Tesla Optimus is a humanoid robot developed by Tesla, Inc. of the United States, designed to walk on two legs and eventually perform a wide range of manual tasks in factories and, longer-term, homes. As of mid-2026 it is not for sale to consumers or businesses: a small number of Gen 2 units perform basic supervised tasks inside Tesla's own factories, volume production of the current hardware generation is only just beginning at Tesla's Fremont plant, and Tesla has stated a target of putting Optimus on public sale by the end of 2027.
What it is
Optimus is Tesla's general-purpose bipedal humanoid robot platform, intended to eventually perform "any task" a human can do, according to CEO Elon Musk — starting with repetitive or dangerous factory work and later expanding toward household tasks such as childcare-adjacent support, pet care, and elder care.
Manufacturer & origin
Optimus is built by Tesla, Inc., the electric-vehicle and energy company headquartered in Austin, Texas. Tesla first showed a walking Optimus prototype in September 2022 and unveiled the more refined Gen 2 version in December 2023. The next hardware generation (referred to as "Gen 3"/V3) has been repeatedly delayed and, as of April 2026, had still not been publicly revealed — Tesla executives have said this is partly to prevent competitors from reverse-engineering the design before it ships.
Build type & design
Optimus is a full-size bipedal humanoid with two legs, two arms, and five-fingered hands, using Tesla-designed actuators (including planetary roller screws) and an AI control stack derived from Tesla's Autopilot/Full Self-Driving neural-network work. The Gen 2 body has 28 degrees of freedom; an upgraded hand introduced in the Gen 2-to-Gen 3 transition brings each hand to 22 degrees of freedom, up from 11.
Core specs
- Height: 173 cm (5'8")
- Weight: 57 kg (125 lb) — about 16 kg lighter than the original Gen 1 prototype
- Payload/carrying capacity: reportedly around 20 kg (45 lb)
- Walking speed: reported around 8 km/h (5 mph)
- Hand dexterity: 11 degrees of freedom per hand (Gen 2), upgraded to 22 DoF per hand
- Onboard compute: not publicly specified for the shipping version; Tesla's in-house AI5 inference chip is being developed partly to serve Optimus
What it's used for
Today Optimus performs basic, supervised tasks inside Tesla's own factories. Musk's stated long-term goal is a general-purpose worker and eventually household-companion robot for manufacturing, logistics, and domestic chores, but as of early 2026 press reporting noted that no units were yet doing commercially "useful work" outside Tesla's own facilities.
Availability & price
Optimus is not for sale. Tesla offers no pre-orders, waitlist, or deposit system, and any website claiming to take Optimus pre-orders is not affiliated with Tesla. Internal production of the current hardware generation was set to begin at Tesla's Fremont, California plant in late July or August 2026, replacing the discontinued Model S/X lines, with a second, larger plant planned at Giga Texas targeting up to 10 million units a year long-term. Musk has repeatedly cited a long-term consumer price target of $20,000–$30,000 and a public sale date by the end of 2027, while cautioning that current unit costs are far higher and that the production ramp will be slow because of roughly 10,000 unique new parts in the design.