education
Research and teaching platform
Owner verifiedVerified July 2026
- Control mode
- Autonomous
- Human intervention
- Developer programmed
Research record R-024Commercially available
G1
By Unitree Robotics · China · announced May 2024
The robot that broke the humanoid price floor: a genuinely capable biped you can order today, now at $13,500.
Broader research scope
This is a research record, not a curated recommendation.
The main field guide selects 14 companion robots for deeper review. This entry belongs to a separate 53-record index that also covers industrial, research, and developer systems.
Research summary
What the record says.
The G1 changed the humanoid market's arithmetic. Launched in May 2024 at $16,000, the 1.3 meter biped brought backflips, kip-ups and running to a price previously associated with a single robot joint; by July 2026 Unitree's official shop lists the base configuration at $13,500. It is the most widely distributed humanoid in the world, standard equipment in research labs and the star of countless viral videos.
The base G1 is a developer platform, not a butler: it ships with locomotion capabilities and an SDK, while dexterous three-finger hands, higher-DoF configurations and the EDU tiers (from around $44,000) serve serious research. Unitree, which filed for a Shanghai STAR Market IPO approved in July 2026, targets shipping 20,000 humanoids across its line in 2026.
G1s have danced at China's Spring Festival Gala, fought in kickboxing exhibitions and taught in classrooms worldwide. Whatever the humanoid future looks like, more people have touched it through a G1 than any other robot.
Delivery evidence
Announcement is not arrival.
Owner verified
Routine retail shipping since 2024; ubiquitous in research labs worldwide
Reality check
A stock G1 walks, balances, recovers and performs impressively; it does not cook, clean or converse out of the box. Its household usefulness is whatever its owner programs. Buyers routinely underestimate the integration work: the G1's value is as hardware for developers, educators and performers, where it is unmatched per dollar.
Capability ledger
What has actually been shown?
3 material claims are separated by evidence setting and human involvement. The strongest recorded signal is Owner verified; it does not automatically transfer to every row.
entertainment
Dances, flips, boxing exhibitions
Spring Festival Gala performances; kickboxing events
Real-world demoVerified July 2026
- Control mode
- Mixed / assisted
- Human intervention
- Routines choreographed; some events use operator control
conversation
Conversational AI via developer integrations
Real-world demoVerified July 2026
- Control mode
- Autonomous
- Human intervention
- Requires developer setup
Hardware record.
- Height
- 132 cm
- Weight
- 35 kg
- Locomotion
- Bipedal; walking, running, jumps, flips
- Payload
- About 3 kg per arm (base)
- Runtime
- About 2 hours
- Charging
- Swappable battery pack, charger included
- Top speed
- 2 m/s
- Degrees of freedom
- 23 to 43 depending on configuration
- Hands
- Optional Dex3-1 three-finger dexterous hands
- Face / expression
- Sensor visor with light ring; no expressive face
- Sensors
- 3D lidar, depth camera, microphone array, IMU
Software record.
- AI platform
- Unitree SDK; ROS support; NVIDIA Isaac ecosystem; UnifoLM models optional
- Voice
- Basic voice features; developers add LLMs
- Languages
- Developer configured
- Visual recognition
- Developer configured via onboard sensors
- Memory
- Developer configured
- Processing
- Onboard compute (upgradable tiers); optional Jetson modules
- Autonomous abilities
- World-class locomotion autonomy; task autonomy is up to the developer
- Teleoperation
- Full remote control supported by design
- Software updates
- Firmware updates
- Developer access
- Excellent: open SDK, simulation support, huge community
Who can see, hear, or take control?
- Recording storage
- Owner controlled; local processing by default
- Remote operation possible
- Yes
- Teleoperation disclosure
- Owner is the operator
- Camera / microphone controls
- Owner controlled
- Data deletion
- Owner controlled
- Account required
- App account for setup
- Emergency stop
- Remote e-stop and app controls
- Children and pets
- A fast 35 kg machine; Unitree provides safety guidance, supervision required
- Security updates
- Firmware updates; researchers have documented cloud-connectivity concerns on Unitree products
Lifecycle record
Status history.
- Preorder
Unveiled at $16,000
- Commercially available
Volume shipping begins
- Commercially available
Unitree targets 20,000 humanoid shipments in 2026
- Commercially available
Official shop base price at $13,500
Source register
3 linked sources.
These sources support the research record as a whole. Unlike the curated dossiers, this imported record does not yet map every claim to a stable source ID.