Spot: Boston Dynamics’ four-legged robot, first sold for $74,500

Spot is a four-legged walking robot made by Boston Dynamics. It went on sale in 2020, and about 2,000 units are now in operation at industrial sites, police departments and elsewhere.

A knee-high quadruped, first sold in 2020

Spot is a four-legged walking robot made by Boston Dynamics of Boston, USA. Leases to selected companies began in September 2019 through an Early Adopter Program, and about 150 units went out that way. From 16 June 2020 any US business could buy one for $74,500, with a limit of two per customer. That September sales expanded to the EU, the UK and Canada. Spot is 1.1 m long, weighs 32.5 kg, carries up to 14 kg on its back and runs for about 90 minutes.

From oil platforms to bomb squads

Spot has been used on construction sites, on BP’s offshore oil platform and in AB InBev and Michelin factories. The UK Atomic Energy Authority took it to Chernobyl, and NASA JPL used it in the DARPA Subterranean Challenge. In June 2021 Hyundai Motor Group took an 80% stake from SoftBank. Police use proved controversial. In April 2021 the NYPD sent back "Digidog", leased for $94,000, after public backlash. The NYPD later bought two robots and brought the program back, and by 2025 more than 60 bomb squads and SWAT teams in the US and Canada were using Spot.

From 500 to 2,000

The company’s figures for robots in the field rose from about 500 in April 2021 to about 2,000 in November 2025. As the Boston Globe put it: "Roughly 2,000 Spot units are now in operation globally, Boston Dynamics said." Prices rose too. A 2025 report put the starting price at around $100,000, and the Massachusetts State Police paid about $250,000 per unit with add-ons. Civil-liberties groups, including the EFF, continue to raise privacy concerns about police use. The company has not certified Spot for use in homes or around children.

Same four legs, different workplaces

AIBO and Spot both walk on four legs, but Spot was sold as work equipment, not as a companion. Industrial sites accepted a price few households could, and five years after sales began about 2,000 units were in operation. As its uses spread, questions its maker had not settled, such as police use, grew with them.

Who decides what a robot is for: the company that makes it, or the people who buy it?

What we haven’t confirmed

When Spot was first shown, and how it relates to earlier prototypes (Spot, SpotMini)
Total units sold (Boston Dynamics’ own blog gives both 100 and “1000+”)
The current official price
How use is split across industries