Reachy Mini Review: $299 Open Desktop Robot

What Reachy Mini Is

Reachy Mini is a desktop robot you build in an afternoon and then write apps for. Most readers arrive wanting a robot that does a job, and it is not that.

Pollen Robotics designs it and Hugging Face sells it, following the April 2025 acquisition. It ships as a kit that takes two to three hours to assemble, and Hugging Face publishes that figure directly rather than burying it.

There are two versions and one simulator. Reachy Mini Lite is $399 and connects over USB to a Mac or Linux computer. Reachy Mini Wireless is $499 and runs onboard. The MuJoCo simulation path needs no hardware at all, so you can write and test an app before buying either.

What Reachy Mini Can Do

Reachy Mini expresses rather than acts, which is the point of it. It has six degrees of freedom in the head, one rotation in the body, and two antennas, and none of that moves the robot anywhere.

Sensing is built for a person sitting at a desk. Both versions carry the same 120 degree, 12-megapixel autofocus camera and the same four-microphone array, so a Reachy Mini can see the whole desk and hear a person across it.

The two versions sense identically. Paying $499 instead of $399 does not buy a better camera or better microphones, and knowing that removes the most common reason people talk themselves into the Wireless.

The motion hardware is shared too. Both run a six-motor Stewart platform for the head, one base motor, and two antenna motors, all Dynamixel units. The Lite is 1.350 kg and the Wireless is 1.475 kg, and the difference is the battery and the compute module.

The published apps show the shape of the thing. There is a conversation app driven by language models, a radio app, and a hand tracker that follows your hand in real time. Each installs in one click from Hugging Face Spaces. That is a far lower barrier than cloning a repository.

Hugging Face put the Reachy Mini install base at nearly 10,000 units in the wild in May 2026, alongside more than 200 community apps from over 150 creators. That number matters more than any spec, because it is why the app store has anything in it.

Building Apps for Reachy Mini

The recommended path is a web app that drives the robot over WebRTC from a browser, with nothing for the end user to install. That choice makes sharing an app trivial, and it is unusual for a robot at this price.

A Python software development kit (SDK) handles on-robot control loops. The documented example runs to a few lines: open a connection, build a head pose, move to it over a set duration. If you have written any Python, you can move the robot on the first evening.

Everything on the software side is Apache-2.0. The hardware design files are published under a Creative Commons BY-SA-NC licence, so you can study, print, and modify the mechanical parts, and the non-commercial clause limits selling derivatives.

That combination puts Reachy Mini ahead of its sibling on openness. Microduck's software is equally open and its mechanical and electronic designs are not published at all, which our Microduck versus Reachy Mini comparison works through in full.

The Two-to-Three-Hour Assembly

Reachy Mini arrives as a kit, and two to three hours is a real commitment on a weeknight. Hugging Face states the figure up front, and buyers still miss it, because a $399 robot reads like a finished product.

The build is mechanical rather than electronic, with step-by-step guides published per platform. There is no soldering in the documented process, which puts it within reach of someone who has assembled flat-pack furniture and has patience with small screws.

Budget the time before you order, particularly for a classroom. Thirty kits is ninety hours of assembly, and that is a term's worth of lessons or a very long Saturday for a technician.

If a ready-to-run machine matters more than the price, note that Hugging Face has not published an assembly requirement for Microduck and describes it as a finished product. Confirm the format on the Microduck product page before assuming it.

What Reachy Mini Costs Beyond the Purchase

Reachy Mini has fewer hidden costs than most robots at this price, and the two that exist are worth naming before you order.

The Lite version's real requirement is a computer you are willing to leave connected. It runs on a Mac or Linux machine over USB, so a Windows-only household has no cheap route in and should treat the $499 Wireless as the actual entry price.

Language-model apps are the second cost. The conversation app is driven by language models, and running one against a hosted API means paying per request rather than a flat fee. Local models avoid that and need a machine capable of running them.

There is no announced subscription for the robot itself, and the app store on Hugging Face Spaces does not charge for the published apps. For a $399 device with an app ecosystem, that is unusually clean.

Where Reachy Mini Sits in the Hugging Face Lineup

Hugging Face now sells three distinct robot experiences, and they do not overlap much. Knowing which question each answers prevents buying the wrong one.

Reachy Mini answers the interaction question: a robot that sits with you and runs apps. Microduck answers the locomotion question at $399, a walking machine with a reinforcement-learning training stack. The SO-101 arm answers the manipulation question, paired with the LeRobot library and taught by demonstration.

Reachy 2 sits above all three as a full research humanoid for labs, at a price that puts it outside consumer consideration entirely.

For most readers the practical choice is Reachy Mini or Microduck, and it comes down to whether your project moves. Our SO-101 robot arm guide covers the manipulation route if neither fits.

Who Should Not Buy Reachy Mini

Skip Reachy Mini if you want a robot that moves around. It is stationary by design, so anything involving navigation, terrain, or locomotion needs a different machine, and our Microduck review covers the walking option from the same company.

Skip it if you will not write code. Without an app to build, Reachy Mini is an expressive object that runs three or four demos, and Eilik or a similar companion robot delivers more for less. Our desktop companion robot review covers those.

Buyers of the Lite should confirm their computer first. It needs a Mac or Linux machine over USB, so a Windows-only household is buying the $499 Wireless version whether they planned to or not.

What would change our answer is a mobile base or a gripper accessory. Reachy Mini's ceiling today is that it cannot touch or reach anything, and a first-party arm or base would move it from an expressive robot to a useful one.

Our Verdict on the Two Versions

The Lite at $399 is the right first purchase for most people. It costs less, it does the same expressive work, and being tethered rarely matters on a desk where a computer already sits.

The wireless Reachy Mini at $499 earns its extra $100 in exactly one situation. The robot has to leave the desk it was set up on. Demos, classrooms, reception areas, and shared spaces all need the onboard Raspberry Pi CM4 and the battery.

Weight is the quieter argument. The Wireless is 1.475 kg against the Lite's 1.350 kg, because it carries a LiFePO4 battery and a compute module the Lite leaves on your desk.

Either way, start in the simulator. It costs nothing, it runs the same SDK, and an evening in MuJoCo tells you whether you want the hardware at all. Our LeRobot guide covers the wider Hugging Face robotics stack this sits inside.