Best Hearing Aids of 2025: Picking the Perfect Hearing Aid

A lot happened in the world of hearing aids over the past year, with all major manufacturers releasing new innovative products. The class of 2024-25 offers superior sound processing, excellent wireless connectivity, and next-generation fitness tracking and telehealth capabilities. But each product has its strengths and weaknesses, and we’ve waded through the options to find you the very best hearing aids.

Best Overall: Phonak Audéo Sphere Infinio

The Phonak Audéo Sphere Infinio is the best overall hearing aid, hands down. Whether you're looking for the best hearing aids for background noise, high-quality streaming music, or the highest possible water resistance, the "Sphere" is our top recommendation.

Phonak's new "DEEPSONIC" chip employs a Deep Neural Network (DNN) to separate speech from noise, and Phonak claims that users are 2-3x more likely to understand speech from any direction compared to two leading competitors. Independent testing from the HearAdvisor acoustic lab also measured the highest "speech in noise" score the lab has ever recorded—the Sphere came in at 4.6 out of 5.0 (the first score above 4.0).

Universal Bluetooth support for Android and iOS, paired with speakers that actively block out external noise make the Sphere one of the best hearing aids for music lovers. Its support for up to eight Bluetooth devices and two active Bluetooth connections, which enables seamless switching between your phone and your computer, also made it our top pick for the best Bluetooth hearing aid. People with an active lifestyle seeking waterproof hearing aids should also consider the Sphere because Phonak applies rigorous testing to ensure its devices perform well above the industry-standard IP68 dust- and water-resistance rating.

Grab a pair of headphones and listen to real lab recordings of the Sphere by clicking on "view product details" above. And, you can also hear how the Sphere performs in background noise.

Best OTC: Jabra Enhance Select 500

While high-end prescription hearing aids remain the gold standard in treating hearing loss, not everyone can afford them. For people with mild-to-moderate hearing loss, self-fitted over-the-counter (OTC) devices might be sufficient, but the lack of professional care can be a huge downside. The Jabra Enhance Select 500 is an excellent compromise, as it combines the affordability and ease of an OTC device with an optional care package.

The Jabra Enhance Select 500 is the best OTC hearing aid because it offers solid speech in noise benefits, an excellent premium package that includes professional hearing care, and a comprehensive set of features, including up to 30 hours of battery life per charge, as well as audio streaming and hands-free calling from iPhone and Android.

Best for Tinnitus: Widex MOMENT SmartRIC

Picking the best hearing aid for tinnitus is tricky because it's quite subjective. If you're new to hearing aids, focus on finding the best device for your hearing loss because addressing the hearing loss will often resolve the tinnitus or at least make it less noticeable. If you're struggling with tinnitus even after fully adjusting to hearing aids, look into devices that offer sound therapy.

For tinnitus relief, we recommend the Widex MOMENT SmartRIC hearing aid because the Widex Zen and SoundRelax programs can help you manage tinnitus and stress with chime-like fractal tones and nature-inspired sounds. Your hearing care professional can activate the feature and customize the tones or soundscapes to your preferences.

The Widex MOMENT SmartRIC's L-shaped design aligns the dual-directional microphones with the wearer's focus to improve the hearing aid's signal-to-noise ratio. In HearAdvisor's acoustic lab, the MOMENT SmartRIC performed above average for speech in quiet and speech in noise, though not nearly as good as Phonak's Audéo Sphere Infinio. With a battery life of up to 37 hours per charge, however, the MOMENT offers twice as much as the Sphere Infinio.

Best Rechargeable: Starkey Edge AI

The Starkey Edge AI offers the best rechargeability solution on the market. On a full charge Edge AI RIC RT provides a whopping 51 hours of operating time (45 hours with some wireless streaming). That’s a full 14 and 21 hours more than their closest competition, Widex and ReSound, respectively!

Edge AI takes about 3.5 hours to fully recharge from a flat battery, and this is more or less in line with every other rechargeable lithium-ion hearing aid on the market. Starkey also features a turbo charging feature that adds 3 hours of use in just a 7-minute charge, so you can quickly charge the hearing aids when pinched for time. Add to this the fact you get an extra 14 hours of battery life with the full 3.5-hours charge compared to other exceptional hearing aids, and it seems like Starkey wins on all-around recharging.

In addition, Starkey's Premium Mini Charger is a well-designed and rugged charging case that offers four on-the-go charges. It’s also easy to slot the hearing aids into the charger, which is a huge win for anyone with dexterity issues.

In terms of battery replacement, it’s hard to find a winner here. Rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are relatively new in the world of hearing aids, and manufacturers are saying to expect anywhere from four to six years from the rechargeable cells. Replacing a rechargeable battery will require your audiologist to send your hearing aids to the manufacturer for an off-site servicing. This will mean some hearing down time, unless you can secure a hearing aid loaner.

How did we choose the best rechargeable hearing aid?

To find the best rechargeable hearing aids on the market, we considered the following four criteria:

• Longest-lasting battery - When fully-charged, which hearing aid provides the highest number of hours of continuous use?
• Fastest charging - Which hearing aids charge the fastest?
• Battery replacement - How often do batteries need to be replaced? And, what is the process like?
• Charging case options - Are the chargers well designed? Are they portable? Do they provide additional charges on the go?

Best for the Money: Elehear Beyond

Looking for a sub-$400 OTC hearing aid that outperforms some devices more than twice that price? Elehear Beyond, priced at $399, punches above its weight class with good high-frequency gain (amplification) and great speech clarity—a feature that many OTC devices struggle to achieve without feedback or whistling.

Elehear Beyond also provides audio streaming and hands-free calling for both iOS and Android devices. Although we did experience some sound artifacts during our testing, this hearing aid offers good sound quality, and checks most of the boxes in terms of rechargeable battery life (20 hours per charge) and app customization.

Overall, Elehear Beyond earned a HearingTracker score of 4.1 (out of 5), and the independent HearAdvisor lab gave it an "A" SoundScore and a 2024 Expert Choice Award.

Best Invisible: Phonak Virto Infinio Titanium IIC

Phonak started manufacturing 3D-printed titanium hearing aids back in 2017 with Virto B. Yes, printed metal is a thing. According to Phonak, their titanium shells were “15x stronger and 50% thinner” than traditional acrylic hearing aid shells at the time. This meant “deeper placement in the ear canal” and a “more discreet fit.” In 2025, Phonak is still ahead of the pack when it comes to hearing aid visibility — no other manufacturer is producing printed-titanium shells that compete on size or “invisibility". The Virto Infinio line is Phonak's latest generation of flagship hearing aids.

The new Virto Infinio Titanium IIC, also known as Paradise or P-Titanium, is about as comfortable as any other “invisible in canal” (IIC) hearing aid on the market — which is to say, pretty comfortable. Most people prefer open-fitting hearing aids over custom-fitted in-canal style hearing aids.

It's IP68 rating also makes the Virto P-Titanium as reliable as any IIC can be. But keep in mind that ear canals are a hostile (warm, damp, waxy) environment for even the most robust of hearing aids, so if you are someone who perspires a lot or produces a lot of wax, you might want to consider going with a behind-the-ear (BTE) thin-tube style hearing aid that doesn’t put any electronic components deep in your ear, like most of the best waterproof hearing aids.

How did we pick the best invisible hearing aid?

To find the best invisible or discreet hearing on the market, I considered the following two criteria:

• Visibility - Is the hearing aid visible to those around you?
• Reliability - Does wax and moisture cause performance issues?
• Comfort - Is the hearing aid comfortable in your ear?

Prescription Runner-Up: Oticon Intent

Intent is the latest hearing aid from Danish company Oticon. If you need a prescription hearing aid with tinnitus support, good battery life, modern wireless features, and strong resistance to dust and moisture, the Oticon Intent has got you covered. Unlike Phonak's Audéo Sphere, Intent features impressive rechargeability and battery life, with up to 24 hours of use time. Oticon's Tinnitus SoundSupport generator offers a great selection of sounds to mask your tinnitus. Intent's IP68 rating and support for Bluetooth LE Audio with Auracast make it durable and future-proof.

Like Phonak's Sphere (best overall) and Starkey's Edge AI (best rechargeable), Intent uses AI-driven technology to improve environment recognition and speech clarity in noise. Its second-generation DNN 2.0 technology was built using enriched learning from over 12 million sound inputs during its training phase, allowing it to perform in even more diverse listening situations. The overall goal of Intent is to work similarly to the brain, enabling more accurate representations of sound and better access to speech in noisy situations. Oticon claims that these features can result in accessing 35% more speech cues, offering a significant boost in clarity and conversation quality.

Video: Comparing 18 hearing aids

HearingTracker audiologist Matthew Allsop compares the best hearing aids of late 2024. He has also created a more recent compilation video of his best of 2025. Stay tuned on the channel as Matthew is currently preparing to release a newly filmed best of 2025 video to summarize HearingTracker's picks for 2025.

Top hearing aid brands, rated by 500 audiologists

We surveyed five hundred audiologists in Q4 2020 to find out which hearing aid brands are the best on the following metrics: sound quality, battery life, value for money, reliability, connectivity, rechargeability, aesthetics, ease of fit, ease of use, and product support.

How do I choose the best hearing aid?

Before trying to pick your own hearing aid, check out this list of considerations. You might be surprised by how complicated the process is.

1. Your hearing loss severity - You need a hearing aid that is capable of providing adequate amplification. If you have a severe or profound hearing loss, you’ll need a device that can produce higher sound levels.
2. Your ability to hear speech in noise - Speech in noise testing should be performed at every hearing evaluation. If you perform well on the test with amplification, hearing aids are likely to help you in noisy environments.
3. Brand accessibility - Certain brands may not be accessible in your area. This may limit your options.
4. Important features - Your hearing professional should get to know your listening needs and goals and suggest hearing aid features that can give you the most satisfaction and benefit.
5. Your lifestyle - More advanced hearing aids are geared towards meeting the needs of those with the most active lifestyles. If you find yourself in more complex listening environments you should consider purchasing higher technology.
6. Best practices - Does your hearing care provider follow best practices? If you aren’t receiving real ear measurement testing, you probably won’t get the most out of your hearing aids, even if they are top-of-the-line!

Looking to understand the available hearing aid features? Check out Hearing Tracker’s hearing aid matching engine.

How much do hearing aids cost?

We recently conducted a survey – with the help of the Hearing Loss Association of America – to learn more about the cost of hearing aids in the United States. Our survey showed that the overall average price paid for a single hearing aid was $2372. For a breakdown of hearing aid prices by brand, please read more on our page about the cost of hearing aids.

Looking to pay for hearing aids with healthcare insurance? Medical insurance coverage is available for some consumers.

Where to purchase hearing aids

Hearing aids are typically purchased from a local hearing healthcare practice. When shopping for hearing aids, we recommend working with a local practice that offers critical services like Real-Ear Measurements (REMs).

Most hearing clinics offer an array of different hearing aid models (and should work with multiple brands). Depending on your specific needs, and budget, you may pay anywhere from $1,500 - $8,000 (or more) for a pair of hearing aids.

There are also a few trusted online retailers, like ZipHearing, that work with local clinics to offer fixed price hearing aid + service bundles. We know that ZipHearing works directly with reputable hearing aid manufacturers, which is important because some online retailers sell “grey market” products that have dubious product warranties. The company also has a good reputation within the audiology community. Note: HearingTracker parters with ZipHearing and other national providers to offer discounted hearing aid prices to its visitors.

If you’re considering purchasing prescription hearing aids from an online retailer, be sure to do a comprehensive investigation of the business before sending them your credit card details. There have been many fly-by-night operations, like BuyHear.com, which left customers in the lurch after shutting down operations. And, aside from the fraud risks, prescription hearing aids are also capable of producing very high decibel levels—we recommend having them fit in person by a licensed professional who performs real-ear measurements.

If you're looking for a safer do-it-yourself option, and have no worse than mild to moderate hearing loss, take a look at all the OTC products we've reviewed including Walmart hearing aids, Amazon hearing aids, Sam's Club hearing aids, Lexie, Jabra Enhance, Sennheiser, and Audicus.