Reviewed: The 10 Best Cheap Earbuds With Pricelessly Quality Sound

Inflation seems to be kicking all of our butts. We’re seeing prices skyrocket on everything from meats to vacation packages. But there’s one consumer product that’s been relatively spared from the fiery grip of rising prices — that’d be earbuds. The best cheap earbuds are a daily and necessary accessory for most people today, so we’re calling this a win. But exactly which brands are making quality earbuds for cheap in 2023? And furthermore, how much is “cheap?”

To put this into perspective, the best wireless earbuds will cost you anywhere between $80 and $250. But if you’re looking for quality sound on a budget, we’ve found a group of inexpensive earbuds that passed our tests and cost under $100, and oftentimes, under $50. It sounds too good to be true, but it’s as real as that post-holiday dinner nap you’ll need after listening to your Uncle Darrell’s knee replacement stories for the past three straight hours. 

To save big on earbuds, there’s only one rule — don’t be afraid to try brands that aren’t Apple, Samsung, Sony, or Beats. Many of these cheap earbuds sound amazing, have long battery life (often as long or longer than premium models), and fit well while staying comfortable all day.

SPY Editors have made it our mission to find the diamonds in the rough and reveal the best cheap earbuds so you can have the best for less. So before you “add to cart” on something north of $200, consider the money-saving option as well. Here are the best options we found, with and without wires, all under $100, and all worth a purchase if you’re in the market.

---

If you like bass driven music, these are a great choice. The low end sounds full and defined, but doesn’t muddy up the rest of the sound profile. And the earbuds don’t overcompensate by making the highs too shrill or bright. The sound profile is just right. You can expect about five hours of battery life including an extra 20 from the case. These provide a great listening experience and only cost about $50. 

Full Review: Premium Features for a (Slightly) Less Premium Price

Finding active noise cancellation at this price point is impressive enough, but then adding premium sound quality and six hours of battery life (30 total if you include the case), these become a no-brainer great buy. Our SPY reviewer was impressed with the ANC and the sound quality using default EQs, but it’s also impressive that adjustable EQs are at your disposal. For under $100, it’s hard to dethrone these as the best cheap earbuds available. 

Using a laptop to test these earbuds, they provided deep, fulfilling bass and clear vocals and instrumentals. When listening to “Hurt Feelings” by Mac Miller, the bass response was impressive, but also the fact that the fine details, like the dubbed vocals throughout the song, remained prominent and clear.

Also, these earbuds are very affordable. You don’t have to deal with dead batteries or recharging, making this ideal for long trips or flights where you can plug them into the seat, get some work done on your laptop, or simply enjoy some nonstop tunes or podcasts.

True, these buds have the best battery life, but like the Jlab Go Airtones (another pick for the best cheap earbuds), these are also some of the most comfortable earbuds we tried overall. We definitely would have been comfortable going for a run or working out with these earbuds — the seal felt secure.

The sound quality was another plus, especially when it came to low-end bumps. There’s plenty of bass to be had, but the high-end felt a tiny bit forced to overcompensate for the bass. Regardless, for this price, these are more than worthy of being your daily pair of earbuds.

Full Review: Budget-Friendly Earbuds That Come In 7 Different Skin Tone Shades

The JLab Go Air Tones forgo the bright colors and instead employ a skin tone-esque pallet. After testing, we really loved that these earbuds fit snugly inside of the ear canal which, subsequently, makes for a comfortable listening experience.

These are some of the best cheap earbuds around for those who like tiny tech. They’re about the size of the tip of a thumb but don’t let that fool you — there is still plenty of low-end production coming from these buds. You won’t find ANC here, but the tight seal from the small form factor blocks out unwanted noise.

Considering these earbuds are cheaper than a dinner for two, pick these up if you’re shopping on a tight budget and want something a little more fashion-forward.

These cheap wireless earbuds have some of the best bass production compared to other earbuds in this category. Listening to “Hurt Feelings” by Mac Miller, the bass was hitting plenty hard, but not sounding muddy. The highs are a little over-expressed, similar to the Sony listening experience, but overall, the sound quality is great. You can expect about seven hours of non-stop listening and roughly 28 hours of total battery life when you include the charging case.

The EarFun Free Earbuds sound great and are generously priced. The knock on these earbuds are the bulky form factor. They often felt like they would fall out when we tested these during our review of the best sports earbuds.

Despite that, if you do decide to work out using these buds, they are rated IPX7 waterproof, so even the most profusely sweaty people wouldn’t have to worry about the earbuds getting damaged.

Beyond this, a great perk is the quick charging, where just 10 minutes in the case provides up to another two hours of listening time. When fully charged, we scored about seven hours overall of listening time.

Considering these were our top pick in the aforementioned sports earbud review, and how affordably priced they are, it’s no surprise the Treblab X3 Pro ranked highly in our tests of the best cheap earbuds.

The fit is fantastic with the ear hook design and the nine-hour battery life only gets beat out by Sony on this list. When listening to music, they sounded great and provided plenty of volume to boot. Earhooks aren’t for everybody but can be nice for those who are especially active. Hence, if you’re looking for a gym partner, these cheap earbuds should be strongly considered.

Most apps that work in tandem with earbuds are more annoying than useful, but the Jabra app adds true value to the Jabra Elite 3, which significantly boosted them up in our rankings of the best earbuds. There are handy presets you can use that cater to whatever medium you’re listening to. The Bass Boost setting is great for hip-hop while the Speech setting helps clear up vocals for podcasts. It’s also nice that the app tells you how much battery life is remaining with each earbud. As far as the buds go, the fit is nice and the battery life is equally as great. Overall, these are a solid choice if you’re looking to save a few bucks on good earbuds.

It’s always nice to have a backup pair of wired headphones available, especially when you are traveling. There are still plenty of planes that require wired headphones to enjoy the in-flight entertainment. And many earbuds don’t have the battery life to make it through an entire eight hour work day. You don’t have to worry about the battery with this wired pair of headphones. Admittedly, these don’t sound as good as the other wired pair in our lineup, but the fit is more comfortable and you can find these headphones between the $10-$20 range which is crazy cheap.

---

How We Tested The Best Cheap Earbuds

Before you see the bottom shelf price tags on some of our picks below and think to yourself, “there’s no way these are good” we’re here to tell you we thoroughly tested each set of earbuds the same way we test even the most expensive pairs. Here’s some of the criteria we used to rank our low budget favs: 

Sound Quality: It doesn’t matter if you are paying $10, or $250, bad sound quality is unacceptable. Even with the candidates for our review of the best cheap earbuds, we listened to a variety of tunes using flat EQs as well as the best presets (when available) to find the optimal sounds. 

Comfort and Design: Comfort is non-negotiable. You don’t want to be constantly fumbling with the earbuds in your ears nor do you want your ears to hurt after long stretches of listening. Each pair of buds became our daily drivers, and after extended use, we were able to determine which ones were the most comfortable. 

Battery Life: Stat of the day: Every single pair of earbuds tested have better battery life than the first gen AirPod Pros. While that wasn’t our baseline, we did look for headphones with at least six hours of battery life. And wired options, well, that’s infinity plus infinity battery life. 

Price: If you’re on this page, you are obviously looking for a great price on buds. All of the earbuds tested are under $100 with some well under $100, (like $10). Extra points were given to headphones that sounded great and were priced low.

Not all tech needs to cost an arm and a leg, and the best cheap earbuds we tested using the above criteria are proof. Keep those Benjamins in your bank account and still get premium battery life and with these quality products. Like always, we did the work so you don’t have to.

---

Why Trust Spy When Picking the Best Cheap Earbuds?

Aside from diligent testing from two of SPY’s most informed testers of audio gear, it boils down to time spent finding cheap earbuds. Let us tell you — it’s not that easy. Most quality buds these days are retailing north of the $100 mark. But we set it upon ourselves to find a solution for those who don’t wan to pay a ton of money while still getting a quality product.

That includes digging through models of earbuds we’ve already tested, researching other top-rated models online, and asking around local stores to see what’s selling. And after our research and fact-finding, everything we learned is here within this story.

Aside from the best cheap earbuds, SPY is constantly reviewing awesome audio equipment. Recently, we’ve reviewed the 1More Aero ANC Earbuds, the best Bluetooth record players, and even the best smart speakers.

---

About The Author

Jonathan Knoder is a contributing writer for SPY.com and covers a variety of topics from tech to lifestyle, but he has a particular affinity for audio gear and smart home tech. His writing has been featured in Top Ten Reviews, Security Sales and Integration and Salt City Hoops. Previously for SPY, he’s reviewed the Prosenic M8 Robot Vac and Lockly Vision Elite Smartlock. In his free time, he is usually playing guitar or drums, going for a run, or throwing the Frisbee to his dog.

Also providing testing notes on the best cheap earbuds was SPY Condtibuting Writer, William Goodman.

---