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Unitree Just Launched Its Most Affordable Humanoid Robot Yet

Chinese robotics company Unitree's new humanoid robot starts at $5,900.

Headshot of Jesse Orrall
Headshot of Jesse Orrall
Jesse Orrall Senior Video Producer
Jesse Orrall (he/him/his) is a Senior Video Producer for CNET. He covers future tech, sustainability and the social impact of technology. He is co-host of CNET's "What The Future" series and Executive Producer of "Experts React." Aside from making videos, he's a certified SCUBA diver with a passion for music, films, history and ecology.
Expertise Future tech, sustainability, and social impact of technology Credentials
  • Gold Telly Award, 2X Silver Telly Award
Jesse Orrall
Watch this: Unitree R1: The Cheapest Humanoid Robot Yet?

A new humanoid robot just dropped, and it's being advertised at the most affordable price I've ever seen for a humanoid robot of its size. Unitree's R1 humanoid robot starts at just $5,900. That's more than $10,000 less than the company's G1 humanoid, which starts at $16,000. 

While that's quite a low price in the humanoid robot market, where top-of-the-line models can cost more than $100K, it's essential to understand that Unitree's advertised price may only be for buyers in the Chinese market. That was the case with the G1 humanoid robot, and we'll have to see if the same is true for the R1.

Two Unitree humanoid robots

Unitree's R1 humanoid features a customizable appearance.

Unitree

The R1 showed off many skills and abilities we've seen from other Unitree robots. It performed a handstand like the Go2 Pro robot dog I tried out a few months ago. It also did some punching and kicking like the Unitree G1.

The R1 comes in a "Standard" stripped-down version (which features that $5,900 price tag), and an EDU version, which Unitree calls its fully decked-out robots for institutional buyers and developers. There is no price on the EDU model for the R1 yet but Unitree invites interested parties to contact the company directly for more info.

To see the R1 robot in action, check out the video in this article.