Renting a humanoid robot in China now costs $40 a day, down 80% in 1 year
Renting a humanoid robot in China now costs $40 a day. A year ago, depending on the model, it cost $1,400 to $2,800. That 80% price collapse in 12 months is among the most startling data points in global robotics right now, and most people outside China aren't even tracking it.
As NotebookCheck reported and confirmed by BigGo Finance, Alibaba's Xianyu secondhand platform now lists some humanoid models at 289 yuan per day (about $40). Robotic dogs go as low as 78 yuan. The spring 2025 peak was 10,000 to 20,000 yuan per day.
China's Golden Week -- a 7-day national holiday -- in early October just stress-tested this market at scale, and what it revealed is a new phase: rentals that cost almost nothing, and dedicated infrastructure emerging to handle the volume.
Golden Week as a deployment test
More than 30 robotics companies deployed thousands of robots during the holiday.
300 humanoids operated simultaneously at Chimelong Spaceship Theme Park in Zhuhai, 200 Galaxy Space Capsule kiosks ran across 50 Chinese cities, and Cross-dimensional Intelligence logged 110,000+ visitor interactions from its 30+ commercial robot stations.
Robots even made some food for humans.
In Beijing's Zhongguancun Dinghao plaza, a Galbot G1 humanoid handled grilled sausages, beverages, prepared foods, and autonomous coffee brewing inside a FamilyMart convenience store.
Why humanoid robot prices collapsed this fast
China shipped 14,400 of the 18,000 humanoid robots produced globally in 2025: 84.7% of world output, up 508% year over year. China's grip on the humanoid supply chain runs all the way down to raw materials, which means cost advantages compound across the entire production stack.
When supply scales at that rate, rental prices follow gravity. Factories are now producing humanoids at rates once considered futuristic. And more than 1,500 new robot rental companies registered in China in 2025, a 48.1% increase year over year, adding much more competition to the space.
The rental exchanges are arriving
The informal listing sites, Xianyu and Douyin, were the original venues. That era is ending. Three dedicated rental exchanges launched within months of each other.
- Qingtianzu launched in December 2025, seed-funded by Hillhouse Capital. It has 200,000+ registered users. Order volume grew roughly 30% week-on-week during the first week of February 2026.
- BotShare operates in 50 cities and is targeting 200+ by year-end. The company projects the rental market will reach 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) in 2026.
- Wanjiyi Rent is targeting 300 cities.
Even JD.com launched a self-operated robot rental flagship store ... and when China's largest e-commerce platform moves into a category, that category has crossed a legitimacy threshold.
The limits are real, but the pressure is immense
China's retail sector is under real strain.
The China Chain Store & Franchise Association reported that in the first half of 2026, 50% of sampled stores saw year-over-year sales declines, 60% had shrinking profits, and 70%+ reported falling customer traffic. Net new store openings dropped from 9,570 in 2024 to 1,391 this year.
Robots look attractive against that backdrop, even imperfect ones, if they'll attract attention and eventually customers.
But imperfect is the operative word.
Hongqi Chain halted a robot vending pilot due to grasping error rates and incompatibility with standard retail equipment. The current human-to-robot staffing ratio at major deployments sits at 3:1, against an industry target of 10:1 to 20:1. Te timeline to "completely adjustment-free" performance is probably something like 3 to 5 years.
SenseTime's Shanhui autonomous shops claim 70-80% labor cost reduction, with one operator managing 3 to five 5 stores simultaneously. If that holds at scale, the unit economics become compelling enough to accelerate adoption regardless of the technical gaps.
What the price floor reveals
The rental market is doing something structurally useful: it separates robot-as-product from robot-as-service. You don't need to buy a $13,000 Unitree G1 to deploy one. You rent it for $40 a day, try it in your specific context, and find out what actually fails.
Then you make a buying decision, and a much more informed one.
153,000+ people or companies have done that so far: all experiments on capability and ROI.
Sources
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I tell stories with data and build startups. I've raised angel and VC funds, led software companies and startups, and chronicled the rise of the mobile economy. Currently I write for Forbes, host several podcasts, and am starting up HumanoidMegaHub. I was TUNE's mobile economist and Singular's VP of Insights, built the research team at VentureBeat, and managed teams creating software for partners like Intel and Disney. In past lives I built websites, e-learning platforms, and mobile apps, and, a long time ago, was named to Folio's top 100 of the media industry's "most innovative entrepreneurs and market shaker-uppers.”