Compare Top 5 Workout Headphones

Honorable Mentions

We try almost every pair of new workout buds that come out. Here are a few that we also like that didn’t quite earn a space above.

Nwm Go for $100: Stylish Japanese brand Nwm recently launched these open-ear bone conduction headphones that purport to reduce sound leakage, so not everyone can listen to your spicy audiobook on the train. This works, they sound fine and are incredibly light, but they use a proprietary charger and my husband thinks they look like some weird dental device.

Skullcandy Crusher 540 Active for $210: The BlueAnt headphones are just a better buy in all regards, but I enjoyed these a lot. The noise canceling doesn’t work very well, but these headphones are attractive and the bass is astoundingly powerful—my whole head vibrated while listening to Jay-Z at the gym.

JLab Epic Sport ANC 3 for $100: This is the upgraded version of the Go Air Sport above, with hybrid dual drivers for better sound, a higher IP rating, better battery life, and active noise canceling. You need a fully-sealed fit for ANC to be effective, which these don’t have; I can still hear people at the gym when I’m lifting weights. Still, in every other way these headphones meet their promises and they do feel incredibly secure.

H2O Audio Tri 2 Pro Multi-Sport for $200: These are a huge improvement of the first iteration of the brand’s waterproof headphones, with a better fit, better buttons, and a better silicone finish. I also like the charging case! However, they’re pricier than the Shokz and they use a proprietary charger instead of USB-C, which is annoying.

Nothing Open Earbuds for $100: These are some of the slimmest buds I’ve tested and they fit well under layers of hoods, helmets, and hats.

Anker Soundcore AeroFit 2 for $100: I like the price, the beautiful colors, and the sound is great. However, they are a little bulkier than some of our other picks and the fit a little less secure.

JLab JBuds Mini for $40: If I were spending my own money, I would buy a pair of JLab workout buds and be done with it. I raved about these cute, tiny buds last year and they are also in our Best Wireless Earbuds guide.

Suunto Sonic for $129: If you want to try a neckband-style headphone like the Shokz above, but for cheaper, Sawh also likes these lightweight headphones with a balanced sound profile.

Shokz Openrun Pro for $160: These headphones still work perfectly well and are smaller than the new version. There’s also a mini version ($130) where the neckband is almost an inch shorter, which I like, because I am smol.

Speck Gemtones Sport for $70: These are cheap and fit well. The buttons are a little too sensitive, and the sound is noticeably fuzzier than most of our other picks, but they’re not bad.

Dishonorable Mentions

There’s nothing more annoying than carving out some time in your day for a workout, getting out the door, and realizing that you can’t listen to your fun podcast because your headphones are glitching out. These are the ones I hated.

Photograph: Amazon

Raycon Bone Conduction Headphones for $85: I have no idea if these sound good, because they pressed directly on top of my ear canal, where they buzzed the flesh of my eardrums and not my bones. It was unbearable.

Skullcandy Method 360 ANC for $100: The case is huge, the buds are big and awkward, and noise canceling works not at all.

Anker Soundcore C40i for $100: These fulfilled all my worst imaginings about open-ear buds; they fell out before I’d run a block down my street. I put them in my pocket and didn’t wear them again for the rest of the run.

1More Fit Open for $130: Don’t buy these. They sound OK, but the buttons are so sensitive that I couldn’t run for more than five minutes without a song skipping or the music turning off.

Suunto Wing for $200: These look very nice and come with a bunch of thoughtful accessories, like a carrying case and a charging holder. But they sound way too tinny for this price.

FAQs

Why are the young ones plugging their headphones in?

Earbuds are amazingly convenient, but Bluetooth pairing can be wonky, and I always seem to drop one out at the most inconvenient times. To plug your headphones in, you’ll either need a headphone jack adapter or a phone with a headphone jack.

Why can’t I work out in my regular headphones?

You spent hundreds of dollars on your Sony WH-1000XM6, why wouldn’t you just wear them to work out? Sweat has salt and minerals that can corrode ear cups, especially if they’re made from premium materials, like leather. You’re also out and about in the world, encountering rain and other cold, hot, or humid environments that aren’t great for delicate drivers and other headphone components. No one’s telling you you can’t work out in regular headphones, but if you consider yours precious, it’s worth getting another pair that you won’t mind getting damaged.

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To test the contrast however, I first listened to the speaker without its bass bottle. It’s very loud for a small speaker, and in my office I couldn’t cope with the volume turned up past 30 percent. It’s just not an enjoyable listen, sounding shrill and disappointing without any discernible bass. It’s not quite as bad as putting your old iPhone in a cup for extra amplification, but it’s not far off—and at least you can actually drink from the cup afterwards.

But we’re here for the bass-boosting bottle, and I can categorically say that the acoustically tuned plastic bottle does indeed boost the lower frequencies, and makes the speaker sound significantly better. The bottle takes the edge off the volume, and there’s a noticeable depth to the mids and bass once it’s attached. You can really hear the difference in the mix and balance, and the contrast between the sound with the bottle on and off is impressive.

Push the volume, however, and the bass gets muddy quickly, with the sharp edges once again noticeable in the mix. It’s not horrible, but compared to the competition it’s just not that enjoyable to listen to, which is a shame, because it sure does look cute on my desk.

While it is larger, the Anker Soundcore Motion 300 ($70) wipes the floor with the Sodapop, with clear bass and clarity, even at volume. Similarly, the Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 4 ($80) is small, portable, boasts full 360-degree sound and comes with IP67 waterproofing (it floats), which is a huge upgrade to Sodapop’s dust- and splash-resistant IPX65 rating.

Played side-by-side with the similarly proportioned and much cheaper $35 Tribit StormBox Micro 2 (IPX7 rating, 10 hours playtime), the physical separation and large chamber between the drivers and bass port does create a wider soundstage. There’s not much in it in terms of the amount of bass and overall performance though.

Buying and selling online with e-commerce is old news. We’re entering the age of A-commerce, where artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly able to shop for us.

At the end of September, OpenAI launched its “Buy it in ChatGPT” trial in the United States, using AI agents built to interact with us to do more of people’s browsing and shopping. The technology is known as “agentic commerce,” sometimes shortened to A-commerce.

American shoppers can now ask for shopping suggestions from US Etsy sellers within a ChatGPT chat—then buy a product immediately, without having to navigate away to look at individual shop pages.

Looking ahead, big companies are now spruiking the next phase of “autonomous A-commerce,” which experts predict could see AI checking out for some shoppers within the next few years.

But is handing over more of our shopping decisions to AI a good thing for us as shoppers, for most businesses or for the planet?

What’s possible right now?

For most people using AI to help them shop, the AI agent is still mostly just searching and recommending products. It still has to shift the customer to the retailer’s website to complete the checkout.

For instance, AI can do most steps to order a pizza—though sometimes slower than doing it yourself—apart from paying at the end.

That’s when we step in: we still need to sign in if we’re part of a loyalty program, enter our personal and delivery details, then finally pay.

With the “Buy it in ChatGPT” trial now underway in the US, the customer never leaves the chat, where the checkout is completed.

Shopify has said more than 1 million of its merchants will soon be able to check out within ChatGPT too. Major US retailer Walmart has similar plans.

What’s next?

In May 2025, Google launched “AI mode shopping.” Some features, like using a full body photo of yourself to virtually “try-on” clothes, are still only available for US shoppers, with limited brands.

At the time, Google said its next step will be a new “agentic checkout […] in coming months” for products sold in the US. It would give shoppers the option of tracking a product until its price drops to within a set budget—then automatically prompting them to buy it, using Google Pay. That checkout option is yet to launch.

Credit card giants Visa and Mastercard are also working on ways to make it easier for AI agents to shop for us.

Both the current and coming forms of A-commerce have the potential to spread fast worldwide, because they run largely on the same global digital infrastructure powering today’s e-commerce: identity, payments, data and compliance.

Consultants McKinsey forecast: “We’re entering an era where AI agents won’t just assist—they’ll decide.”

What are the risks and benefits?

Overspending is a big risk.

A-commerce removes many steps of the shopping journey found in e-commerce or physical commerce, leading to fewer abandoned carts and potentially higher spending.

People would need to trust AI systems with their private data and preferences, and ensure they’re not misused. Permitting AI to shop on your behalf means you are responsible for the purchase and can’t easily demand a refund.

AI systems might focus on price or speed, but not always for what you value most: from how sustainable a product is, to the ethics of how it was made.

Fraud could be a real issue. Scammers could set up AI storefronts to trick the AI, collect the money and never deliver.

Banks will need to figure out how to spot fraud, process refunds, and manage consent when it’s not a person pressing “buy,” but an algorithm doing it on their behalf.

Regulators will need to consider A-commerce in their competition, privacy, data, and consumer protection rules.

A-commerce could offer some limited environmental benefits compared to today’s way of shopping, such as fewer missed deliveries—if you’re happy to share your calendar so your AI agent knows your availability.

But greater consumption would also mean greater environmental impacts: from AI’s voracious energy and water use, to the damage done by fast fashion, more deliveries and indirect pollution.

Changing how we shop and do business

If you have even a small business, the way you make your products and services discoverable online will have to change.

Instead of just having websites built for customers and search engines, all businesses will need to build AI accessible online stores. Those will not look like the websites we see today. It will be more like a data-soaked digital catalog, filled with everything an AI agent needs to place orders: product specifications, price, stock, ratings, reviews, through to delivery options.

All those years of bigger brands buying attention and dominating search results might start to matter less, if you’re able to build a good AI accessible online store. It could be a quiet but massive shift in how trade works.

However, each business’s visibility will depend on how AI systems read and rank sellers. If a business’s data isn’t formatted for AI, it may disappear from view. That could give larger players an edge and once again make it harder for smaller businesses to compete.

How much are we happy to delegate our shopping to AI agents? Our individual and collective choices over the next few years will shape how radically shopping is about to change for years to come.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.