With the advent of its new AirPods Pro 3 for 2025, there’s a strong argument to be made for their inclusion in Apple’s lineup of fitness wearables alongside the Apple Watch. That’s because, alongside the truly astonishing new Active Noise Cancellation and an improved fit, AirPods Pro 3 boost a hitherto unseen feature in the AirPods lineup – heart rate sensing.
This isn’t Apple’s first rodeo; its Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 offered heart rate monitoring when they launched earlier this year, but this is the first time Apple’s in-ear heart rate monitoring has gone mainstream. In principle, the AirPods Pro 3 can be used either in tandem with Apple Watch to enhance your fitness experience or as a standalone health companion.
Heart rate monitoring isn’t the sole reason anyone should buy them (see noise canceling, astonishing), but they’re a very nice feature to have.
What fitness features are included with the AirPods Pro 3?
There are a few enhancements that make the AirPods Pro 3 great for fitness. First up, Apple has drastically improved the fit and comfort of the newest models. Whereas AirPods of the past would often undertake their own workouts by dashing from your ears or throwing themselves to the ground during exercise, the new models are decidedly more secure and stable. The new foam tips are generally much sturdier and more reliable.
Another huge fitness upgrade is noise canceling. When you’re working out on a noisy street or in a busy gym, blocking out distractions is vital, and I’ve found myself blown away by the noise cancellation on display. Noisy workouts in the gym underscored by clanking and grunting are now a blissfully silent affair, and a tremendous upgrade to anyone who wants peace and quiet during workouts.
The biggest upgrade for fitness is of course, the heart rate sensing. Thanks to new sensors, the AirPods Pro 3 can measure your heart rate and track workouts just like the Apple Watch for over 50 different workout profiles, all powered by the Fitness app on your iPhone.
How I tested
I’ve conducted a multitude of tests on the new AirPods Pro 3. I’ve worn them every day since launch for workouts in the gym, as well as for a multitude of runs and walks, easily notching up more than 50 workouts of varying intensity.
The true test of accuracy and usefulness is a comparison to the best Apple Watch on the market, the Apple Watch Ultra 3. To that end, I conducted a one-hour strength workout using both my AirPods and Apple Watch Ultra 3 connected to separate devices.
That gave me two separate streams of data from each one, that I can directly compare to establish how the AirPods Pro 3 stack up against the Ultra 3.
The results
The results of testing can be summarised as generally, really favorable. On my Apple Watch Ultra 3, I logged a 56-minute 41-second workout, burning 435 active calories and 558 total calories, with an average heart rate of 118 BPM.
My AirPods workout was 56 minutes and 40 seconds (give me a break, it was a tough ask to synchronize them), with an average heart rate of 119 BPM, 519 active calories burnt, and 601 total calories.
As you can see, the average heart rates are almost identical. The heart rate graphs from each device track almost identically, also. But there are some crucial differences. Firstly, AirPods Pro 3 don’t provide zone information in the same way as the Ultra 3 does. This seems strange to me, given the data is there for both and could, in theory, be processed on-device, but as it stands is a crucial drawback of the AirPods.
Naturally, anyone who wants to train in a specific heart rate zone or get more info about their workouts probably won’t be buying AirPods for that purpose; you’ll want an Apple Watch at least, or even one of the best heart rate monitors.
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As you can see, there’s also a big discrepancy in the calories burned. The jury is out on whether any device can effectively track this metric during exercise, but I’d generally be more inclined to follow my Apple Watch on this one, which has more accelerometer data for your workouts.
It’s an impressive showing from AirPods Pro 3, but there are some clear limitations. Not least, if you’re only working out with a phone and AirPods, you can’t quickly glance at your heart rate during workouts the way you can with Apple Watch. However, it seems that when it comes to generally tracking heart rate, they’re right in the ballpark.
During my test, I would track my heart rate between sets and found AirPods Pro 3 went bar-for-bar with Apple Watch, often updating at the same time, just before, or just after. There’s no perfect science to this, but they seem to be pretty much on the money.
Conclusion
In truth, the heart rate sensing of the AirPods Pro 3 is probably a nice-to-have embellishment to a great audio product, rather than the start of an incredible new fitness tracking line from Apple. Anyone who is serious about gym performance, be it calorie tracking, heart rate monitoring, or anything else, will be better served with a more dedicated fitness tracker of any description. However, Apple has clearly put a lot of work into getting these AirPods right, so this is a fantastic bonus for anyone who picks up the new AirPods Pro 3.
If you’re using both AirPods Pro 3 and an Apple Watch, it’s a different story. If you pair Apple Watch with AirPods Pro 3, the two will work in tandem to provide a stream of data, using the device with the most accurate readings over the last five minutes as the chosen heart rate source.
While they can’t be used in tandem to create an aggregate score, having two heart rate monitors is definitely going to boost overall accuracy, for instance, if your watch becomes loose or you pop out a bud to chat to someone while working out.
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