What Does a Robot Performance Cost? 2026 Public Prices and Six Pricing Variables
What should one robot performing at an event cost? Public 2026 prices give a clear answer: the mainstream range is RMB 2,500 to 5,000 per day. Yet for the same model, quotes differ by more than double. The gap is not in the robot, it is in what the quote includes.
Public price table: from RMB 2,199 to 5,000
| Model or service | Public daily price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Unitree G1 | RMB 2,500–3,500 per day | Was hyped to RMB 20,000 a day in early 2025, fell to about RMB 15,000 in spring, then to RMB 8,000–9,000 after the May holiday |
| Unitree U2 (dancing model) | About RMB 4,000 per day | Commonly quoted around RMB 5,000 a day in early 2026 |
| AgiBot Lingxi X2 Youth | RMB 2,199 per day on the QingTianZu platform | Includes operator labour and travel; RMB 2,358 per day on Wanjiiyizu, generally Jiangsu-Zhejiang-Shanghai pricing with travel added elsewhere |
| Robot dogs | RMB 400–500 per day | Also used for park patrols, security checks and transport tasks |
Six variables that set the price
- Model and quantity: dancing models cost clearly more than basic ones, and group control is priced per unit
- Season: Spring Festival, National Day and corporate annual events are peak; March to April and July to August are slack
- Whether an operator is included: the industry norm is one technician per robot, or one for group control at large events
- Whether customised routines are included: choreography, martial arts, drumming, greeting scripts and interactive Q and A are billed separately
- Transport and engineer travel: a cross-province one-day show can cost two or three days of round-trip travel
- Venue conditions: stage setup and how the robot gets on and off stage change the difficulty and the price
Why prices fell from RMB 20,000 to RMB 5,000 in a year
After the 2025 Spring Festival gala, Unitree G1 rentals were pushed to RMB 20,000 a day, and a rental operator could recoup the purchase price in about five days. The market then turned from blue ocean to red: by spring 2025 the price had fallen to about RMB 15,000, after the May holiday it halved to RMB 8,000–9,000, and by early 2026 the newest U2 was commonly renting at around RMB 5,000 a day. A second force was the arrival of large platforms: QingTianZu, initiated by AgiBot and partners, launched on 22 December 2025, with Wanjiiyizu appearing less than a month later, both pricing below the scattered market level. By early April 2026 there were roughly 153,000 robot-rental-related companies in China, with 38,200 registered in 2025 alone, up 55.7% year on year, while more than 90% of rental stalls in Shenzhen's Huaqiangbei, the industry's trading hub, had left the market in the second half of 2025. Most operators now believe the price has bottomed out.
The margin is not in the rental
The industry consensus is that rental operators earn through equipment turnover, technical services and scenario packaging, with bare rental margins squeezed thin and the daily rate used mainly to attract customers. The real profit sits in customised routines and in engineer support, commissioning and emergency repair billed by day or by event, often costing more than the rental itself. For buyers this means comparing daily rates alone underestimates the total: a robot at just over RMB 2,000 a day can double the project cost once customised routines and on-site support are added.
Eight things to clarify before booking
- Equipment: model, quantity, spare unit or not
- Labour: how many technicians, group control included or not
- Travel: local or out-of-province, engineer round trip included or not
- Transport: dedicated packing and freight vehicle or not
- Customisation: development lead time and acceptance method
- Duration: billing rate beyond the agreed hours
- Venue requirements: stage size, access route, power supply
- Tax and payment: tax inclusive or not, deposit ratio, final payment terms
Bottom line: the going rate for a robot performance is RMB 2,500–5,000 per day, and what really drives the total is labour, travel and customisation rather than the robot rental itself.
FAQ
- What is the going rate for a robot performance?
- Public prices sit at RMB 2,500–5,000 per day: Unitree G1 at RMB 2,500–3,500, the dancing U2 around RMB 4,000, and robot dogs at RMB 400–500. Platform subsidies can push a specific model to RMB 2,199 per day including an operator and travel.
- Why do quotes differ so much?
- Six variables: model and quantity, season, whether an operator is included, whether customised routines are included, transport and engineer travel, and single unit versus group control. The same model can differ by 100% across these.
- How are customised routines charged?
- Choreography, martial arts, drumming, greeting scripts and interactive Q and A are quoted separately and often cost more than the rental itself. Renting the robot is the entry point; the technical service and packaging is where the margin sits.
- What about out-of-province bookings?
- Engineer travel and transport can dominate the total. A one-day show booked across provinces may cost the engineer two or three days of round-trip travel, which the base rental barely covers, so travel, transport and overtime terms must be written into the quote.