What is the best armless office chair?

For a dedicated armless chair with real ergonomic adjustment, the Boss Office Products LeatherPlus Armless Task Chair (B1560) is the strongest pick — LeatherPlus upholstery over a padded frame, height- and swivel-adjustable, backed by a 6-year limited warranty, for around $220. For a lower-cost mesh option with integrated lumbar support, the Union & Scale Essentials Ergonomic Armless Fabric Task Chair runs about $110-$160 depending on promotions. If you already own a chair you like, unbolting the arms is often cheaper than either.

Can I just remove the arms from my current office chair?

On most chairs, yes. Armrests are typically bolted or screwed to the seat pan or frame from underneath — Boulies' and BTOD's disassembly guides both describe this as a normal, tool-based job (usually a wrench or hex key, 15-30 minutes). The exception is chairs where the arm posts are welded or molded directly into the frame as a single structural piece, which some budget mesh chairs and a few executive models do — check your chair's assembly diagram before assuming you can convert it.

Why would someone want an armless office chair?

Two common reasons. Some buyers want the smaller footprint — an armless chair typically tucks fully under a desk lip that armed chairs catch on, and it takes up meaningfully less width in a small home office. Others have shoulder, rotator cuff, or trapezius pain and find that fixed or poorly-adjusted armrests force their shoulders into an unnatural elevated position; going armless lets the arms hang and rest on the desk surface instead.

Is an armless chair less ergonomic than one with arms?

Not inherently — it depends on what the arms were doing. Armrests only help posture when they're adjusted to support your forearms at desk height without shrugging your shoulders up; poorly-fitted or non-adjustable arms can do more harm than no arms at all. What you do lose without arms is a place to rest your elbows during breaks, which is why the picks in this guide still include full lumbar and height adjustment — only the arms are missing, not the rest of the ergonomics.

How much does a dedicated armless office chair cost?

Budget non-ergonomic options like the Amazon Basics Modern Armless Office Desk Chair run roughly $50-$90 depending on color and promotions, with a 275 lb capacity but no lumbar adjustment. Chairs with real ergonomic features — integrated lumbar, height-adjustable seat, swivel-tilt — start around $110 (Union & Scale Essentials) and run to $220 (Boss B1560). That's well under the $600+ starting price of most armed ergonomic flagships in our best ergonomic office chair guide.

Best Armless Office Chair (2026): 3 Real Picks (Plus How to Remove the Arms You Already Have)

Quick Answer: Most “armless office chair” searches actually want one of two different things. If you’re buying new, the Boss Office Products LeatherPlus Armless Task Chair (B1560) is the strongest dedicated pick — height- and swivel-adjustable with a 6-year warranty, around $220. For less money, the Union & Scale Essentials Ergonomic Armless Fabric Task Chair (~$110-$160) adds integrated lumbar support at a lower price. But if you already own a chair whose lumbar support and tilt mechanism fit you, the cheapest and often best move is neither — on most chairs, the armrests unbolt with a wrench in under half an hour.

Searches for “armless office chair” run about 4,400 a month, plus another 1,900 for “office chair no arms” — and like a lot of feature-specific chair searches, the term hides two different buyers. Some want a genuinely armless chair from the factory, usually for a smaller footprint or a cleaner desk setup. Others already own a chair they like and just want the arms gone — for shoulder pain, for a desk with a low lip the arms catch on, or because the armrests never adjusted right in the first place. Both are legitimate, and this guide covers both honestly instead of pushing everyone toward a new purchase.

One number worth knowing before you decide: armless chair models typically measure 22 to 24 inches wide compared with 28+ inches for armed versions of the same category — a 15-20% reduction in the footprint a chair actually occupies at a desk, which is the real mechanism behind the “fits in a small space” claim rather than a vague sense that armless chairs are more compact.

The three real options, compared

Option	Price	Weight capacity	Lumbar support?	Best for
Boss B1560 LeatherPlus Armless	~$220	Not published by Boss	Yes, integrated	Dedicated armless daily driver
Union & Scale Essentials Ergonomic Armless	~$110-$160	~275 lb (Union & Scale line spec)	Yes, integrated	Best value with real lumbar
Remove the arms from your current chair	$0 (just tools)	Unchanged — same as your chair	Unchanged — same as your chair	Keeping the ergonomics you already paid for

1. Boss Office Products LeatherPlus Armless Task Chair (B1560) — Best Overall

Boss Office Products LeatherPlus Armless Task Chair (B1560)

Best overall · ~$220 · 6-year limited warranty · height- and swivel-adjustable

LeatherPlus seat and back cushion over a padded frame, built specifically as an armless model rather than an armed chair with the arms removed at the factory — dimensions run about 26.5"W x 27"D x 40.5-44"H overall, with a 20"x20" seat.
Backed by Boss's 6-year limited warranty, the longest coverage of the three options here and roughly on par with the warranty length on several of the site's mid-tier ergonomic picks.
Pneumatic height adjustment and 360° swivel are standard, though Boss doesn't publish a weight capacity figure for this specific model — confirm the listing before buying if you're above 250 lb.
The armless silhouette shaves real width off the chair's footprint, which is the main reason to pick it over an armed chair in a desk with a low apron or a tight side-by-side setup.

Check price on Amazon →

Setting up more than one desk at once? A free Amazon Business account unlocks quantity pricing and tax-exempt purchasing, which pays off fast if you’re outfitting a whole home office or small team on armless chairs.

Boss is a familiar name on this site — the B9519 sled-base side chair shows up in our office chair without wheels guide — and the B1560 follows the same pattern of a purpose-built variant rather than a repurposed armed chair. The tradeoff against the picks below is price: at roughly double the Union & Scale option, you’re paying mostly for the warranty length and the LeatherPlus upholstery, not a meaningfully different ergonomic mechanism.

2. Union & Scale Essentials Ergonomic Armless Fabric Task Chair — Best Value

Union & Scale Essentials Ergonomic Armless Fabric Task Chair

Best value · ~$110-$160 · integrated lumbar · fabric upholstery

Staples' in-house Union & Scale line prices this one around $109.99 on promotion (list closer to $159.99) — the lowest price here for a chair with genuine integrated lumbar support rather than flat, unshaped padding.
Five-star base with rolling casters and a standard pneumatic height-adjustment lever, matching the mechanism you'd expect on an armed chair at the same price point — only the arms are missing.
Union & Scale's task-chair line is generally rated to 275 lb, in line with the ANSI/BIFMA X5.1 structural standard most office seating is tested against, though confirm the exact figure on your specific listing since Staples sells several armless variants under the same sub-brand.
Fabric upholstery rather than the Boss's LeatherPlus — easier to clean spills off vinyl-style LeatherPlus, but fabric breathes better over a full workday.

Check price on Amazon →

This is the pick for most buyers who want a genuinely dedicated armless chair without paying flagship-adjacent prices. It won’t match the lumbar precision of the site’s best ergonomic office chair picks, but it beats a no-name armless chair on the same shelf by actually shipping with shaped lumbar support instead of flat padding.

3. Remove the arms from the chair you already have — Best for Most Buyers

Unbolt the armrests (tools you likely already own)

Best if you like your current chair · $0 in parts · same weight rating and lumbar as your chair

On most task and ergonomic chairs, armrests bolt or screw into the seat pan or frame from underneath — disassembly guides from Boulies and BTOD both describe the job as routine, typically a hex key or wrench and 15-30 minutes.
Nothing else about the chair changes: the lumbar mechanism, tilt tension, gas lift, and casters stay exactly as they were, which is the same "convert instead of replace" logic behind swapping casters for glides — see our office chair wheels guide for that comparison.
The real risk is a chair where the arm posts are welded or molded directly into the frame as one structural piece — common on some budget mesh chairs and a handful of executive models. Check your original assembly instructions or search your model number plus "disassembly" before assuming this will work.
If your chair's arms are height- or width-adjustable but not removable, dropping them to their lowest, narrowest setting gets you most of the space-saving benefit without touching a wrench, at zero cost and zero risk.

Check tool sets on Amazon →

If your current chair already fits you — lumbar support in the right place, tilt tension dialed in — this is almost always the better move than buying a new armless chair. You keep every ergonomic feature you paid for and spend nothing beyond a few minutes with a wrench, with the one caveat being chairs with welded arm posts, where conversion genuinely isn’t an option.

Who should skip going armless

Anyone who rests their forearms on the armrests during long calls or reading sessions. Losing that support means your arms hang unsupported or rest on the desk edge instead, which some users find less comfortable over an 8-hour day, not more.
Anyone with shoulder or rotator cuff issues caused by a desk that’s too high, not by the armrests themselves. If the real problem is desk height, an armless chair won’t fix it — check your desk-to-elbow height first.
Anyone whose current chair has welded, non-removable arm posts and isn’t ready to replace the whole chair — see the disassembly caveat above before assuming conversion is an option.
Anyone who needs the arms to help push up out of the chair, which matters more for taller or heavier users, or anyone with mobility or balance considerations.

How to choose

Decide “convert” vs. “buy new” first. If your current chair fits you otherwise, unbolting the arms costs nothing and keeps every ergonomic feature you already paid for.
Check for welded arm posts before assuming you can convert. Bolted and screwed arms are the norm and come apart with basic tools; welded or molded-in arms mean the whole chair has to go.
If shoulder pain is the reason you’re going armless, rule out desk height first. Poorly-fitted or non-adjustable armrests can force your shoulders up regardless of the chair, and a genuinely armless chair only fixes that specific mechanism.
Match lumbar support to hours sat, not just price. The Union & Scale and Boss picks here both ship with integrated lumbar; a bargain no-name armless chair often doesn’t, even at a similar price.
Measure the width difference against your desk, not just the chair spec sheet. The 22-24” vs 28”+ footprint difference only matters if your desk, credenza, or neighboring furniture is actually tight enough for it to change anything.

The bottom line

For most people who already own a chair that otherwise fits, removing the arms is the right answer — it’s free, keeps the lumbar and tilt mechanism you paid for, and takes under half an hour on any chair with bolted or screwed arm posts. If you’re buying new and want a dedicated armless chair with real lumbar support, the Union & Scale Essentials Ergonomic Armless is the best value at roughly $110-$160, and the Boss B1560 is the stronger pick if you want a longer warranty and LeatherPlus upholstery for about $220. For an all-day ergonomic chair with arms done right instead of removed, our best ergonomic office chair guide is still the place to start.

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