When can you buy Tesla Optimus, and what will it cost?
Whether Tesla Optimus can be bought or reserved, what Tesla and Elon Musk have said about dates and price, what it does today, and where it is used.
AI-generated image: Internet of Things News / OpenAI ChatGPT
After reading this article you will be able to:
- Tell what Tesla has done with Optimus from what Elon Musk has forecast, with dates
- Explain why the often quoted $20,000 is a forecast of cost, not a price
- Check where Optimus is used today and what an order or reservation would look like
On this page
No. On 31 October 2026 Tesla Optimus cannot be bought or reserved, and Tesla has published no price. Tesla’s Q3 2026 update, filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on 21 October 2026, says “Optimus production began in Fremont”, the Tesla factory in California, while its annual report filed in January 2026 says Tesla has “yet to commercialize” its robots. On the same day’s earnings call, Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, said he expects to deliver Optimus “to companies outside of Tesla” around “the end of next year”, that is late 2027. The often quoted figure of around $20,000 is a forecast by Musk, never a price.
What about reservations? On 30 October 2026 the San Francisco Standard reported that Tesla would open reservations in early December, citing Modar Alaoui, the organizer of a robotics conference, and saying Tesla did not respond to requests for comment. Later that day, asked on X “Optimus ordering coming in December?”, Musk replied “No”. None of Tesla’s filings, press posts or official X accounts checked for this page announces a reservation, an order page or a deposit.
Optimus is a humanoid robot: a robot with a body, two arms and two legs shaped like a person’s, so that it can work in places built for people.
What has Tesla actually said about a release date?
Tesla’s documents report what has happened; Musk’s statements on calls, at events and on X are forecasts. The table keeps the two apart.
| Date | Who, where | What was said | For when | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19 Aug 2021 | Musk, Tesla AI Day | “we’ll probably have a prototype sometime next year” | 2022 | video |
| 30 Sep 2022 | Musk, Tesla AI Day 2022 | Made “in very high volume, probably ultimately millions of units” | No date | video |
| 29 Jan 2025 | Tesla, Q4 2024 update | Work continues “ahead of planned pilot production in 2025” | 2025 | filing |
| 29 Jan 2025 | Musk, earnings call | An internal plan for “roughly 10,000” robots in 2025, “several thousand” likely; deliveries to outside companies “maybe the second half of next year”, a “very rough guess” | 2025; second half of 2026 | video |
| 6 Nov 2025 | Musk, annual shareholder meeting | Production with Optimus version 3 starts the following year | 2026 | video |
| 22 Jan 2026 | Musk, World Economic Forum, Davos | “by the end of next year” Tesla would be “selling humanoid robots to the public”, once reliability and safety are “very high” | End of 2027 | video |
| 28 Jan 2026 | Tesla, Q4 2025 update | Gen 3 to be unveiled “In Q1 of this year”; “start of production planned before the end of 2026”; eventual capacity “1 million robots per year” | 2026 | filing |
| 22 Apr 2026 | Musk, earnings call | Tesla wants to push the Optimus 3 unveiling “closer to production”; start of production “around the late July, August time frame” | Summer 2026 | video |
| 22 Jul 2026 | Tesla, Q2 2026 update | Fremont lines being installed, “where we expect to start production soon” | 2026 | filing |
| 21 Oct 2026 | Tesla, Q3 2026 update | “Optimus production began in Fremont on our high-volume lines” | Done, Tesla says | filing |
| 21 Oct 2026 | Musk, earnings call | Deliveries “to companies outside of Tesla” around “the end of next year”; reaching 20,000 a week takes “at least a year, maybe a little longer” | End of 2027 | video |
| 30 Oct 2026 | Musk, on X | “No”, in reply to “Optimus ordering coming in December?” | n/a | post |
Two patterns stand out. The target for first deliveries outside Tesla moved from the second half of 2026, said in January 2025, to the end of 2027. And the search for this page found no Gen 3 unveiling, planned for the first quarter of 2026, on Tesla’s YouTube channel or on the Tesla Optimus X account by 31 October 2026. Production did start in 2026, as the January update planned.
What will it cost?
Tesla has never published a price, so there is no euro estimate to give. The numbers in circulation all come from Musk, and they are forecasts for a time when Optimus is made in very large numbers:
- 30 September 2022, at AI Day: “probably less than $20,000 would be my guess”.
- 10 October 2024, at the We, Robot event: once Optimus is made at scale, he predicted, it would cost about $20,000 to $30,000 in the long term (video).
- 29 January 2025, on the earnings call: at a million units a year, “the production cost of Optimus will be less than $20,000”, adding that “the price of Optimus will be set by the market demand” (video).
- 6 November 2025, at the shareholder meeting: at about a million units a year, the cost of production would be “around $20,000”, in today’s dollars (video).
Two of the four are about what it costs Tesla to make the robot, not what a buyer would pay. On the October 2026 call, chief financial officer Vaibhav Taneja said it would be “a little too early” to say Tesla had reached its cost goal, because the design is still changing (video).
If a website asks for a deposit or a reservation fee for Optimus, it is not Tesla: Tesla’s own site is the only place an order could be placed, and on 31 October 2026 Tesla had announced none.
What can Optimus do today?
Only what Tesla shows and describes, and none of it has been checked here on a real robot. In September 2023 Tesla posted a video saying “Optimus can now sort objects autonomously”, with a neural network “trained fully end-to-end: video in, controls out”. In July 2024 its Q2 update said Optimus “began performing tasks autonomously in one of our facilities”, its first task “handling batteries”. In October 2024 Tesla published the clip below.
The video loads from YouTube (youtube-nocookie.com) only when you press play; until then the page sends nothing to YouTube.
Tesla’s description says Optimus “can now explore unseen spaces autonomously, avoiding people & obstacles using neural nets”. It does not say whether the clip is sped up.
Live events are a different matter. At We, Robot on 10 October 2024, Optimus robots served drinks and talked with guests. TechCrunch reported on 14 October 2024, citing Bloomberg’s sources, that the robots walked on their own using AI but that Tesla employees working remotely oversaw many of their interactions with guests, and that one robot serving drinks was filmed saying it was “assisted by a human”. That is teleoperation: a person guiding the robot from elsewhere. Musk did not mention it on stage. A few days later Milan Kovac, then in charge of the Optimus program, wrote on X that the robots were “of course” “human assisted to some extent to help showcase our vision of an amazing future”, and that they “walked, balanced and danced on their own” for about four hours.
Musk’s own recent words are cautious. In July 2026 he said the impressive robot demonstrations seen online “are pre-programmed or remote controlled” (video). In October 2026 he said there is “still quite a lot of work to do” on the AI for Optimus “to be truly useful for open-ended tasks” (video), and that Tesla may release a video of Optimus “doing things that are not pre-programmed” in “maybe a month or two” (video). Later on the call, Tesla said the design changes still under way are mostly in the hand (video). What is embodied AI? explains why turning camera images into reliable movements is still hard.
Where is it being used?
Inside Tesla, and on a small scale, from Tesla’s own accounts:
- Factories. In January 2025 Musk expected “several thousand” robots doing useful work in Tesla factories by the end of that year. A year later, on the January 2026 call, he said Optimus was “still in the R&D phase” and not used in Tesla’s factories “in a material way”. At Davos the same month he said some Optimus robots were “doing simple tasks in the factory”.
- Training. The Q2 2026 update says the first robots off the new line “will be used in our Optimus Academy for training data collection”. In October 2026 Musk said Tesla needs to make 10,000 to 20,000 robots and have them practise tasks there (video).
- Production. The Q3 2026 update lists the Fremont Optimus line as “Early Ramp” and a second factory in Texas as under construction.
- Public appearances. The Tesla Optimus X account has announced the robot “returning to work at Tesla Diner”, Tesla’s restaurant, for example on 5 May 2026.
No Tesla document reports Optimus working for a customer. Musk said on 21 October 2026 that the first customers will “probably” be “industrial applications at first”, such as dangerous, repetitive work, and that “as we scale production” it would become something people can buy for their homes (video).
Will it come to Europe and Italy?
Tesla has not said. None of the filings, quarterly updates and calls checked for this page names a country, Italy included, or a date for selling Optimus outside the United States, and Tesla gives no price in euros or dollars.
Any robot sold in the EU, wherever it is made, has to carry CE marking, the maker’s declaration that it meets EU rules, which the European Commission says “also applies to products made in other countries that are sold in the EEA”. The new EU Machinery Regulation applies “on a mandatory basis as of 20 January 2027”, according to the Commission, and adds rules for safety functions that rely on AI. Whether and how Tesla would meet them for Optimus, it has not said.
Where to go next
- The humanoid robot tracker lists every humanoid robot announced worldwide, with its status, the maker’s price and the date of the last check.
- Humanoid robots: the complete guide explains what humanoids can do today, what they cost and when they will really arrive.
- Chinese humanoid robots lists the humanoids from China that can be ordered today, with prices from the makers’ shops.
- Can you buy a humanoid robot for your home? compares the humanoids that can be ordered, with prices from the makers’ own sites.
- 1X NEO explained covers the home humanoid already on pre-order and how much of it is remotely guided.
- What is embodied AI? explains how robots learn to turn images into movements.
- Home robots, cameras and remote operators explains what remote operation means for privacy.
Common questions
How much does Tesla Optimus cost?
There is no price. Tesla has not published one, and on 31 October 2026 it had no order page. The figures that circulate, from under $20,000 to $30,000, are Elon Musk's forecasts of what Optimus could cost once it is made by the million, some of them for production cost rather than for the price a buyer would pay.
When will Optimus be available for purchase?
Tesla has given no date. On 21 October 2026 Musk said he expects deliveries to companies outside Tesla around the end of 2027, mostly for industrial work at first, and that homes would come as production grows. Earlier targets, such as deliveries in the second half of 2026, have already moved.
Can you buy or pre-order Optimus now?
No. Tesla has announced no sale, pre-order or reservation. A report on 30 October 2026 said reservations could open in early December; asked about it on X, Musk replied "No". Tesla's own website would be the only place an order could be placed, so a site that asks for a deposit on Optimus is not Tesla.
Is Optimus controlled by humans?
Tesla describes some of its videos as autonomous, for example the robot sorting objects or finding its way through rooms. At the We, Robot event in October 2024, reports based on Bloomberg's sources said Tesla employees remotely oversaw many of the robots' interactions with guests, and Milan Kovac, then in charge of the Optimus program, wrote on X a few days later that the robots were "human assisted to some extent". Musk said in October 2026 that he wants to release a video of Optimus doing things that are not pre-programmed.
When will Tesla Optimus come to Italy and Europe?
Tesla has not said. None of its filings, quarterly updates or calls checked for this page mentions a country other than the United States for Optimus. A robot sold in the EU would also need CE marking and, from 20 January 2027, to meet the new Machinery Regulation.
Topics: robotics, Tesla Optimus, humanoid robots