Z-Bot
Z-Bot is K-Scale Labs' small, low-cost open-source humanoid, sold from 2025 as a developer and education kit for about USD 999.
The verdict
$999 for an open-source developer robot from a company that publishes everything. It is small and it is early, and it is one of the only Western options at any price under $3,000.
- Buy it if
- Developers who want to hack on open hardware without importing anything.
- Skip it if
- You need a finished product.
In its favour
- $999 and open source
- United States based
- Full transparency on design
Against it
- Early-stage company
- Preorder queues
- Desk-scale capability
How the score is built
Capability is what the machine physically does. Value compares it with others at a similar price, not with the whole market. Buyability asks whether you can really order one. Ecosystem is the software and community around it. Proof is what it has done in the field, which is where most humanoids score badly and should.
Similar money, different machine.
- Status
- Limited production
- Category
- education
- First revealed
- 2025
- Form
- bipedal
- Height
- n/a
- Weight
- n/a
- Payload
- n/a
- Degrees of freedom
- n/a
- Battery
- n/a
- Runtime
- n/a
- Walking speed
- n/a
- Actuation
- electric
- Units deployed (est.)
- not disclosed
- Teleoperation
- partial
Where it stands
Small open-source humanoid kit for developers and education.
What stands out
- About USD 999
- Open-source
Price and volume
USD 999 at 2025 preorder
Open source
Hardware or software published under an open licence.
Index position
In the Humanoid Index, which ranks on shipped reality rather than value for money, Z-Bot sits at #34 of 107 with 41 points: deployment 14/50, autonomy 12/30, availability 15/20. See that method.
Deposits, lead times and warranties: reading a humanoid order sheet
Of 42 buy records, 2 publish a deposit, 1 a warranty, 1 a shipping cost and none a lead time in weeks. The order sheet for a humanoid is mostly blank, and the blanks are where the money goes.
Open-source humanoids: what you can actually build
24 of the 182 humanoids on record call themselves open source. 15 publish hardware files and software, 3 name a licence, 12 can be ordered, and none of the four on preorder has any autonomy evidence yet.
China builds, America demos: what 108 makers tell you
Chinese makers account for 65 of the 182 humanoids in our record and 31 of the 44 you can order. American makers hold the money, the research and most of the autonomy claims, and sell you almost nothing.
Humanoid robots for your home: what you can actually get in 2026
Six machines in our database are built for the home: three take orders, two have a price, none has reached a customer. Here is what a deposit buys today, and what the $299 alternative does not.
Other robots by K-Scale Labs.
Sources
- 01K-Scale LabsK-Scale Labs
Price sources
- 01Humanoid robots for sale: prices and US legalityRoboZaps · 2026-07-28
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