education
Classroom and entry research platform
Owner verifiedVerified July 2026
- Control mode
- Autonomous
- Human intervention
- Developer programmed
Research record R-048Commercially available
R1
By Unitree Robotics · China · announced July 2025
The cheapest real humanoid you can buy: a cartwheeling 25-kilogram biped from $4,900.
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 R1 is Unitree's answer to the question nobody expected to ask this decade: what does a humanoid under $6,000 look like? Launched in July 2025 at $5,900 (with a stripped-down R1 AIR later listed from $4,900), the 1.21 meter, 25 kilogram biped walks, cartwheels and does kung-fu routines while costing less than many laptops-and-lidar research setups.
Phased customer deliveries began around April 2026 after preorders, through the official shop and distributors across North America, Europe and Asia. Forbes called it the most affordable humanoid you can buy now. An EDU version (from about $16,000) adds compute and sensors for serious development.
Like the G1, the R1 is a platform: lighter, cheaper, less powerful, and aimed squarely at students, hobbyist developers and labs that could never justify a G1 EDU.
Delivery evidence
Announcement is not arrival.
Owner verified
Phased deliveries reported from April 2026; retail listings in stock
Capability ledger
What has actually been shown?
2 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
Acrobatics and performance routines
Real-world demoVerified July 2026
- Control mode
- Mixed / assisted
- Human intervention
- Choreographed; operator control at events
Hardware record.
- Height
- 121 cm
- Weight
- 25 kg
- Locomotion
- Bipedal; walking, cartwheels, acrobatics
- Payload
- Light objects only
- Runtime
- About 1 hour active
- Charging
- Swappable battery
- Top speed
- 2 m/s class
- Degrees of freedom
- 26 (20 on AIR)
- Hands
- Simple grippers; optional upgrades
- Face / expression
- Sensor visor
- Sensors
- Binocular camera (standard), microphone array, IMU
Software record.
- AI platform
- Unitree SDK; developer LLM and VLA integrations
- Voice
- Developer configured; built-in basics
- Languages
- Developer configured
- Visual recognition
- Developer configured
- Memory
- Developer configured
- Processing
- Onboard compute; EDU adds Jetson-class modules
- Autonomous abilities
- Locomotion autonomy; tasks up to developer
- Teleoperation
- Full remote control supported
- Software updates
- Firmware updates
- Developer access
- Open SDK and simulation support
Who can see, hear, or take control?
- Recording storage
- Owner controlled
- 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
- Children and pets
- Lighter than G1 but still a fast machine; supervision required
- Security updates
- Firmware updates
Lifecycle record
Status history.
- Preorder
Launched at $5,900
- Commercially available
Phased customer deliveries begin; Forbes names it cheapest buyable humanoid
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.