Cleaning by a humanoid robot is no longer a living-room video: it is a bookable service. And it has a displayed rate: $30 US dollars an hour, made public on 28 July 2026 by Tau Robotics, a company based in San Francisco. It only operates in that city, by invitation, and comes with a consideration not stated in the price: the robot continuously records the entire duration of the visit, with cameras on its head and wrists, and the company keeps the footage.

How much does it cost, and how do you get in?

Here is what La Razón reports, our only source on this point. The hour is the minimum unit, paid in full at the time of booking via the Stripe payment platform. Cancellation is free up to 24 hours before the visit, half-refunded within the 24 hours preceding it, and not refunded at all if no one opens the door. Another rule: an adult must be present for the entire visit. Tau keeps neither keys nor access codes and does not clean an empty home.

Access is closed: only by invitation, for a first circle of clients. You sign up on a waiting list by providing your email address and neighbourhood. A code arrives when a spot opens up near your home (India Today).

The robot is not in sole control

Central point, yet absent from the displayed rate: these humanoids are not autonomous. They are teleoperated, meaning they are piloted remotely. A human operator and an artificial intelligence (AI) command them jointly. Alexander Koch writes this himself on the day of the announcement: “each humanoid is jointly controlled by a human operator and an AI”. And he clarifies to ABC7 that current technology does not allow an AI to pilot a humanoid alone in a home. This is not a minor detail: during the hour of cleaning, there is a human in the loop.

What can it do, and what does it miss?

Alexander Koch himself sets the limits of his robots. What already works:

  • vacuuming hardwood floors and carpets;
  • wiping a worktop;
  • taking out the bins;
  • putting away clutter.

What remains difficult: picking up objects from the floor, cleaning under furniture, handling fragile items. The big stuff, yes; the delicate, no. Ken Goldberg, professor of engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, is more severe: “it is really too early”, he says, and he doubts these machines will do useful work in a home.

Chelsea, Elon and Tony

Tau offers three configurations, with first names. Chelsea is offered for the kitchen and bathroom with non-toxic products, Elon for regular weekly visits, Tony for deep cleaning of corners and window tracks. These are the formulas displayed by Tau, not measured performances — and they partly overlap with what Koch himself describes as difficult. Same appearance for all three, only the face colour changes: white, purple, green. The company announces on its site that after a few visits, the Elon configuration knows where objects are supposed to be stored and puts them back in place instead of stacking them. This is a commercial claim by Tau, which no one has verified independently.

The real price is the video from your home

The robot continuously records the entire visit, with cameras placed on its head and wrists, and these recordings are used to train Tau’s AI models. This is not optional: the service policy, published on 27 July 2026, states it in black and white and explains that this is precisely the reason for the rate charged. No “cameras off” formula is offered.

The rest is harsher. Videos shot at the client’s home enter training without face blurring, under a licence that Tau qualifies as perpetual, worldwide and free, and which survives account closure (Tech Times). The company acknowledges this itself: a trained model cannot be untrained — you cannot make it forget what it has learned. A deletion request stops future uses, it does not erase the influence of your images on the model’s parameters.

India Today also notes that Tau does not explain how this shared control between human and AI actually works, nor what privacy guarantees are in place. The media outlet compares the setup to the 1X Technologies NEO, which allows, for its part, to define restricted zones for the human operator and blur faces on images seen by the robot.

Neither €25 nor ₹3,000

Two figures circulate, neither of which exists. The “€25 an hour” is a conversion made by the Spanish newspaper La Razón: neither the rate nor the company are Spanish. The Indian service at “₹3,000” does not exist either. The India Today article of 29 July 2026 describes Tau Robotics’ American service, and its editorial team converted the $30 into “roughly ₹3,000”. The service remains limited to San Francisco and is not offered in India.

And where does the body come from?

Under the cameras, a Unitree G1, a Chinese humanoid about 1.3 metres tall and weighing 35 kilograms, whose base price is around $13,500 US dollars according to Tech Times, our only source on this figure. Tau adds its own cameras, grippers and onboard computers. Ironic detail: the service was launched on the same day that the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) banned new equipment authorisations in the United States for advanced foreign-made robotic devices — mobile robots, humanoids and quadrupeds. A measure that does not call into question already homologated units. And if you feel like buying the machine rather than the hour of cleaning, we have dedicated an article to the cost of a humanoid bought and delivered in France.

Is it coming to us?

Nothing announces it. The service does not go beyond San Francisco, no extension calendar is published, and even on site you need an invitation and an adult at home. The machine exists, it really does vacuum, but it is not autonomous: it is jointly controlled by a human operator and an AI. A camera runs from start to finish, and what you buy at $30 an hour, you also pay for in footage from your home.