Finding the best cheap sunglasses can be a real chore and since time is money, we’ve compiled this list of 15 cheap sunglasses shoppers love. We built the list below by doing the footwork a savvy shopper would do if they had hours to pore through hundreds of product listings and online reviews. We searched cheap sunglasses at Amazon between $5 and $25. Our criteria were that the sunglasses had to get the best customer ratings possible from the highest number of customers. Amazon is great, but it’s tough to search by specific price points. Another downfall is that a product that gets 5 stars might only have 4 reviews and they might all be from employees of the company that makes the product. Our pics have at least 140 reviews each and most have ratings of 4 to 4.5 stars. Are these sunglasses guaranteed to last forever? No. Are they going to be as durable as expensive sunglasses? Absolutely not. These sunglasses are for people looking for the best cheap sunglasses they can get. The kind that, if they get lost or broken on a trip, who cares?
1. Military Aviators – $17.99
The J+S Premium Military Style Classic Aviators are #1 on our cheap sunglasses list. Why pay the “high” price for this pair of shades? A 4.5 star rating from 1,152 reviewers. They claim to be durable and provide high level UV blocking. The frames come in either silver or black. Digging into the reviews, only 27 people out of more than 1,000 hated them. That’s less than 2%. 95% thought they were great. As a bonus, they even come with a hard carrying case to prevent breakage.
2. Vintage Wayfarer – $6.99
These New Stylish Retro Vintage Wayfarers come in several two-tone color schemes with the buyer’s choice of mirror or smoke lenses. They’re #2 on our best cheap sunglasses list for two reasons. The first is the rock bottom price of $6.99. You can’t find a pair of sunglasses for that price anywhere outside of a gumball machine and even if you do, the chances they won’t pop apart like a trick car in a shooting gallery the first time the wind blows are slim to none. Most reviewers found these to be high quality shades for very little money. The 7% who gave them a low rating did so because they weren’t satisfied with the level of tint in the lenses.
3. Retro Horn Rims – $7.25
MLC Eyewear’s Polarized Vintage Retro Horn Rims are the #3 item on our best cheap sunglasses list. 4.5 stars out of 255 customer reviews isn’t bad. They have tortoise shell frames, though some buyers complained that they were too dark in color to tell and looked almost black. The polarization factor is somewhat faint compared to more expensive sunglasses but most reviewers thought these were well worth the money.
Looks like I have a problem with cheap sunglasses pic.twitter.com/mnM89VA2iM
— Andrew (@AndrewwTaylorr) August 1, 2016
4. Mirrored Aviators – $12.99
This is our #4 pick for the best cheap sunglasses on the market. Made by Duduma, these aviators have a flash mirror lens and are guaranteed to block 99% to 100% of all UVB and UVA rays. They boast tough lenses and frames that come with a lifetime breakage warranty and a 30 day money back guarantee. Lenses come in the customer’s choice of grey, pink, blue, green, orange or brown. The best part though is probably the 1,858 customer reviews with the 4.5 star rating. That’s stellar. It’s possible to write bogus reviews to pump up a product’s Amazon rating, but not so easy to stack up nearly 2,000 of them. That said, there were 80 shoppers who were very dissatisfied with these sunglasses and found them cheap and flimsy, so give them a solid inspection when they arrive.
5. Mirrored Horn Rims – $11.99
These Polarized Flat Mirrored Horn Rims come in at #5 on our list of cheap sunglasses because of 146 reviews and a 4.5 star rating. That’s not huge but they’re very cool looking and the lenses come in bug-eye green, orange, blue or yellow. They’re all plastic and 92% of reviewers loved them, though the “hates” were a bit high at 7%. Complaints for these shades range from “low quality” to “bad fit.” Positive reviews called them “very cool” and said they had great fit and performance. For the kind of person who loses and breaks a lot of sunglasses, these are a great choice.
6. San Jose Polarized – $18.13
Back up in price range, the Flying Fisherman San Jose Polarized Sunglasses come in the buyer’s choice of copper or gunmetal frames. The lenses come in either amber or smoke. 863 reviewers gave them a 4.5 star rating, with 4% of those hating them. Those reviewers said they were too small and came apart too easily. People who liked them said they looked great and were very high quality for the low price. These factors combined put them in the #6 slot on our list of the best cheap sunglasses on Amazon.
Related: What’s the Cheapest iPhone?
7. Sport Driving Sunglasses – $25
Tied for the highest price on our list of cheap sunglasses, we ranked the Duco Men’s Sports Style Polarized Unbreakable Driving sunglasses at #7 because of a 4.5 star rating with 1,085 reviewers. We’re not sure why the image shows them being splashed by water (presumably they’ll still work if they get wet unlike other- uh…) but they seem to be well loved. They come in several lens and frame colors and have UV400 protection with lightweight alloy frames. Nearly 1,000 buyers loved them while over 100 hated them.
8. Designer Wayfarers – $18.67
These Designer Wayfarers hit the #8 spot on our list of best cheap sunglasses. They come with a hard case and a soft case and look fairly stylish. 39 people hated these sunglasses and found them cheap. 93% thought they were the best. Some of the haters raised the specter of fake reviews, but we looked into several and concluded that if they are fake, they’re highly sophisticated fakes complete with photos in people’s kitchens, backstories for the reviewers and dozens of reviews of other products. Either way, 4.5 stars for 510 reviews is not too shabby.
9. Bamboo Sunglasses – $19.90
Here’s an interesting idea: Bamboo Sunglasses, maybe in case you run into an albino panda bear who wants to hide from the sun and then enjoy a light snack. Why? We’re not sure, but we know they’re relatively cheap. They come in several colors and really it’s only the earpieces that are made of bamboo. The rest are plastic. But hey, it’s a novel idea. 32 people out of 360 hated them, which isn’t bad for a pair of cheap sunglasses. That’s especially true since they’re so different from all the others. They actually look quite a bit cooler than you’d expect, too.
Remember guys, super cheap sunglasses with 0% UV protection will damage your kids' eyes especially bad
It's really not worth the swag
— سيف سعيد (@SaifSaeedh) August 2, 2016
10. Running Sunglasses – $25
$25 for a pair of running sunglasses doesn’t seem all that cheap, even if they’re billed as “no-slip, no-bounce and polarized.” These Goodr Running Sunglasses also only get 4.2 stars out of 5, which puts them at #10 on the best cheap sunglasses list. They come in three colors. They’ve got 217 reviews, which is respectable. However, a fairly high 6% of those people hated these sunglasses. They’re not the best, they’re not the cheapest, but they’re still not bad and they’re still cheap. The complaints are mostly because the coating on the sunglasses starts to crack and peel when they get wet, then they don’t look good anymore.
11. Classic 80’s Wayfarers – $4.99
Here’s a pair of classic 80’s Wayfarers for $5. They come in just about any frame color and style you like, and any lens color and style too. They’re $5. Should we say that again? They’re $5. They get four stars out of 311 reviews. 85 of those 311 people hated them. Why? They’re cheap. To quote a redneck friend of ours, “You knew it was a snake when you picked it up.” The high number of complaints is exactly why they’re near the bottom of our cheap sunglasses list.
12. Retro Wayfarers – $7.75
The Retro Rewind Classic Polarized Wayfarer Sunglasses come in at #12 on this “best cheap” list. It’s yet another pair of inexpensive Wayfarers, this one with four stars and 947 reviews. They come in lots of frame colors but only one lens color and style. The people who like them really like them. Unfortunately these sunglasses get a disproportionate number of “hates.” 12% in fact. That’s high compared to the other choices on our list, which is why we didn’t rank them up in the 10 best, despite their inarguably cheap price.
13. Metal Framed Aviators – $9.99
A pair of full silver mirror metal framed sunglasses sounds awesome, doesn’t it? Sounds like something the Terminator would wear after he’s had all his cumbersome flesh burned away. And to think, for only $10. The reason these aren’t higher on our best cheap sunglasses list is that the plastic lenses aren’t polarized. They look very cool, though, in six eye-catching lens colors and styles, from mirrored to blue to bright orange. Honestly by this point in the article you might be thinking that it’d be better to spring $100 for a decent pair of sunglasses with a lifetime guarantee and learn not to lose them. If so, you are probably right. 337 customers gave these babies four stars. 69 of those hated them.
i'm so glad sunglasses are cheap in this country lmao cant imagine spending $30 for a pair that i'm probably going to sit on at some point
— Tricia Guevara (@triciaguevara) August 3, 2016
14. Sport Sunglasses – $21.99
The Duduma Polarized Sports Sunglasses for Running Cycling Fishing Golf Tr90 Unbreakable Frame have a really long name, which may account for their not-so-cheap price. They also get only four stars, which accounts for their low position on our cheap sunglasses list. They’ve also got over 2,300 reviews though, which is impressive. Of those thousands of reviews, about 5% hated them, which isn’t too terrible. A few people claimed that the lenses delaminated. They are honestly not bad looking, though we’d suggest picking one of the options higher on the list.
15. Colored Lens Aviators – $6.99
Dead last in our best cheap sunglasses roster are these Classic Aviator Style Sunglasses. They only cost $6.99, which is a plus. However, the problem with so many cheap aviators is that they tend to bend easily and sit lopsided on the face. We did find quite a few people who complained of this problem with these shades in particular. They come in a ton of styles and colors and they’re cheap, but they’re solidly in last place. They get only 3.5 stars for 684 reviews, with 251 people hating them. So why are they still listed here? We honestly couldn’t find better ones cheaper. If we’re wrong, please let us know and we’ll include your pick here.
If you liked this post about cheap sunglasses, check out our post here about the cheapest tablets or this one about the 20 Cheapest Beers, Sorted by Drinkability. Did you come up with a pair of cheap sunglasses we didn’t list that you think deserves mention? Let us know in the comments below and we’ll check it out.