# The 1X NEO at home: what a buyer should know

**The 1X NEO at Home: Privacy, Safety, Price (2026)** · Last verified Jul 26, 2026. 4 sources.

**The 1X NEO is the home humanoid we hold the most on the record. It has a verified $20,000 price, a real pre-order, and 1X openly says a remote operator can see through it. That candor is its strength, and its catch.** Where a Tesla Optimus is mostly an absence, the NEO is a record. 1X has disclosed enough real, checkable facts that this hub can lead with verified answers rather than shrugs. The verified core: NEO costs $20,000 to buy or $499 a month, both on the record; you can pre-order one, and 1X reportedly sold out year-one capacity; and NEO ships teleoperation-assisted, so in Expert Mode a vetted remote 1X operator in a VR headset takes control and sees the camera feed in your home, roughly 60 to 70 percent autonomy by 1X's own estimate. The honest absences: 1X has published no data-retention or deletion policy for what the operator sees, no full ownership terms past the entry price, and no child-safety testing. So NEO is the most transparent home humanoid and also the one that openly puts a person on your camera. This hub is the plain index: one honest verdict, then the deep answer on each question below, grouped by what people actually ask. This is general information, not purchasing advice.

## Quick answers

- **Can a remote human see through it?**: Yes, in Expert Mode
- **How much does it cost?**: $20,000 or $499/month
- **Can you actually buy one?**: Pre-order; not shipping to homes yet
- **Is it safe around kids and pets?**: Unproven, no testing published

## Pick your question

### Who is watching, and what it keeps

NEO's defining disclosed fact: a human on the feed, and the retention it has not disclosed.

- [Is a human watching through a 1X NEO?](/home-robots/neo-is-a-human-watching.md): Yes in Expert Mode, and 1X discloses it
- [What does a 1X NEO record in your home?](/home-robots/neo-what-it-records.md): A live camera feed is verified; retention is not

### What it costs and whether you can buy one

The concrete ownership path: a verified price and a real, not-yet-shipping pre-order.

- [How much does a 1X NEO cost?](/home-robots/1x-neo-cost.md): $20,000 one-time or $499/month, verified
- [Can you actually buy a 1X NEO?](/home-robots/buying-a-1x-neo.md): Pre-order yes; a home unit not yet

### Whether it is safe at home

The honest safety read: a lighter build, zero NEO incidents, and no published testing.

- [Is a 1X NEO safe around children and pets?](/home-robots/1x-neo-safe-around-kids-pets.md): Unproven; no published testing, zero incidents

## Short answer

People come to the 1X NEO with a mix of questions, who is watching, what it costs, whether they can buy it, whether it is safe, and unlike most home robots, several of those have real answers. NEO is the machine 1X has been most candid about. It ships teleoperation-assisted, so a remote operator can [see through its cameras in Expert Mode](/home-robots/neo-is-a-human-watching.md); it has a verified price of [$20,000 or $499 a month](/home-robots/1x-neo-cost.md); and 1X opened a real pre-order that reportedly sold out year one. That candor is genuinely valuable, and it is double-edged: the same disclosure that makes NEO honest also means a vetted stranger can be on your camera feed. Where the record runs out, we say so: [what NEO keeps of that feed](/home-robots/neo-what-it-records.md), the full ownership terms, and any [home-safety testing](/home-robots/1x-neo-safe-around-kids-pets.md) are undisclosed. Rather than dress those gaps as answers, we split the topic into the questions people search and answer each on its own page, marking every claim verified, claimed, or undisclosed. Below is the router: pick your question and jump to it. For the four-domain receipts view (data, control, security, lifecycle at a glance), the [1X NEO data-collection grid](/home-robots/handbook/neo-data-collection.md) keeps the deeper record. This is general information, not purchasing advice.

## What actually exists today

| What people ask about | Status | The reality |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Who can watch through it | A remote operator, disclosed | NEO ships teleoperation-assisted; in Expert Mode a vetted remote 1X operator sees the camera feed in your home. 1X discloses it and a WSJ hands-on confirmed it. What is retained is undisclosed. |
| What it costs | $20,000 or $499/month | $20,000 to buy or $499 a month, both verified sale prices on the record, unlike the Optimus target. Full ownership terms past the entry price are not disclosed. |
| Whether you can buy one | Pre-order, not in homes yet | You can pre-order, and 1X reportedly sold out year-one capacity; first consumer shipments are planned for late 2026. No consumer-home delivery is confirmed as of mid-2026. |
| Whether it is safe at home | Unproven | 1X has published no child-safety testing. NEO's light 30 kg build is a real design point and it holds zero incidents; the field's incidents sit on the Unitree G1, not NEO. Zero is not proof of safety. |
| How autonomous it really is | ~60 to 70% (1X estimate) | 1X estimates roughly 60 to 70 percent autonomy today, a vendor figure not an independent measurement. The marketing implies full autonomy; the shipping reality is human-in-the-loop. |

## How to read the 1X NEO

A hub for the most disclosed home humanoid has the opposite risk of the Optimus one: not over-reading an absence, but over-crediting a disclosure. Hold both, plus the discipline we apply.

- **The strength: It tells you the truth about itself**: NEO has a real price, a real pre-order, and an open statement that a human drives it in Expert Mode. That is a company describing its product honestly, and it is why this hub can lead with verified answers.
- **The catch: Disclosure is not the same as safe or private**: Knowing a vetted stranger can watch your kitchen is more honest than a silent robot, and it is not privacy. A candid limitation is still a limitation. We credit the honesty without mistaking it for reassurance.
- **The gaps: Retention, terms, and testing are blank**: What NEO keeps of the feed, the full ownership terms, and any home-safety testing are undisclosed. Those are the rows that would bound the risk, and they are absent. We mark them, never fill them.
- **Where it stands: Waiting on the paper trail**: When 1X publishes a retention policy, full ownership terms, or safety testing, the absences below flip and it becomes a dated line here. Until then the honest verdict is a strong record with real gaps.

## What would change these answers

We track this whole family against [the verified 1X NEO record](https://registry.deploy.report/models/1x-neo) so you do not have to. Any one of these moves the verdict on one or more leaves, and each becomes a dated line the week it happens:

- 1X publishes a data-retention and deletion policy for what a remote operator sees.
- 1X confirms the first consumer-home deliveries, or changes the price or ownership terms.
- 1X publishes child-safety or home-safety testing for NEO.
- An independent teardown or audit measures NEO's real autonomy or documents its sensors.
- Scrutiny of a home robot tends to follow real incidents. Right now the verified record holds1 safety incidentfor the 1X NEO itself, and every new one is logged the week it lands.

## How we know this

This hub routes to and summarizes the single-intent leaves; each carries its own sourcing. The spine is the same across all of them: verified for what the record and 1X's own disclosed model hold (teleoperation, price, stage), claimed for dated vendor figures (the autonomy estimate, the reported sell-out), and undisclosed for what 1X has not published (retention, deletion, full terms, safety testing).

- [1X NEO: the verified registry record](https://registry.deploy.report/models/1x-neo) (live)
- [1X Technologies: the maker record](https://registry.deploy.report/companies/1x-technologies) (live)
- [WSJ hands-on with the 1X NEO (a human driving it in the home)](https://www.wsj.com/tech/personal-tech/i-tried-the-robot-thats-coming-to-live-with-you-its-still-part-human-68515d44) (Apr 2025)
- [The 1X NEO data-collection grid (retention and deletion are honest absences)](/home-robots/handbook/neo-data-collection.md) (live)

If 1X publishes what NEO keeps, ships to homes, or releases safety testing, or if you can show us we got a leaf wrong, our corrections process logs the response on the record.

## Common questions

### What should a buyer know about the 1X NEO?

That it is the most disclosed home humanoid and the honesty cuts both ways. NEO has a verified $20,000 or $499-a-month price and a real pre-order, and 1X openly says a remote operator can see through it in Expert Mode at roughly 60 to 70 percent autonomy. What is undisclosed is what it keeps of that feed, the full ownership terms, and any home-safety testing.

### Is the 1X NEO better than a Tesla Optimus?

On what a buyer can verify, NEO is further along: a real price, a pre-order, and candor about the human in the loop. Optimus is earlier, with a target price and almost no home disclosures. But neither is a proven autonomous home robot, and NEO's transparency reveals a remote operator, which is honesty, not privacy.

### Can a remote person really see inside my house with a NEO?

Yes, in Expert Mode, by 1X's own account. A vetted remote 1X operator in a VR headset takes control for tasks NEO cannot do alone and sees its camera feed in your home, confirmed by a WSJ hands-on. What that footage is kept as, and how you delete it, 1X has not disclosed.

### Can I buy a 1X NEO right now?

You can pre-order one at $20,000 or $499 per month, and 1X says it sold out year-one capacity, but you cannot have one in your home yet. First consumer shipments are planned for late 2026, and no consumer-home delivery is confirmed as of mid-2026.

## Keep reading

- [Which home robot discloses the most about your privacy?](/home-robots/most-transparent-home-robot.md): The cross-vendor transparency matrix.
- [Tesla Optimus vs 1X NEO: which is further along?](/home-robots/optimus-vs-1x-neo.md): The head-to-head, side by side.

_Canonical URL: /home-robots/1x-neo. HTML version: [link](/home-robots/1x-neo)._