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No other gadget can compete with a compact pair of earbuds if you want to stream a good album or playlist when you’re on the move. But unlike wireless headphones, which can cover or sit on top of your ears, even the best Bluetooth earbuds often have trouble sitting perfectly in your ears. As someone with, ahem, daintier ear canals, I can attest that it’s a pretty common problem, especially if you find yourself constantly adjusting their buds to stay put — and stay comfortable.

At A Glance: The Best Earbuds for Small Ears

If you’re looking for the best earbuds for small ears, a number of audio brands are now offering everything from custom-fitting molds and extra included tip sizes, to smaller, lightweight buds with comfort top of mind. We’ve tested plenty of buds over the years, and with some of us having smaller ears than most (including yours truly), and here’s what we recommend.

How We Chose The Best Best Earbuds for Small Ears

Fit is subjective, but while researching for this guide, we looked for earbuds that were naturally compact and lightweight (weighing under 6 grams), as well as earbuds that come with a range of tip sizes that allowed us to find the best fit. Keep in mind that the earbuds should rest normally in your ear canal — we didn’t have to push any of these picks to make them fit. We found that a good pair of earbuds for small ears formed a tight seal immediately after placing them in our ears with minimal adjustment. Each pair were also tested while working out and briskly walking to make sure they weren’t too tiny to fall out.

We also wanted to make sure these buds had a decent battery life, especially for their size. All of the earbuds on our guide have at least 5.5 hours of power when they’re fully charged, and some even come with a protective charging case that can give them an extra boost while they’re safely stowed away inside.

Below, we’ve curated a guide to some of our favorite earbuds for small ears that you can buy online right now that’ll prove that big sound can come in small packages. Our picks have all been tested by members of our editorial team and include big names in audio (like the latest Bose Ultra Open Ears and tried-and-true Apple Airpods 3rd Gen), along with smaller independent brands you should consider, depending on your priorities.

If you’re looking for some of the lightest earbuds around that don’t sacrifice on sound, you’ll want to check out Sony’s small and stellar LinkBuds S.

They’re just 4.8g per bud, but you’d never know it judging by the massive sound pumping out of their 5mm speakers. They nestled comfortably into my ear and sat flush against my canal, so I wasn’t cycling through different tip sizes just to find a small-enough tip for your ears. We also like that they used the same V1 processor here for noise cancellation and audio processing as their older sibling (Sony’s former WF-1000XM4), so the ANC is shockingly good (and those striking colorways from their Olivia Rodrigo collab makes them feel like a cool accessory rather than just a utilitarian gadget).

The design itself is very sleek, with four ear tip sizes if you do need to customize your fit further. They’re also IPX4 water resistance, and we had no problem wearing the LinkBuds S to the gym or even in a light drizzle. An included case can recharge the buds for 20 total hours of use (or a respectable six hours for the buds on their own, in between charges). Bottom line: if you’re looking for a compact, easy-to-use pair of earbuds with sound quality that almost rivals the more premium Sony WF-1000XM5, you’re in luck.

Technics, known for its legendary turntables, packed its audio know-how into a surprisingly small package. At $300, the EAH-AZ100 earbuds are a premium product, but they deliver excellent sound, solid ANC, and (perhaps most importantly for my small-eared brethren) all-day comfort. Launched at this year’s CES, the AZ100 were a clear standout from the many earbuds we tried, compact and not.

They’ve got a smaller and lighter design compared to their predecessor, the EAH-AZ80 earbuds, and come with six different pairs of ear tips (including an extra small option to get a proper seal on smaller ears, which is appreciated). Twisting and locking them in place feels natural without any excess “suction-cup” like pressure, and they stayed in place while I moved my head aggressively.

The AZ100 uses a unique 10mm “magnetic fluid” driver for high-resolution audio that creates a clear, layered sound with tightly-controlled lows and smooth mids (support for a range of Bluetooth codecs, including AAC, LDAC, and LC3, also helps). The active noise canceling is solid, and has an adaptive feature to adjust to your surroundings. The buds also feature spatial audio for Dolby Atmos and head tracking for an immersive audio experience.

Impressively, Technics managed to pack all of these features into a pretty svelte pair of earbuds. They’re just slightly larger than Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 and no less pocket-friendly.

You don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars on a pair of comfy, good-sounding earbuds. The Tozo 6 come with six ear tip sizes and feature a sleek lightweight design (only 4.5-grams each) that can be worn for hours with no discomfort — I wore mine throughout a workday to test this out.

The sound quality is pretty decent for a pair of earbuds under $100 — the brand uses “OrigX” tech, helping highlight lower frequencies (down to 18Hz) while maintaining clear mids and crisp trebles for a more natural sound. But clearly bass is where they truly shine, with EDM tracks like Alok’s single Side Effect sounding clear without distortion, even at max volumes. There are touch controls on the earbuds as well, which can be modified through the Tozo app — I kept mine as the default play/pause settings.

There’s no active noise cancellation modes if that’s a dealbreaker for you, but I found the tight seal and passive canceling enough for tuning out voices and conversations around me (along with a plethora of EQ presets, the app also includes 100+ white noise tracks if it really bothers you). One plus is their unexpectedly high IPX8 rating, making them essentially waterproof — while we wouldn’t start swimming laps with these in, they great for going out a run, or simply relaxing in the bathtub without fear of a bud falling into the water.

Other than that, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the weeks I’ve spent with the Tozo T6. Battery life was excellent and true to form running about 11 hours on a single charge — the wireless charging case holds another 38.

Pint-sized buds don’t mean anything if they’re packed inside a bulky case that sticks out of your pockets or bags — but JLab’s JBuds Mini Earbuds are actually small-ear friendly and portable, with a coin-sized design and a case that’s no bigger than a keychain.

In fact the JBuds Mini may be the lightest-feeling buds we’ve ever tested, and at 30% smaller than JLab’s Go Air Pop they still get more than 20 hours of playtime with the case, making them clutch for commuting or travel. These are earbuds that are easy to take with you on the go, packed with features that are easy to love, including multipoint connection (something some pricier flagship earbuds still lack — even Bose).

Without messing with the EQ too much, the sound features a surprisingly punchy bass and stays relatively clear and well-balanced (if not a bit flat). While they don’t have ANC, I didn’t miss it much — from the JLab App I could control the “Be Aware” setting to let outside noise in just enough that I was distracted during my commute.

Apple users who want a pair of quality earbuds that produce a great fit for smaller ears can find just that in the AirPods (3rd Gen). While they’re easy to pop in your ears for a Zoom meeting or when you’re working out, it’s now also easier to make sure they don’t fall out of your ears, too.

This was the first official “redesign” of the AirPods, which gives them their smaller stems and downward-sloping buds reminiscent of the AirPods Pro. These changes helped the third-generation AirPods stay in my ears while moving around (if you’re used to the way first or second-generation AirPods feel, you’ll notice the difference). One of our favorite improvements is that these AirPods have pressure-sensitive stems, which allows you to invoke Siri or skip tracks without double-tapping earbuds.

One aspect of the AirPods’ design that Apple didn’t change is their hard-plastic eartips, which don’t create a tight seal around your eardrum like the gummy-tipped AirPods Pro. This means no active noise cancellation, but they did improve their audio quality and add support for spatial audio (this is clutch if you’re already in the Apple ecosystem).

Sound quality continues to remain well-balanced and clear at all volumes, with a decent amount of bass on all tracks. You’ll also get six hours of battery life per charge, and the charging case holds an additional 24 if you need it.

If you’re looking for a pair of lightweight earbuds that sound fantastic (and play well in the Android OS) Galaxy Buds3 Pro are leading the way in both regards.

These buds may not be as small as the Galaxy Buds 2, but they’ve forgone the kidney bean shape for something that’s decidedly more comfortable, lightweight, and streamlined (even if the stemmed design may be derivative of AirPods). While there’s only three eartip options (small, medium, and large), getting a tight seal is crucial for optimal noise-canceling performance, and we like that the Galaxy Wear app tests the seal quality automatically (these fit for me much better than the Galaxy Buds Pro 2).

Samsung took some steps to make these stand out acoustically, too — you get studio-like sound with rich highs and pulsating bass that resonates across a wide, full soundscape. The two-way speakers are powered by Crystal Sound, with an 10-mm woofer and 5.3-mm tweeter built into every earbud. Plus, the addition of spatial audio with head-tracking and end-to-end 24-bit high-res audio is quite rare for earbuds this compact. Select features, like “Interpreter and Live Translate,” are also included in these earbuds thanks to Galaxy AI (it worked reasonably well with a slow-paced, grammatically correct conversation in Spanish, but was less accurate the further you got from Romance languages, like in Japanese).

Get up to 26 hours of battery life with the included charging case, which is only average, but Samsung beats big names like Apple when it comes to water-resistance. While the AirPods Pro are just sweat-resistant, the Galaxy Buds3 Pro are rated IP57, to protect them even while (accidentally) underwater up to three feet deep for 30 minutes. But comfort is king, and if you use a Samsung smartphone and want a lightweight fit and excellent audio, the Galaxy Buds3 Pro are a stellar option.

While unusual design of open-ear buds may take some getting used to, if you’re specifically shopping for the best earbuds for small ears, the Bose Ultra Open earbuds are surprisingly secure and let you stay attuned to your surroundings.  

They don’t come with a variety of eartips, but the buds have a flexible clip to help you secure them to the outside of your ear, which can be useful for those who struggle to find comfortable fitting in-ear earbuds. The Ultra Open earbuds also have the benefit of angling the sound toward the ear while leaving the ear canal open, producing big and balanced audio that you might have a hard time finding in typical smaller earbuds. The $300 retail price is steep though for a pair of earbuds with functionally no noise canceling, so take that into consideration.

But their grip does make them work well for playing sports and for workouts — the IPX4 rating is meh, but they’re still fully functional even when it’s raining outside, or when you’re drenched in sweat. They’ll also last up to seven hours (four with immersive audio), and you can also wirelessly power them up before a run if you’re at home or at your office. For a combo of comfort, usefulness for workouts, and portability, the Bose Open Earbuds are the open-ear option that can’t be beat.