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The Best Earbuds Under $50

By Lauren Dragan
Updated
Three different earbud sets pictured together.
Photo: Michael Hession

Let’s be honest: Most earbuds under $50 are junk. They’re uncomfortable and cheaply constructed, and they usually sound terrible. But in our testing, the EarFun Free 2S proved that wireless earbuds don’t have to cost a bundle to perform well, fit comfortably, and have desirable features.

Everything we recommend

Our pick

These earbuds are completely wireless, have a high water-resistance rating, and come with a lot of features you don’t usually find at this price. They sound good but not great.

Buying Options

Our pick

This wired set sounds excellent for its super-affordable price and comes with a three-button remote and microphone. But it lacks any waterproofing.

Buying Options

Also great

These earbuds have great sweat resistance, and they hook over your ears to stay in place. But you don’t get features like noise cancellation or a hear-through mode.

How we picked


  • Who this is for

    If you just want inexpensive headphones that sound decent, fit well, and can take a phone call, this guide is for you.

  • Wired and wireless

    While we focused on wireless Bluetooth earbuds, we also tested wired earbuds and have picks for both types.

  • A comfortable fit

    The tips should come in enough sizes that most people can get a good seal, and the cables (if there are any) shouldn’t be too heavy.

  • Sound quality

    We don’t expect perfection here, but you should be able to hear every instrument and every word, without blur or distortion.

Read more

Our pick

These earbuds are completely wireless, have a high water-resistance rating, and come with a lot of features you don’t usually find at this price. They sound good but not great.

Buying Options

Not everyone wants to spend an arm and a leg to get good earbuds, and the EarFun Free 2S shows that you don’t have to. You get a lot of features with this affordable, true wireless pair: the full complement of intuitive touch-based controls, seven hours of listening time per charge (with 23 more hours in the Qi-compatible charging case), and an above-average waterproof rating of IPX7.

While this pair doesn’t have more premium features like active noise cancellation and a hear-through mode, the quality of the four background-noise-reducing microphones outperformed what we’ve heard from many more expensive models.

As for sound quality, the Free 2S features a fairly balanced yet immersive sound, but there is a pronounced high-frequency spike that may be fatiguing for sensitive listeners. You can  customize the sound using the EQ controls in the EarFun app, but overall this set can’t deliver the same quality as our favorite pair of wireless Bluetooth earbuds.

Our pick

This wired set sounds excellent for its super-affordable price and comes with a three-button remote and microphone. But it lacks any waterproofing.

Buying Options

Nowadays, it’s challenging to find affordable wired earbuds that sound good, let alone that include a microphone. As most companies pivot to making wireless models, the Moondrop Quarks earbuds feel a little like spotting an endangered species in the wild. For around $15, this pair feels substantially built, has a three-button remote and mic on the cable, and delivers sound quality on a par with earbuds that cost twice as much.

If you’re accustomed to the sound of similarly priced earbuds available at drugstores and truck stops, prepare to have your socks knocked off. The Quarks pair has clear, crisp highs and a broader soundstage than anything we’ve heard under 20 bucks. The sound quality can’t match that of our favorite (and much pricier) wired earbud picks, but the Quarks pair performs so well for so little money that it’s difficult to complain about much of anything.

The three-button remote and mic on the cable will control music playback and volume on most devices. (An even cheaper version is available without the remote/mic.) The microphone is a basic analog mic, but it delivered clear-sounding voices.

Unlike our other picks, the Quarks set doesn’t include any sweat or waterproof rating, so we don’t recommend them for working out.

Also great

These earbuds have great sweat resistance, and they hook over your ears to stay in place. But you don’t get features like noise cancellation or a hear-through mode.

The JLab Go Air Sport true wireless earbuds are the best under-$50 pair for indoor and outdoor workouts, as well as running. They have a high dust- and water-resistance rating and comfortable, over-ear hooks for added stability. This set also has an eight-hour battery life, and the charging case holds an extra 24 hours worth of power—though it’s a little bit larger than we’d prefer.

The sound quality is decent but not balanced enough to appeal to audiophiles. All three of the preset EQ settings have some type of flaw: One boosts treble, one boosts bass, and the last falls somewhere in the middle (though the bass is still boomy). Beyond those presets, there are no advanced EQ adjustments offered in the JLab app.

While the touch-based controls are a nice feature, their responsiveness can be inconsistent. Unfortunately, these earbuds don’t have active noise cancellation or a hear-through mode. However, the sealed design helps to block out noise, and you can keep one ear open since either earbud can work independently.

I hold a bachelor’s degree in both music performance and audio production from Ithaca College, and I have tested more than a thousand pairs of headphones and earbuds while working for Wirecutter. I’ve also been in and out of top recording studios for more than a decade, first as a radio producer and on-air talent, then as a professional voice actor.

We also engage the ears of experts—including audio reviewers, musicians, and composers—to get feedback on the various earbuds we test. That includes senior staff writer Brent Butterworth, who has been reviewing audio gear professionally since 1990.

Some people just want headphones that work well enough, don’t cost much, and can take a phone call without sounding terrible. If you’re in that group, these low-priced earbuds are for you.

These days, most people prefer the convenience of wireless headphones, and the headphone jack has disappeared from many popular smartphones, so here we focus primarily on wireless earbuds—although we do include one pick for those who prefer a wired option.

Generally speaking, wired earbuds can deliver better sound quality for less money than wireless models, and you don’t have to worry about charging them. But wired pairs need to stay tethered to your music device via their cable, and if you own a newer smartphone that lacks a headphone jack, you have to buy an adapter.

If you choose a pair of wireless earbuds in this price category, keep in mind that the vast majority of the money you spend goes into the components that make them wireless (the Bluetooth tech and the batteries). This means that the manufacturers often cut costs in other areas: the drivers (the sound), the build, and the extra features. If you’re willing to spend a bit more, you can get better wireless sound and more features from our higher-end Bluetooth earbud picks.

We have tested more than 200 earbuds over the course of several years and multiple updates to this guide. In our research and testing, we consider the following criteria:

  • Comfort and fit are important for any set of earbuds. If your earbuds are too big and heavy, or cause pain in your ears, you won’t wear them. The tips should come in enough sizes that the majority of people can get a tight seal, and the cable and remote (on wired earbuds) shouldn’t be so heavy that they tug the earbuds out when you move.
  • The sound quality on cheap earbuds may not be as detailed or immersive as on more expensive models, but you should still be able to hear every instrument and every word, and nothing should blur or distort.
  • Build quality is important even for inexpensive earbuds. With proper care, earbuds at this price level should last through a year or two of daily use. We dismiss any earbuds with a significant record of failure.
  • Ease of use is worth considering. If Bluetooth earbuds are difficult to pair or prone to connection issues, or if the controls tend to misfire, they will be frustrating to use and ultimately a waste of money.
  • Brand reliability and warranty are also important. We shy away from very new or unknown brands that have no customer support because if anything goes wrong, you have nobody to contact for assistance.
  • Having a remote and mic on wired earbuds is ideal, as most people use these kinds of earbuds with their mobile devices.
  • Mild water resistance is helpful in case you get caught in the rain, but the absence of an IP rating is not a dealbreaker for these models in the way it is for workout headphones.

In each round of tests, we ask multiple listeners to try on the contenders. They choose their top earbud sets based on fit, sound quality, ease of use, comfort, and overall appearance. At the end, they take price into consideration to help select a potential overall pick.

We then take those potential picks and test their Bluetooth connectivity and range (if they’re wireless). I spend at least a full workday with each set, and I check for any noticeable connection and reliability issues—using a combination of Apple and Android phones and Apple computers.

A pair of EarFun Free 2S earbuds and the charging case.
Photo: Michael Murtaugh

Our pick

These earbuds are completely wireless, have a high water-resistance rating, and come with a lot of features you don’t usually find at this price. They sound good but not great.

Buying Options

The EarFun Free 2S is our favorite under-$50 pair of wireless earbuds because it provides an experience that is on a par with—and occasionally better than—that of true wireless earbuds in the $90 to $100 range. Our testers were impressed not only with the sound quality but also with how many additional premium features this pair includes for the low price.

EarFun did an excellent job in tuning the mid and low frequencies of the Free 2S earbuds. In our tests, bass notes had actual pitches rather than thumps, and the attack and decay of kick-drum hits were clear and defined.

These earbuds provided more detail in the high frequencies than many similarly priced models, so the top end didn’t sound dull or soft—but there was a big spike in the range from 7 kHz to 9 kHz that could be fatiguing to listen to, especially at louder volumes. Sensitive folks may find this spike off-putting, while others may only register the bump as a whistle-like quality in “s” sounds or an overemphasis on cymbal rings.

This isn’t an uncommon sound profile; we’ve criticized this same flaw in earbuds that cost two to three times more than the Free 2S set. The EarFun app offers EQ capabilities to fine-tune the sound, so you can reduce the high frequencies a bit if the intensity bothers you.

This set has a full suite of touch-based controls. Unlike many true wireless earbud sets, which limit the range of controls on the earbuds, the Free 2S pair includes controls for play/pause, volume, track forward/reverse, call answer/end, and digital-assistant activation.

Though our team generally prefers physical control buttons, the larger touch-surface area on each earbud was more forgiving than other touch-based systems we’ve tested. It’s still not as foolproof as control systems that have mechanical buttons to press, but because we didn’t encounter frequent misfires, we’re willing to overlook this minor drawback.

The earbuds’ shape and size should be comfortable for most people. The earbuds themselves have a smooth, contoured shape, and EarFun includes three sizes of tips in the package. All of our listeners were able to get a secure fit.

However, people with very small ears or ear canals may have a little more trouble getting the Free 2S earbuds to stay put. If you’re in that group, you may want to check out the JLab Go Air Sport earbuds, which hook over the ears for added stability.

The earbuds have around seven hours of battery life, and the charging case is relatively small and should fit in many jeans pockets. It is Qi-compatible for wireless charging, and the quick-charge function supplies two hours of listening time after you leave the earbuds in the case for just 10 minutes. If you happen to leave the earbuds out of the case, the 10-minute auto-shutoff function prevents the battery from draining once your audio device disconnects.

The microphone quality is excellent. We were impressed with the clarity when we used this pair for calls in home and office environments, especially for earbuds at this price. This pair isn’t resistant to wind noise, however: A solid gust will lead to a buffeting sound, so you’ll probably want to duck inside to take a call on a blustery day.

With a dust- and water-resistance rating of IPX7, the EarFun Free 2S set can definitely handle rain. IPX7 means you can leave the rated device in 1 meter of water for 30 minutes with no adverse effects. The rating applies only to clear water, however, so rinse any salt water, sweat, or dust off the Free 2S earbuds after exposure, and be sure to allow the earbuds to dry thoroughly before placing them back in the case. Should anything go wrong, EarFun covers the Free 2S pair with an 18-month warranty.

The Free 2S lacks active noise cancellation and a hear-through mode. To get these premium features (and have them work well), you usually have to pay more than $50.

A pair of Moondrop Quarks earbuds.
Photo: Michael Murtaugh

Our pick

This wired set sounds excellent for its super-affordable price and comes with a three-button remote and microphone. But it lacks any waterproofing.

Buying Options

The Moondrop Quarks is a delightfully uncomplicated pair of wired earbuds that feels more luxe than its low price would suggest. Unlike other sub-$20 pairs that have flimsy cables, deliver crummy sound, and lack a remote and a microphone, this pair feels sturdy, sounds excellent for the price, and has a three-button remote and microphone. (An even less expensive version is available without the remote/mic, if that’s not a feature you need.)

This pair sounds far better than its low price would suggest. Moondrop is a smaller company that specializes in making in-ear monitors, usually aimed at the audiophile community. You can sense that in the way the Quarks earbuds are tuned—the sound is crisper in the high frequencies, and it has a better sense of space and a more balanced bass response than anything else we’ve heard around this price.

Folks who prefer boosted bass may like the sound of the wireless picks in this guide better, as they have a little extra oomph in the lows.

The earbuds are very small and lightweight. Two of our testers mentioned that the buds were so small, it initially felt as though they might fall out—but they didn’t. Moondrop includes three pairs of rounded tips that help ensure a stable fit. I took my pair for a two-mile walk with my phone tucked away in a pocket and was pleased to find that the earbuds stayed put.

However, if you want earbuds to wear while going for a jog, we’d recommend looking at a more water-resistant and hook-secured pair like the JLab Go Air Sport.

The cable includes a three-button remote and mic. The cable itself is flexible but sturdy, with a smooth, plastic coating that minimizes sound transfer. The remote has three buttons that can control track play/pause, skip/reverse, and volume on most devices. We can confirm the volume functionality is compatible with Apple devices and many Android devices, especially those with a headphone jack. However, the varied programming nature of Android means your results with the volume buttons may vary.

The microphone is a simple analog mic, but it sounds clear and completely acceptable for phone calls, video meetings, or making Tik Tok videos.

The package includes a small fabric bag to keep your pair dust-free when you’re tucking them away in a bag or backpack. If anything goes wrong, Moondrop covers the Quarks with a one-year warranty.

There’s no dust or water protection. So we recommend keeping these out of the rain and not using them for sweaty workouts.

This wired pair also lacks features like active noise cancellation and a hear-through mode that are reserved for wireless earbuds.

A pair of JLab Go Air Sport earbuds.
Photo: Michael Hession

Also great

These earbuds have great sweat resistance, and they hook over your ears to stay in place. But you don’t get features like noise cancellation or a hear-through mode.

If you’re looking for a cheap pair of true wireless earbuds that can survive sweaty workouts, the JLab Go Air Sport is the way to go. While this set has some flaws, its impressive water-resistance rating outperformed the rest of the competition in its price category (and even some more expensive models), and the hook-over-the-ear design is both comfortable and secure.

This set has both dust and water resistance. The above-average IP55 rating helped earn the Go Air Sport earbuds our budget pick spot for the best workout headphones, and it means they can withstand long and sweaty land-based workouts.

Most sub-$50 earbuds don’t last more than a year or two, but JLab offers a two-year warranty for the Go Air Sport that covers any factory malfunctions or defects.

The hook-over-the-ear design is more secure than that of our other picks. Stabilization is key when you’re looking for the best headphones for running or any other type of workout, and the Go Air Sport’s hooks provide a secure grip while being flexible enough to accommodate different ear shapes—which makes them a great choice for those who have smaller or more sensitive ears.

In addition to the hooked design, the Go Air Sport comes with three sizes of ear tips, and our testers were all able to get a secure fit.

The Go Air Sport has up to eight hours of battery life. The case holds an additional 24 hours of charge, and about 15 minutes of charging can bank one hour of battery life. Since the charging case has to be large enough to fit the over-ear hooks, it is a little bulkier than we would prefer and is therefore best kept in a gym bag or running belt instead of your pockets.

One great thing about these earbuds is that you can’t lose the USB-A charging cable because it’s permanently attached to the case. That said, USB-C is becoming the more common connector, so the cable itself could soon become obsolete.

The touch controls are large and easy to use, so misfires should be rare. We generally prefer physical buttons to touch controls, but the Go Air Sport touch system has a surprising amount of functionality—you have playback, volume, and digital-assistant activation at your fingertips. A triple-tap of one earbud lets you cycle through the sound presets.

That said, we did find the touch controls to be overly sensitive at times. If you have longer hair, it could block the sensors and make the problem worse.

The sound quality is decent, but unrefined. The JLab app has three EQ presets: One boosts treble, one boosts bass, and the last is somewhere in the middle. We thought the middle-ground JLab Signature preset was the most balanced, but the bass was still a bit boomier than we’d like. And you don’t have the ability to fiddle with advanced EQ controls to fine-tune the sound.

As with our top pick, this set doesn’t feature active noise cancellation or a hear-through mode, but the eartips seal the ear canal well enough to block out extraneous noise. If you need to hear your surroundings for safety purposes, each earbud can work independently—but note that using one bud at a time limits the touch-control functionality.

If you prefer a sportier-looking true wireless design that comes in a variety of colors: Skullcandy’s Sesh Evo (a former pick) provides a fun, bass-forward sound, a comfortable fit, water resistance (with an IP55 rating), and easy-to-use controls, in addition to Tile integration. But the battery life of five hours per charge is just middle of the road these days. The EarFun Free 2S set has a longer battery life, a higher water-resistance rating, and clearer microphones for calls, but if you want wireless earbuds with a little more color, the Sesh Evo is a solid choice.

If you want affordable wired earbuds in fun colors: The Panasonic RP-TCM125 ErgoFit set (a former pick) has a nice, balanced sound, with airy, mellow highs and present but not dominating bass. It sounds just as good with acoustic guitar as it does with hip-hop and rock music, but it doesn’t have the depth of field (the sense that music emanates from performers located at various positions in a given space, rather than a flat wall of sound) or clean bass quality of the Moondrop Quarks set. The ErgoFit earbuds have a single-button remote/mic on the cable. Although this pair’s plasticky design won’t win any awards for beauty or construction, it is available in a variety of fun colors. The earbuds are lightweight and come with three sizes of silicone tips (small, medium, and large) that have an elliptical, ear-canal-friendly shape once you put them on the buds (hence the name “ErgoFit”). People with larger ear canals may find that these earbuds require a bit of fiddling to create a good seal.

If you want wired USB-C earbuds: If you need this type of cable configuration, the Strauss & Wagner EM8C is the most affordable, good-sounding pair that we’ve come across, and the cable has a three-button remote and mic, too. It sounds quite good overall, with mildly boosted bass. There’s a narrow but prominent bump in the highs that can make strings sound metallic and cymbals a bit tinny. Though the EM8C set has a broader soundstage than that of the Moondrop Quarks, it’s not notable enough to warrant the price difference unless you absolutely hate carrying an adapter.

If you want earbuds that don’t seal off your ear canal. If you don’t like the feeling of your ear canal being sealed, the Amazon Echo Buds (2023) is a good option. Registration with the Alexa app is required to use the Echo Buds, as well as to receive software updates, but they don’t require an Alexa device to work (you can also set up a button tap to use your phone’s built-in assistant). While not as full and rich as our favorite sealed earbuds, the sound quality is a lot better than most unsealed earbuds we tested. This pair comes with customizable tap controls, dual-device connectivity for easy swapping, and two microphones that provide decent call quality. The five-hour battery life is mediocre, and the low IPX2 water resistance won’t handle inclement conditions.

If you’re a musician on a budget who needs to monitor yourself on stage or while recording: The MEE Audio M6 Pro 2nd Generation is a great option, but it isn’t ideal for people who are looking for earbuds for casual enjoyment. We liked this pair’s sweat resistance and replaceable cable, both of which will come in handy for performers who may get sweaty and need various cable lengths depending on the situation. The sound is composed of forward highs and lows that are emphasized in a way that sounds unnatural for casual listening, but this effect may be helpful for someone on stage who needs vocals and the beat to be the most clear when they’re performing.

We’ve tested well over 200 headphones for this guide, so we can’t include everything here. Below are some of the more recent and noteworthy earbuds we’ve tested; you can find writeups of more recently tested pairs in this document.

Wireless earbuds we tested

Baseus Bowie MA10: For $30, the MA10 is surprisingly decent. This true wireless pair offers adequate noise cancellation, and the sound quality is remarkably pleasant. However, the case is massive, the controls are limited, and the app is buggy—with some questionable notification and location privacy requests. We’d recommend spending a few more dollars for something vastly more user-friendly, like the Edifier TWS1 Pro 2.

Edifier TWS1 Pro 2: This true wireless pair has a list price of $70 but often sells for just under $50, and the sound quality is excellent for the price. We like the IP54 dust/water resistance and the adjustable hear-through mode. But the battery life of four hours with ANC on is too short, and the suite of touch controls is limited.

JLab JBuds Mini: These are the smallest wireless earbuds we’ve tested, so if you have small ears, these are likely to fit better than other true wireless earbuds. But if you usually choose a large tip in other earbuds, the Mini is not for you. The included large tip is what would pass for medium in other brands. The touch controls are customizable but can easily misfire when you adjust the earbuds. The microphone quality is only passable, and the sound is frustrating. The drivers sound cheap and tend to distort on complex songs. The three pre-programmed EQ settings are either muddy, bass-forward, or tinny, and the custom EQ setting is challenging to use and didn’t produce great results. That said, these are relatively inexpensive, with a two-year warranty—so if small size is your primary need and you aren’t too picky about everything else, these might work.

JVC Marshmallow Noise Cancelling HA-A25T: This pair suffers from subpar ANC efficacy, a muffled-sounding hear-through mode, and three EQ settings that never quite find a decent sonic balance.

MEE Audio Pebbles: Putting in this earbud pair is like slipping elongated fava beans into your ears. The design neither isolates nor allows for unencumbered situational awareness. It also feels more invasive than traditionally designed earbuds. The sound is pretty dismal, with coarse highs and bass notes that distort on hip-hop tracks like a subwoofer with a blown cone.

Skullcandy Smokin’ Buds XT: It’s hard to get too upset about the performance of wireless earbuds that are under $20. This pair is small, connects easily, and sounds okay. There is no way to change tracks or call up your digital assistant using the tap-based controls. Out of the box, the sound is tuned to Skullcandy’s bass-forward sound, but there are two additional EQ settings—one is tinny, and the other is reverb-y with even more bass. If our picks weren’t so good, we’d probably recommend these with caveats—because they’re decent enough and cheap.

Wired earbuds we tested

Apple EarPods: The general conclusion among our testers was that the unsealed EarPods are unobjectionable but unremarkable. They’re fine as a wired pair that’s packaged with your Apple device, but if they break or get lost and you need to replace them, you should buy one of our recommendations before paying for a second set of these.

HiFiHear BLON BL03: Though the metal earbud design gives the BL03 pair a higher-end feel, the sound has an icy spike that adds a whistle quality to “s” sounds and a clicking quality to percussion. Additionally, the included tips aren’t perfectly sized to the sound tubes on the earbuds, so they slide down too far on the sound tube and slide off when you pull the earbuds out of your ears.

KZ X Crinacle CRN (ZEX Pro): This pair feels well made, with a substantial ribbed-plastic cable. Our panel of listeners was less impressed with the sound, which seems to have a dip in the lower range of male vocals. The highs also have a spike that add a sharp “thwack” to the attack of percussion. This sound profile lent an artificial quality to acoustic music.

KZ ZS10 Pro: The metal earbuds feel substantial, but their weight pulls the earbuds down, which could pose a problem for people with smaller and larger ears. While our testers appreciated that this pair had some oomph in the bass frequencies, we were less happy with how bloated the bass notes were and how piercing the highs were. In order to get adequate loudness in the mids, we had to push the volume to the point where the highs were so loud, it became uncomfortable.

This article was edited by Adrienne Maxwell and Grant Clauser.

Meet your guide

Lauren Dragan

Lauren Dragan is a senior staff writer and has tested nearly 2,000 headphones for Wirecutter. She has a BA from Ithaca College in music performance and audio production. She’s been featured in Good Morning America, NBC Nightly News, The New York Times, and more. Additionally, she’s a voice actor whose work includes projects for Disney and Mattel.

Further reading

  • Five of our best headphones picks arranged on a table.

    The Best Headphones Under $100

    by Lauren Dragan

    If you’re looking for backup headphones or just don’t want to spend a lot, we reviewed all the best cheap headphones for you.

  • A close-up of the ear buds on four of the wired earbud headphones that we tested.

    Wired Earbuds Are So Hot Right Now

    by Lauren Dragan

    After giving a pair of wireless earbuds a spin, you might regret cutting the cord. Here are the wired headphones we recommend if you’re committed to the wire.

  • Different brands of wired earbuds in a circle.

    The Best Wired Earbuds

    by Ian D. White

    The FiiO FD3 Pro is our favorite pair of wired earbuds under $200 because it offers excellent sound and build quality, plus a ton of helpful accessories.

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