Let \(\Sigma _{g,p}\) be an orientable surface of genus g and of finite type without boundary (i.e. an orientable closed surface with a finite number p of points removed). In this paper we study the \(\hbox {R}_{\infty }\) -property for the surface pure braid groups \(P_n(\Sigma _{g,p})\) as well as for the full surface braid groups \(B_n(\Sigma _{g,p})\) . We show that, with few exceptions, these groups have the \(\hbox {R}_{\infty }\) -property.