Robot Rental Prices Drop 70% as Unitree G1 Falls to 289 Yuan a Day

Within a single year, robot rental prices have fallen by more than 70%. The Unitree G1 humanoid, which started at 8,000 yuan per day a year ago, was listed on Xianyu in October with starting prices as low as 289 yuan per day. The steep decline reflects both rising supply and a shift in demand, and it is quickly reshaping the rental market's economics.

On the supply side, capacity keeps ramping up: Unitree has cumulatively produced about 18,000 humanoid robots, while AgiBot's 5,000th Lingxi X2 has rolled off the mass-production line. On the demand side, business is moving away from the performance economy of dancing and photo-taking toward real work — 300 robots stationed permanently at a theme park, and one-day "store manager" appearances in shops.

Qingtianzu can now dispatch more than 4,000 robots, and its cumulative GMV over the past year approaches 3.5 billion yuan. Rentals of the same models overseas run about six times domestic rates. iiMedia Consulting predicts China's robot rental market will exceed 10 billion yuan by 2026, as falling hardware costs push leasing into more everyday commercial scenarios.