Unitree G1 vs Tesla Optimus vs Figure 02 — 2026 Humanoid Comparison

In short: for most teams in Kazakhstan and the CIS, the only realistically available humanoid today is the Unitree G1. Tesla Optimus is sold only inside Tesla Motors and a few exclusive partners in the US. Figure 02 is a B2B-exclusive for BMW, Microsoft and a few large clients. G1 has an open SDK; developers get the platform in any country via distributors — which is why Unitree has become the de-facto standard in research and education globally.

This comparison is for research labs, universities, tech startups, industrial R&D teams and investors in robotics. We break down three platforms across 8 parameters, outline use cases and recommend which platform fits which job.

Comparison table: G1 vs Optimus vs Figure 02

Aspect-by-aspect breakdown

Mobility and physical capabilities

G1 is the lightest and most agile of the three, which makes it convenient for education and fast development in a small lab. Optimus and Figure 02 are larger, closer to an adult human in size — a plus for mimicking human workstations on a factory floor. All three demonstrate walking on uneven ground, turns and lifting objects. G1 publicly performs acrobatics (flips, boxing); Optimus and Figure show this less often in demos.

Manipulation and hands

G1 has a choice of hands via the Unitree ecosystem: Dex3-1 (3 fingers, 7 DOF) or Dex5-1P (5 fingers, 20 DOF, 94 tactile sensors). That's flexibility for different tasks. Optimus and Figure 02 have proprietary closed hand systems built for specific integrations (Tesla — manufacturing, Figure — warehouse logistics). For a researcher, the Unitree choice is again better: you can buy separately and swap.

AI stack and autonomy

Tesla Optimus and Figure 02 are positioned as "fully autonomous" with their own vision-language-action (VLA) models. G1 in EDU configuration ships with NVIDIA Jetson Orin (up to 100 TOPS) and an open SDK to integrate any VLA model: OpenVLA, RT-2, Pi-zero, π0.5. That means: the team builds the AI layer for its own task, with full freedom. In research, that's a critical edge.

Community, ecosystem, citation

Unitree on GitHub: open SDKs, examples, MuJoCo and Isaac Sim scenarios, active developer community. Optimus / Figure — closed code, minimal public materials, access only via commercial agreements. In academia, Unitree is cited orders of magnitude more often precisely because of availability and openness — papers about G1 implementations appear at IROS, ICRA, CoRL.

When to pick which

If you're a research team, university, lab, Embodied AI startup or R&D project — go Unitree G1. Available, open code, support, and basic and EDU options across budgets. If you're Tesla Motors or BMW and can sign an exclusive B2B contract with a US manufacturer for 5–10 years — that's a different conversation. For everyone else in 2026, G1 is the only practical option.

humanoid

Unitree G1

Гуманоидный AI-аватар

Basic — for shows, presentations, demos. EDU U1–U7 — for development and research with the full SDK.

humanoid

Unitree G1-D

End-to-End платформа для гуманоидных роботов

VR-teleop data-collection version — the standard for imitation learning training.

accessory

Unitree Dex5-1P

Тактильная 5-палая декстерная рука

5-finger hand, 20 DOF, 94 tactile sensors — for manipulation research.

Frequently asked questions