AirPods Pro 3: all the latest rumors and leaks, plus everything else we know

According to Apple, the AirPods Pro 2 are the most popular headphones ever. While a follow-up could easily beat that statistic, the company will have to actually release the AirPods Pro 3 first…

While some AirPods fans thought we'd see the AirPods Pro 3 at Apple's WWDC event on June 9, 2025, it didn't happen. Apple did unveil three major upgrades coming to Apple Music and two useful upgrades for your AirPods 4 or AirPods Pro 2 at the Cupertino giant's developer conference, but no all-new third-generation Pro-suffixed 'Pods.

So where are we at now with AirPods Pro 3? Good news: a big hint in iOS 26 was spotted not long after the Apple event, specifically a reference to "AirPods Pro 3" by name hidden in some audio interface elements of iOS 26's code! It was spotted by a MacRumors contributor, and comes hot on the heels of a reference in iOS 18 to a feature supporting "AirPods Pro 2 or later", even though no AirPods Pro 2 successor exists – not yet, anyway.

Don't get too excited though. After this, on June 14, respected industry analyst Jeff Pu stated that the AirPods Pro 3 are slated for a 2026 release – and you can see the visual he shared via @Jukanlosreve. That would mean a full four years between AirPods Pro launches, (unless you count the USB-C case inclusion, which we're not).

While there's undoubtedly a lot to like in our best AirPods roundup, a shiny new set of AirPods Pro 3 would almost certainly make their debut as the best of the bunch.

We've corralled all the Apple AirPods Pro 3 rumors and leaks so far here. It's worth noting that many of the tip-offs we heard prior to the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2's release in February 2025 ended up being about them, and not a new set of AirPods (read: heart-rate monitoring, mostly) but if you're considering some of the best AirPods Pro deals right now, you might want to hang on, because if (if!) the Pro 3 do arrive in September, there'll be discounts on older models.

We've also gone into detail when it comes to some of the upgrades we think Apple should be considering this time around, just in case, uh, anyone from the AirPods engineering department is reading…

Apple AirPods Pro 3: updates, leaks and rumors

First up, iOS 26 and WWDC on June 9, 2025: Apple tends to launch new AirPods nearer the end of the year, usually during a September event. This year, it'll almost certainly launch the iPhone 17 at said shindig too – and the references in iOS 26's code are our strongest indicator yet that AirPods Pro 3 are also coming this year.

Soon after last year's September Apple event (which saw the unveiling of the much-vaunted AirPods Pro 2 hearing aid feature plus the Apple AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with Noise Cancelling) a missive from Mark Gurman told us that the new Pro buds are "due as early as next year" – as in, this year, 2025.

This can also be supported by Aaron Perris' report, who spotted a change in Apple's software code that previously said “requires Apple AirPods Pro 2nd Generation”, but now reads “requires Apple AirPods Pro 2 or later" – suggesting once more that the AirPods Pro 3 will land sooner rather than later.

Not everyone agrees on this though. Jeff Pu thinks Apple probably won't get around to it 'til 2026. Earlier in the year, Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said the same, posting an update to X claiming the next AirPods upgrade will actually arrive by the end of 2026, adding that they could come equipped with infrared cameras. That would suggest no AirPods Pro 3 this year at all – rather that next year will be an extra-big upgrade.

However, back in December 2024, Mark Gurman's Bloomberg report suggested that the tech for cameras in your AirPods just isn't there yet, and pointed to a 2027 release date for any AirPods with this feature.

This year, another new report has surfaced claiming that AirPods with tiny AI cameras are tipped to come in 2027, which raises speculation about what model these will be – because that's too late to be AirPods Pro 3, realistically. But obviously this whole report is contradiction to the 2026 one above.

Why would you want Apple IR camera lenses poking out of your ears? It's better to think of them as working with your other Apple kit, rather than just for seeing things from the side of your head. An IR camera could handle the job of being a capacitive sensor for gesture control, for instance, while also offering a wider field of vision for your Vision Pro. Your AirPods could potentially feed data to your Apple Watch or iPhone in future versions of Apple Intelligence too, (although hopefully not just to ping you targeted ads about the store, bar, or venue you just saw).

But this isn't the first time AirPods with a camera feature has been mentioned. In February 2024, Gurman claimed that Apple was exploring AirPods with cameras. Then, a few months later, fellow analyst Ming-Chi Kuo alleged that future best AirPods could include Apple earbuds that include infrared cameras, to be paired with your Vision Pro headset to create a spatial audio experience to trounce any Meta Orion rivals. And two noted tipsters saying the same thing is infinitely more believable than one.

So, what else can we expect? Well, it's not hard to see Apple's big push towards health-tracking with AirPods, with heart-rate monitoring now available in the Apple subsidiary brand Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 earbuds.

The inaugural AirPods Pro arrived on October 30, 2019, so there was a three year gap between first-gen and second-gen iterations. The 2023 version was an anomaly, adding USB-C basically to pair with the newly USB-C-ified iPhone 15.

As for possible pricing, we don't have anything concrete whatsoever – but we can make an educated guess. Both the AirPods Pro and the AirPods Pro 2 were priced at $249 / £249 / AU$399 when they first appeared, so the AirPods Pro 3 cost should be similar – though some inflation is probably inevitable.

Lots of the best wireless earbuds have risen in price in the last few years, but Apple made a point of hanging on at the same price as the original AirPods Pro from 2019. If it does the same again, the new buds will actually come at the lower end of the premium earbuds range.

Elsewhere (and as you'd expect), analyst and noted Apple leaker Mark Gurman has of course made some claims about the AirPods Pro 3 in his Bloomberg newsletter. Gurman claims that the AirPods Pro 3 will have a new design (as will their case) along with better audio quality.

They will also apparently have a new chipset, and some new health features, with "the ability to get hearing data of some sort" being added. At the iPhone 16 launch, we learned that these features will be available on the AirPods Pro 2, but they'll probably also come to the Pro 3 when they roll out.

Meanwhile, leaker Kosutami claimed that the new model will offer "much better" active noise cancellation than AirPods Pro 2, and will arrive "soon" – though obviously those are two pretty vague claims.

AirPods Pro 3: what we want to see

In case you didn't know, Apple had originally planned to sell its AirPods in a variety of color options beyond the shiny arctic white that’s been standard for the company’s wireless earbuds since the first AirPods version shipped back in 2016 (thank you @KostuamiSan on Twitter, via AppleInsider). The story goes that ProductRED, Purple, Black, and Blonde AirPods were planned, to correspond with options for the iPhone 17, but all were ultimately cancelled.

We have seen various finishes available for the AirPods Max, (Space Gray, Silver, Sky Blue, Green, and Pink) so surely different AirPods Pro finishes isn't too big an ask?

But let's get serious. Where Apple's unannounced AirPods Pro 3 are concerned, we need to go back a little bit, to discuss the fact that in 2023, the Cupertino giant added Adaptive Audio to AirPods – a headline upgrade within six new features coming to AirPods Pro 2 thanks to iOS 17.

Not all AirPods got the update, only the then-current models toting active noise cancellation, aka the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods Max. Essentially, where once there were only three modes available – ANC, transparency mode, and off – you got a fourth: Adaptive Audio. Apple's take is that this offers the middle ground that we've all been looking for. I disagree.

The feature blends transparency mode with ANC to match the conditions of your natural surroundings. Using machine learning, Adaptive Audio then creates a more customized and dynamic listening experience so that you don’t have to play around with audio settings on your iPhone while you’re on the move.

I'd argue that users may want to play with the levels of noise nixing. What if listeners want Adaptive Audio that's tweakable further than simply on/off? As TechRadar's Managing Editor of Entertainment wrote at the time: "Give me different levels of noise cancellation – or even better, let me create my own, using a slider or two to set my preferred level, and then saving them as presets I can easily access from Control Center (or maybe they can be triggered by location)."

To summarize, Apple could adopt a few of these ideas for the AirPods Pro 3 – allow users a bit of manual control over ANC and spatial audio – and come off looking very good indeed. Yes, adding studio-quality audio recording and camera control to AirPods Pro 2 and both AirPods 4 models as a free update is great (and for sure we hope to see those in AirPods Pro 3) but it does feel like the ANC options could use some attention.

Elsewhere, the flagship Technics EAH-AZ100 earbuds are the second Technics offering to feature multipoint connectivity to three devices whether Android or iOS, and in this 'Pro' space it would be great if Apple could follow suit with device-agnostic multipoint pairing. Current AirPods cannot connect to two different devices simultaneously – unless they're both Apple products. Provided someone links their AirPods to their Apple ID, AirPods will instantly switch to whatever device the wearer is using.

For stamina, AirPods Pro 2 are more than acceptable at up to 6 hours of listening time with a single charge (up to 5.5 hours with Spatial Audio and Head Tracking enabled) or up to 30 hours of listening time. This is a little longer than Sony and Technics' flagship 2023 buds can manage; it's seven hours and up to 25 with the charging case from the Technics EAH-AZ80; eight hours or 24 in total with the case from Sony's WF-1000XM5.

But the main bone of contention where any new AirPods are concerned is support for Apple Music's own high-resolution audio offering, specifically 24-bit/96 kHz, aka the maximum resolution of Apple Music's Lossless tier, and 24-bit/192kHz – where Apple Music's Hi-Res Lossless offering maxes out.

Currently, to have Hi-Res Lossless files (which Apple gave to its Apple Music subscribers at no extra cost way back in June 2021) on your iPhone, you need a fairly involved wired system commencing with the Apple Lightning to USB camera adapter (which is limited to 24-bit/48kHz) then a third-party portable DAC to get you up to resolution, then a set of good wired headphones.

And the slightly lowlier Lossless tier? You still need wired headphones – although your iPhone's onboard DAC is good enough to give you the goods provided you're attaching a cable; something like Apple's still-great EarPods or, since April 1, 2025, AirPods Max with added Lossless USB-C audio passthrough.

If AirPods Pro 3 could grant loyal Apple devotees access to Apple Music's Hi-Res Lossless tier, it'd be a home run.