Noise-cancelling earbuds for work: what to buy for an open-plan office

Do noise cancelling earbuds work in an open-plan office?

They work best on steady sound. Active noise cancelling uses microphones to listen to the room and plays a mirror-image signal to cancel it. That suits the hum of air conditioning, a printer cluster or the drone of a train. It does far less to a colleague's phone call or a sudden laugh, because speech changes too quickly to cancel cleanly.

So the realistic result is a quieter room with the sharp edges still present. If voices are what pull you out of your work, a seal in the ear and a low background track will do more than any cancelling setting. We have not tested any of the products below. Specs come from the makers and from a named independent test where we say so.

What to look for in noise cancelling earbuds for work

Six things decide whether a pair suits a working day:

• Fit and tip sizes. Cancelling depends on a seal. Apple supplies five silicone sizes from XXS to L. Loop supplies four. Sony added extra-small tips to the XM5, according to SoundGuys.
• Battery per charge. A working day is 7 to 8 hours. Apple quotes up to 8 hours with cancelling on. SoundGuys measured 9 hours 32 minutes on the Sony, though it does not say whether cancelling was on. A charging case adds more, but you cannot recharge mid-meeting.
• Weight. Both earbuds here are around 5.5g to 6g each. The over-ear soundcore weighs 265g, which you will notice by mid-afternoon.
• A way to let sound in. Transparency or ambient modes let you hear a person without removing anything. Apple also offers Conversation Awareness, which lowers your audio when you speak, but it needs a compatible device on iOS 18 or later.
• Two devices at once. If you switch between a laptop and a phone, check for multipoint. SoundGuys found the Sony switched quickly between a MacBook Pro and an iPhone. The soundcore lists multipoint too.
• Phone compatibility. Apple says the AirPods Pro 3 work as Bluetooth headphones with non-Apple devices, but functionality may be limited. On Android, the Sony is the simpler choice.

Earbuds, earplugs or headphones?

Earplugs are the cheapest and simplest, headphones are the most comfortable for long days, and earbuds sit between them.

Loop Quiet 2 earplugs, never need charging and cannot disconnect mid-call. Loop rates them at 24dB SNR (14dB NRR), which is the maker's figure. They muffle everything, including the person asking you a question, and they play nothing. They suit a quiet task where you want less of the room.

Earbuds let you add audio. A low, wordless track on top of cancelling is a common way to blur a room for work. Our guide to focus music apps compares what to play. Over-ear headphones such as the soundcore Q31i avoid pushing anything into the ear canal, which some people find easier, and their 50 hour battery means charging is a weekly job, not a daily one.

If you want the cheapest sensible set-up

Start with the earplugs or the Q31i, not a £200 pair. Loop Quiet 2 at tells you whether a physical seal is what you need. The Q31i at £74.99 tells you whether active cancelling is worth having. If neither does anything for you, the dearer earbuds are unlikely to change that. Keep the packaging and check the retailer's return window before wearing them for a full day.

Can you ask your employer to pay?

You can ask, and writing it down helps. Acas says reasonable adjustments can include equipment, and it expects the employer and the worker to talk about what would help. Say which sound is the problem, what it stops you doing and what you are asking for, such as a pair of noise-cancelling earbuds or a quieter desk. Our Access to Work guide covers the government grant route.

Things to know

• Do not cut off warnings. The Health and Safety Executive says hearing protection that cuts noise below 70dB can make communication harder, stop you hearing warning signals and leave you feeling cut off. Earbuds are not safety equipment, but the point holds on a site, near machinery or anywhere a fire alarm matters. Use transparency mode there.
• Volume. RNID says repeated or long exposure to sounds at 85dB or above can cause hearing loss, and safe time halves with every 3dB rise. Cancelling lets you listen at a lower volume, so use that.
• Prices move. We use the prices in our own data at the time of writing. Check the retailer before buying.
• What we could not confirm. We could not load every maker page in full, so the Loop tip count and rating are the maker's figures from its product page and search listings, and the Sony battery figure is an independent test, not Sony's own claim.