Realbotix Sells a Talking Torso for $11,950 — and Eyes Cost Extra

Realbotix, a robotics company based in Las Vegas, is selling a head-and-torso companionship robot called Echo for $11,950, and the base model cannot see you. Eye contact, facial recognition, the ability to know who is in the room — none of it ships standard. That capability comes from an optional vision system with cameras mounted in the robot's eyes, priced at $24,950, more than double the robot itself.

The cost logic is blunt. Realbotix stripped out the most expensive hardware — joints, limbs, legs — and kept the parts that talk. Echo runs AI conversational software designed to hold discussions, with silicone-skinned faces the company describes as lifelike and voices it calls natural-sounding. Four models are in development: Aria, Mila, Dave and Amar.

"Every Echo talks, listens, and reacts with a personality of its own," the company writes. Take that claim with a grain of salt. The demonstration video circulating for the product appears to be AI-generated rather than actual footage, so what prospective buyers have seen of the robot's behavior may not be footage of a robot at all.

What does the full-body option add?

For buyers who want more than a torso, Realbotix offers a full-body version at $59,950. What it actually does beyond the torso is vague. The company says it can move its arms, but details on what that adds functionally — manipulation, gestures, mobility — are absent from the product materials. Five times the price for arms is a hard sell without a clearer answer.

How much does conversation cost per month?

The hardware is only half the bill. Echo conversation runs on a subscription, and even talking is metered:

• Base, $20/month — 10 hours of conversation. That's it.
• Plus, $40/month — 40 hours of chatter, "more expressive voices," 100-plus languages or accents, and the ability to "edit" the robot's personality.
• Enterprise, $200/month — 100 hours of talk, the "smartest" AI model, tools to create your own characters, and hooks to connect the robot to your own AI models.

Do the arithmetic on the base tier: 10 hours a month works out to roughly 20 minutes of conversation a day. A companion that goes quiet after the evening news is a stretch of the word "companionship," and Realbotix does not say what happens when the hours run out.

When do the robots ship?

Reservations are open now at $200 per unit, with the company stating delivery next year. No specific month, no production figures, no refund terms for the deposit have been disclosed. The gap between a $200 deposit and a nearly $12,000 robot, plus a perpetual subscription, leaves plenty of room for questions the company has not yet answered.

If the AI video demo reflects real capability, Echo may find buyers among users who want conversation without the mechanical complexity that drives humanoid robots past $50,000. Until independent footage exists, every claim about lifelike faces and natural voices rests on the company's own marketing.