The superfamily of heme copper oxidases reduces molecular oxygen or nitric oxide, and the active sites comprise a high-spin heme group (a(3) or b(3)) and a non-heme metal (Cu-B or Fe-B). The cbb(3) C family of cytochrome c oxidases, with the highspin heme b(3) and CUB in the active site, is a subfamily of the heme copper oxidases that can reduce both molecular oxygen, which is the main substrate, and nitric oxide. The mechanism for NO reduction in cbb(3) oxidase is studied here using hybrid density functional theory and compared to other cytochrome c oxidases (A and B families), with a high-spin heme a(3) and Cu-B in the active site, and to cytochrome c dependent NO reductase, with a high-spin heme b(3) and a nonheme Fe-B in the active site. It is found that the reaction mechanism and the detailed reaction energetics of the cbb(3) oxidases are not similar to those of cytochrome c dependent NO reductase, which has the same type of high-spin heme group but a different nonheme metal. This is in contrast to earlier expectations. Instead, the NO reduction mechanism in cbb(3) oxidases is very similar to that in the other cytochrome c oxidases, with the same non-heme metal, CUB, and is independent of the type of high-spin heme group. The conclusion is that the type of non-heme metal (CUB or Fe-B) in the active site of the heme copper oxidases is more important for the reaction mechanisms than the type of high-spin heme, at least for the NO reduction reaction. The reason is that the protoncoupled reduction potentials of the active site cofactors determine the energetics for the NO reduction reaction, and they depend to a larger extent on the non-heme metal. Observed differences in NO reduction reactivity among the various cytochrome c oxidases may be explained by differences outside the BNC, affecting the rate of proton transfer, rather than in the BNC itself.