’t wow, but considering that you have less passive isolation than over-ear headphones here, it’s pretty good for everyday use. Ultimately, the Go Lux ANC headphones offer stellar battery life (up to 70 hours total), a feature-rich app, and ANC that’s sufficient for everyday use for a shockingly affordable price. Audio-Technica have taken the entry-level model from their popular ATH-M20x series and added wireless capabilities to a classic. There’s no noise-cancelation, not even an app where you can mess with the EQ until the songs sound uncanny — the ATH-M20xBT are meant purely for music listening, and they deliver on solid sound with no strings attached. Using the same sonic signature as their studio headphones (packed with 40 mm drivers that offer a rich sound excelling in the lower frequencies), you won’t find the kind of compression or distortion here you could experience with lower-priced competitors. If anything the bass is a bit overwhelming, but marketed as Studio Monitors, they’ve got a crisp, natural sound profile that get the job done for audio editing needs without breaking the bank. The ATH-M20xBT’s microphone sounds good in ideal (i.e. indoor) conditions, but without ANC, don’t expect any powerful suppression of background noise (using these in an office I could still hear the conversation of the next desk over). The headphones do support multipoint connectivity, and the devices don’t even need to be under the same operating system or brand, which is a plus. You’ll also get a detachable audio cable so you can use the headphones with a standard wired connection if you care even more about high-fidelity audio. With 60-hour battery life, these are at the higher end of most budget headphones’ batteries. You can also net three hours of playtime from a 10-minute charge, which isn’t too shabby. In our experience, wearing on-ear headphones can sometimes get uncomfortable after hours of use, but JBL’s Live 670NC uses memory foam on the cups like your favorite travel pillow, for a more comfortable feel. What that means: while there’s still a decent amount of clamping force from the headband, you don’t have to suddenly switch to buds when your ears feel too sore. JBL says these wireless headphones can produce up to 50 hours of power when charged, and in our testing we’ve found it to go for even longer — think more like 52-53 hours. With the ability to use them for four hours at a time on just a 5-minute charge, these will come in the clutch if you’re an international traveler or have a longer commute. The ear pads are on the smaller side, but they swivel and fold up for easy portability, and take up very little room in a backpack or work bag (they don’t feature an IPX rating, though, so you’ll be taking your chances if it starts to rain). As someone who’s anti-touch controls (sorry!), I also appreciate that you can control the Live 670NC headphones via physical buttons and touch controls on the right ear cup — basically, the best of both worlds. Because of the smaller ear cups, they don’t offer the best passive isolation, but combined with adjustable levels of ANC, it was able to block out plenty of lower-frequency noise around me (chatty coworkers, or buses on the street). The “adaptive” part of its Adaptive ANC means the noise-canceling strength will increase or decrease depending on the environmental noise level around you. The Live 670NC headphones also offer an “Ambient Aware” and “TalkThru” mode (the latter lowering the volume of your music so you can have a conversation), but I prefer to just remove the headphones and take advantage of the auto-pause feature (which is rarely offered in budget pairs) if I need to chat with someone. When you are listening though, JBL packed these affordable cans with warm and immersive sound at a reasonable price, although bass-lovers will rejoice especially.