Yes, The Neo Robot Is Real — And Here's How Much It Costs

There's always been a pretty obvious gap between what companies demo on stage and what you can actually go out and buy when it comes to humanoid robots. But that gap got a lot smaller in October 2025 with the announcement of the Neo robot by 1X Technologies. The Neo is a proper humanoid robot that stands about 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighs roughly 66 pounds. It sort of looks like a slimmer Baymax, with tiny dots for eyes and a cozy knit onesie for an outfit. It's a far cry from some of the more intimidating models out there, like XPENG's dystopian-looking prototype. Except that while Baymax was more of a healthcare robot, the Neo is more general-purpose. It can do things like folding your laundry, unloading the dishwasher, and watering your plants. That's technology of the future, so don't be surprised by its futuristic price.

If you want to own a Neo outright, the price sits at $20,000. That gets you full ownership, a three-year warranty, priority delivery, and premium support from 1X. You don't need to pay everything up front, though. A $200 deposit, which is fully refundable, is all that's required to reserve your spot. But if you're not ready to cough up all that money in one go, there's a subscription option too that runs $499 a month. US deliveries are expected to begin later this year, with purchasers who paid the full amount getting theirs first.

One thing worth clarifying is that buying Neo doesn't mean you'll also need a subscription on top of it. The only "monthly fee" you'll have to worry about is electricity, though it's minimal. 1X says Neo runs on a 0.75 kWh battery pack, and at standard electricity rates, that works out to less than a dollar per day.

So what does twenty thousand dollars actually get you? Well, beyond the household chores mentioned above, Neo has a built-in large language model – the same type of AI that powers ChatGPT — so you can just talk to it and ask it to do things around the house. It picks up on that through four microphones and a set of fish-eye cameras that give it a wide view of its surroundings. Those cameras also let it observe your home environment and remember things, like where you left your keys. It connects over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and 5G, and runs on Nvidia hardware. One quirk worth knowing is that while its hands are IP68 waterproof, the rest of its body isn't.

Neo is also fairly strong for its size. It can carry up to 55 pounds (shockingly close to its own weight!) and lift as much as 154. It does it using synthetic tendons, which are quieter than traditional gears, and also limit how much force it can accidentally exert. Battery life is about four hours.

It all sounds pretty great in theory, almost too good to be true — and that's because it sort of is. There's actually a pretty significant caveat behind its abilities. Last October, The Wall Street Journal spent a day testing Neo at 1X's headquarters, and they found that it didn't complete a single task on its own throughout. Instead, everything was controlled by a human teleoperator wearing a VR headset. Funnily enough, Neo isn't the only robot that relies on those. A Tesla robot in December collapsed on camera after its own teleoperator apparently disconnected. That said, 1X CEO Bernt Børnich has said Neo will handle most tasks autonomously later this year, though he's acknowledged the quality won't be great at first.

That experience is going to look pretty similar for early buyers, too. Neo does ship with the ability to handle a bunch of common household chores out of the box. But if you want it to do something outside of that, you can schedule a session where a remote 1X employee straps on a VR headset. They then take control of the robot to teach it. That means someone could be looking through your robot's cameras inside your home. 1X does say you can set up no-go zones and blur faces in the feed, and that those sessions always require your approval. But this is still a walking camera in your living room, and Neo is really for early adopters who are comfortable with that.