Galbot ET1: A 32 kg Walking Robot in Three Versions, From ¥79,000 to ¥179,000

Galbot's ET1 is a bipedal humanoid that the company lists at 1.25 m and 32 kg including battery, with 26 degrees of freedom. QbitAI reported it in three versions at 79,000, 139,000 and 179,000 yuan, and as of 12 October 2026 Galbot has not confirmed those prices on a page we can point to. Pre-orders opened on 3 September 2026.

What is the Galbot ET1?

The ET1 is Galbot's first small bipedal humanoid, released during the World Robot Conference in Beijing, which opened on 19 August 2026. In plain terms: a 1.25 m robot that walks, dances and talks, with the higher tiers adding learning features.

The robot's Chinese name is 银河星仔. The base version supports dance, performance and natural-language interaction, according to QbitAI. The Pro adds active learning, planning and a "watch and learn" mode, and offers optional dexterous hands. The Flagship opens more secondary development and customisation.

What is Galbot's thesis?

Galbot's bet is that a general "brain" matters more than any single body. Xinhua reports the ET1 carries AstraBrain-Agent, which the company describes as fully in-house. The company says the robot can learn new motions by interacting with people, without motion capture or video data.

At the same event, founder and CTO Wang He said the team achieved fully autonomous robot tennis in March and released a general "cerebellum" foundation model in June. He also predicted a "ChatGPT moment" for embodied AI in 2028. These are company statements about the future, not results anyone has tested.

How is Galbot funded?

Galbot was founded in May 2023. TechNode reported on 2 March 2026 that it completed a round of RMB 2.5 billion (about $350 million). Investors named include the China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, Sinopec, CITIC-affiliated investment entities and SAIC Motor's financial arm, with existing shareholders also taking part.

TechNode also reports a separate December 2025 round of over $300 million at a valuation exceeding RMB 20 billion. No valuation was reported for the March round. The company says it has orders for several thousand units from CATL, Bosch, Toyota, BAIC Group and SAIC Motor, though that figure is not specific to the ET1.

What are the Galbot ET1's specifications?

The company-stated figures below come from Galbot's spec page as relayed by Humanoids Daily, cross-checked against QbitAI and Gasgoo. None has been independently measured.

Sources disagree on size. Gasgoo gives 1,230 mm and 30 kg, a small gap from the spec-page figures. The headline of this article uses 32 kg because it comes from the spec page.

How does the Galbot ET1 work?

The ET1 splits control into two layers. A whole-body controller, called AstraBrain-WBC by Gasgoo and the "general cerebellum" in Chinese coverage, handles balance and movement. Gasgoo says it was trained on 100,000 hours of human motion data, while QbitAI cites 1,000,000 hours. The two figures conflict, so treat either as an unverified company claim.

On top sits AstraBrain-Agent, which handles perception, interaction and learning. Humanoids Daily describes the learning abilities as "advertised capabilities" that the pricing announcement does not verify. The joints use motor solutions from Unitree, per Gasgoo, and QbitAI says the two companies developed the robot jointly.

In practice: the lower tier is a performing robot, while the Pro and Flagship pay for onboard compute that runs the learning and planning software.

How does the ET1 compare with other small humanoids?

The ET1 is priced as a premium small humanoid. Cheaper rivals exist, though the sources for them vary in quality.

The R1 has nearly the same height and DoF as the ET1, and Unitree lists a battery life of about one hour. The ET1's argument rests on software and compute tiers, not body size. Bumi and K1 are shorter and lighter, closer to education and hobby use. Bumi and K1 figures come from a third-party database, so confirm them with Noetix and Booster before buying.

Where will people actually use this?

Coverage points mainly at entertainment and development. The base ET1 targets dance, performance and conversation. The Flagship targets people who want to write their own software on top of a 100 TOPS module. Pro buyers get the learning features Galbot is marketing.

Likely buyers include researchers, robotics educators, exhibition operators and developers. Household chores are not among the uses described, and neither payload nor hand capability is published for the base model.

What's still unclear?

• Prices: The three prices trace to one exclusive from QbitAI, repeated by Humanoids Daily as "reportedly". No Galbot page confirming them has been found.
• Hands: Dexterous hands are described as optional on Pro and Flagship, so the headline prices may exclude them.
• Runtime, speed, payload, delivery: None has been published.
• Training data: 100,000 hours (Gasgoo) versus 1,000,000 hours (QbitAI).
• Learning claims: Zero-shot learning and "watch and learn" are company claims with no independent test. Wang He's 2028 prediction is a forecast.
• Weakest point: At 32 kg and 26 DoF, the ET1's body is close to that of Unitree's cheaper R1. Its case depends on whether AstraBrain delivers what Galbot advertises.

Should you buy it or wait?

Wait for independent reviews and a confirmed price page unless you need the platform for development now. The base model's dance and conversation features are the easiest to judge from video. The Pro and Flagship cost roughly 1.8 and 2.3 times as much and rest on learning claims nobody outside Galbot has verified.

If you do pre-order, ask Galbot in writing whether the dexterous hands, battery and shipping are included in the quoted price.