Bose QC35, QC45, and Ultra Ear Cushions: Which Kit Clips On
Bose QuietComfort ear cushions wear out in a familiar way. The protein leather goes sticky, then it flakes onto your cheek on a warm commute. People start shopping at that point, and the catalog answers with three names that look like one product: QC35, QC45, and QuietComfort Ultra.
They are not one product. Two of them have been swapped by owners for years. The third uses a different lock.
If the pair on the desk is a QuietComfort, start in Bose ear pads and stay with the listing that names the version printed on the headphone. A page that only says Bose, or only says QuietComfort, has not finished the job.
Read the name on the band
The model lives on the headband or inside the Bose app, not in the shape of the oval. QC35 and QC35 II share a cushion kit. QC45 is sold as its own kit, and so is the QuietComfort Ultra. There is also a 2023 QuietComfort with no number at all. That one is easy to misread as Ultra because both boxes say QuietComfort in large type.
A Bose ear cushion kit for one QC version is the right order. Compatible Bose ear cushions for your QC model follow that printed name.
| What you own | Cushion people actually order | What to leave alone |
|---|---|---|
| QC35 or QC35 II | A QC35 kit, or a QC45 kit if you have checked the clip | Ultra, and anything sold only for the NC 700 |
| QC45 | A QC45 kit. QC35 cushions have seated on these cups for a lot of owners | Ultra |
| QuietComfort (2023), no number, not Ultra | The QC45 kit. Bose lists that headphone on the QC45 cushion page | A QC35-only aftermarket pad that the maker says will not fit, and Ultra |
| QuietComfort Ultra | QuietComfort Ultra ear cushions, that model’s mount only | QC35 and QC45 kits |
| QC15 or QC25 | Older kits, and some people have used QC35 or QC45 cushions here too | Ultra |
Buy Bose QuietComfort ear cushions only after that row is settled. Color is the next decision. Black is the common pair. Limited QC35 II colors, including midnight blue, are why some owners went looking for a newer cushion face in the first place.
QC35 and QC45, and the argument that never died
Bose lists QC45 ear cushions as a QC45 part. The face looks smoother. QC35 cushions have a more gathered, wrinkled cover. Same protein leather family, different look. People who liked the flatter face started asking, in late 2021, whether the new kit would clip onto a QC35 II.
The replies split, which is the useful part.
One owner who had both headphones on the table in October 2021 said the shapes looked different enough that they would not pull a new pair apart to test it. The same week, someone else took the grey QC35 cushions off and put them on a black QC45. Off the table, they called the two cushions the same part. Through early 2022, QC35 II owners reported seating QC45 cushions themselves and hearing no real change beyond cushions that were no longer torn. In November 2024 someone who had ordered the QC45 kit by mistake, for a QC35 II, said it went on with no trouble. In April 2023 an owner put QC45 foams on a QC35 specifically to get the midnight blue face onto a limited-edition pair, and wrote that the fit was clean.
The “no” never fully left the thread. In March 2023, under a question about the Bose site saying QC45-only, one reply was simply that the kit was only for the QC45. A year earlier, a different commenter had passed along a no from someone who owned both. So a QC45 ear cushion replacement is not a guaranteed QC35 part just because a lot of people got lucky. It is a clip you can compare. QC35 ear cushions with the clip mount for that version, held next to QC45 ear cushions that are not the same as QC35 on the product title, often turn out to be the same hooks. When the plastic on the back of the new cushion does not meet the tabs on your cup, stop. Forcing an oval onto the wrong ring tears the new cover before the first song.
Aftermarket is stricter than the official kits. In December 2022 a QC45 owner ordered cooling-gel cushions made for the QC35, then heard from the maker that those pads would not fit. Official cushions crossing over does not mean every third-party QC35 pad will.
OEM vs aftermarket Bose ear cushions for your QC version is the second choice, after the clip. On a QC35, owners on their second or third set have kept both Bose kits and stitched aftermarket pairs. One person on a third replacement said the aftermarket set was as comfortable as the Bose set and cost less. Another, talking about the unnumbered 2023 QuietComfort, found cheap cushions hurt noise cancelling more than a known aftermarket pair, and still ranked official QC45 cushions above both for isolation. Protein leather ear cushions for one Bose QuietComfort version are what the headphones shipped with. They seal. They also flake. Velour ear cushions for one QuietComfort version run cooler on a long flight and usually let a little more room noise in.
Black protein leather QC ear cushions on the stock clips are the ordinary repurchase. Protein leather Bose cushions thicker than the stock pair are a comfort experiment, and only on a mount you already trust. Extra depth moves the driver off your ear. It can also soften the seal the noise cancelling was tuned around. Soft foam ear cushions matched to your exact QuietComfort version matter more than a memory-foam adjective on the box.
The QuietComfort that has no number
Search “QuietComfort ear cushions” and you get Ultra, QC45, and QC35, and nothing that says just QuietComfort. That is the 2023 headphone. It is not the Ultra. The cups look like a QC45, and Bose’s own QC45 cushion kit lists that headphone among the compatible models. A March 2025 thread of people stuck on the same search mostly landed on QC45 pads. One owner who had used older official cushions on that model thought QC35, QC25, and QC15 kits would physically work and still isolate better than bargain pads, with official QC45 cushions isolating best of the bunch.
QuietComfort SE is the other nameless one people mix in. Same form as the 45, different case in the box. QC45 cushions are the ones that thread points at.
If the Bose app names the headphone, use that string in the listing. A photo of an oval black cushion is not a model.
Ultra stays on its own lock
QuietComfort Ultra ear cushions are the break in the family. In March 2024 someone with torn Ultra cushions, and a local shop that only had QC35 and QC45 kits, asked if those would do. A reply from a person who owned both the Ultra and an older QuietComfort was no. They were hunting a different cushion because the Ultra cover bothered their skin, and they thought the NC 700 lock looked like the Ultra lock, not like the QC45. Another comment in that thread called the Ultra the newer cushion style and did not expect QC35 or QC45 pads to catch.
A later note in the unnumbered-QuietComfort thread said the same thing in one line: Ultra has a different locking mechanism. QC45 pads are for the QC45 and for the 2023 QuietComfort. They are not an Ultra kit.
Aftermarket follows that split. Makers who sell a QC45 cushion and an Ultra cushion sell them as two products. A title that offers one pad for QC35, QC45, and Ultra is guessing, and the guess fails on the Ultra.
Replace Bose ear cushions after you check that model’s mount. On an Ultra, that check is short. The listing has to say QuietComfort Ultra. A smoother face, a thicker foam, a cooling gel layer, none of that moves a QC45 ring onto an Ultra cup.
Putting the new pair on
Twenty minutes, one cup at a time, on a table with decent light.
- Work a thumbnail or a plastic spudger under the lip where the cushion meets the cup. The ring unclips. Pulling the soft face tears the cover and leaves the plastic ring behind.
- Wipe the cup. Flakes and skin oil in the groove keep the new cushion proud of the shell.
- Set the new ring on the tabs and press around the oval until it sits even. A light tug all the way around should meet the same resistance. A section that lifts missed a tab.
- Repeat on the other cup. Use both cushions from the same kit. A new left cushion next to a three-year-old right one sits at two heights.
- Play something you know in a room you know. If one side sounds thin, reseat that cup before you blame the driver.
A dead cup, a hinge that crunches, or noise cancelling that quit while the old cushions still sealed, is not a cushion problem. Fresh foam will not wake a failed driver. Flakes, a smell in the foam, and a seal that went flat are the cushion, and a matched kit fixes those.
QC35 ear cushion replacement, QC45 replacement ear cushions, and QuietComfort Ultra ear cushions are three shopping paths. Two of them have crossed in owner reports for years. The Ultra has not. Order the path that matches the name on the band, then pick the cover you can live with until it flakes again.
