How much does a humanoid robot cost? The question sounds simple. The answer, as eWeek lays it out, is far less so. Among humanoids with publicly listed prices, the figures range from about $4,900 to $100,000. Even then, that range covers only part of the market: many of the most advanced industrial humanoids have no public price at all.
Unitree also offers its dual-arm R1-D platform, aimed at developers, from $4,290. But eWeek points out that this system is not directly comparable to walking humanoids such as the R1, G1 and H2, 1X’s NEO or the Figure 03. A dual-arm developer platform and an industrial humanoid meant to walk a factory floor for hours at a stretch are not playing the same game.
Why the humanoid robot list price means little
According to eWeek’s ranking, which covers Tesla, Unitree, Agility Robotics, Apptronik and others, the market splits into developer platforms, industrial machines and ambitious general-purpose robots. Some manufacturers publish their prices openly. Others sell through commercial partnerships, pilot projects or negotiated deployment agreements, without ever disclosing the cost per robot.
The Unitree H1 shows the grey area. The manufacturer’s online store lists it at $90,000, while inviting prospective buyers to contact the company for the “real price”. eWeek therefore recommends treating that amount as a reference point, not a firm purchase price.
Comparing humanoids on price alone, eWeek sums up, is like asking how much a vehicle costs. A scooter, a delivery van and an excavator all move something, but the price tells you nothing until you know the task. The right question is not how much the robot costs, but how much useful work it does for that money.
What drives the cost of a humanoid robot
A humanoid packs an unusual amount of hardware. Motors and actuators move the hips, knees, ankles, shoulders, elbows and hands; the most sophisticated machines, according to eWeek, have dozens of independently controlled degrees of freedom. Hands are the hard part: carrying a box takes far less mechanical complexity than handling small parts or objects of varied shapes without dropping or crushing them.
On top of that come the sensors that serve as eyes, ears, balance and touch: depth cameras, standard cameras, LiDAR, force sensors, inertial measurement units, tactile sensors and microphones. The less predictable the environment, the more perception matters. A factory robot enclosed in a fenced cell repeats the same motion thousands of times; a humanoid working among people has to detect obstacles, judge distances and react continuously.
Behind the machine, eWeek notes, there is also an ecosystem of software, AI, model training, manufacturing and support whose cost keeps rising. That is why the cost of building a robot and its selling price are not the same thing.
Manufacturing cost vs selling price: the Goldman Sachs estimates
Confusing the two is one of the easiest mistakes to make. In 2024, Goldman Sachs Research estimated that the cost of manufacturing a humanoid had fallen from about $50,000 to $250,000 per unit to around $30,000 to $150,000, depending on how sophisticated the machine is. These figures are production cost estimates, not selling prices, and they date from 2024: eWeek stresses that they should not be taken as an estimate of manufacturing costs in 2026.
The trend is still telling: cheaper components, better manufacturing and higher volumes could eventually bring prices down. Figure said in April 2026 that its BotQ production site had delivered more than 350 Figure 03 robots. The company says it has gone from building one Figure 03 per day to a demonstrated cycle time of one robot per hour, a 24-fold increase in throughput in under 120 days.
Figure also reports a first-pass yield of 99.3% on its battery line, with more than 500 packs shipped, and an end-of-line yield for complete robots that has risen above 80%, again according to the company. The Figure 03 was redesigned for mass production, replacing many CNC-machined parts with processes such as die casting, injection moulding and stamping. Figure says each Figure 03 costs significantly less to build than its predecessor, but has disclosed neither the actual cost nor the selling price.
The company has also stated that the first generation of the BotQ line can produce up to 12,000 humanoids a year. This is a stated production capacity, not the number of robots actually produced or sold.
Humanoid robot subscriptions and hidden costs: the 1X NEO example
For a business, buying the robot may be the easiest figure to calculate. Deploying it brings up many others that never appear in product announcements: safety, integration, autonomy, data, maintenance and fleet management. eWeek spells out the maths: a $20,000 robot that constantly needs human intervention can end up costing more than a far more expensive machine that can reliably cover an entire shift.
Another trend eWeek identifies: humanoids could increasingly be sold like software or cloud infrastructure. Rather than buying the robot, businesses and consumers would pay a subscription, under a Robots-as-a-Service model in which the provider keeps ownership of the hardware in exchange for a recurring fee.
1X’s NEO offers a concrete example, with an ownership option and a subscription plan. According to 1X, the ownership option includes a three-year warranty, premium support and priority delivery. The company also states that the first NEO units arrive with basic autonomy and can receive scheduled remote supervision from a 1X expert for complex tasks they cannot yet perform. That detail matters when comparing costs: a monthly subscription fee says nothing about how independently the robot actually works.
Further reading: Unitree: the maker of the affordable humanoid robot · Figure 03: specifications, battery life and use at BMW · Figure AI: humanoid robots, Helix AI and the BotQ factory