Can you buy a Tesla Optimus? Price, release date and who gets the robot first

Now that Tesla has started production of its Optimus humanoid robot, the obvious question is: when can you buy one, and for how much? The short answer as of late October 2026: you can't yet, and Tesla has not announced a price. Here is what is known.

Where Optimus stands today

On its third-quarter earnings call on October 21, Tesla said it has begun what Musk called 'early production' on a high-volume Optimus line in Fremont, California, in the space where the Model S and Model X used to be built. Tesla's shareholder letter calls these the first production-quality robots it has made.

• Version: production starts with the third-generation design (Gen 3). Tesla plans to move to Gen 4 by the time a much larger line in Texas starts.
• Capacity: the Fremont line is designed for up to 1 million robots a year, and a planned line at Giga Texas for 10 million. Those are capacity figures, not sales forecasts.
• Ramp: Musk expects a slow, bumpy start. Reaching 20,000 robots a week will take at least a year, and TechCrunch reports Musk aims to get there by the end of 2027.

The timeline: who gets Optimus first

• Now: robots work inside Tesla's own factories, and early units are used for training and development.
• Around the end of 2026: Musk expects the remaining problems with AI, mechanics, reliability and durability to be solved. Tesla also still needs to do a lot of AI work before the robot can handle open-ended tasks.
• Around April 2027: Tesla plans to add its AI5 chip, which Tesla expects to offer about five times the computing power of its current two-chip AI4 computer.
• Around the end of 2027: first deliveries to outside customers, starting with industrial companies.
• Later: robots for homes. Tesla has given no date.

Keep in mind that Optimus deadlines have slipped before. Tesla missed an earlier goal of building about 5,000 robots in 2025, and the Gen 3 reveal was pushed back several times.

What will Optimus cost?

There is no official price. For years Musk has said that, once production is at full scale, he expects Optimus to cost roughly $20,000 to $30,000, about the price of a small car. That is a long-term target. Early robots, built in small numbers, are likely to cost more to make, and Tesla has not said how it will price them for business customers.

There is also no reservation list, preorder page or deposit for Optimus. Be wary of any website that claims to sell you one today.

What you can buy instead

Other humanoid robots are already for sale, with clear trade-offs:

• 1X Neo: a home robot that can be ordered for $20,000, or $499 a month, with first deliveries starting. Harder tasks still rely on a remote human operator.
• Unitree G1: aimed at developers and researchers rather than households.
• Figure 03: aimed at factories and businesses, not sold to consumers.

Why it matters

Musk has called Optimus potentially 'the biggest product on Earth', and the robot is a large part of how many investors value Tesla. Production has started, but there are still no sales, so for now Optimus brings in no revenue. The coming year is about proving that the robot is safe, reliable and useful enough for customers to pay for.

What to watch

Musk promised a video within 'a month or two' showing Optimus doing tasks it was not programmed for. After that: real weekly output from Fremont, a first price for business customers, and the names of the first outside companies to get the robot.