Two questions: can robots do physical work on their own yet, and how fast can we build them and at what cost?
Robots already do fixed jobs at scale: factories installed more than 600,000 of them in 2025. Chores in a home they have never seen are another matter. Figure's best self-reported result is 56% of tasks completed, and the best team in Stanford's independent simulated challenge managed 12.4%.
The whole job a paid cleaner or handyman does, start to finish.
1X sells its $20,000 NEO with remote staff who steer it through chores it hasn't learned, and about 60% of the robots in Beijing's 2026 half-marathon were remote-controlled.
Making a bed, folding towels, tidying a living room.
Figure's robots fully completed 56% of chores in 30 homes they had never entered (self-reported, September 2026). In Stanford's independent, simulated BEHAVIOR challenge, the best team completed 12.4% of household tasks.
Humanoids loading car parts or moving plastic crates on a shift.
Figure says its robots loaded more than 90,000 parts at BMW over 11 months; Agility says Digit moved more than 100,000 crates at GXO. Both figures are self-reported, and Agility's 2025 sales were $1.8 million.
Mobile robots carrying shelves and parcels across mapped warehouse floors.
Amazon deployed its one millionth robot in July 2025, across a network of more than 300 facilities.
Welding and painting car bodies, placing parts on circuit boards.
Factories installed more than 600,000 industrial robots in 2025, and about 5 million are now at work worldwide.
Figure and Physical Intelligence report about half of chores fully done in their own tests. In an independent challenge, the best got 12%.
56%chores fully done in 30 homes Figure hadn't seen (self-reported)
Figure and Physical Intelligence chose and ran their own tests, and neither result has been reproduced by anyone else.
Read the full entry →AI that turns camera images and instructions into robot movement has improved every few months. Nearly all results come from the makers.
~18 hoursa robot making espresso, 5:30 am to 11:30 pm (company demo, 2025)
Almost every number here comes from the company that built the model, measured on tasks it chose. There is no shared benchmark that all these models are tested on.
Read the full entry →Some do, but often a person steers them remotely without saying so. About 60% of robots in a 2026 Beijing race were remote-controlled.
Teleoperation is not deception when it is disclosed. 1X says remote sessions also teach NEO new tasks.
Read the full check →The 2026 winner finished in 50:26, under the men's world record of 57:20. But about 60% of the 2026 robots were remote-controlled.
2:40:42 → 50:26winning robot time in Beijing, 2025 → 2026 (men's world record 57:20)
Most 2026 robots were not running on their own: about 40% ran autonomously and 60% were remote-controlled, according to Beijing's E-Town tech hub. A remote-controlled Honor robot ran faster (48:19) but did not win under the race's weighted scoring.
Read the full entry →Official winner's time over 21.1 km at the Beijing E-Town half-marathon, where humanoid robots run alongside (but separate from) people. The line marks the men's world record.
What this measures: How long the fastest official robot took to run a half-marathon in Beijing's annual race for humanoid robots. Lower is faster.
No new results · last data Apr 2026: The race is held once a year (both editions so far were in April), so the next result will come from the 2027 race.
In 2026 about 40% of the more than 100 robot entrants ran autonomously and about 60% were remote-controlled (Beijing E-Town, via TechCrunch). Robots ran in lanes separated from human runners. The fastest human in the 2025 race finished in 1:02:36. Running speed on a closed course says little about whether a robot can do useful work.
| Date | Label | Value |
|---|---|---|
| 19 Apr 2025 | Tiangong Ultra | 2.7 h |
| 19 Apr 2026 | Honor robot (autonomous) | 50 min |
| Men's world record (Jacob Kiplimo, 57:20) | 57 min |
The cheapest Unitree humanoid fell from about $90,000 to about $4,400 in under three years. Makers shipped an estimated 13,000–18,000 humanoids in 2025, mostly in China and mostly for research, education and shows rather than paid work. The biggest Western targets have slipped.
About 10,000 robots built in 2025 (the internal plan), and outside customers receiving them in the second half of 2026.
Not in material use in Tesla's factories by January 2026. Early production started in October 2026; outside deliveries are now expected around the end of 2027.
Read more →The Motley Fool (Jan 2025), The Motley Fool (Jan 2026), The Motley Fool (Oct 2026)
A year of production, 10,000 robots, sold in five days at $20,000 each, with priority deliveries in 2026.
A factory opened in April 2026. We found no announced delivery to a paying customer as of 9 November 2026.
Read more →1X Technologies (Oct 2025), 1X Technologies (Apr 2026), 1X Technologies (Nov 2026)
More than $300 million in committed multi-year orders for its next model, Digit 5.
$1.8 million in total sales in 2025 and a $138 million net loss, with Digit deployed or committed at nine customer sites.
The cheapest are small robots for research and teaching. A robot sold for home chores still costs $20,000 and relies on remote human help.
$90,000 → ~$4,400starting price of Unitree's cheapest humanoid, 2023 → 2026
The cheap robots are small and sold mainly for research, education, sport and entertainment. In the first nine months of 2025, 73.6% of Unitree's humanoid revenue came from research and education buyers.
Read the full entry →Shipments were 13,000–18,000 in all of 2025. Chinese firms built over 95%, and most went to labs and shows, not factory work.
~25,000humanoids shipped Jan–Jun 2026 (IDC estimate), up from ~18,000 in 2025
Definitions differ. The IFR leaves out smaller robots and those sold for research or entertainment; IDC, Omdia and Counterpoint include them.
Read the full entry →Humanoid jobs are still narrow trials, with figures from the makers. Agility, a top US maker, sold $1.8M in 2025 and lost $138M.
$1.8MAgility Robotics' 2025 sales, against a $138M net loss (SEC filing)
The BMW and warehouse numbers come from the robot makers, with no independent audit. Neither says how many robots were involved or how often people stepped in; Agility's fleet software includes remote control "when required".
Read the full entry →Musk later said the robots did only basic tasks, and outside sales slipped to about the end of 2027. Tesla hasn't said how many it built.
~10,000Optimus robots planned for 2025; Tesla hasn't said how many it built
This entry compares Musk's forecasts with his own later statements. There are no independent counts of Optimus robots built or working.
Read the full entry →A year after 10,000 pre-orders at a refundable $200 each, we found no announced delivery of the $20,000 robot to a paying customer.
$20,000price of 1X's NEO home robot; no deliveries announced by Nov 2026
The sell-out claim is 1X's own. Pre-orders need only a $200 refundable deposit, so they are not the same as sales.
Read the full entry →Safety rules assume robots can't fall over; one for walking robots is still a draft. Robots at Chinese shows hurt a spectator and a child.
We found no report of a humanoid injuring a worker in a factory or warehouse. Few humanoids do such work yet, so that is limited reassurance.
Read the full entry →Starting list price of the lowest-priced humanoid sold by Unitree, one of the two biggest humanoid makers by shipments, in US dollars. Log scale.
What this measures: How much it costs to buy the cheapest humanoid robot from Unitree, from its first humanoid in 2023 to today. These are prices for basic versions of small research and hobby robots, not for a robot that can do housework.
List prices for base models, converted to dollars at each source's rate; prices outside China are higher. The G1 and R1 are child-size (121–127 cm) and sold mainly to universities, labs and developers. What buyers paid fell too: Unitree's average selling price per humanoid dropped from about $85,000 in 2023 to about $25,000 in the first nine months of 2025, according to its IPO filing.
| Date | Label | Value |
|---|---|---|
| 15 Aug 2023 | H1 | $90,000 |
| 15 May 2024 | G1 | $16,000 |
| 25 Jul 2025 | R1 | $5,900 |
| 25 Jun 2026 | R1 (price cut) | $4,370 |
Number of robots. Blue = estimates of robots actually shipped or sold; grey = forecasts for all of 2026. Each tracker counts differently.
What this measures: How many humanoid robots makers sent to customers, according to four market trackers, plus two forecasts for 2026. For comparison, factories installed just over 600,000 conventional industrial robots in 2025.
A shipment is not a deployment. Most humanoids shipped so far went to research labs, data collection, and shows and exhibitions, not to paid work in factories or warehouses.
Definitions differ. The International Federation of Robotics counts only full-size humanoids (over 140 cm) sold for commercial and professional use. IDC, Omdia and Counterpoint also count smaller robots and those sold for research, education and entertainment. Some vendor figures are disputed: Unitree says it shipped more than 5,500 in 2025, Omdia estimated about 4,200. Chinese makers built more than 95% of the robots IDC counted in the first half of 2026.
| Item | Value | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 2025: IFR (full-size, for work only) | 7,000 robots | only robots taller than 140 cm, sold for commercial and professional use |
| 2025: Omdia | 13,000 robots | about 13,000 |
| 2025: IDC | 18,000 robots | about 18,000, up 508% on 2024 |
| Jan–Jun 2026: Counterpoint | 22,000 robots | more than 22,000 in six months |
| Jan–Jun 2026: IDC | 25,000 robots | almost 25,000 in six months, up 432% on a year earlier |
| 2026 forecast: Counterpoint | 50,000 robots | forecast: more than 50,000 |
| 2026 forecast: Bank of America | 90,000 robots | forecast |