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The best wireless earbuds under $100 right now are the CMF Buds 2 Plus if you use Android, and the EarFun Air Pro 4+ if you want the most complete feature set regardless of phone. That’s the short answer; the longer one involves a discontinued fan favorite, a codec catch that punishes iPhone owners, and our battery-hours-per-dollar table, where one pair beats every rival by more than 60 percent. Budget earbuds got startlingly good this year — here’s how the four strongest sub-$100 picks actually stack up.
First, a housekeeping note: the old king is gone
If you came here looking for the Soundcore Space A40 — the budget-ANC default for three straight years — SoundGuys pulled it from its under-$100 rankings after the model was discontinued, and remaining stock is drying up. Its spiritual successors are all four buds below, and every one of them beats it on at least one axis.
The head-to-head, with the math that matters
| Earbuds | Price | Battery (buds / with case) | ANC | Multipoint | IP rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CMF Buds 2 Plus | $69–$79 | Up to 14 h / 61.5 h (ANC off) | Yes — cut up to 83% of noise in SoundGuys’ testing | Yes | IP55 |
| EarFun Air Pro 4+ | $99.99 | 6 h 17 m measured with ANC / 54 h | Yes — ~80% average reduction per SoundGuys | — | IP55 |
| Soundcore Liberty 4 NC | $99.99 | ~10 h with ANC / 50 h | Yes, adaptive | Yes | IPX4 |
| JLab JBuds Mini | $39.99 | 5.5 h / 20+ h | No | Yes | IP55 |
Now divide total listening time by price — a number no spec sheet prints — and the field stops looking close. The CMF Buds 2 Plus deliver about 0.89 hours of playback per dollar at their $69 list price. The JBuds Mini and Liberty 4 NC land near 0.50, and the EarFun Air Pro 4+ manages 0.54. On pure listening-time economics, CMF wins by more than 60 percent over everything else here.
| Our math | CMF Buds 2 Plus | EarFun Air Pro 4+ | Liberty 4 NC | JBuds Mini |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total battery hours per dollar | 0.89 | 0.54 | 0.50 | 0.50 |
Our picks at a glance
- Best for Android users: CMF Buds 2 Plus — flagship-grade ANC and class-leading battery for $30 less than the field.
- Best feature set overall: EarFun Air Pro 4+ — the most complete spec sheet under $100, full stop.
- Best for juggling devices: Soundcore Liberty 4 NC — dependable multipoint, wireless charging, and a huge EQ toolkit.
- Best under $40: JLab JBuds Mini — a keychain-sized case, multipoint, and the longest warranty here.
CMF Buds 2 Plus: the value case is almost unfair
Nothing’s budget sub-brand built the pair to beat this price bracket. SoundGuys measured the ANC cutting up to 83 percent of outside noise — the strongest attenuation in the budget segment — and Tom’s Guide’s reviewer went further, calling the noise cancellation comparable to Sony flagships and the buds “a no-brainer for Android users.” Add the 61.5-hour total battery, LDAC hi-res streaming, multipoint, and IP55 dust-and-sweat resistance, and the $69–$79 price reads like a typo.
The dealbreaker is platform-specific: iPhones don’t support LDAC, and Tom’s Guide found sound quality drops off meaningfully over plain AAC/SBC. Android owners should buy these without hesitation; iPhone owners should look at the EarFun or Soundcore instead. That’s a real fork in the road, not a footnote.
EarFun Air Pro 4+: the spec-sheet champion
SoundGuys’ current top pick under $100 earns the slot on sheer completeness: Bluetooth 6.0, a dual-driver array, adaptive ANC that averaged roughly 80 percent noise reduction in their testing, LDAC and aptX Lossless support, Auracast, IP55, and a measured 6 hours 17 minutes of ANC-on playback with 54 hours in the case. A 10-minute charge buys three hours of playback — the best panic-charge figure in this group.
Two honest cautions. At $99.99 it’s priced at the very ceiling of “budget,” where it starts competing with discounted flagships. And its predecessor, the Air Pro 4, drew reliability complaints in Engadget’s long-term testing — a failed earbud, plus user reports of crackling — so register the warranty and buy from a retailer with easy returns. EarFun’s rapid model cadence cuts both ways.
Soundcore Liberty 4 NC: the dependable all-rounder
Anker’s Liberty 4 NC is the least flashy pick and the easiest to live with. It’s the only pair here with both rock-solid multipoint and wireless charging, battery life runs a real-world 10 hours with ANC on (50 with the case), and the app’s 22 EQ presets plus a custom equalizer can tame its factory bass-and-treble boost in two minutes. SoundGuys’ verdict — good, value-priced earbuds that cover most essentials — matches the long-term owner consensus.
Weak points: the IPX4 rating is the flimsiest water resistance in this group, call quality is mediocre by every account, and at $99.99 the CMF undercuts it by $30 while beating its ANC. It wins on breadth, not on any single spec.
JLab JBuds Mini: the $40 answer
The JBuds Mini play a different game: the case is small enough to live on a keychain — JLab says 50 percent smaller than typical — yet the buds still pack Bluetooth multipoint, IP55 durability, a 3-EQ app, and 5.5 hours per charge with 20-plus total. JLab also backs them for two years, the only two-year warranty we could confirm in this group (per JLab’s own product page), which at $39.99 makes them nearly disposable-priced with non-disposable support.
Know what you’re giving up: there’s no active noise cancellation (the “noise canceling” on the box refers to call mics), and SoundGuys notes the bass-forward tuning won’t satisfy critical listeners. As a gym pair, a backup pair, or a first pair for a teenager, they’re the easiest recommendation on this page.
How we compared
We compared current, widely sold models using manufacturers’ published specifications and prices, measured battery and noise-cancellation results from SoundGuys’ under-$100 testing, hands-on findings from Tom’s Guide’s CMF Buds 2 Plus review and Engadget’s budget-earbud guide, and recurring patterns in long-term owner feedback. The battery-hours-per-dollar table is our own arithmetic from those published figures; manufacturer battery claims use each maker’s ANC-off rating, so treat them as ceilings. We don’t claim hands-on testing ourselves, and no manufacturer had input on our picks; our process is documented on our editorial standards page.
Frequently asked questions
Are budget earbuds under $100 actually good now?
Yes — the gap to flagships has collapsed for ANC and battery life specifically. What $200+ still buys is better microphones, more refined default tuning, wear detection, and ecosystem tricks like seamless device switching on Apple or Samsung phones.
Which of these should iPhone owners buy?
The EarFun Air Pro 4+ or Soundcore Liberty 4 NC. The CMF Buds 2 Plus lean on LDAC for their best sound, and iPhones don’t support it — reviewers found the fallback codecs noticeably weaker.
What does multipoint mean and do I need it?
Multipoint keeps the buds connected to two devices at once — laptop and phone, typically — so audio follows whichever one makes sound. If you take calls while working, it’s the single most quality-of-life feature on this page; three of the four picks have it.
Is skipping ANC to save money a mistake?
Depends where you listen. For commutes, flights, and open offices, ANC is worth the extra $30–$60. For home and gym use, a well-sealed ear tip blocks most of what matters — which is exactly the JBuds Mini’s argument.
Bottom line
Android owners have the easy call: the CMF Buds 2 Plus pair the strongest measured ANC in the bracket with battery economics nothing else touches. iPhone owners and spec maximalists should pay up for the EarFun Air Pro 4+, multi-device jugglers will be happiest with the Liberty 4 NC, and the JBuds Mini settle every “just need something decent” conversation for $40. Wondering what doubling the budget buys? Our flagship earbud face-off answers that, our noise-canceling headphone battle covers the over-ear route, and runners should see our open-ear headphone comparison. The rest of our audio coverage lives in Tech & Electronics.
