BUY vs RENT
Buying a Unitree G1? Rent the flagship first.
Three G1s exist. Only the top model is the robot you've seen in the videos — and it lands at roughly NZ$117,000. Try the exact unit before you spend.
Operated · damage cover included · booked online
Three robots, one name
The G1 in the viral clips — dancing, kung-fu, running — is the dexterous-hand flagship. The cheaper models can't do most of it. Here's what each actually costs to buy, landed in NZ/AU (approx, ex GST).
G1 Basic
NZ$30,000 / A$27,500
- Dexterous hands: No
- Programmable: No
Walks and poses. Not the one in the videos.
G1 EDU Standard
NZ$58,000 / A$53,000
- Dexterous hands: No
- Programmable: Yes
Developer unit. Still no five-finger hands.
G1 EDU Ultimate E
NZ$117,000 / A$107,000
- Dexterous hands: Yes — five-finger
- Programmable: Yes
The flagship. This is the robot you've seen.
Buy vs rent, line by line
For the same flagship config you'd rent from us.
The actual math
At our self-service day rate, renting wins until you're using the robot almost daily. The raw-cost crossover — NZ$117k buy price ÷ NZD 449/day — is about 260 days of self-run use just to match the sticker. Over three years that's ~90 use-days a year, every one before you've paid a cent for insurance, storage, repairs, depreciation or an operator.
Use it fewer than ~110 days a year and self-service rental still beats owning — before any of the running costs a rental already covers.
And that crossover is the raw sticker price alone. Counting depreciation, storage, repairs, insurance, obsolescence and operator cost — all bundled into the rental — owning only wins when the G1 is core, near-daily infrastructure.
So who should buy?
Buying makes sense for
- Research labs and universities running it most days
- Robotics companies building on the platform daily
- Teams that need permanent, hands-on access
Renting wins for
- Events, expos, keynotes and activations
- Marketing teams and agencies
- Schools and one-off workshops
- Anyone testing the concept before committing
“Every motion engineered to the millisecond — but the audience didn't see motion. They saw a moment”
Operated · damage cover included · booked online
Per-day pricing
🇳🇿New Zealand
🇦🇺Australia
From prices, ex GST, priced per country. Self-service is unoperated hire; full-service includes a trained operator, delivery and setup. Longer bookings cost less.
Rent the flagship — pricing & availability
Buying questions, answered
Rent it. Test it. Then decide.
Start your rental →Operated · insured · booked online