These Earbuds for Working Out Will Pump Up Your Tunes as You Pump Iron

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Wireless workout earbuds are better and cheaper than ever before. For the price of a round of drinks, you can snag a set of buds that sound great, stay in your ear, and don’t kick the bucket when you go for a jog in the rain. Better still, the latest noise canceling and hear-through technology help you adapt to your surroundings — Sony’s latest offering automatically tailors the amount of ambient sound to your current environment. For runners and outdoor athletes, open-ear technology from Bose keeps you safe, while kickboxers and CrossFitters will appreciate buds like the JLab Epic Air Sport that don’t come off with any amount of head-banging.

With all that choice, it would be great if you could get all of today’s best wireless workout earbuds in one place and try them head-to-head to find the best pair for you. So we did exactly that, and here’s what we found.

Best Wireless Earbuds for Working Out

• Best Overall: Jabra Elite 8 Active

• Best Budget: EarFun Air Pro 3

• Best Sound: Sony WF-1000XM5

• Bumping Bass: Beats Fit Pro True Wireless

• Best Transparency Mode: Apple AirPods Pro 2nd Generation

What to Consider

Before you decide on your next set of earbuds, first consider what’s most important to you or the person you are gifting. As regular users of wireless workout earbuds, here’s where we’d start:

➥ Durability

The main thing that separates workout earbuds from any regular pair is the ability to get wet without breaking down. The degree of water- or sweat-resistance built into a set of earbuds is called ingress protection (IP), so earbuds come with a rating that begins with “IP” and then lists two numbers, the first denoting dust protection and the second indicating protection from liquids. The latter number is the one you care about for working out, and all of the buds on the list can at least withstand having water spilled on them (or a sauna session or treadmill intervals). However, if you fancy a run in the pouring rain, look for an IP rating of “IPX5” or higher.

➥ Sound Quality

Arguably less objective than durability, sound quality is still worth considering before you buy. It also tends to vary directly with the price of a set of earbuds, although earbuds in the $50 to $100 range sound a lot better nowadays than they used to. You should also consider the type of music you work out to: Bass is easy and cheap compared to delivering a balanced midrange, but that might not matter to everyone.

➥ Noise Canceling and Transparency

Even entry-level wireless workout earbuds come with noise-canceling or transparency modes (or “hear-through” or “ambient sound” modes, depending on the manufacturer). Pricer buds tend to do a better job of filtering out fuzz from wind or A/C units while in transparency mode and typically cancel out more decibels of sound. However, we were sure to note where value-focused buds punched about their weight class.

How We Selected

We spent a month testing a group of the most popular wireless workout earbuds on the market. Every set of buds endured a sweaty gym session, a run, and a few days’ worth of wear around the apartment and about town. We also used varying types of music — hip-hop, R&B, pop, rock, and country — to assess the buds’ audio performance across genres. Finally, we used them while running errands and commuting to assess noise cancelation and ambient sound modes, as well as the buds’ comfort and ease of use.

Check out our top picks for wireless earbuds for working out below.

Elite 8 Active

Jabra’s Elite 8 Active checks all of the boxes for a great set of workout earbuds. The shape of the earbud felt the most ergonomic of any of the buds in the test, and the buds’ rubberized finish meant you could take advantage of the buds’ anatomical shape without feeling like you were shoving hard plastic into your ear. And because the buds form a comfortable yet secure seal in your ear canal, they deliver great sound — on a subjective basis, second only to Sony’s in this group.

The hear-through mode is sensitive enough to keep you apprised of your surroundings, although it does pick up a little more white noise from sources like air conditioners than buds like the Sony’s, and noise cancellation is top-notch.

The Jabras are also durable, with an above-average IP68 rating (meaning they can fall in your drink without shorting) and even an IP54 rating for the charging case. Our only real gripe relates to the buttons on each bud that control playback and hear-through mode: They require you to push the buds further into your ear canal than is sometimes comfortable. If it’s a problem, you can toggle through modes on Jabra’s mobile app.

Air Pro 3

You’d be forgiven for thinking the EarFun Air Pro 3 looks like an extremely popular earbud from a fruit-themed California tech company — but why reinvent the wheel? Indeed, like AirPods, the Air Pro 3 fades into the background as it stays put in your ear, free of uncomfortable plastic-on-skin pressure points.

The earbuds also boast a 9-hour battery life per bud and an IPX5 water and sweat resistance rating, and they stay put better than the AirPods. The noise-canceling mode did a good job of blocking out background noise, although the in-ear fit of these buds means they do that pretty well without ANC enabled.

However, that means they rely heavily on an ambient sound mode to keep you aware of your surroundings, and that mode doesn’t transmit enough ambient sound (or transmit it loudly enough) to make these buds ideal for jogging down a busy path or conversing with a gym buddy.

WF-1000XM5

For folks who can part with a few Benjamins in exchange for a comfortable, fantastic-sounding set of in-ear workout earbuds, look no further than Sony’s WF-1000XM5. Alongside the Bose Ultra Open, Sony’s stand apart as the priciest earbuds in the test, but they justify the price for users who want not only full, balanced, dynamic sound but also an accurate ambient sound mode and effective noise canceling.

An accompanying mobile app offers a litany of additional features, including an adaptive sound control mode that mediates the amount of ambient sound based on your location and movement. As for cons, the buds have a smooth finish that makes them a little tough to remove from the case with sweaty hands.

Speaking of sweat, it’ll degrade the buds’ foam ear tips over time, a complaint that surfaced in a handful of user reviews. Granted, you can purchase silicone ear tips from aftermarket brands like Azla.

Fit Pro True Wireless

The Beats Fit Pro True Wireless earbuds share most of their technology with Apple’s AirPods Pro — a good thing, in our book, given the AirPods Pro’s ubiquity at the gym and everywhere else. The sound is a little more bass-heavy, but not muddy.

Ear fins slide under your ear’s antihelix (the raised vertical ridge in the center of your ear) to keep the buds snug; we didn’t encounter any fit or comfort issues during testing, but the fins aren’t interchangeable and some users have complained about not being able to dial in a comfortable fit.

On-earbud controls work similar to AirPods — press the button on either bud once to play and pause your music, or hold either side to toggle between noise canceling and transparency modes (or turn both special modes off). Sweaty hands still controlled the earbuds with ease, and the Fit Pro’s stellar transparency mode makes it ideal for sharing space in a crowded gym.

AirPods Pro (2nd Generation)

Apple’s latest AirPods Pro are almost perfect for working out. They’re comfortable to wear for a long time, thanks to buds’ lightweight, compact construction and silicone ear tips that don’t go too deep into the ear canal. Yet, the tips manage to seal up your ear in a way that delivers much fuller sound than the original AirPods. Touching the buds to play or pause the tunes, or toggle between noise cancelation and transparency modes, works just as well with sweaty hands.

Transparency mode is up there with the best wireless earbuds on the market, allowing you to be aware of your surroundings without detracting from the music. Our only gripe is that the buds fell out during side planks and occasionally needed readjustment while running, jumping, or otherwise gesticulating with one’s head, even after swapping between four included ear tip sizes. Other earbuds in this test that go deeper into the ear were a little less comfortable to wear, but that also helped them avoid falling out as often.

Epic Air Sport ANC 2nd Gen

JLab’s latest rendition of the Epic Air Sport ANC packs all the key features you want from workout earbuds into a relatively affordable package. With 15 hours of playtime from each earbud and 55 more hours from the charging case, you can throw these in your gym bag and forget about charging for a couple of weeks.

The hook-shaped ear fins and IP66 sweat and dust rating mean you can do anything short of swimming in these earbuds, too, and they stayed put during testing. You can tap the earbuds once or multiple times to play and pause, take calls, or change modes, but the buds didn’t register every tap during testing.

Sound quality was decent but not great, with bass and treble overpowering the midrange. And while the transparency mode was nearly as good as more expensive options, noise cancellation was notably underpowered compared to its pricier peers.

Ultra Open

Bose is known for exceptional sound quality, so you might be surprised to know that the Bose Ultra Open isn’t the best-sounding set of earbuds in this test. However, the sound quality is quite good considering these earbuds’ distinctive feature: They leave your ears totally open.

Rather than creating a seal in your ear canal and then using microphones and algorithms to recreate ambient sound, the Bose Ultra Open pumps sound into your ear canal from a speaker that clips to your ear above the lobe via a flexible band. Apart from lacking a little bass and clarity, the sound is as good as you’ll find in wireless earbuds—at least when you’re somewhere quiet. It's the 2024 equivalent of a boom box on your shoulder.

Because these buds leave your ears open, a loud gym will sound as such. Granted, the buds get loud enough to keep your music in focus (while also making it audible to passersby), but they’re not great for those who want to drown out the world. Rather, they’re ideal for folks like runners or cyclists who want to keep their ears open, or anyone who wants great sound in a comfortable package without having anything up their ear canal.

215 TW2 True Wireless Earbuds

If you want your workout jams to sound like they do to the sound engineer who recorded them, reach for Shure’s Aonic 215 TW2. They use Shure’s popular SE215 in-ear monitors (earbuds for recording and performing music), which make your favorite tracks sound the way they were intended to sound.

Thanks to wireless adaptors that plug in where the SE215’s cable would normally go, the buds enjoy a bevy of features that put them on par with the top wireless workout buds on the market. They include an “environment mode” to let in ambient sound when desired, button controls for playback, volume and voice assistant, and an equalizer that you can manually adjust or browse between six preset modes. Our only knock during testing was the buds’ inability to adequately isolate the sound of your tunes while in a loud gym — and there’s no active noise cancelation to help out.

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