Tesla · General-purpose humanoid
Tesla Optimus
Tesla's in-house humanoid, aimed first at work inside Tesla's own factories with a consumer version repeatedly promised at a car-like price.
- Height
- ≈1.73 m
- Weight
- ≈57 kg
- Hand DOF
- 22 per hand (Gen 3)
- Payload
- ≈20 kg claimed
Availability
Optimus units work inside Tesla facilities. There is no order page, no announced ship date and no external customer deliveries. Tesla said in April 2026 that assembly would begin at Fremont around late July or August, but gave no 2026 volume target and no consumer channel. Treat every timeline as a target, not a commitment.
Pricing and availability verified July 31, 2026. Robot pricing moves faster than the hardware does — confirm on the manufacturer's own page before ordering.
Where to buy
There is no way to buy the Tesla Optimus at present. Not sold. Elon Musk has repeatedly targeted $20,000-$30,000 for an eventual consumer unit, but no price has ever been published or taken orders.
Strengths and limitations
What works
- Backed by Tesla's own actuator, battery and cell manufacturing
- Reuses the FSD vision stack and inference silicon
- A captive first customer in Tesla's factories
- Most credible path to genuine volume manufacturing
What does not
- No published specification sheet and no way to buy one
- Public demonstrations have included teleoperated segments
- Timelines have slipped repeatedly since the 2021 reveal
- Hand durability and dexterity remain the open engineering problem
Tesla Optimus in pictures
Watch the Tesla Optimus
“Optimus - Gen 2 | Tesla” — official video from Tesla on YouTube.
Full specifications
Overview
| Type | Bipedal humanoid |
|---|---|
| Maker | Tesla |
| Announced | August 2021 (AI Day) |
| Generations | Bumblebee, Gen 1, Gen 2, Gen 3 |
| Intended use | Factory work first, consumer later |
Body
| Height | ≈1.73 m |
|---|---|
| Weight | ≈57 kg (Gen 2) |
| Claimed payload | ≈20 kg |
| Claimed lift | ≈68 kg deadlift |
Actuation
| Actuators | Tesla-designed rotary and linear actuators |
|---|---|
| Hands | 11 DOF (Gen 2), 22 DOF claimed for Gen 3 |
| Walking speed | ≈2.2 km/h demonstrated |
| Tactile sensing | Fingertip force sensing |
Compute
| Onboard compute | Tesla FSD-derived inference computer |
|---|---|
| Perception | Vision-only, no LiDAR |
| Training | Shared neural-net stack with Tesla vehicles |
Power
| Battery | ≈2.3 kWh integrated torso pack |
|---|---|
| Runtime | Full working day claimed, not independently verified |
Safety
| Certification | None published |
|---|---|
| Deployment | Supervised, inside Tesla facilities |
Tesla Optimus news and updates
Fremont line torn down in 46 days, but production has not started
Tesla stripped out the Fremont Model S/X line in 46 days to make room for the first Optimus line, yet as of mid-July 2026 production had still not begun and the V3 reveal had slipped again. Tesla had told investors in April that assembly would start around late July or August.
Source: Electrek ↗Tesla misses its 10,000-robot target completely
Musk had predicted roughly 10,000 Optimus units would be built during 2025. In January 2026 he acknowledged that none were doing useful work in Tesla's factories — the clearest evidence yet that Optimus timelines should be read as ambitions rather than schedules.
Source: Electrek ↗Musk points to a Gen 3 design freeze
Tesla signalled that Optimus Gen 3 would be the design intended for volume production, with a redesigned hand and forearm as the headline change.
Source: Tesla ↗We, Robot event puts Optimus units in front of the public
Tesla had Optimus units serving drinks and interacting with guests. Tesla later confirmed humans assisted the robots, which reset expectations about autonomy.
Source: Tesla ↗
Frequently asked questions
Can you buy a Tesla Optimus?
No. There is no order page, no deposit and no published price. Units currently operate inside Tesla's own facilities.
How much will Tesla Optimus cost?
Elon Musk has repeatedly suggested $20,000-$30,000 in the long run. That is a target for a high-volume future product, not a quoted price.
Is Optimus autonomous?
Partly. Walking and some manipulation are autonomous, but several public demonstrations involved human teleoperation, and Tesla has acknowledged that.
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