Open earbuds have gone from oddball to everywhere in about two years. Sony, Shokz, Bose, CMF, EarFun, Huawei and Soundcore all put out open or clip-on models in 2026, and SoundGuys now runs a whole guide just for clip-ons. The idea is simple enough. Nothing goes in your ear canal, so you hear your music and the world around you at the same time.
Here's where I'm coming from. I've spent going on fifty years with headphones on my head for work, from mixing desks to broadcast trucks, and I'm all for anything that keeps people aware of what's going on around them. I don't run consumer earbuds through a lab, though, so the measurements on this page come from SoundGuys, RTINGS and Techlicious, and the prices are what Amazon showed on October 29.
Clip-ons, ear hooks, bone conduction and open-fit
"Open-ear" covers four pretty different designs, and the shape decides most of what you'll love or hate about a pair.
Clip-ons, sometimes called cuffs, hug the middle of your ear like an ear cuff from the jewelry counter, with a little speaker resting just outside the canal. The Sony LinkBuds Clip, the Bose Ultra Open and the Soundcore AeroClip 2 all work this way. They're tiny, they go on with a pinch and they stay clear of your glasses arms, but some people find the band starts to pinch back after a couple of hours.
Ear hooks loop over the top of your ear and hang a speaker in front of the canal. The extra room lets makers squeeze in more hardware (Techlicious says the Shokz OpenFit Pro has two drivers per bud), and the hook rides out a workout well. The trade-off is bulk, and they fight your glasses for the same real estate.
Bone conduction is the old hand of the bunch. A band wraps around the back of your head and two pads rest on your cheekbones, sending the sound in as vibration, and the Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 is the classic example. It can't fall out and it leaves your ears totally uncovered, but it has the weakest bass of any style here.
Open-fit buds like Apple's AirPods 5 are the odd one out. They sit in the bowl of your ear without a silicone tip, so they're unsealed, but they're nowhere near as open as a clip or a hook. Their party trick is noise cancelling, which no clip-on offers.
Who open earbuds suit, and who should skip them
They're a great match for road runners and cyclists who need to hear traffic, office folks who want to catch a coworker saying their name, parents keeping one ear on a napping baby and anybody whose ears get sore from silicone tips. Plenty of people also like them for long podcast sessions around the house, where nothing's pushing into your ear for hours on end.
They're a lousy match for loud commutes and flights. With nothing sealing your ear, the subway's screech comes right on in, and the natural reaction is to crank your music to beat it, which is the last thing your ears need. If that's your day, sealed earbuds with noise cancelling will do a far better job, and my everyday earbuds guide has those covered.
Bass lovers should go in with their eyes open too. Without a seal the low end just leaks away, and while some 2026 models fake it better than others, the Bose especially, none of them thump like a sealed bud.
What to look for in open earbuds
Sound leakage is the big one nobody warns you about. Open speakers spray a little sound into the room, so at higher volumes the person next to you on the bus gets your playlist too. Sony's leakage-protection mode on the LinkBuds Clip is built to cut that down, and CMF has an anti-leakage mode as well, though SoundGuys found it muffles things.
Comfort and fit come next, and they're about as personal as it gets. A cuff that disappears on one ear can pinch another by mid-afternoon, and the Bose cuff is the one reviewers keep holding up as the comfort benchmark. If you can, buy somewhere with an easy return.
Battery runs a little shorter than on sealed buds, and the claims on the box don't always hold. RTINGS measured just 5.6 hours from the Shokz OpenFit Pro against Shokz's up-to-12, while SoundGuys got around 13 hours from the Bose against a 9-hour rating. Go by measured numbers when you can find them.
Water resistance matters if you sweat or run in the rain. IPX4 handles sweat and drizzle, IP55 adds dust protection and a spray of water, and IP57 is rated for a short dunk. The AeroClip 2 has IP57, the two Shokz models have IP55, and the Sony and Bose sit at IPX4.
Calls are a weak spot across the board. Open mics pick up everything around you and wind makes hash of them outdoors, so if you're on the phone a lot, the AeroClip 2 is the one built for it.
Then there's the feature list. Multipoint keeps you hooked up to a phone and a laptop at once, and most of these picks have it. LDAC turns up on the cheaper AeroClip 2 and CMF Clip Pro, funnily enough, and not on the Sony. If the codec alphabet soup means nothing to you, I break down how SBC, AAC, aptX and LDAC differ in plain English.
My seven open-ear picks for 2026
Photo: Kyu3a, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped
Sony LinkBuds Clip
A featherweight clip that keeps your music from leaking all over the office
SoundGuys named this its best clip-on overall on October 8, and it costs about $70 less than the Bose. The headline feature is a leakage-protection mode that cuts how much the people around you hear, which takes care of the most annoying thing about open earbuds. Techlicious calls it the best for sound accuracy and for active use, each bud weighs just 6.2 grams and it'll pair with more than one device. Sony put it out on January 21 at $229.99, and Amazon has it at $228. Now for the fine print. SoundGuys only scored it 6.8, knocking the thin bass and fiddly controls, and there's no wireless charging, no LDAC or aptX and only IPX4. Techlicious also found the band could pinch after a couple of hours. For a light, polite all-day earbud, I'd still start here.
Photo: Bose press image
Bose Ultra Open Earbuds (2nd Gen)
The comfiest cuff around, at a price that stings
Bose announced this second generation on September 17 and put it on sale October 1 at $299. SoundGuys calls it the best premium clip-on and Gizmodo gave it 4.5 out of 5. The bass hits harder than before, the rated battery climbs to 9 hours (SoundGuys actually got about 13), and you get a wireless-charging case and multipoint right out of the box. The cuff is the one reviewers hold up as the comfort benchmark. But $299 is a lot of dough, and even SoundGuys' reviewer said they wouldn't spend it. Calls get muffled in noisy places, wind is a problem, there's no Auracast, it's only IPX4, and Bose's Immersive Audio knocks the battery down to about 5 hours. Bose already ran a refurbished buy-one-get-one deal in October, so I'd watch the price into Black Friday.
Photo: Kyu3a, CC BY-SA 4.0
Shokz OpenFit Pro
The fullest sound of the bunch, if you can live with split reviews
Shokz launched this at CES 2026, and the sound is what gets people talking. Techlicious calls it the best for sound reproduction, TechRadar called it a great-sounding contender for the open-earbud crown, and Trusted Reviews gave it 4.5 out of 5. It's also Shokz's first open model with noise reduction, along with IP55, wireless charging and multipoint. Not everyone's on board, mind you. SoundGuys scored it 6.3, finding the noise reduction only tamps down the mids, by about 13 dB between 300 Hz and 1.5 kHz, while adding a pressure feeling, and it told OpenFit 2+ owners not to bother upgrading. RTINGS measured just 5.6 hours of battery, and wind wrecks outdoor calls. Amazon has it at $249.95, but SoundGuys has seen it at $199.95, and I'd hold out for that.
Torn between a clip and a hook?
Tell the matcher where you'll wear them and what you'd like to spend, and it'll trim the list for you.
Try the matcher →
Photo: DesertMouse26, CC BY-SA 4.0
Shokz OpenRun Pro 2
A band that can't fall off, with your ears left wide open
RTINGS and SoundGuys both make this their top bone-conduction pick. A wraparound band holds it in place so it can't drop off mid-stride, and nothing sits in or on your ear canal, which leaves you hearing every car and cyclist coming up behind you. It's IP55, rated for up to 12 hours and $179.95 on Amazon, where it's the number one seller in open-ear headphones. Bone conduction pays a price for all that openness, though. The bass is the weakest of any style here, it buzzes when you turn it way up, and the band doesn't get along with hoods or some bike helmets. It's also my top pick for road runners in my list of gym and workout headphones.
Soundcore AeroClip 2
Four mics and a call chip, at a price that won't make you wince
SoundGuys picked this as the clip-on that's best for calls, and the hardware backs that up, with four mics and a dedicated call-processing chip. It also packs LDAC, multipoint, IP57 and a wireless-charging case, rated for 8 hours a charge and 32 with the case, all for $169.99. That's a long feature list for the money, and it's the one I'd hand someone who lives on Teams calls from the kitchen table. There are a couple of rough edges. It won't auto-pause when you pull a bud out, and SoundGuys found volume changes can lag. The evidence is a bit thin too, as SoundGuys is the only outlet I found with a full review, and the excellent call marks from Techlicious went to the first-gen AeroClip. My work-from-home headphone picks have sealed options if calls are your whole day.
CMF Clip Pro
A cheap way to find out if open earbuds are your thing
SoundGuys calls this its best budget clip-on. It came out on August 15 at $79, and Amazon has it at $69. For that you get multipoint, LDAC and IP54 buds, and SoundGuys measured 9 hours with LDAC running plus about 32 more from the case. Its own Bose review even names the CMF as the alternative at under a third of the price. You don't get all that for $69 without some corner-cutting, of course. The bass boost adds distortion, the anti-leakage mode muffles things, the mics struggle with background noise, the case has no water rating at all and the glossy finish gets slippery once you're sweating. SoundGuys is also the only outlet with a full review. As a cheap first taste of open earbuds, I still think it's the smart buy.
Photo: Apple press image
Apple AirPods 5
Not truly open, but the only pick here that cancels noise
I'll be honest, these are neither a clip nor a hook. They're tipless buds that rest in the bowl of your ear. But Apple pitches them as having best-in-class open-ear noise cancelling, and cancelling is the one thing no clip-on here can do. They came out in September at $129, and CNN rates the ANC as close to the AirPods Pro 3. The catch is that your ear isn't left as open as with a clip or hook, so you're relying on transparency mode to hear the world, and on a dark road I'd want the real thing. The battery runs 4 to 5 hours with ANC, and Apple rates them IP57, so sweat and a downpour won't hurt them.
Other open earbuds worth a look
A few more made my shortlist and could easily be the right pair for you.
The Shokz OpenDots 2 ($199.95, IP57) is SoundGuys' workout pick among clip-ons, and the Shokz OpenFit 2+ ($199.95) is the cheaper Shokz hook that TechRadar speaks well of. Bose's Sport Open Earbuds ($199, IP54) have physical buttons, which sweaty fingers will thank you for.
Down at the cheap end, the EarFun Clip 2 ($79.99) is SoundGuys' pick for battery life. The Cleer ARC 5 ($219.99) is Techlicious' best all-around hook, the Nothing Ear (Open) ($149.99) is SoundGuys' pick for running, and Huawei's FreeClip 2 goes for $199.99. Sennheiser's ACCENTUM Clip looks interesting too, but you can't buy it in the US.
How to pick between them
Find the line that sounds most like you.
Questions people ask about open-ear earbuds
Are open-ear earbuds better for your ears?
They do away with the plugged-up feeling and the sore canals some people get from tips, and that's a real win if you wear earbuds for hours. For your hearing, though, what counts is how loud and how long. The WHO's guideline for adults works out to about 80 dB for 40 hours a week. The risk with open buds is that in a noisy place you'll turn them up to compete with the room, so I'd save them for quieter spots.
Can other people hear what I'm listening to?
At higher volumes, yes, a bit. Open speakers leak sound into the room, which is why Sony built a leakage-protection mode into the LinkBuds Clip. At low volume it's usually not much of an issue, but in a quiet elevator I'd turn it down a notch or two.
Are open earbuds good for running?
For road running they're about the best thing going, since you can hear traffic, cyclists and other runners. A bone-conduction band like the OpenRun Pro 2 is the most secure, and hooks like the OpenFit Pro hang on well. Whatever you pick, check the IP rating if you sweat a lot.
Do open-ear earbuds work on planes or the subway?
Not well. With nothing sealing your ears, engine roar and train screech come right in, and you'll be tempted to crank the volume. For that, go with sealed buds and noise cancelling, or the AirPods 5 if you want to stay tipless.
What's the difference between bone conduction and air conduction?
Bone conduction sends sound as vibration through your cheekbones, so the pads sit in front of your ears and nothing points into the canal. Air conduction, which is what clip-ons and hooks use, fires a tiny speaker at your ear canal through open air, and it usually sounds fuller. The OpenRun Pro 2 splits the difference, adding an air-conduction driver to help the bass.
Can I wear open earbuds with glasses?
Usually, yes. Clip-ons sit on the middle of your ear, out of the way of glasses arms. Hooks and bone-conduction bands share space with the arms, which some people find crowded, so clip-ons are the safer bet if you wear glasses all day.
Do open earbuds have noise cancelling?
Clips and hooks mostly don't. The Shokz OpenFit Pro has a noise-reduction mode, but SoundGuys found it only dampens the midrange. If you want real cancelling without tips, the AirPods 5 are the only pick here that does it.
My bottom line
For most people I'd buy the Sony LinkBuds Clip at about $228. If you can stomach $299 for comfort, the Bose Ultra Open (2nd Gen) is the cushiest of the lot, runners should get the Shokz OpenRun Pro 2, and the $69 CMF Clip Pro is the cheap way to find out whether open earbuds are your thing at all. Just don't take any of them on the subway expecting peace and quiet, as the train comes right in along with the music.