What is the difference between NEO and Tesla Optimus?

NEO and Tesla Optimus are both humanoid robots on the DEPLOY registry. They differ in maker, maturity, price, verified deployments, and how much of their autonomy is independently verified. See the table above for the full head-to-head; each figure is sourced.

Which is cheaper, NEO or Tesla Optimus?

NEO has the lower recorded price on the DEPLOY registry than Tesla Optimus. Prices are sourced; see each record for whether the figure is a manufacturer target, an estimate, or an actual sale price.

Is NEO or Tesla Optimus more autonomous?

On the DEPLOY registry, neither NEO nor Tesla Optimus has capabilities independently verified as fully autonomous yet; their recorded capabilities are teleoperated-assisted, demonstrated, or vendor-claimed. See the table for each capability's verification status.

Which has more verified deployments, NEO or Tesla Optimus?

NEO has more verified deployments (3) on the DEPLOY registry than Tesla Optimus (2). DEPLOY counts a deployment only when confirmed at a named site with a primary source.

Buying guide

NEO vs Tesla Optimus in 2026

Comparing 2 humanoid robots across availability, pricing, capabilities, and verified deployments. Current as of 2026.

Key differences

NEO has the lower recorded price.
NEO has more verified real-world deployments (3 vs 2).

Attribute	NEO View full model page →	Tesla Optimus View full model page →
Manufacturer	1X Technologies	Tesla
Form factor	humanoid	humanoid
Maturity	pilot	pilot
Autonomy	◐ not independently verified	◐ not independently verified
Availability	preorder-openpreorder	announced-no-dateannounced
Price	$499/month subscription (manufacturer target) or $20,000 (manufacturer target) or $499/month subscription (actual sale price) or $20,000 (actual sale price)	$20,000-$30,000 (manufacturer target)
Capability claims	Tidies a room (teleoperated-assisted, demonstrated-once) Fetches items (teleoperated-assisted, demonstrated-once) Does dishes (teleoperated-assisted, demonstrated-once) Elderly assistance (teleoperated-assisted, claimed) Watches a pet (teleoperated-assisted, claimed) Prepares meals (teleoperated-assisted, claimed)	Folds laundry (teleoperated-assisted, teleoperated-in-demo) Tidies a room (demo-only, demonstrated-once)
Brain	1X World Model (world-model) Redwood AI (foundation-model)	Tesla FSD-Bot (foundation-model) Grok (xAI) (foundation-model)
Verified deployments	3	2Tesla, Tesla
Privacy practices	11Face blurring, Restricted zones, Session approval, data-retention, third-party-sharing, data-deletion-control, data-sale, capture-indicator, bystander-recording, training-data-use, on-device-processing	—
Sources on file	34	25

Editorial summaries

NEO

1X is the only humanoid maker in this cohort betting on the consumer market at price-of-a-car scale, distinct from the enterprise-integration contracts that define Figure, Apptronik, and Agility. The hardware is verified: NEO is a bipedal humanoid shipping to early-adopter households, backed by a Hayward, California vertical-manufacturing facility, with the wheeled EVE archived as the prior product line. The open question is utility at scale: 1X describes home-task performance today as a mix of supervised autonomy on learned chores and remote-operator teleop on the rest, an honest framing that also signals how much of the daily-use envelope is still operator-assisted.

Tesla Optimus

Tesla Optimus is the canonical example of the verified-vs-claimed gap in commercial humanoid robotics. Tesla has shown Optimus in choreographed demos, internal-facility deployment, and consumer-marketing contexts, but no verified third-party customer deployments and no shipped consumer units exist as of 2026. The price ($20,000 to $30,000) is a manufacturer target contingent on high-volume production that has not yet begun. Optimus units inside Tesla facilities count as manufacturer pilot, not commercial deployment under DEPLOY's maker-facility rule.

Common questions

What is the difference between NEO and Tesla Optimus?: NEO and Tesla Optimus are both humanoid robots on the DEPLOY registry. They differ in maker, maturity, price, verified deployments, and how much of their autonomy is independently verified. See the table above for the full head-to-head; each figure is sourced.
Which is cheaper, NEO or Tesla Optimus?: NEO has the lower recorded price on the DEPLOY registry than Tesla Optimus. Prices are sourced; see each record for whether the figure is a manufacturer target, an estimate, or an actual sale price.
Is NEO or Tesla Optimus more autonomous?: On the DEPLOY registry, neither NEO nor Tesla Optimus has capabilities independently verified as fully autonomous yet; their recorded capabilities are teleoperated-assisted, demonstrated, or vendor-claimed. See the table for each capability's verification status.
Which has more verified deployments, NEO or Tesla Optimus?: NEO has more verified deployments (3) on the DEPLOY registry than Tesla Optimus (2). DEPLOY counts a deployment only when confirmed at a named site with a primary source.

Recent coverage

NEO / NEOUSDT Bullish Setup | Futures Trade IdeaNEO · TradingView · 2026-07-13
VAST Data targets KV cache storage and neoclouds as AI infrastructure enters the exabyte eraNEO · SiliconANGLE · 2026-07-10
Tesla leases 683,000 sq ft Austin building in Musk’s Texas sweepTesla Optimus · Electrek · 2026-07-08
Tesla launches ‘Tesla Home’ with Opticaster AI to cut power billsTesla Optimus · Electrek · 2026-07-08

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