Best Budget Air Purifiers of 2024

After locking your doors and windows against winter freezes and spring pollen explosions, stuffy indoor air can be a real problem. Indoor air pollution can cause both immediate and long term irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat, headaches, dizziness, fatigue, and even respiratory diseases, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Most people in the United States spend about 90% of their time indoors, according to the EPA, so even if you think you’re preventing the outdoor allergens from creeping inside, other pollutants like fuel-burning appliances, tobacco, household cleaning supplies and excess moisture can also cause plenty of breathing problems.

Outdoor heat waves can also result in higher indoor temperatures, leading to higher dampness, humidity, mold, dusty mites and other biological contaminants. If you suffer from high indoor-humidity, we’ve compiled a guide on dehumidifiers you might find useful.

Air purifiers (also known as air cleaners) aren’t the only way to control indoor pollution and allergens, but they are incredibly helpful tools, especially if you have a hard time fitting in more extensive deep-cleaning each week. We’ve created a beginner-friendly guide to air purifiers, but if your budget doesn’t allow for the $150 splurge of the LEVOIT Core 300S-P (our top pick), we’re going to be deep-diving into some affordable, and still effective, air purifiers you should consider.

Tips To Pick The Right Air Purifier

As a quick refresher if you don’t have time to skim through our beginner’s guide, there are few helpful tips you should know before picking out the best (and some of the cheapest) air purifiers for your home.

1. Measure your room size

Small rooms won’t require as much power, but it’s important to make sure you’re getting an air purifier that can appropriately handle the space. To measure the area, multiply the length of the room by the width of the room. For example, 10 feet x 12 feet = 120 square feet.

2. CADR rate

CADR stands for “clean air delivery rate”, which is used to determine if it's powerful enough for the size of the room you’ll be using it in.

According to the AHAM, the CADR of your air purifier should be equal to at least two-thirds of the room’s area, so in its example, a room with an area of 120 square feet, it should have an air cleaner with a smoke CADR of at least 80.

We found this chart helpful as a general guide but it’s calculated using eight foot ceilings - be aware that if you have taller ceilings it will impact the room’s area and your minimum CADR requirement.

3. Choose your air filter type

There are multiple types of air purifiers, including some that use ionizers, UV light and ozone. Ozone is not generally recommended by the EPA because it can actually be a lung irritant. Instead, we suggest making sure your air purifier uses HEPA (“high-efficiency particulate air”) and activated carbon filtration when possible. Air purifiers will get a higher CADR by using a HEPA filter. Activated carbon will help remove a lot of the bad smells associated with indoor pollution.

Best Budget Air Purifier Picks For 2024

1. Best Budget Pick For Mini Rooms: GoveeLife Mini Air Purifier

Price: $49.99 (plus additional $18 off coupon) at Amazon; $39.99, was $49.99 at Govee

Filter Type: HEPA & Carbon | Effective Range: 56 sq. ft (Up to 376 sq. ft./1 hour) | CADR: 36-52 | App: Yes

S​hop It: Amazon, Govee

Features:

• 3-in-1 Filtration: Pre-filter, HEPA filter, active carbon filter
• App & voice control with Alexa and Google Assistant
• Custom and sleep mode, and timer
• Auto mode can intelligently adjusts air speed based on ambient conditions - but GoveeLife Air Quality Monitor is sold separately
• Aromatherapy option
• Company claims FCC Certified, Energy Star, ETL Certified, and CA65

If you like high-tech for a (very) small room, check out the GoveeLife Mini Air Purifier. This is not going to be your large room workhorse by any stretch of the imagination, but will certainly do its best in a small office, bedroom, laundry room, or even closet, and it's the most affordable pick on this list. The pre-filter can be cleaned, but you should not clean the HEPA and carbon filters, according to the manual. Filters should be replaced every 6-8 months.

On Amazon, it has 4.6-stars and over 650+ ratings, with customers approving of performance, air quality, ease of use and overall features. This is the one of the few options on our list with an app at this price point. One reviewer said, “This packs a punch! It was easy to set up and connect to my phone. When I am on my way home from work, I start up my purifier and have it ready to go once I come home.” They went on to say, “I was waking up all congested and stuffy every morning, due to my house vents being dusty and not in use. This has been a game changer for me.”

When it comes to noise, most agree it’s fairly quiet or the equivalent of white noise. One said, “The highest setting has the perfect white noise sound. Works great.”

Others reviewers were a little disappointed the air quality sensor needs to be purchased separately, and some felt the performance is lacking even for the room sizes stated.

2. Best Budget Pick For Small Rooms: Medify MA-14 Air Purifier with True HEPA H13 Filter

Price: $59.99 at Amazon; $64.08 at Walmart

Filter Type: HEPA & Carbon | Effective Range: 109 sq. ft (Up to 470 sq. ft./1 hour) | CADR: 25-71 CFM (by speed) | App: No

S​hop It: Amazon or Walmart

Features:

• 3-in-1 Filtration: Pre-filter, True HEPA 13 filter, carbon filter
• Custom and sleep mode, night light, and filter indicator
• 3 fan speeds
• Company claims ETL Certified, Energy Star, CARB, AHAM

If you need a little more power and don’t mind that there’s no app, we suggest the Medify MA-14 air purifier for small to medium-sized rooms. It has 4.6-stars on Amazon, and over 22,900+ total global ratings.

According to reviewers, it’s going to give you some of the most bang for your buck, though at the expense of being a little loud. As one reviewer so aptly put it, “I don’t know what people expect from an air purifier, I imagine it’s hard to find one that is good and also quiet…this air purifier has done a great job cleaning the air in my house.” They went on to say, “I noticed an immediate difference when I started using the air purifier, I was sweeping and dusting less often.”

Another reviewer said, “Great for the price - it’s easily adjustable, easy to use, and its size doesn’t stand out in our living area. I usually keep it on level one of three.” They went on to say regarding its use, “I have noticed a difference in the amount of dust that lingers around, so all-in-all, I count that as a win.”

As for complaints, some said they didn’t feel like there was a noticeable change in air quality, and some noticed that it felt wobbly or a little unstable at the higher fan settings.

3. Best Budget Pick For Medium Rooms: LEVOIT Core 300-P Air Purifier

Price: $83.95, was $99.99 at Amazon

Filter Type: HEPA & Carbon | Effective Range: 217 sq. ft. (Up to 1,000 sq. ft./1 hour) | CADR: 141 CFM | App: No

S​hop It: Amazon

• 3-in-1 filtration system: Pre-filter, efficient filter and activated carbon filter
• Multiple filter options: Pet allergy, toxin absorber, or smoke remover filter
• Sleep mode turns off display and reduces noise level
• Company claims Energy Star Certified, ETL Certified, CARB Certified

At this price point, the Levoit Core 300-P Air Purifier is the best for small to medium-sized rooms, with a fairly sizable effective range over an hour according to the company details. Levoit has been our top pick for many reasons, and the 300-P version is only missing some of the smart home Wi-Fi connectivity and app usage of the 300S-P version.

On Amazon, the Levoit air purifiers have 4.7-stars and over 100,000+ ratings, with over 40,000 people purchasing these products over the past month. Customers are pretty pleased with the quality of the product, noise level and sleep mode.

One reviewer said, “[I] bought one to use in the smoking room of my place. Works great, removes most smoke odor and most airborne particulates in the room. [I] noticeably overserved [this] in direct sunlight.”

Another one called it a “great investment”, saying, “I was always skeptical about buying things but trust the reviews, this worked for my living room area for our new home.” They went on to mention about their home, “it just left an odor that I couldn’t get rid of with air fresheners even opening all the windows and deep cleaning the place. But once I got this item, a day later the smell was gone and I was shocked.”

As with some of the usual issues with air purifiers, there is some noise above the most quiet settings, and some question the longevity of the product. Others mentioned that the pre-filter and efficient filter combination wasn’t as good as some other brand options.

4. Best Budget Pick For Large Rooms: Coway Airmega AP-1512HH True HEPA Purifier

Price: $159.99, was $229.99 at Amazon; $159.50 at Walmart

Filter Type: HEPA & Carbon | Effective Range: 361 sq. ft. (Up to 1,700 sq. ft./1 hour) | CADR: 233-246 CFM | App: No

S​hop It: Amazon or Walmart

Features:

• 4-in-1 filtration system: Pre-filter, odor filter, HEPA filter and ionizer
• Three fan speeds, auto mode, eco-mode and pollution sensor
• Timer for one, four and eight hours
• Sleep mode turns off display and reduces noise level
• Company claims Energy Star Certified, ETL Certified, CARB Certified
• Caution: Ionizer may produce ozone

Despite some features we try to exclude from our list (specifically, the ionizer in the four-stage filtration system), we can’t deny the popularity and functionality of the Coway Airmega AP-1512HH air purifier. It has over 25,000 ratings for the different product versions on Amazon, 4.7-stars and is currently on sale (marked down to $160). That’s a good price for a fairly powerful air purification system.

Some of the more high-tech features include the pollution sensor to monitor indoor air quality, which can be missing in some of the products at this price point. It has multiple fan speeds, and an eco-mode that will stop the fan when no pollution is detected for 30 minutes. It also comes with filter replacement indicators for the pre-filter and HEPA filter.

Customers are largely happy with air quality, performance, ease of use and the value of this air purifier. One reviewer purchased it during the Canadian wildfires, saying, “When the purifier finally arrived, I turned it on and the sensor light went red to indicate the high level of contamination in the air. I opened the doors of every room in my apartment and let it go to work, and after a few minutes at full power, the light turned from red to purple, and about five minutes later, it [turned] blue. I took my mask off, and the air was pure and fresh. It is an absolute superhero at cleaning a large volume of air very quickly.”

Another summed it up, saying, “Easy to use, easy to clean, quiet, and replacement filters [are] affordable…good product- best home air purifier I’ve had so far. Just got a second one.”

Even some of the complaints note it is a very good air purifier, but poor customer service and concerns about the longevity of the product were in question. A few others noted an unpleasant chemical smell from the HEPA filter.

5. Best Budget Pick For Extra-Large Rooms: BLUEAIR 211i Max Air Purifiers

Price: $279.97, was $349.99 at Amazon; $279.99 at Blueair.com

Filter Type: HEPA & Carbon | Effective Range: 635 sq. ft. (Up to 1,500 sq. ft./30 minutes) | CADR: 410 CFM | App: Yes

S​hop It: Amazon or Blueair.com

Features:

• Washable pre-filters
• HepaSilent™ technology: Combines electrostatic and mechanical filtration
• Five fan speeds, auto mode, sleep mode, child lock
• Air quality reading via 5-color indicator or within app
• Filter lasts between 6-9 months
• Company claims Energy Star Certified (211 model), CARB Certified, AHAM Verifide for Performance

Once again, Blueair makes our list of best air purifiers, this time for the largest room size. For the square footage and overall performance, it’s hard to beat a sub-$300 price range (at least while it’s on sale). This particular 211i Max air purifier model claims to clear over 1,500 square feet in 30 minutes, and can target airborne particles like pollen and pet dander, as well as VOCs, smoke, and cooking odors. The filter will last up to nine months depending on usage, and the unit has a number of different fan speeds, sleep mode and color-coded indicators. It also comes with an app for more in-depth information on your air quality.

Colleagues of ours have nothing but praise for the Blueair models, with multiple sizes in their homes. As mentioned in our 2024 air purifier guide, they claimed the air was cleaner not only for them, but for their animals as well, with less sneezing and seasonal allergies affecting their daily activities.

As for other reviewers, over 3,000 users on Amazon have purchased this particular model in the past month, and Blueair purifiers as a whole have over 9,600 ratings and 4.5-stars. One reviewer called it “quiet but effective”, going on to say, “The Blueair is a quality product. It’s quiet yet designed to be sensitive to particulates in the air. In the automatic mode, it works quietly in the background but when its sensors feel the need to work, it comes alive to clear the air.”

When compared to its off brand counterparts, one reviewer said, “The prior unit was left on low all day, every day, for a year [but] it never seemed to make any difference. Most notable for me was the ability of the Blueair unit to remove cooking smells.”

As for the complaints, some felt it didn’t purify their air as well as expected, it can get noisy on some of the higher fan levels, and the Wi-Fi connectivity can be spotty.

How We Made Our Decision

Safety

During our research on these products, we attempted to ensure that we avoided ozone and ionizer air purifiers specifically due to the guidance from the EPA. One company on our list, the Conway, does use an ionizer in its four-stage purification process, however, the reviews and general consensus of positive feedback and performance outweighed the potential caution we might have for ozone production. If, however, you have any respiratory sensitivities, we might suggest another product on this list.

First-hand testing

One of our top picks included Blueair because of the very positive feedback and extensive use of this brand. My colleague has multiple sizes throughout the house (small and large), and highly recommended the selection. As mentioned in the earlier reviews, they saw a noticeable difference in air quality after purchasing this product.

Functionality

When pulling together our list of air purifiers, we were looking at a few different performance criteria: multi-option filtration (with a focus on HEPA + carbon options), CADR metrics and square footage, app features, and filter lifespan. We also visited EnergyStar.gov to cross check performance claims when applicable.

Price

Price point was one of our most highlighted features in this roundup, with the goal being under $100 for the small and medium options, and under $300 for the extra large. Every budget-friendly model should provide performance and have positive feedback.

Reviews

We strive to highlight the unbiased pros and cons of each product based on user feedback and the feature list. If a product has few (or no) verified reviewers, or the complaints outweigh the purpose and price of the product, we won’t feature it in our lists.

P​rices accurate and items in stock at time of publish.