robotindex Unitree G1
A compact, comparatively affordable humanoid from Hangzhou-based Unitree Robotics — launched at $16,000 in 2024 and now closer to $13,500, sold directly online to universities, researchers, and developers rather than gated behind enterprise sales, which is unusual for a full-size humanoid. Unitree itself completed a Shanghai STAR Market IPO in August 2026. The pictured unit carries "Futurology" branding on its chest panel — that's a U.S. authorized distributor/reseller of Unitree hardware, not a different robot or manufacturer.
unitree.com — G1 →
Image: Futurology (authorized Unitree reseller)
Specs
Battery
~2 hrs runtimequick-swap 9000mAh smart battery pack
Weight
35 kgwith battery — an early pre-launch report cited 127cm/47kg, since superseded
Height
132 cmstanding, with battery — an early pre-launch report cited 127cm/47kg, since superseded
Sensors
3D LiDAR + depth cam4-mic array, WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2
Degrees of Freedom
23 DOF standardup to 43 DOF on the EDU research tier with optional hands
Payload
2 kg/arm standard3 kg/arm on the EDU tier
Price
~$13,500 base$16,000 at 2024 launch; EDU tier custom-quoted
Speed
~2 m/sroughly 4.5 mph
Hands
Bare wrist stubsoptional 7-DOF Dex3-1 dexterous hands with tactile feedback
Reference Price
Unitree G1 launched in 2024 at $16,000 and has since dropped to roughly $13,500 for the standard configuration, sold directly through Unitree's own online shop as well as authorized resellers including Futurology in the US. Unitree's own shop currently lists the standard G1 at $13,500 but backordered, so buyers should expect a wait rather than immediate delivery. A hardware-refreshed "G1+" was announced in September 2026 at roughly ¥95,000 (about $13,000–14,000), a separate configuration from the standard G1 priced above.
Insights
At public demos, a G1 struck a child during a kick routine and, separately, kicked its own operator during a motion-mirroring demonstration — both real, documented safety incidents. G1 did not win the 2025 Beijing half-marathon or perform the viral Spring Festival Gala dance routine, two achievements often misattributed to it but actually credited to Tiangong Ultra and Unitree's larger H1 model, respectively.
Security Note
In October 2025, researchers at Alias Robotics disclosed that G1's Bluetooth Low Energy setup channel uses a shared hardcoded AES key and fails to filter incoming data, letting anyone in Bluetooth range inject commands and gain root access during WiFi configuration. The same disclosure found G1 units continuously send telemetry — battery status, joint torque, motion state, camera video, microphone audio, and LiDAR/GPS spatial data — every five minutes to servers located in China, plus a separate WebSocket session to a third server over an unencrypted SSL channel, with no user notification or opt-out. Unitree had not shipped a public fix confirmed by independent sources as of this writing.
Firmware & Community
unitreerobotics/unitree_sdk2_python
Official local control SDK for the G1 and Go2, built on CycloneDDS — no vendor app required.
Unitree SDK2 (C++)
Official native C++ counterpart to unitree_sdk2_python, for lower-level local control.
Unitree MuJoCo
Official MuJoCo simulation environment for testing control code before deploying to the physical G1.
Unitree RL Lab
Official reinforcement-learning training framework for locomotion policies and sim-to-real deployment.
Verified against Unitree's own official G1 product page, The Robot Report, TIME's July 2026 investigative piece on Unitree, Wikipedia, CNBC, SCMP, Forbes, Live Science, Global Times, Interesting Engineering, TechNode, Notebookcheck, Gagadget, Phemex News, Futurology's own site and distributor announcement, Gasgoo/Autonews, and KraneShares' IPO coverage. Flagged as uncertain: the exact terms of Futurology's distributor arrangement (exclusive or not, and whether Unitree formally sanctions the rebranded chest panel); a bystander-injury claim tied to a G1 performance collapse, sourced only to a single social media post; per-event model attribution (G1 vs. other Unitree models) at the 2026 World Humanoid Robot Games; and current G1 order lead times, which weren't confirmed from an official source. Two corrections made from initial assumptions: G1 participated in but did not win the 2025 Beijing half-marathon (won by a competitor's robot, Tiangong Ultra), and the widely-remembered 2025 Spring Festival Gala dance belongs to Unitree's H1, not G1. The Bluetooth/telemetry security disclosure is sourced to Alias Robotics' October 2025 research as covered by Help Net Security, Interesting Engineering, and TechXplore; current backorder status is per Unitree's own shop listing as of this check.