Looking for good headphones can get expensive fast. One might think that premium features like active noise cancellation (ANC), a balanced sound, and all-day comfort can only come at a high cost. But that's no longer true. These days, budget headphones offer more than just the basics, so it's not uncommon to find solid-performing ANC-equipped headphones that don't require you to pay an arm and a leg.

We've tested over 900 headphones, and below are our picks for the best budget and best cheap headphones. For the purposes of this article, we consider 'budget' headphones to fall under the $100 mark. Due to the nature of sales and pricing fluctuations, there are often some variations at this price point, so we try to point these out in our picks where possible.