Have you checked your old WordPress form submissions lately? 🤔

Forms are one of the best ways to connect with visitors. You might use them for questions, orders, surveys, or even donations. But once those entries are answered or processed, what happens to them?

If you’re not managing your submissions, all that personal data just piles up in your database. That can create two problems at once.

First, many privacy rules like the GDPR say you can only keep personal details for as long as they’re needed, so holding on to them indefinitely could put your site at risk. Second, a database that’s crammed with old entries can eventually slow down your website.

The good news is that WPForms has a feature that automatically deletes old entries for you. I’ve used this on my own sites, and it’s saved me hours of cleanup while keeping things fast and compliant.

In this guide, I’ll show you exactly how to set it up.

Why Should You Auto Delete Form Entries in WordPress?

Auto-deleting old form entries in WordPress keeps your site fast and secure while reducing the risk of storing unnecessary personal data. It’s also an easy way to stay compliant with privacy laws.

Privacy regulations like the GDPR and CCPA require that you only keep personal data for as long as it’s needed. That means once a visitor’s question has been answered or an order is fulfilled, you shouldn’t hold on to those details indefinitely.

Here are the other main benefits of auto-deleting entries:

• Lower security risks: Deleting old entries limits the personal information available if your database is ever hacked.
• Improve performance: Keep your WordPress database lean and your site fast.
• Smaller backups: Save storage space and make backups quicker to run.
• Accurate reporting: Prevent outdated or spammy entries from skewing your analytics.

I’ve seen this firsthand on small business sites I’ve helped set up. For example, freelancers or coaches often get daily inquiries through a contact form. Once those messages are answered, there’s no reason to store them indefinitely.

On my own sites, I’ve also noticed how quickly old form data piles up. As entries pile up, they add unnecessary bulk to your database and backups, which can make them slower to run.

👉 In short: auto-deleting old form submissions protects user data, speeds up your site, and helps you focus only on the entries that matter.

In the next section, I’ll show you how to set up auto deletion step by step. You can use the quick links below to jump straight to different parts of the tutorial:

How to Auto Delete Form Entries in WordPress

The easiest way to delete form entries automatically is by using WPForms, the best drag-and-drop form builder plugin for WordPress.

To handle form entry cleanup, WPForms offers an Entry Automation addon, which lets you set up automated tasks like deleting or exporting entries for specific forms.

You can choose exactly when the task should run — daily, weekly, monthly, or on a custom schedule. You can even set rules to only delete entries with specific data or a certain status.

At WPBeginner, we use WPForms for everything from simple contact forms to advanced surveys, and we’ve tested the Entry Automation addon thoroughly. It works reliably behind the scenes and helps you keep your sites GDPR-compliant.

If you want to learn more about the plugin, check out our full WPForms review, where we evaluate all its features.

Now, let’s walk through how to set up form entry deletion, step by step.

✅ Step 1: Install and Activate WPForms

To get started, you’ll need to install and activate the WPForms plugin on your WordPress site.

If you haven’t done this before, don’t worry — it’s easy! We have a step-by-step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin that walks you through the process.

After you activate the plugin, go to the WPForms » Settings page from your WordPress dashboard to add your license key. Make sure you are in the ‘General’ tab.

☝Note: You can find your license key number in your WPForms account profile in the Downloads tab.

Once you enter your license number, click the ‘Verify Key’ button.

Now, all the premium features available in your plan, including access to addons like Entry Automation, will be unlocked.

Next, go to the WPForms » Addons page in your WordPress admin sidebar and look for the ‘Entry Automation’ addon.

When you find it, simply click the ‘Install Addon’ button to activate it on your website.

✏️ Step 2: Choose or Create the Form You Want to Auto Delete Entries From

Now that WPForms is set up, the next step is to choose or create the form you want to auto delete entries from.

If you’re working with an existing form, just go to the WPForms » All Forms page in your WordPress dashboard.

Find the form you want to use and click the ‘Edit’ link under its name.

This will open the form in the visual builder.

If you don’t have a form yet, then you can create a new one by going to the WPForms » Add New page.

Start by giving your form a name, like ‘Contact Form’ or ‘Support Request.’ I recommend choosing a title that clearly defines the purpose of the form.

Then choose a template that fits your needs. WPForms offers many beginner-friendly templates, like a simple contact form, a quote request form, a feedback form, and more.

If you’re not sure which template to use or want help getting started, then you can click ‘Generate with AI’ to try the AI Form Builder.

In the field that says ‘What would you like to create?’ just describe the type of form you want.

For example, you could write “a basic contact form with name, email, and message,” and it will generate the layout for you.

Once you have opened your new or pre-existing form in the drag-and-drop builder, you can add fields like name, email, phone, message, dropdowns, checkboxes, and more.

You can easily move them around to customize the layout however you want — no coding needed.

If it’s your first time creating a form, you might find these tutorials helpful:

• How to Create a Contact Form in WordPress
• How to Make a Request a Quote Form in WordPress
• How to Create an Online Order Form in WordPress
• Ultimate Guide to Building a WordPress Form With Payment Options

Once you’re happy with your form, you’re ready for the next step.

💡 Step 3: Back Up Your Data by Exporting Entries First (Optional but Recommended)

Before setting up the automatic deletion, I strongly recommend that you back up your form data first.

While auto-deleting entries helps keep your website clean and compliant, the insights you get from that data can be very valuable for your business.

This is where you can create a smart workflow: first, automatically save the data you need for business analysis in a secure, off-site location.

Then, have the old personal data removed from your WordPress site. This is the best way to balance data analysis with GDPR compliance.

For example, I know business owners who send new lead forms straight to their CRM so they can track sales without worrying about old entries piling up.

Nonprofits I’ve worked with have downloaded donor surveys into a CSV file at the end of a campaign so they can review the results, then clear the original entries to protect privacy.

The good news is that the same Entry Automation addon makes exporting or downloading entries just as easy as deleting them.

For a step-by-step walkthrough, see our tutorial on how to auto-export form entries in WordPress.

🔁 Step 4: Create a Deletion Task for the Form

Once you’ve set up your exporting workflow, you’re ready to set up the deletion automation.

To do this, go to the Settings » Entry Automation tab in the left-hand menu of the WPForms builder. Here, you can create tasks that automatically export or delete form entries based on your schedule and rules.

Once you’re in the ‘Entry Automation’ tab, simply click the ‘Add New Task’ button.

A pop-up will appear asking you to name your task. I recommend choosing something simple and clear, like ‘Auto Delete Contact Entries‘ or ‘Cleanup Task for Survey.’

Naming your tasks helps you quickly recognize them later if you ever want to make edits or check your automation settings.

This task will work like a mini workflow that runs behind the scenes.

☝ Keep in mind that if you want to auto-delete entries for other forms, you’ll need to repeat this process for each one.

However, you can create multiple automation tasks for the same form — for example, one to export entries to Google Drive, and another (like this one) to automatically delete old data.

After you add a title, just click the ‘OK’ button.

On the next screen, choose ‘Delete Entries’ as the task type.

Doing this will open some new settings on your screen.

🧹 Step 5: Set Up Filters to Control What Gets Deleted

After choosing to delete entries, you’ll see the Filters section. This part gives you precise control, so you only remove what you don’t need.

First, you can filter entries based on what users type into your form fields. This is perfect for automatically cleaning out low-priority submissions.

For instance, a popular blog might receive dozens of guest post submissions and reader questions, and many of these are off-topic pitches or spam.

In this case, setting up a filter to delete entries where the ‘Inquiry Type’ field is marked as ‘Guest Post Pitch’ or ‘Spam’ helps keep the inbox focused on genuine reader questions and high-quality submissions.

Next, you can filter entries by their status. This is really useful for getting rid of junk submissions and incomplete entries.

The available statuses are:

• Published – Fully submitted entries.
• Partial – Entries where someone started the form but didn’t finish.
• Abandoned – Incomplete entries that timed out.
• Spam – Entries flagged as spam by tools like CAPTCHA.
• Trash – Entries you have already moved to the trash.

I always recommend selecting ‘Partial’ and ‘Spam’ here. It’s an easy way to automatically clear out clutter from your database.

You can even combine these filters for more powerful automation.

For instance, you could set up a rule to delete only ‘Published’ entries that are related to a past event or a closed job application.

🗓️ Step 6: Schedule Automatic Deletion of WordPress Form Entries

Once your deletion settings and filters are all set up, the final step is to schedule when WPForms should run the automatic cleanup.

To do this, scroll down to the ‘Schedule’ section.

Here, you can easily decide how often you want the deletion task to run — daily, weekly, or monthly — depending on how often you want to clear out old or unwanted entries.

Next, choose the specific day(s) for the task to run. For example, you might want to delete entries every Friday, or on the 1st of each month.

You can even add a start date and an optional end date if this is a short-term cleanup.

By default, the task will run at midnight (based on your website server’s time), but you can customize the time to fit your workflow, like after office hours or before your team starts their day.

Once you save the schedule, WPForms handles everything in the background — automatically deleting entries based on your settings without any manual effort.

Finally, click the ‘Save’ button at the top to store your settings.

If you’re editing an existing form, then the deletion schedule will start running automatically — no extra steps needed.

However, if you’ve just created a new form with this auto delete feature, make sure to embed it on a page or post so it can start collecting entries.

📌 Need help with that? Check out our step-by-step guide on how to embed a form in WordPress.

🔐 Bonus: Go Beyond Auto Deletion — Make Your Forms GDPR Compliant

Once you’ve set up automatic form entry deletion to reduce data and stay GDPR-friendly, you can take things further by enabling additional privacy features in WPForms.

It’s one of the best GDPR-friendly plugins available and offers several built-in tools to help you limit personal data collection, request user consent, and support compliance across your site.

Here’s how you can improve compliance with just a few clicks:

• ✅ Add a GDPR Agreement Field: Use this to get clear consent from users before collecting their data. It’s required and unselected by default to meet GDPR standards.
• 🔒 Turn Off User Tracking: Disable the collection of IP addresses, user agent info, and cookies to reduce data collection from the start.
• 🧾 Allow Data Access and Deletion Requests: Build forms that let users request to view or delete their personal info, as required by law.
• ⚙️ Adjust Settings Per Form: Choose which forms collect sensitive data and apply stricter rules only where needed.

These features work together to make your entire data collection process more transparent, secure, and compliant.

For a complete walkthrough, check out our tutorial on how to create GDPR-compliant forms in WordPress.

Frequently Asked Questions About Deleting Form Entries in WordPress

Now, let’s answer some of the most common questions our readers have about automatically deleting form entries in WordPress.

How does auto deleting entries help with GDPR?

GDPR requires you to store personal data only as long as necessary. By auto deleting entries after a certain period, you minimize data retention risks and stay compliant. It also shows users that you care about their privacy.

What is the best schedule for deleting form entries?

That depends on your site’s needs. For busy sites, daily or weekly deletion keeps things clean. For lower-traffic sites, monthly might be enough.

WPForms gives you the flexibility to choose a schedule that works for you. Plus, you can change it anytime you like. Just set it, and WPForms will handle it automatically in the background.

Can I delete form entries from all forms at once?

The auto-delete feature in WPForms is designed to work on a per-form basis. This means you will need to enable it individually for each form where you want to use it, and you can set up different rules. For example, you might want to delete contact form entries quickly but keep survey responses for a longer period.

What happens when an entry is auto deleted?

When WPForms auto-deletes an entry, it’s permanently removed from your WordPress database. It won’t be sent to the Trash or stored in a backup inside WPForms. That’s why it’s a good idea to export important entries before the deletion runs, just in case you need them later.

Can I stop WPForms from storing entries at all?

Yes, you can! WPForms has a feature that lets you disable entry storage completely. This is useful if you just want to receive form submissions by email and don’t want to keep them in the database. It’s a great option for GDPR compliance and data minimization.

📚 More Tips to Stay GDPR-Compliant in WordPress

Want to go beyond auto deleting entries? We’ve put together some helpful guides to make your WordPress site even more privacy-friendly.

Whether you’re new to GDPR or just want to tighten things up, these resources will walk you through each step:

• How to Export and Erase Personal Data in WordPress
• How to Add a Privacy Policy in WordPress (The Easy Way)
• The Ultimate Guide to WordPress Privacy Compliance
• How to Add a Cookies Popup in WordPress for GDPR/CCPA
• How to Create a Secure Contact Form in WordPress
• The Ultimate Guide to Using WordPress Forms (All You Need to Know)
• How to Set, Get, and Delete WordPress Cookies (Like a Pro)

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

The post How I Auto Delete WordPress Form Entries (& Stay GDPR-Compliant) first appeared on WPBeginner.

• Some tech leaders have found inspiration at Burning Man over the years.
• Burning Man has influenced business decisions for moguls like Sergey Brin and Jeffrey Katzenberg.
• Notable attendees include Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos.

For some tech leaders, Burning Man is better than a boardroom.

Over the years, the arts festival has become a stomping ground for tech moguls, celebrities, and models who want to spend a few days in the Black Rock Desert.

Burning Man attendees encourage some level of anonymity, with costumes and nicknames that give public figures the privacy to party among their fellow Burners. Over the years, it's attracted the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos.

But the execs and tech elite who attend go for more than the party. Several have credited Burning Man with inspiring key business decisions, including investments, philanthropy, and founding their companies.

OpenAI founder Sam Altman, who once criticized Burning Man, has attended multiple times. He said the event showed him what the world could look like after artificial general intelligence — AI that is capable of matching or surpassing human intelligence — is achieved.

"Where people are just focused on doing stuff for each other, caring for each other, and making incredible gifts to give each other," he said on an episode of the "Life in Seven Songs" podcast.

These are some of the business events that have happened during or after spending time on the Burning Man playa.

Jeffrey Katzenberg invested in a drone business after seeing it at Burning Man.

Jeffrey Katzenberg, cofounder of DreamWorks and venture capital firm WndrCo, went to the desert for Burning Man and found a new investment opportunity.

In 2022, Kimbal Musk, cofounder and CEO of Nova Sky Stories and the brother of Elon Musk, put on a drone show in Black Rock City. Katzenberg was among the crowd, and the "dazzling" display led him to want to know more about who was behind the art show.

"Suddenly, in this sky, is this literally mind-blowing exhibition," Katzenberg told CNBC.

The Google founders bonded with a CEO candidate.

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt may owe his job to his Burner status. Google cofounders Sergey Brin and Larry Page have been avid attendees over the years.

In 2018, Business Insider spoke to "Stealing Fire" author Steven Kotler — who wrote about Brin and Page at Burning Man — about how Schmidt landed the job. The pair had "blown through" around 50 candidates before finding out that Schmidt had been to the festival, Kotler said in his book.

"So they bumped him to the top of their list, they took him to Burning Man to see how he would do," he said.

Schmidt ended up serving as the CEO of Google from 2001 to 2011.

Elon Musk gave his cousin a business idea on the way to Black Rock City.

In 2004, Lyndon Rive was riding in an RV to Burning Man with his cousin, Musk, when the Tesla CEO gave him an idea for a solar panel company. It would eventually turn into SolarCity and be acquired by Tesla for $2.6 billion in 2016.

"You should look into solar," Musk told Rive, Slate reported in 2013. Two years later, SolarCity was founded.

A Facebook cofounder was influenced to be more philanthropic.

In 2013, Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskovitz published a Medium post that gave insight into what tech leaders get up to at Burning Man. In it, he covered his idea to start a philanthropic foundation with his wife.

"Burning Man is a direct contributor to Cari's and my decision to start Good Ventures," Moskovitz said in the post.

Moskovitz also wrote in the Medium post about Mark Zuckerberg serving grilled cheese sandwiches and about running into the Winklevoss twins, who famously sued Zuckerberg over Facebook.

"When I hear about anyone going for the first time, my immediate thought is 'that is so great for them' and when they are a person who has pooled power or capital around them, it is usually followed by 'that is so great for the world,'" he wrote.

• We defined the oldest town by the year it was settled and officially established.
• Some date back to the 1500s, while others weren't settled until the 1800s.
• Many towns were named after the Native American tribes who settled in the area first.

Some think of the United States as a young nation, but many of its towns have histories that stretch back centuries.

From Native American communities to early colonial settlers, many of the towns in today's maps have been occupied for hundreds of years. But America's history is complicated, and uncountable towns with rich histories fell out of the history books once they became inhabited.

To determine the oldest town in every state for this list, we defined it on the founding of a place by the year of its first permanent settlement, when people arrived and formally established a place.

The unfortunate reality is that many towns in the US were already home to Native American communities — dating back thousands of years — by the time they were "founded."

Members of Native American communities were expelled or wiped out by colonizing settlers who claimed the land as their own, and the history of colonial America often erases their stories. Photographers, historians, and advocates, including Matika Wilbur, are working to keep these stories alive.

With this context in mind, here's the oldest established town in every state.

ALABAMA: Mobile, est. 1702

A major port city, Mobile was founded by the French in 1702. While other sources credit Childersburg, Alabama, as the oldest continually occupied city dating back to 1540, it wasn't actually established until 1889.

ALASKA: Kodiak, est. 1792

Kodiak was founded in 1792 by Aleksandr Andreyevich Baranov, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. Baranov was a Russian trader and merchant, who became manager of the Russian-American Company.

ARIZONA: Tubac, est. 1752

Established as a Spanish military settlement in 1752, Tubac is the oldest European settlement in Arizona. The city's website notes that indigenous Hohokam and O'odham people had already inhabited the city prior to the arrival of the Spanish.

The state's oldest city, Tucson, was officially founded in 1775, though the City of Tucson's official website says it has been continuously settled for over 12,000 years.

ARKANSAS: Arkansas Post, est. 1686

Arkansas Post was technically the first city in Arkansas, having been established as a trading post by the French in 1686, according to the National Park Service. But it was mostly destroyed in the Civil War and has since become a state park.

Georgetown is the second oldest city, founded in 1789, but is still a functioning city today.

CALIFORNIA: San Diego, est. 1769

Explorer Sebastián Vizcaíno renamed San Diego (formerly San Miguel) in 1602, but Spanish explorers dedicated the first California mission, San Diego de Alcalá, in 1769, San Diego Magazine reported.

Santa Cruz was also dedicated in 1769.

COLORADO: San Luis, est. 1851

San Luis was established in 1851, by Hispano farmers, and named after a Catholic saint, according to the state's official website and The Tennessean.

CONNECTICUT: Windsor, est. 1633

Settlers from Plymouth Colony built the first trading house in Windsor in 1633 on an expanse of land they bought from Native Americans who were living there, per the state's history website.

DELAWARE: Lewes, est. 1631

The Dutch first settled in Lewes in 1631, according to its Chamber of Commerce. It calls itself "The first town in the first state," since Delaware was the first to ratify the Constitution.

FLORIDA: St. Augustine, est. 1565

According to many historians, St. Augustine is the oldest city in the US, having been established by the Spanish in 1565.

GEORGIA: Savannah, est. 1733

General James Oglethorpe and 120 passengers traveling on a ship named "Anne" docked along the Savannah River in 1733, and the city of Savannah was born. It became the British colonial capital of the Province of Georgia.

HAWAII: Hilo, est. 1822

Hilo's history dates back to 1100 AD. Christian missionaries arrived in 1822, and it became a center of whaling and trade.

IDAHO: Franklin, est. 1860

Franklin was founded in 1860 by a small group of Mormon settlers and was named for Apostle Franklin D. Richards.

ILLINOIS: Peoria, est. 1680

French settlers Robert Cavalier Sieur de LaSalle and Henri de Tonti built Fort Crevecoeur on the bank the Illinois River in 1680, according to the Peoria Historical Society. Soon, a village grew around it.

INDIANA: Vincennes, est. 1732

Vincennes was a French fur trading post when it was established in 1732 along the Wabash River, according to the city's official website.

IOWA: Dubuque, est. 1837

Dubuque was established in 1837 by Julien Dubuque, a French-Canadian fur trader. He worked with the local Mesquakie Indian tribe to manage lead mines in the area.

KANSAS: Leavenworth, est. 1827

Fort Leavenworth was established in 1827 and is still in use today, making it the third-oldest continuously active military base in the US. It was the largest city on the Missouri River during the Civil War, according to the city's official website.

KENTUCKY: Harrodsburg, est. 1774

Harrodsburg, which was originally called Harrodstown, was established by James Harrod in 1774.

LOUISIANA: Natchitoches, est. 1714

Natchitoches, founded in 1714 by French explorers, resembles New Orleans' French quarter, and is sometimes referred to as "little New Orleans," Fox8 reported.

MAINE: Kittery, est. 1647

English settlers first arrived in Kittery in 1623, and it was incorporated in 1647, per its official website.

MARYLAND: St. Mary's City, est. 1634

St. Mary's City was founded in 1634 by English Catholics who were escaping religious persecution. Many consider it the birthplace of religious freedom in the US, The Washington Post reported in 2008.

MASSACHUSETTS: Plymouth, est. 1620

Plymouth is referred to as "America's hometown" for its famed Plymouth Rock, where the Mayflower landed in 1620 (though Jamestown, Virginia, also begets the title as the oldest settlement).

MICHIGAN: Sault Ste. Marie, est. 1668

Sault Ste. Marie was founded by French missionaries and fur traders in 1668.

MINNESOTA: Wabasha, est. 1830

Wabasha was established in 1830, though it has been continuously occupied since 1826.

Some believe Stillwater, Minnesota, is the state's oldest town because it was incorporated in 1854, while Wabasha wasn't incorporated until 1858. But according to the year of first settlement, the Second Treaty of Prairie du Chien drafted in 1830 establishes that Wabasha preceded it.

MISSISSIPPI: Natchez, est. 1716

Natchez was founded in 1716, by French colonists. It was the state's most active slave trading city, per the state's history website.

MISSOURI: Ste. Genevieve, est. ~1735

The exact year that Ste. Genevieve was founded is unclear, but French-Canadian settlers could have established it as early as 1735, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.

MONTANA: Stevensville, est. 1841

Stevensville was officially founded in 1841, when Father Pierre Jean De Smet rolled in with three carts, building St. Mary's Mission, the Northwest's first church and school. The town is celebrated during Western Heritage Days as the oldest town in Montana.

NEBRASKA: Bellevue, est. 1822

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Bellevue is the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in Nebraska. It was first established as a trading post in 1822, and moved to its current location in 1835.

NEVADA: Genoa, est. 1851

Genoa is a tiny town — according to its website, just 250 people live there. It was settled in 1851, as a trading post by a group of Mormon traders from Salt Lake City.

NEW HAMPSHIRE: Dover, est. 1623

Dover's website states that it's the oldest continuous settlement in New Hampshire and the seventh oldest in the entire US. It was originally settled in 1623 by fishermen and traders.

NEW JERSEY: Jersey City, est. 1660

Jersey City was first settled by the Dutch in 1660, and it was officially incorporated as Jersey City in 1820.

NEW MEXICO: Santa Fe, est. 1607-1610

According to Santa Fe's official website, it's not only the oldest capital city in the US, but also the second oldest city in the whole country. Santa Fe, which means "holy faith" in Spanish, was founded between 1607 and 1610.

NEW YORK: Albany, est. 1624

The capital of New York is also its oldest city. Originally founded as Fort Orange by Dutch settlers in 1624, the city was officially chartered by the British government as Albany in 1686.

Even though Fort Orange wasn't founded until the 1620s, Henry Hudson (of Hudson River fame), arrived in the area in 1609 and found it populated with Iroquois Native Americans, according to Albany's website.

NORTH CAROLINA: Bath, est. 1705

Bath had its 300th anniversary in 2005, celebrating the town's founding in 1705. Bath was also North Carolina's first port, and was almost named the state's capital. However, after the town was passed up, it slowly shrank, and now has just 241 residents, per the most recent US Census data.

NORTH DAKOTA: Pembina, est. 1797

The city of Pembina's official motto is: "Oldest Settlement in the Dakota Territories." While it was inhabited before this, Pembina's website reports that its first official date in history was 1797, when the first trading post was established.

OHIO: Marietta, est. 1788

Marietta holds the distinction of being the first city in the Northwest Territory — its website says it was officially founded in 1788, after a ship called the Adventure Galley sailed up the Ohio River and landed there.

OKLAHOMA: Fort Gibson, est. 1824

The sign that welcomes visitors into Fort Gibson proclaims it "the Oldest Town in Oklahoma."

Fort Gibson was founded in 1824 as a result of the rising tensions between the Cherokee and Osage Nations — the US felt they had to move their outpost further out west.

OREGON: Astoria, est. 1811

Per the town's history, Astoria is the oldest American settlement west of the Rocky Mountains, due to its founding in 1811 by John Jacob Astor, the nation's first millionaire. Sixty five years later, in 1876, the town was officially incorporated by the Oregon Legislative Assembly.

PENNSYLVANIA: Chester, est. 1644

Chester, located south of Philadelphia, was founded in 1644 under the name "Upland" by Swiss settlers, according to the City of Chester website. In 1681, William Penn acquired the settlement and shortly renamed it Chester.

RHODE ISLAND: Providence, est. 1636

Providence was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a preacher fleeing Massachusetts due to religious persecution. He purchased land and created his own city with the promise of religious freedom.

SOUTH CAROLINA: Charleston, est. 1670

The city of Charleston was founded in 1670 by English colonists. Charleston's main historical claim to fame is that it's the site of the first official shot fired in the Civil War, at Fort Sumter.

SOUTH DAKOTA: Fort Pierre, est. 1743

Fort Pierre's website claims that it's the oldest continuously occupied white settlement in South Dakota. According to the National Park Service, it is home to a plate buried by French explorers named Verendrye in 1743, who were among the first white men to explore what would later become South Dakota.

TENNESSEE: Jonesborough, est. 1779

Jonesborough is known colloquially as "Tennessee's Oldest Town." It was founded in 1779 as a frontier town, 17 years before Tennessee was a state.

TEXAS: Nacogdoches, est. 1779

Nacogdoches was founded by Don Antonio Gil Y'Barbo in 1779. According to the city's website, nine flags have flown over the town: Spanish, French, Mexican, Lone Star, Confederate and US, as well as one from the Gutierrez-Magee Rebellion, one from the Dr. James Long Expedition, and one from the Fredonia Rebellion. The rest of Texas has "only" seen six flags.

UTAH: Ogden, est. 1851

Ogden is the oldest continuously settled community in Utah, and was originally called Fort Buenaventura. Mormon settlers bought the fort in 1847, and it was officially incorporated in 1851.

VERMONT: Westminster, est. 1734

The small town of Westminster was founded in 1734, according to the Westminster Historical Society, but there wasn't a permanent settlement until 1751.

VIRGINIA: Dumfries, est. 1749

Chartered as a town in 1749, Dumfries is the oldest chartered town in Virginia, according to the Town of Dumfries' website.

While Jamestown became the first permanent English settlement in North America in 1607, according to the National Park Service, most of the early settlers died from starvation, disease, and war with the Powhatan Indian tribe living there. Today, it's a historic site, but no longer a town. 

WASHINGTON: Steilacoom, est. 1854

Steilacoom's website states that it's the oldest incorporated town in Washington state — it officially became a town in 1854.

A boat captain from Maine, Captain Lafayette Balch, was reminded of home upon seeing the area on the Puget Sound and founded Steilacoom in January, 1851. He called it "Port Steilacoom."

However, a few months later John B. Chapman made claim to the west, naming his town "Steilacoom City." In 1854 the new territorial legislature incorporated "Steilacoom," combining the two rival towns into one, according to the town's history.

WEST VIRGINIA: Shepherdstown and Romney, est. 1762

It's a tie! WV Public Broadcasting reported these two cities were chartered on the same day: December 23, 1762. However, there's a debate as to which is actually older: Settlers are said to date back as far as 1710.

WISCONSIN: Green Bay, est. 1655

Green Bay is more than just a football team — it's been around since 1655, when it was first established as a fur-trading post. While various Native American tribes lived in the region, French explorer Jean Nicolet visited the area in 1634 and named it "La Baye Verte," or The Green Bay.

WYOMING: Cheyenne, est. 1867

Wyoming's capital city is its oldest city as well. The city of Cheyenne was founded in 1867 after years of being a railroad town (the Union Pacific Railroad passed through on its way west). Cheyenne grew so quickly that it was nicknamed "Magic City of the Plains."

• Storms at Burning Man, which began on Sunday, are damaging camps and vehicles.
• Severe winds and rain caused traffic disruptions and the closure of Black Rock City airport.
• While the worst of it was over by Monday morning, rain remains in the forecast for the rest of the week.

Getting a little dirty is expected when attending Burning Man, during which its organizers advise taking a shower with a friend or a sponge bath to save water.

But the images to come out of this year's festival, which officially kicked off on Sunday, show people caked in dust and mud as storms tore through the Playa, tearing apart camps and damaging the vehicles in the path of the scattered tarps and tent poles.

On Sunday and into Monday, traffic entering the gates of Black Rock City, the festival's makeshift locale, was halted. Burning Man's temporary airport paused operations on Sunday evening, when dozens of planes would typically land.

While the gates have reopened and the airport is expected to resume flights by midday, driving remains prohibited within Black Rock City.

Burners who were already on the Playa worked to recover from the destruction.

"It devastated a lot of camps. Ours included. Time to rebuild," one attendee posted to X following Sunday's wind, dust, and rain.

Going into this year's festival, Burners were predicting a "white out" dust storm given the forecast. On Saturday, wind gusts reached more than 50 mph, according to readings from a weather station at Black Rock City Airport. The winds wreaked havoc on tents and art installations and caused the gates to close for a two-hour period.

On Sunday, rain was added to the mix, leading to wet conditions that delayed entry to the festival.

In some clips, winds appear to whip around campsites, and dust makes it nearly impossible to see more than a few feet ahead. Festivalgoers are seen wearing face masks and goggles to stave off the debris in the air.

It's not the first time the festival has been affected by the weather. 2023's Burning Man made headlines after heavy rains flooded the Playa. Generators broke down, tents collapsed, water systems failed, and the roads were impenetrable. Still, people raved, got married, and, eventually, burned down the effigy that gives the festival its name.

This year's weather isn't predicted to be as extreme, though rain is in the forecast throughout the week. Burners will undoubtedly party on.

• Burning Man is a desert-based arts festival that's become the playground of business elites.
• The dayslong event requires attendees to arrive with their own living accommodations and food.
• It's become a tradition among models, influencers, and billionaire businessmen.

Tens of thousands of people are set to descend upon Black Rock City, Nevada, this coming week for the dusty desert festival Burning Man.

The event, which kicks off Sunday, has become a playground for billionaires, Hollywood A-listers, and Silicon Valley elite alike. While the dusty conditions expected this year could deter some festivalgoers — the event is not sold out — the makeshift airport is ready for private jets to land.

Each year, big-name tech bros and well-heeled execs join the festival, trading their hoodies for light-up bodysuits and Allbirds for sky-high boots.

The unwritten rules of the arts festival encourage anonymity and privacy. Nicknames and creative costumes — its theme this year is "Tomorrow Today" — often make it difficult for festivalgoers to tell if they've run into someone famous or just a fellow hippie.

Still, over the years, the attendance of high-profile figures at Burning Man has become apparent, with some members of the tech elite finding their time on the playa — Burner-speak for the dry lake bed where the festival takes place — so life-changing that they can't help but speak about it publicly.

While their experience may differ — they often fly in on private jets and spend their time in "fancy camps" with meals made by personal chefs who charge hundreds of thousands of dollars for their services — it's still possible you may spot one of these famous faces in the desert.

Here are some of the most famous execs who moonlight as Burners:

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been very public about loving Burning Man.

Not only has Musk made more than one pilgrimage to Black Rock City, he's also gone on the record touting the annual festival as an integral part of Silicon Valley culture. 

"If you haven't been, you just don't get it," Musk told Recode in 2014.

As recently as 2022, Musk was posting about Burning Man on Twitter.

Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's CEO, served sandwiches at the festival.

In 2012, at the urging of his friend and Facebook cofounder Dustin Moskowitz, Zuckerberg took a break from his busy schedule to fly to Burning Man for a day and make some grilled cheese sandwiches.

"Along with its other inhabitants, he helped pitch his own tent," Moskowitz, a regular Burning Man attendee, wrote in a 2013 Medium post. 

"I wanted him to experience the city and to experience gifting because I thought it would make him grow as a person and the world better off as a result; I believe that's exactly what happened, however marginally (he was already a pretty great person)," he added about Zuckerberg.

Sam Altman was converted to a Burner after attending the festival.

Sam Altman hasn't always been a fan of Burning Man. There was a time when he wanted nothing to do with whatever goes down in Black Rock City.

"That is a ridiculous, escapism, crazy party," Altman said about his previous views on Burning Man on the "Life in Seven Songs" podcast in 2024.

Then, he saw what all of the hype was about. Altman said on the podcast that he's been to Burning Man five or six times.

"All these lights. All this incredible art. People just biking around," Altman said on the podcast. "Everyone so happy, so engaged, so present that I was like, 'OK, I was wrong to be so negative on Burning Man.'"

He said the experience showed him what the world could look like when artificial general intelligence — AI that is capable of matching or surpassing human intelligence — is reached.

"This is one possible, like, part of what the post-AGI world can look like," Altman said on the podcast. "Where people are just focused on doing stuff for each other, caring for each other, and making incredible gifts to give each other."

Disgraced Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes had a seemingly spiritual experience at the festival in 2018.

Before Holmes began serving her nine-year prison sentence, the disgraced biotech entrepreneur attended Burning Man.

In 2018, after it was discovered that Holmes was defrauding investors and she was indicted by a grand jury, the former Theranos CEO and her partner, Billy Evans, decided to take a trip to Burning Man.

While there, they reportedly torched an effigy for the failed — and fraudulent — blood-testing business before embarking on a six-month RV trip traveling the country. 

Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, was attending Burning Man while other members of the Silicon Valley royalty were still teenagers.

As early as 1999, Bezos was attending Burning Man, Forbes reported at the time. That's long before the event became the go-to party for younger CEOs.

Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page are two other longtime Burners.

Brin and Page have reportedly attended the event repeatedly over the years. In fact, in 1998, the very first Google Doodle was inspired by Burning Man.

Former executive chairman of Google's Alphabet, Eric Schmidt, bonded with the Google founders at the festival.

In fact, Brin and Page's obsession with the festival led them to choose Eric Schmidt as Google's CEO in 2001.

"Eric was . . . the only one who went to Burning Man," Brin reportedly said in a 2002 interview. "We thought [that] was an important criterion."

Dustin Moskovitz included his Asana cofounder Justin Rosenstein in a list of prominent attendees in 2013.

One of the biggest sources of information about which tech executives go to Burning Man is Moskovitz, who cofounded Facebook.

His heartfelt 2013 Medium post listed peers who had been to the big event. 

His piece — no doubt controversial within the Burning Man community — argued that billionaires have a right to attend the festival, which he said was eye-opening to many of his friends. Those who denied their right to attend were promoting a culture of exclusivity, he argued.

Among the tech execs Moskovitz listed as festival attendees were Rosenstein, Zuckerberg, and the Winklevoss twins, who famously sued Zuckerberg over the origins of the social network.

Garrett Camp, cofounder of Uber, was on his 11th trip to Burning Man in 2013.

Camp is a regular Burner, according to anthropologist Francis Jervis. When the two met at the festival in 2013, Jervis said it was Camp's 11th time attending.

"His first experience of the radical otherness of the Playa was in the time of the Hillbilly Freak Show, not the luxurious turnkey camps with which Silicon Valley is associated today," Jervis wrote.

 

Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian was a Burner before he was Serena Williams' husband.

Ohanian is now probably best known as the partner of tennis star Williams. But not too long ago, he was just another tech mogul wandering the desert in hopes of finding himself.

He reportedly attended Burning Man in 2014.

 

Drew Houston, cofounder and CEO of Dropbox, went to the festival in 2014.

Houston reportedly attended Burning Man in 2014.

Ray Dalio, billionaire investor, attended the festival in 2019.

The 76-year-old billionaire hedge fund manager made an appearance at Burning Man in 2019, wearing a tie-dye coat and psychedelic bell bottoms.

He seems to have had mixed feelings about his experience. He said the festival was like Woodstock, with "better art" and "less good music."

—Ray Dalio (@RayDalio) September 2, 2019

Josh Kushner, founder of venture capital firm Thrive Capital, has gone to Burning Man with his model wife, Karlie Kloss.

The billionaire founder of venture capital firm Thrive Capital and younger brother of Jared Kushner was seen at Burning Man in 2022 with his wife, Karlie Kloss.

He appeared on the model's Instagram, holding hands with her in front of a giant fork sculpture commissioned by Musk.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Karlie Kloss (@karliekloss)

 

Airbnb cofounder Brian Chesky attended his first Burning Man in 2013.

Billionaire Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky first went to Burning Man in 2013 on an invitation from board member Chip Conley. 

"Burning Man is what life would be like if artists ruled the world," he reportedly said after attending.

Honorable mention: the actors, musicians, and other celebrities who love to burn.

Billionaires and CEOs aren't the only recognizable faces who have popped up at Burning Man in the past. The event has also hosted a number of fashion models, influencers, and heirs to business empires.

DJ Diplo and comedian Chris Rock were among the Burners who were stranded in the mud during heavy rains in 2023. Diplo documented their trek on social media before the pair used their star power to hitch a ride with a fan out of flooded conditions.

In previous years, the festival has been seen in a more glamorous light through the Instagram outfit pictures from Katy Perry, Paris Hilton, and Heidi Klum.

Becky Peterson and Kylie Kirschner contributed to earlier versions of this story.

The air in our homes can be five times more polluted than outdoor air. Energy-efficient homes are designed to be tightly sealed, too, so they trap more pollutants inside. Cooking emissions, cleaning chemicals and fragrances all contribute to less-than-healthy air. Pets, smoke and off-gassing furniture do their part as well. If the air quality outside is good, the best thing to do is open up your windows for at least 15 minutes a day. But if wildfires, car pollution, or high pollen counts prevent you from letting in fresh air, an air purifier may be your best bet. These machines can reduce pollutants, remove odors and trap some bacteria and mold. We tested over a dozen to see how they perform and how nice they were to live with. Here are the best air purifiers we could find.

Table of contents

• Best air purifiers for 2025

• What an air purifier can and can’t do

• What to look for in an air purifier

• Other air purifiers we tested

• How we test air purifiers

• Air purifier FAQs

Best air purifiers for 2025

What an air purifier can and can’t do

There are three key categories of air pollution that adversely affect the quality of the air you breathe: volatile organic compounds (VOC), particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10) and carbon dioxide. VOCs are emitted gasses that can come from cleaners, off-gassing plastics, paint, solvents, fragrances, cooking food and, ironically, air fresheners. VOCs are most closely related to odors you can smell. High levels can irritate your breathing passages, cause headaches and may become cancer-causing over time. Air purifiers with activated charcoal components can help clean VOCs from the air.

Particulate matter is usually discussed as PM2.5 and PM10, with the numbers indicating particle size in microns. This is dust, dirt, mold, smoke and, again, emissions from cooking food. Higher levels of PM can lead to respiratory irritation, allergy symptoms, respiratory infections and potentially lung cancer. Air purifiers that include a HEPA or particle filter can help remove airborne particles from your space.

Carbon dioxide is what humans and pets breathe out. Elevated levels can cause dizziness and lethargy. But no air purifier can reduce CO2 levels because the molecules are so small. Plants can help to some extent, but really the only solution is opening a window or otherwise ventilating the space.

There are no federal standards for air purifiers, but the state of California does require all air cleaners sold in the state to be certified by the California Air Resources Board (CARB). All of our top picks here have met that certification.

What to look for in an air purifier

HEPA filters and other filter types

An air purifier isn’t an overly complicated device. Smart modes and app connectivity aside, they’re not much more than a filter and a fan, which you can certainly DIY. The fan pulls air through the filter to capture particulate matter and other unhealthy elements so you don’t breathe them in. The type of fan can make some difference — it should be powerful enough to pull in air quickly, but also quiet enough on its low speed so it can unobtrusively clean all day long.

Filters, on the other hand, are more varied. Most have two or more layers, typically a pre-filter, an activated carbon filter and sometimes a particle or even a true HEPA filter. The pre-filter is made from a fine mesh that captures big stuff like pet hair and larger chunks of dust. Sometimes this part is separate from the more technical filters — which means you can remove and clean it without needing to swap out the whole thing. For all-in-one filters, you can vacuum the outside of it to remove larger particles.

An activated carbon or activated charcoal layer is extremely porous, tightly packed coal that presents a vast amount of microscopic surface area to the passing air. Gaseous chemicals, VOCs and other molecules become lodged in the crannys and stick. This is the layer that gets rid of odors.

Nearly all types of air purifiers include a particle filter. Some of those can be called "true HEPA" (high-efficiency particulate air) filters — meaning they conform to the standards set out by the DOE. Particle filters are made up of pleated masses of ultrafine fibers that force air to take a convoluted path in order to pass through. This traps and absorbs tiny molecules of smoke and dust, allergens like dander and pollen, and some viruses and bacteria.

Since all of these air filters physically trap particulates, they’ll eventually fill up and become less effective. Most manufacturers recommend replacing the filter every six months, while others claim a year-long life span. Most smart air purifiers will let you know in the app when it’s time to replace. When you’re considering a unit’s cost, be sure to factor in the expense of replacement filters, which you may end up buying twice a year.

Room size

Air purifiers list their air filtration capabilities in terms of room size and frequency of air exchanges, sometimes listed as clean air delivery rate (CADR) or you may see a number for cubic feet per minute (CFM). A smaller unit might say it can exchange the air in a 500-square-foot room twice per hour. So that model should be able to pass all of the air in a 250-square-foot room through the filter every 15 minutes, but a 1,000-square-foot room would probably be outside its effective range. Of course, there’s no standard for manufacturers to adhere to when it comes to these calculations, but typically, larger air purifiers can handle large rooms.

Controls

In our testing, we focused on Wi-Fi-connected “smart” air purifiers with companion apps that can monitor air quality and adjust the fan settings as needed. Within the apps, you can control auto-clean settings, set timers and schedules and check the health of the filter as well. Most will remind you when it’s time to get a replacement, and let you order one directly from the manufacturer through the app. You can also see the current and historical readings from the internal air quality (AQ) sensor. Most determine air quality through an optical particle meter, though some brands like Dyson and Molekule also include chemical sensors for VOC measurements. When levels of particulates become elevated, the fans switch up to high speed to move more air through until the quality improves.

Most smart purifiers also work with voice assistants, so if asking Alexa to turn on your air purifier makes your life easier in some way, you can do so. If you don’t want to talk to an AI or grab your phone to control your purifier, getting a unit with simple on-board controls is a good idea. These can be as basic as buttons with indicator lights or as elaborate as a touchscreen panel. At minimum, it’s good to have a way to control the fan speed and turn on or off auto mode on the device itself.

Design

As we mentioned, sticking the device as close to the middle of the room is helpful for getting the best performance. That means you’ll be looking at it a lot, so design considerations matter. Most purifiers are cylindrical towers with fan vents up top. Units meant for larger rooms are not small, weighing between 12 and 20 pounds and reaching two feet tall (or in the case of the Dyson Purifier Cool, three and a half feet). Some, like Coway’s Airmega IconS, take on more furniture-like designs to blend in. Others, like Dyson's, are conspicuously designed to stand out.

How to set up an air purifier

Even the best air purifier can’t do much without airflow. So ideally, you won’t shove your air purifier off in a corner right next to a wall. Most manufacturers recommend at least a foot of clearance between the machine and anything that could block circulation — walls, couches, cabinets and the like. Most cylindrical models have intake vents all around the outside, but box models may have them on just one side, so make sure you point the vents outwards towards the center of the room. Smaller air purifiers work better if they’re up off the ground by a couple feet, such as on top of a stool or end table. And of course, make sure the cord isn’t stretching across trafficked areas to avoid tripping.

Before you plug your air purifier in, make sure to check that the filter isn’t wrapped in plastic inside the machine. I probably don’t need to tell you how I know this is a very important first step. The purifiers we recommend are smart home models, so the next step will usually involve downloading the manufacturer’s app to your phone and connecting the air purifier to the app as well as your home’s Wi-Fi.

Additional steps for clearing the air

Air purifiers, as the name suggests, clean the air. Once dust, dander and smoke settle onto surfaces, there isn’t much these machines can do to eradicate them. So vacuuming and good old-fashioned dusting are important steps to keep allergens and particulate matter at bay. If you have an HVAC system, changing or even upgrading your system’s air filters can help keep bad air in check. The American Lung Association recommends filters with at least a MERV-13 rating. The association also recommends not burning candles in your home, foregoing air fresheners and opting for homemade cleaning supplies over chemical cleaners.

When an air purifier just isn’t enough

The most striking bit of knowledge I picked up from testing air purifiers is how effective opening windows can be on indoor air quality. What took an air purifier a half hour to clear out took mere minutes when I opened my front door and a few windows. Every variable measured by the air quality sensors, including VOCs, PM, and particularly CO2 levels (which air purifiers can’t alleviate), improved dramatically after exposure to fresh air — significantly faster and better than any machine we tested. 

Letting in fresh air for just fifteen minutes each day can help, according to the Lung Association. On very cold days, do it midday. When it’s hot, open windows in the early morning when it’s coolest. When I did it in the middle of winter, my HVAC system had to work a little overtime afterwards, but venting a room was the most surefire way of getting air quality quickly back in the green. 

Of course, if the air outside is unhealthy from wildfire smoke or run-of-the-mill pollution, or if you're dealing with seasonal allergies, throwing open the windows won’t work and an air purifier might be the best way to consistently clean things up.

How we test air purifiers

My living room is not a science lab; there’s far too much pet hair for that to be the case. Still, I went beyond just turning stuff on and sniffing the air by acquiring two consumer-grade indoor air quality monitors that performed well in laboratory assessments, the Element from Awair and the uHoo Smart Air Monitor. I conducted burn tests in this medium-sized room by measuring the ambient air quality, then burned a brick of piñon incense for twenty minutes and measured the air again. Then I ran one purifier at its highest speed for thirty minutes and recorded levels, then ran the unit on the lowest setting for a half hour and remeasured. I made note of the sound levels using a simple iPhone app to compare one machine’s noise level to the next.

Over the course of a month, I used each unit in different scenarios (such as in the basements where the cat litter box is) and tried out each device’s smart features, controls and auto modes. I also just lived with them and evaluated how they fit into everyday life. As new purifiers come on the market we continue to acquire units that seem worthy of inclusion. Most recently, we tested purifiers from Blueair, IQAir, Windmill and others, adding our findings to this guide.

Other air purifiers we tested

IQAir HealthPro Plus SE

The IQAir HealthPro Plus SE is a formidable piece of equipment. The boxy tower looks like something you’d see in a hospital and weighs 35 pounds, making me appreciate the included wheels when I needed to move it around. It’s designed and made in Sweden and each unit comes with an impressive certificate of performance. I’m certain the testing processes IQAir employs are more scientific than my tests — after all, the company is probably best known for its air quality monitors — but I found the filtration efficiency to be on par with and, in one test, worse than that of other models I tested.

I was also disappointed that a $1,000-plus air purifier from an air monitor device company was only capable of measuring particulate matter — and not VOCs — to trigger the auto-clean function. That said, setup was simple and the app can integrate data from public air quality sources as well as other AQ monitors you may have set up.

Coway’s Airmega Icon S

Coway’s Airmega Icon S was our previous pick for best design. It looks more like a tiny mid-century-modern credenza than an air purifier and the little shelf up top doubles as a wireless phone charger. The PM2.5 sensor reliably kicked in the auto mode as I used it and the three-speed fan is quiet, even on high, yet powerful. I had a little trouble getting the app to connect, but the onboard touch controls worked better anyway. It’s expensive at $699, too, but it does have a washable pre-filter.

Sensibo Pure

At $229, and nearly always on sale for $130, I had the Sensibo Pure pegged as a contender for a budget pick. Unfortunately, replacement filters are $99 unless you subscribe to automatic shipments and many of the app features are behind a paywall as well. It’s not certified by CARB and underperformed many of the other units in the burn test, though it did return the air back to a “good” rating according to the air monitors after 30 minutes. The design is inoffensive, it’s not overly loud and it does integrate with Sensibo’s smart AC devices, so if you’re already happy with one of those, this may be a decent option.

Dyson Purifier Cool

Like all Dyson products, this air purifier is dripping with design. It looks like no other unit on the market and it’s up to you to decide whether you like that or not. I was indifferent to the looks, but appreciated the slick and informative app, which not only displays indoor air quality, it also shows what conditions are like outside, using a clever house graphic to differentiate the two sets of numbers. I also like that it detects VOCs as well as particulates and the auto mode seemed to read the room accurately. The air coming out of the fan did indeed feel cool, though at first had a strong plastic odor. Unfortunately, it was the lowest performing unit during two separate burn tests and had repeated connectivity issues.

Molekule Air Pro

The Molekule Air Pro comes from a brand that pays keen attention to aesthetics. It and the app have that Instagrammable, muted-modern look that countless clothing and bedsheet brands emulate these days. That style doesn’t come cheap as the Air Pro costs over $1,000 and requires $140 filters. The company came under fire for and had to stop making many of its claims about its filtration system, which may have led to it filing for bankruptcy in 2023. Molekule is still able to tout its patented photoelectrochemical oxidation, which the company says destroys pollutants at a “molecular level.” In my tests, it performed almost as well as the others in improving VOC and PM2.5 levels. But it’s also very loud: When auto mode kicked the fan into high gear, it would make me tense. Also, I found the unit often indicated “bad” or “very bad” levels when my two monitors indicated the air quality was actually pretty good.

Air purifier FAQs

What settings should you run an air purifier on?

There aren’t many settings to adjust on an air purifier. Most have low, medium and high fan speeds and possibly an auto-mode that detects impurities in the air and increases the fan speed on your behalf. Air circulates through a purifier faster at higher fan-speed settings so it cleans the air more efficiently. Higher speeds also make the air purifier louder. That means you typically want to find the balance between cleaning power and noise levels.

Other settings like timers and dimming the LED lights make the unit more comfortable to live with, particularly if you use yours in your bedroom. For everyday cleaning of the air, you’re probably best off leaving the air purifier running on low, only kicking it up to high at certain times when the air is murkier, like after you cook.

What is a HEPA filter?

A HEPA filter is a type of particle filter. Every air purifier has a particle filter, but not all are considered “true HEPA” filters. The specifications are determined by the US Department of Energy and require a minimum efficiency of 99.97 percent when filtering airborne particles of 0.3 microns. HEPA filters can remove dust, pollen, mold and bacteria.

Check out more from our spring cleaning guide.

Portable Bluetooth speakers are an easy way to bring your music anywhere without worrying about cables or power outlets. Whether you want something compact for relaxing at home, a tough waterproof model for the beach or a party speaker that fills the room, there’s an option for every need. The best portable speakers give you solid battery life, simple pairing and reliable sound no matter where you are.

Some models focus on balanced audio for the casual listener while others aim for the best sound possible to please an audiophile. You can find speakers with extra bass for outdoor gatherings, built-in lights for an added vibe or rugged designs that can handle rough conditions.

With so many choices available, it helps to know what features matter most for your listening style. Here’s a look at some of the top picks worth considering right now.

Table of contents

• Best portable Bluetooth speakers: $50 to $200

• Best portable Bluetooth speakers: $200 to $450

• Best portable Bluetooth speakers: $450 and higher

• Factors to consider in a portable Bluetooth speaker

• Other portable Bluetooth speakers we tested

• Bluetooth speaker FAQs

Best portable Bluetooth speakers: $50 to $200

Best portable Bluetooth speakers: $200 to $450

Best portable Bluetooth speakers: $450 and higher

Factors to consider in a portable Bluetooth speaker

Weather-proofing

IP ratings (Ingress Protection) are the alphanumeric indicators you often see in a product’s spec sheet that define water and dust resistance. It’s usually a combo of two numbers with the first indicating solid object ingress and the second being water. The former goes from 0 (no protection) to 6 (dustproof). The water-resistance rating goes from 0 (no protection) to 9 (protected against immersion and high pressure jets). When an X is used instead of a number, that means the product wasn’t tested for resistance. If it’s a waterproof speaker, it may have some innate resistance to solids, but there’s no guarantee.

IP67 is a common rating these days indicating highly resistant and potentially rugged speakers often featured in audio products like outdoor speakers. These are safe for quick dunks in the pool or tub and should be more than OK in the rain or in the shower. They’re also good options for the beach, playground and other rough environs.

Additionally, speakers with ports and a high rating will often include a tight-fitting cover over the charging or auxiliary ports. If you plan on using the ports, that may limit the product's rated ability to fend off the elements.

When looking for the best portable Bluetooth speaker, consider the IP rating and also how you plan to use your Bluetooth speaker when making your decision. It may be worth splurging on a better sounding model with a lower IP rating if you’ll mostly be using it indoors, for instance.

Battery life

The focus of this guide is on the best portable speakers, and while “portable” can be a relative term, these devices are generally for people who are likely to find themselves far from a power outlet. These days, around 12 hours of playtime seems to be the baseline but obviously, the more battery life you can get out of a speaker, the better, especially if you plan to listen to podcasts or music on the go.

That said, be careful when looking at battery specs, as they frequently list a maximum runtime (“up to” x amount of hours). This usually means they tested at a low to mid volume. If you like your tunes loud with punchy bass, it can often end up cutting the expected usage time in half or more. Luckily, some manufacturers also list the expected hours of battery life when used at full volume and that transparency is appreciated. Bear in mind, however, that not all of the best Bluetooth speakers use the same charging port. Some support USB-C charging, while others use micro-USB, and some may even come with an adapter for added convenience.

Additionally, if your audio system or mini Bluetooth speaker also happens to have Wi-Fi connectivity, they're usually designed for always-on functionality. Unlike normal Bluetooth speakers that go to sleep after a short period without use, these will usually stay awake (to listen for your commands) and slowly run down the battery. If you're out and about, you'll want to remember to turn these speakers off manually when not in use to maximize battery life.

Range

Bluetooth 5 offers better range and more reliable connectivity than its predecessors, making it a great feature to look for in the best Bluetooth speaker. That said, Bluetooth range can still be tricky. Some companies list their product’s longest possible range, usually outdoors and in an unobstructed line-of-sight test environment. Other companies stick with a 30-foot range on the spec sheet and leave it at that, even though they may be running Bluetooth 4.x or 5.x. That’s likely underselling the speaker's potential, but unpredictable environments can affect range and there’s little point in promising the moon only to get complaints.

I’ve seen signal drop issues when crouching down, with my phone in the front pocket of my jeans, and barely 30 feet away from a speaker inside my apartment. I ran into this issue across several devices regardless of their listed Bluetooth connectivity range.

If you’re hosting a patio party and duck inside, it’s wise to keep any wireless Bluetooth speakers relatively close by just in case. It’s hard to gauge what aspects of any environment may interfere with a Bluetooth signal. In general, take range specs around 100 feet or more as a perfect-world scenario.

Latency

This is a minor mention for those out there who use a speaker for their computer output, or as a mini Bluetooth soundbar solution for setups like a monitor and streaming box. It’s annoying to find that your speaker’s latency isn’t low enough to avoid lip sync issues. Luckily, it seems that most speakers these days don’t often have these problems. Only a handful of the few dozen speakers I tried had persistent, noticeable lip-sync issues. Aside from occasional blips, all of our picks worked well in this regard.

If you plan to frequently use a speaker for video playback, look for devices with the most recent Bluetooth 5 technology and lower latency codecs like aptX. Also make sure the speaker is close to the source device as distance can be a factor. To avoid the issue altogether, though, consider getting one with a wired auxiliary input.

Extra features

Some speakers don’t just play music — they bring the party to life with built-in LED light effects and a full-on light show that syncs to your music. If you love a bit of visual flair with your tunes, it’s worth checking out models that offer LED light customization options.

Sound quality also plays a huge role in picking the right speaker. The best Bluetooth speaker should deliver a balanced mix of punchy bass, clear highs and strong vocals. Many models also include customizable sound modes that let you tweak the EQ to better suit different genres — whether you’re blasting EDM, listening to a podcast, or just want a more immersive experience that would impress even an audiophile.

If aesthetics matter, many models come in a tiny size that makes them extra portable, with plenty of color options to match your personal style. Whether you want a sleek black speaker or a vibrant eye-catching design, there are plenty of choices to fit your vibe.

Other portable Bluetooth speakers we tested

Sonos Roam

While there's a lot to like about the Sonos Roam, there are plenty of other Bluetooth speakers with more features and better battery life. In our review, we gave the Roam a score of 87, praising it for its good sound quality, durable waterproof design and ability to work well within an existing Sonos speaker ecosystem. But the price is just fine at $180, and we found Bluetooth speakers that offer more at lower price points. Plus, the Roam taps out at 10 hours of battery life, and all of our top picks can run for longer than that on a single charge.

Monoprice Soundstage3

The Monoprice Soundstage3 offers relatively big sound at a midrange $250 price, with a variety of inputs rarely found on a portable Bluetooth speaker. The boxy, minimalist design is no nonsense, even if it's more of a less-rugged, bookshelf-styled homebody. While the speaker puts out crisp highs alongside booming lows, we found the bass can overpower the rest of the output, so it's not for everyone. And after using the speaker for many months, we also found the low-slung, poorly labeled button panel along the top can be a bit annoying to use. If you want a speaker for road trips, favor mids and highs, and plan on using physical buttons for volume control and input selections, there are better options out there.

JBL Boombox 3

Fans of JBL’s bluetooth speaker sound profile who want to crank up the volume, but also want a rugged and portable option, may enjoy the JBL Boombox 3. It’s a decent grab-and-go speaker with a very loud output, although it's not as good as some of the loud-speaker styled options for long-throw sound and big outdoor areas. However, the price for this speaker line remains prohibitively expensive compared to other options with big sound that cover a bit more ground. If the JBL brand is your thing and you like the rugged, portable form factor, we recommend looking for discounts, or shopping around and exploring the available options including the (less portable) JBL PartyBox series.

Soundcore Motion X500

Soundcore speakers have generally been good and often reasonably priced. The Motion X500 loosely falls into that category. It has a tall, metallic lunchbox vibe with a fixed handle and pumps out a respectable 40 watts of crisp, clear sound for its size. It can get pretty loud and serves up a good dose of bass, although its primarily a front-facing speaker.

There’s LDAC hi-res audio support for Android users, but the main selling point on this is spatial audio. This is done through an EQ change and the activation of a small, up-firing driver. There’s a slight benefit from this if you’re up close and directly in front of it, but it’s not a total game changer for your listening experience. The original pre-order price of $130 made it a decent option in terms of bang for your buck. But it went up to $170 at launch, making it less appealing even if it’s still a good middle-of-the-road option if you want small-ish, clear and loud. If you can find one on sale for the lower price, it’s definitely worth considering. There’s also the larger and louder X600 ($200) if the overall concept is working for you.

Portable Bluetooth speaker FAQs

How does a Bluetooth speaker work?

Bluetooth technology lets devices connect and exchange data over short distances using ultra high frequency (UHF) radio waves. It’s the frequency range that’s carved out for industrial, scientific and medical purposes, called the 2.4GHz ISM spectrum band. This range is available worldwide, making it easy for companies to use with devices for global markets.

Bluetooth speakers include this tech, which lets them communicate with source devices like smartphones, tablets or computers in order to exchange data. The two devices pair by sharing a unique code and will work within the proscribed range for the device and Bluetooth version. 

Ever since Bluetooth 4.0 was released over a decade ago, new iterations usually improve on range, use less power and offer expanded connectivity with features like multipoint (allowing more than one device to be connected at the same time, for instance).

Who should buy a Portable Bluetooth speaker?

If you want to play music while you’re out-and-about on something other than headphones, a portable Bluetooth speaker is probably what you want. There’s a broad range of devices for all types of circumstances. Many adventurous people will want a relatively lightweight portable that’s rugged enough to handle the elements while also packing enough charge to play for hours on end. Others may simply need a speaker they can move around the house or use in the backyard. In this case, you can choose larger less rugged models that may offer better sound. 

I've long dreamed of doing all my gaming on PC - a single platform that's easily upgradeable and lets me play my overstuffed Steam library wherever and however I like. The Steam Deck is a fantastic handheld, but for my living room, I want something more powerful that works as well on my TV as it does at a desk. Believe me, I've tried. Gaming laptops are noisy and awkward, desktops are too chunky, and Windows is annoying to navigate without a keyboard and mouse. I had hoped that Valve's Steam Machine experiment was my ticket, but it crashed and burned long ago. Nothing's ever been as easy as a PlayStation 5.

But I'm newly optimistic. I've sp …

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Key Points

• The Ten Titans have contributed more than half of S&P 500 gains in the last decade.

• Avoiding stocks just because they have run-up is a mistake.

• The S&P 500 should be viewed more as a growth index than a balanced index.

• 10 stocks we like better than Vanguard S&P 500 ETF ›

The largest growth-focused U.S. companies by market cap are Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG)(NASDAQ: GOOGL), Meta Platforms (NASDAQ: META), Broadcom (NASDAQ: AVGO), Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA), Oracle (NYSE: ORCL), and Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX).

Known as the "Ten Titans," this elite group of companies has been instrumental in driving broader market gains in recent years, now making up around 38% of the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC).

Where to invest $1,000 right now? Our analyst team just revealed what they believe are the 10 best stocks to buy right now. Continue »

Investment management firm Vanguard has the largest (by net assets) and lowest cost exchange-traded fund (ETF) for mirroring the performance of the index -- the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSEMKT: VOO). Here's why the fund is one of the simplest ways to get significant exposure to the Ten Titans.

Image source: Getty Images.

Ten Titan dominance

Over the long term, the S&P 500 has historically delivered annualized results of 9% to 10%. It has been a simple way to compound wealth over time, especially as fees have come down for S&P 500 products. The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF sports an expense ratio of just 0.03% -- or $3 for every $10,000 invested -- making it an ultra-inexpensive way to get exposure to 500 of the top U.S. companies.

The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF could be a great choice for folks who aren't looking to research companies or closely follow the market. But it's a mistake to assume that the S&P 500 is well diversified just because it holds hundreds of names. Right now, the S&P 500 is arguably the least diversified it has been since the turn of the millennium.

Megacap growth companies have gotten even bigger while the rest of the market hasn't done nearly as well. Today, the combined market cap of the Ten Titans is $20.2 trillion. Ten years ago, it was just $2.5 trillion. Nvidia alone went from a blip on the S&P 500's radar at $12.4 billion to over $4 trillion in market cap. And not a single Titan was worth over $1 trillion a decade ago. Today, eight of them are.

S&P 500 Market Cap data by YCharts.

To put that monster gain into perspective, the S&P 500's market cap was $18.2 trillion a decade ago. Meaning the Ten Titans have contributed a staggering 51.6% of the $34.3 trillion market cap the S&P 500 has added over the last decade. Without the Ten Titans, the S&P 500's gains over the last decade would have looked mediocre at best. With the Ten Titans, the last decade has been exceptional for S&P 500 investors.

The Ten Titans have cemented their footprint on the S&P 500

Since the S&P 500 is so concentrated in the Ten Titans, it has transformed into a growth-focused index, making it an excellent way to double up on the Ten Titans. But the S&P 500 may not be as good a fit for certain investors.

Arguably, the best reason not to buy the S&P 500 is if you're looking to avoid the Ten Titans, either because you already have comfortable positions in these names or you don't want to take on the potential risk and volatility inherent in a top-heavy index.

That being said, the S&P 500 has been concentrated before, and its leadership can change, as it did over the last decade. The underperformance by former market leaders, like Intel, has been more than made up for by the rise of Nvidia and Broadcom.

So it's not that the Ten Titans have to do well for the S&P 500 to thrive. But if the Titans begin underperforming, their sheer influence on the S&P 500 would require significantly outsized gains from the rest of the index.

Let the S&P 500 work for you

With the S&P 500 yielding just 1.2%, sporting a premium valuation and being heavily dependent on growth stocks, the index isn't the best fit for folks looking to limit their exposure to megacap growth stocks or center their portfolio around dividend-paying value stocks.

The beauty of being an individual investor is that you can shape your portfolio in a way that suits your risk tolerance and investment objectives. For example, you use the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF as a way to get exposure to top growth stocks like the Ten Titans and then complement that position with holdings in dividend stocks or higher-yield ETFs.

In sum, the dominance of the Ten Titans means it's time to start calling the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF what it has become, which is really more of a growth fund than a balanced way to invest in growth, value, and dividend stocks.

Investors with a high risk tolerance and long-term time horizon may cheer the concentrated nature of the index. In contrast, risk-averse investors may want to reorient their portfolios so they aren't accidentally overexposing themselves to more growth than intended.

Should you invest $1,000 in Vanguard S&P 500 ETF right now?

Before you buy stock in Vanguard S&P 500 ETF, consider this:

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Daniel Foelber has positions in Nvidia. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Intel, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, Netflix, Nvidia, Oracle, Tesla, and Vanguard S&P 500 ETF. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom and recommends the following options: long January 2026 $395 calls on Microsoft, short August 2025 $24 calls on Intel, and short January 2026 $405 calls on Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

STARBASE, Texas—A beehive of aerospace technicians, construction workers, and spaceflight fans descended on South Texas this weekend in advance of the next test flight of SpaceX's gigantic Starship rocket, the largest vehicle of its kind ever built.

Towering 404 feet (123.1 meters) tall, the rocket will lift off during a one-hour launch window beginning at 6:30 pm CDT (7:30 pm EDT; 23:30 UTC) Sunday. The main concern for Sunday's launch attempt will be weather conditions at Starbase, located a few miles north of the US-Mexico border. There's just a 45 percent chance of favorable weather for liftoff Sunday, according to SpaceX.

It will take about 66 minutes for the rocket to travel from the launch pad in Texas to a splashdown zone in the Indian Ocean northwest of Australia. You can watch the test flight live on SpaceX's official website. We've also embedded a live stream from Spaceflight Now and LabPadre below.

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When Donald Trump recently claimed, during what was supposed to be a press conference about a European Union trade deal, that wind turbines were a "con job" that drive whales "loco," kill birds and even people, he wasn’t just repeating old myths. He was tapping into a global pattern of conspiracy theories around renewable energy—particularly wind farms. (Trump calls them “windmills”—a climate denier trope.)

Like 19th century fears that telephones would spread diseases, wind farm conspiracy theories reflect deeper anxieties about change. They combine distrust of government, nostalgia for the fossil fuel era, and a resistance to confronting the complexities of the modern world.

And research shows that, once these fears are embedded in someone’s worldview, no amount of fact-checking is likely to shift them.

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Most experimental brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) that have been used for synthesizing human speech have been implanted in the areas of the brain that translate the intention to speak into the muscle actions that produce it. A patient has to physically attempt to speak to make these implants work, which is tiresome for severely paralyzed people.

To go around it, researchers at the Stanford University built a BCI that could decode inner speech—the kind we engage in silent reading and use for all our internal monologues. The problem is that those inner monologues often involve stuff we don’t want others to hear. To keep their BCI from spilling the patients’ most private thoughts, the researchers designed a first-of-its-kind “mental privacy” safeguard.

Overlapping signals

The reason nearly all neural prostheses used for speech are designed to decode attempted speech is that our first idea was to try the same thing we did with controlling artificial limbs: record from the area of the brain responsible for controlling muscles. “Attempted movements produced very strong signal, and we thought it could also be used for speech,” says Benyamin Meschede Abramovich Krasa, a neuroscientist at Stanford University who, along with Erin M. Kunz, was a co-lead author of the study.

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Four men in Georgia, all living in the same county, mysteriously became infected with a potentially deadly soil bacterium that's normally found in the tropics and subtropics, particularly Southeast Asia and northern Australia. The four cases were tied together not just by their shared location but also by the bacterial strain; whole genome sequencing showed the bacteria causing all four infections were highly related, suggesting a shared source of their infections.

But this bacterium doesn't tend to jump from person to person. And none of the men had recent travel that explained the infection. In fact, only one of the men had ever been to a place where the bacterium lives, but it was decades before his infection. And there's another twist: The four infections spanned decades. The first occurred in 1983, the second in 1989, and the last two occurred a day apart in September 2024.

In a newly published study in Emerging Infectious Diseases, state and federal health researchers suggest that the four linked cases indicate that the dangerous bacterium—Burkholderia pseudomallei—has been lurking in the Georgia area the entire time. They also think they know what triggered its recent reemergence: Hurricane Helene.

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A hobbyist developer building AI language models that speak Victorian-era English "just for fun" got an unexpected history lesson this week when his latest creation mentioned real protests from 1834 London—events the developer didn't know had actually happened until he Googled them.

"I was interested to see if a protest had actually occurred in 1834 London and it really did happen," wrote Reddit user Hayk Grigorian, who is a computer science student at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania.

For the past month, Grigorian has been developing what he calls TimeCapsuleLLM, a small AI language model (like a pint-sized distant cousin to ChatGPT) which has been trained entirely on texts from 1800–1875 London. Grigorian wants to capture an authentic Victorian voice in the AI model's outputs. As a result, the AI model ends up spitting out text that's heavy with biblical references and period-appropriate rhetorical excess.

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Summer weddings are in full swing and the peak fall season is approaching, with September and October accounting for one-third of all marriages annually, according to The Knot. While trends in the ideal months to marry rarely change, women marrying in 2025 have fundamentally different financial profiles than previous generations.

Today’s brides are CEOs, startup founders, creators and brand builders, engineers, physicians, real estate investors, scientists, and small business owners. They have negotiated complex equity packages, are growing businesses and brands, and have acquired significant assets, with women outpacing men in attaining advanced post-graduate degrees and purchasing single family homes. They will reap the benefits of an estimated $80 trillion “Great Wealth Transfer” of inherited assets from Baby Boomer parents, a wave that will significantly reshape our economy and financial landscape.

But when it comes to the institution of marriage, many of us are still operating by the rules of an outdated playbook that treats transparent conversations about financial planning as unromantic. It is time for that narrative to change. In fact, the first legal experience that every couple should have isn’t a will – it’s a prenup.

The modern marriage paradox

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: while women now out-earn or make the same as their partners in nearly half of marriages, with this share having approximately tripled over the past 50 years, many are entering marriage with less financial protection than they’d accept in a business partnership. We would never launch a startup without equity agreements or join a company without understanding our compensation package. Why are any of us willing to say “I do” without a clear financial framework?

The modern marriage paradox has conditioned us to view prenuptial agreements as an instrument of mistrust that represents planning for failure, rather than success. This framing is not just fundamentally flawed, it’s financially dangerous.

This means businesses

After divorce, women experience nearly two times the income drop (41%) compared to men (23%), creating long-term financial exposure. For business owners and equity-holders, the stakes are even more significant: divorce can mean losing control of a company built from the ground up.

Among the customers of our online prenup platform, First, roughly 50% of our prenup initiators are women. They come with an understanding that having the most important financial conversations before marriage strengthens the foundation of their relationships, rather than weakening them. Dialogue about values, goals, expectations, and personal finances serves couples throughout their union. These couples understand that the prenup is a joining point, not a breaking point.

Modern women have discovered that prenups offer something more valuable than asset protection. They provide a strategic advantage and thoughtful framework for financial partnership. Think of the prenup as a business plan for the financial future of a marriage.

Meet today’s modern bride

Today’s modern couples are using prenups to address student loan debt, protect family businesses, clarify expectations about inheritance, and establish financial boundaries around spending and saving. A teacher marrying an AI engineer might use a prenup to protect one’s pension while clarifying how they’ll handle the other’s stock options. A freelance designer might want to ensure their creative business remains separate property while building shared wealth with their marketing executive partner.

I recently spoke with Rachel, a creative entrepreneur and technology executive who signed a prenup before her April 2025 wedding. Her prenup wasn’t about keeping assets from her partner. It was about creating clear expectations for how they’d build wealth together while protecting what each brought to the relationship, including social media channels and business ideas they dream up together or separately.

“I love that we live in a time where prenups are being reclaimed by wealth-building, entrepreneurial women,” Rachel told us. “Prenups aren’t just about who gets the house or the car. As women, it’s time we remove the stigma around prenups, not just for us and our assets, but for our partners and [their assets], too.”

Equally important is Melanie, who told me, “I didn’t want individual financial mistakes to become our financial mistakes.”

A Mindset Shift For Millennial and Gen Z Couples

Millennial and Gen Z women are approaching marriage with a fundamentally different mindset. They’ve witnessed their parents navigate difficult divorces without adequate protection. They’ve seen friends lose businesses or inheritance in messy separations. Importantly, they understand that love and financial planning aren’t mutually exclusive. They’re complementary.

This shift is particularly pronounced among high earners. About 47% of newlyweds and engaged couples between the ages of 18 and 34 are now considering prenups, recognizing that their financial success requires protection, just like any other valuable asset.

Normalizing prenups

The path forward requires us to shift our mindset to consider the prenuptial agreement as a standard tool in money management and as essential to career planning as negotiating one’s salary or equity in a job offer. This shift has already started to take place because of successful, modern women who are demonstrating that financial planning and romantic love can coexist harmoniously.

Women rewriting the financial playbook for marriage are not pessimists planning for divorce. They are modern, savvy optimists that believe their relationships can handle honest and transparent conversations about money. These modern couples are more likely to weather financial storms because they have started out by planning for sunny skies and rainy days alike.

In a world where financial independence is more within reach than ever before, protecting that independence is not selfish. It is smart. And smart people deserve marriages built on clarity, equity, and mutual respect.

The question is not about whether you’re planning for the worst. It is about whether you trust yourself enough to plan for the future you deserve.

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary pieces are solely the views of their authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com