The Best Running Headphones in 2027: 10 Open-Ear, Secure-Fit and Budget Picks

Running headphones have one job the rest of the headphone market does not: let you hear the city. On the Hudson River Greenway, the Central Park loop at 6 a.m., or crossing Second Avenue mid-run, a sealed earbud with noise cancelling is the wrong tool. The category has shifted hard toward open-ear designs in the last two years, and the 2026 launches (new Shokz, new Bose, new AirPods) reshuffled the list. Below are ten picks across open-ear, secure-fit and budget, how bone conduction actually works, what the hearing and traffic research says, and the rules that apply in New York.

We have not tested these in a lab. Picks come from reviewers who ran with them (Tom’s Guide, TechRadar, SoundGuys, Android Central, Trusted Reviews, What Hi-Fi, Men’s Fitness, Coach), and from manufacturer specifications and press releases. Product status and prices are as of October 2026. Links to Amazon are affiliate links; Type A Training earns a commission if you buy through them, at no extra cost to you.

The short version

• For street and park running, open-ear beats sealed. Bone conduction (Shokz OpenRun Pro 2) or open earbuds (Shokz OpenDots 2, OpenFit 2) keep your ear canals clear; the trade is bass and leakage.
• If you want one pair for everything, the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 (hooks, 10 hours, heart rate) is best overall at Tom’s Guide and RTINGS; the AirPods Pro 3 is the everyday pick for iPhone users who will run in transparency mode.
• Under 100 dollars: JBL Endurance Race 2 (IP68, 12 hours). Under 40: JLab Go Air Sport, with hooks.
• Open ear does not mean safe at any volume. Shokz itself says bone conduction “do not make unsafe listening safe.” Keep it at or below 70 percent of maximum.
• In New York there is no law against running with headphones. On a bike, state law allows one earphone only, and the statute does not distinguish open-ear designs.

How to choose

• Open or sealed. Open-ear (bone conduction, hooks that sit outside the canal, clips) is the default for anyone running near traffic or cyclists. Sealed in-ears with hooks (Powerbeats) give far better sound and isolation; use transparency mode outdoors. Noise cancelling is for the treadmill.
• Fit. Hooks and clips stay put; hookless earbuds are a gamble. Reviewers found the Sony WF-C710N slipped out when running and the AirPods 4 lacked “any wings or fins” for workouts (SoundGuys; SoundGuys).
• IP ratings. The first digit is dust, the second is water. IPX4 is splash and sweat resistant (Powerbeats Pro 2, Bose Ultra Open Earbuds 2nd Gen). IP55 adds dust protection and water jets (most Shokz). IP57 and IP67 survive a meter of water for 30 minutes; IP68 goes deeper. Two cautions: ratings come from cold, still-water lab tests, not a sweaty August run, and Apple says resistance “can diminish over time” (Apple support). Charging cases are almost always rated lower than the buds; the Powerbeats Pro 2 case has no rating at all.
• Battery. Everything here does a long run on one charge. Manufacturer figures assume moderate volume; reviewers running near maximum volume got 10 to 11 hours from the 12-hour OpenRun Pro 2 and about 5.5 hours from the 8-hour AirPods Pro 3.
• After the run. Wipe them down. Shokz advises rinsing with fresh water after salt exposure and drying thoroughly; salt is more corrosive than fresh water (Shokz).

Open-ear: bone conduction

Open-ear: earbuds that leave the canal open

Two new entries we are not ready to rank: the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds 2nd Gen (299 dollars, October 1, 2026; SoundGuys says the price “is harder to justify” in a crowded clip market) and the Bose Sport Open Earbuds, a 199-dollar hook model from the same launch with no reviews yet. Apple’s AirPods 5 (September 2026, 129 and 149 dollars, IP57) are open-fit but hookless, and Apple does not call them workout earbuds.

Secure-fit in-ear

Two names from earlier versions of this list are gone. Jabra wound down its Elite consumer earbuds in 2024; the Elite 8 Active Gen 2 is excellent but stock-dependent, with firmware updates uncertain (SoundGuys). The Beats Fit Pro was replaced in October 2025 by the Powerbeats Fit, which SoundGuys rated “mediocre workout earbuds”: no heart rate sensor, no dust rating, an older chip.

Budget

What about over-ear headphones for the gym?

No mainstream over-ear carries a sweat rating. The Beats Studio Pro (299.99 dollars) has no IP rating and Coach calls it “not ideal for very sweaty workouts”; Sony’s WH-1000XM6 (449.99 dollars) has none either and is “best kept dry” per SoundGuys. If you lift in them, wipe them down and expect the pads to wear.

How bone conduction works, and what it does not do

A small transducer rests against your cheekbone and turns audio into vibrations. Those travel through the bones near the cheek to the cochlea in your inner ear, bypassing the ear canal and eardrum (Shokz, July 2026). Because nothing is in the canal, you hear traffic, cyclists and your own footfalls normally. Three consequences follow.

• Bass is limited and sound leaks. Bass is the known weak point of bone conduction; Shokz says newer transducers have narrowed the gap, and the OpenRun Pro 2 adds a small air driver to compensate, but it is still not an in-ear. Reviewers found leakage “not all that noticeable” except in quiet places (TechRadar).
• Your hearing is not protected. Shokz’s own January 2026 post: bypassing the eardrum “does not mean skipping the inner ear,” and bone conduction headphones “do not make unsafe listening safe” (Shokz). Audiologist Amy Sarow recommends staying at or below 70 percent of maximum volume (Soundly).
• It can help some hearing loss, not all. Bone conduction is the mechanism behind bone-anchored implants used for conductive or mixed hearing loss (outer and middle ear problems). It depends on a working cochlea, so it does nothing for sensorineural loss, where the damage is in the inner ear itself (HearingLife, audiologist Eleni Santarelli). Consumer headphones are not hearing devices; if you have hearing loss, ask an audiologist first.

One more honest note. The only lab study we found on bone conduction and awareness, in Applied Ergonomics in 2017, found that sound played through bone conduction headphones still increased errors in locating sounds in the environment and biased listeners toward the direction of the headphone audio (Applied Ergonomics, 2017). Open ear is better than sealed for awareness; it is not the same as no headphones.

Volume, traffic and the rules in New York

The World Health Organization says over 1 billion young adults are at risk of permanent, avoidable hearing loss from unsafe listening, and its safe-listening standard for adults is 80 decibels for 40 hours a week (WHO fact sheet, March 2026; WHO-ITU standard). NIOSH, the CDC’s occupational arm, sets 85 decibels averaged over eight hours as its limit and halves the allowed time for every 3 decibel increase (NIOSH). City runners push volume up to beat traffic noise; that is the trap.

On traffic: a 2012 case series in Injury Prevention found 116 reports of pedestrians wearing headphones killed or injured in the US between 2004 and 2011, 55 percent involving trains, and 29 percent where a warning had been sounded (Lichenstein and colleagues, Injury Prevention, 2012); the University of Maryland’s release put the fatality share at 70 percent (ScienceDaily). It is a collection of news reports, not a controlled study, and it did not compare headphone types, so it cannot prove headphones caused those crashes; it is still the reason to keep one ear on the street.

• Running: no New York State or city law restricts headphones for pedestrians.
• Cycling: Vehicle and Traffic Law section 375(24-a) makes it unlawful to operate a bicycle “while the operator is wearing more than one earphone” (NY Senate). The statute counts earphones, not whether the canal is blocked, and does not distinguish open-ear designs.
• Races: NYRR lists headphones and earbuds as “permitted but discouraged” at the TCS New York City Marathon. Athletes in the invited professional fields must follow the governing bodies’ prohibitions on such devices; everyone else may use them, but anyone who does so in a way that “poses a safety hazard” or interferes with another participant can be disqualified or suspended from future NYRR events (NYRR, prohibited items). USATF relaxed its 2007 ban in late 2008; the restriction now applies to championship and prize-money competitors, and individual races set their own policy.

Heart rate in your ears: bonus, not a reason to buy

The Powerbeats Pro 2 and AirPods Pro 3 both read pulse optically from the ear. In the gym the Powerbeats matched a Polar H10 chest strap almost beat for beat (137 versus 136 bpm average on a 30-minute stair climber) (Android Central). Over 150 miles of running, Tom’s Guide found the readings “hit and miss,” often locking onto cadence instead of pulse, and could not pair the sensor to a Garmin or Coros watch (Tom’s Guide). The AirPods Pro 3 did better in a 40-person University College Dublin treadmill study: 2.02 percent mean absolute percentage error against a chest strap (1.3 to 2.4 bpm), with limits of agreement of about plus or minus 10 bpm on any single reading (TechRepublic, reporting the PLOS Digital Health study). Heart rate mode also cuts AirPods Pro 3 battery from 8 hours to 6.5. If you already run with a watch, ignore the feature. Our guide to heart rate monitors covers straps and watches.

What happened to the old picks

The previous version of this guide listed 21 products across five categories, including the Jabra Elite 8 Active (line discontinued), the Beats Fit Pro (replaced), the first-generation Bose Ultra Open (superseded October 2026), the Sony WF-1000XM5 and Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II (noise-cancelling buds that are the wrong tool for street running), and several over-ears with no sweat rating. This version also absorbs our older explainer on how bone conduction works, which now redirects here.

Frequently asked questions

Are bone conduction headphones safer for running?

Safer for awareness, yes: your ear canal stays open. Not safer for your hearing: the vibrations still reach the inner ear, and Shokz itself says they do not make unsafe listening safe. And one lab study found bone conducted audio still degrades your ability to locate sounds.

Is it legal to run with headphones in NYC?

Yes. No state or city law restricts headphones for pedestrians. On a bicycle, state law allows one earphone only, and it does not distinguish open-ear designs.

What IP rating do I need for running?

IPX4 handles sweat and light rain. IP55 or higher adds dust protection, useful on dirt paths. IP57, IP67 and IP68 survive immersion. Ratings come from lab tests, degrade over time, and the charging case is usually rated lower than the buds, or not at all.

Can I wear headphones in the NYC Marathon?

Yes, for everyone outside the invited professional fields. NYRR classes headphones and earbuds as “permitted but discouraged,” and using them in a way that creates a safety hazard or interferes with other runners can get you disqualified. Keep the volume low enough to hear course marshals.

Are earbud heart rate sensors accurate?

Close on average, not a replacement for a chest strap or a good watch. Gym tests matched a chest strap within a beat or two; one 150-mile running test saw the Powerbeats Pro 2 lock onto cadence; a 40-person study put AirPods Pro 3 error at about 2 percent with single readings typically within about 10 bpm either way.