Robot Frontier Price Index — 2026-Q3 Print
Print #001 · As of 2026-07-24 · UoW basis v1 (per-unit entry price)
This index tracks the lowest observed price of a shipping robot in each category — the entry price of the frontier — from archived public sources, published quarterly.
Frontier entry prices (headline)
| Category | Entry price | QoQ | YoY | Obs points | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Humanoid | $13,500 | 0.0% | −15.6% | 6 (2024-07 → present) | list |
| Quadruped platform | $1,600 | 0.0% | 0.0% | 8 (2023-07 → present) | list |
| Autonomous tractor | $74,998* | — | — | 2 (*last public print 2024-07) | list |
Frontier entry price = lowest observed price of a shipping unit in the category. The v1 basis is per-unit: it answers "what does it cost to buy into this category today?" — capability-normalized lines will publish under a v2 basis when both price and specification series are observable for the same units, and history will be restated under the new version, never silently.
Movements this period (all dated, all archived)
- The humanoid frontier fell 15.6% in under two years. Unitree's G1 held a $16,000 list price from at least 2024-07 through 2025-07, then repriced to $13,500 by 2025-12 — where it remains. This is the first sustained entry-price decline observed in the category.
- The quadruped frontier has not moved in three years. Go2 Air has listed at $1,600 since 2023-07; the full variant ladder ($1,600–$3,050) is unchanged since launch. A new top variant (Go2 X, $4,500) entered 2026-01 without disturbing entry pricing.
- Agricultural autonomy went dark. Monarch's MK-V listed at $88,998 (2024-01), was cut to $74,998 (2024-07), and the price was removed from public view by 2025-01. It has not returned. The last observed figure is reported with its date; nothing is estimated.
Price visibility tracker
Standing feature. In robotics, whether a price is published at all is itself data.
Across five years of archived pages from the major arm, cobot, and AMR OEMs, not one published a U.S. dollar price. Price opacity in robotics is structural, not incidental — and it is the reason a neutral observed-price index needs to exist.
Announced vs. shipping (vaporware watch)
Programs enter the index only when a shipping unit has an observed price.
| Program | Status | Evidence date |
|---|---|---|
| Tesla Optimus | Announced; production count zero per Q2-2026 earnings coverage | 2026-07-20 |
| Humanoid (London) | Announced; $152M Series A, Bosch manufacturing partner; no price, no ship date | 2026-07-21 |
| AGIBOT (export lineup) | Four models shown at WAIC 2026; export pricing not yet observed | 2026-07-18 |
Corrections to prior prints
None (inaugural print).
Methodology in brief
Observed prices only, captured from public sources on a fixed panel and archived with checksums at capture time; every figure above traces to a dated archive entry. Frontier lines are computed against versioned unit-of-work definitions; definition changes restate history under a new version, never silently. This print reports observed market state only — it contains no forecasts and no valuations. Categories without published prices cannot have index levels; absence is reported, never estimated.
Caveats (standing)
Humanoid and quadruped figures are OEM list prices; tractor figure is a "starts at" list price, last publicly observed 2024-07 (stale anchor, dated above). Observation counts are small in this inaugural print and are stated per row; treat quarter-over-quarter moves as indicative until the panel deepens.
Citation
"Robot Frontier Price Index, Print #001, The Robot Ledger, July 2026." — therobotledger.com
The Robot Ledger is published by Pexara AI LLC. Figures may be cited with attribution. Underlying archive available for verification inquiries.