Robot vacuums are impressive devices that will clean your floors well without complaining (much). As prices have dropped, these busy little bots have become less of a luxury and more of a necessity. They can reach places most standup vacs never see (under beds and sofas) and, thanks to better batteries and robot brains, they rarely get tired of cleaning.
I’ve been testing robot vacuums for seven years and have run over 60 robot vacuums all over my house. These are my top picks if you’re looking for the best: a robot vacuum that can do it all without getting stuck and with limited intervention from you.
I’ve also got options to fit specific needs, such as mopping, tackling small spaces, or besting pet hair. Check out my budget robot vacuum guide if you want to spend under $500 on a robot vacuum. Here, we’re going to look at the premium options.
While there’s been a lot of innovation in robot vacuums in recent years, we’re still far from that Rosey the Robot dream of a robot that can handle all the household chores (or stairs). But they’ve got floors down. Today, there are robots that can mop well, charging docks that empty the bin for you, and “hands-free” models that can refill their water tanks and wash their mops so you don’t have to. The biggest improvements, however, are in mapping and obstacle avoidance, two crucial skills that mean most robot vacuums today can avoid getting tripped up by your shoes and will get the job done.
Despite all these innovations, there still isn’t one robot that excels at both mopping and vacuuming. For most people, the vacuum is the thing to focus on; I consider mopping a bonus feature. I prefer a powerful vacuum for my main rooms and one that excels at mopping for rooms like the bathroom or kitchen.
The good news is that robovacs are constantly on sale; I wouldn’t pay the list price unless you want the latest model. The general range is around $500 for a standalone vacuum with good features and between $1,000 and $1,800 for an all-singing, all-dancing bot that can largely take care of itself and use AI to avoid common household clutter in its quest to clean your floors.
There are many options, and whether you have a 3,000-square-foot home and three shaggy dogs or a small, stylish apartment you share with a goldfish, there’s a robot vacuum to suit your needs.
What I look for Superior cleaning power Collapse It’s not all about suction. In my testing, the brush is the big factor in how well a robot will clean your floors. A large rubber roller brush is much better than a small bristle brush at picking up debris. It’s also less prone to getting tangled up with hair. Two brushes are better than one, and a brush housing that has some flexibility — and can move with the contours of the floor — is also more effective. Mopping prowess Collapse It’s hard to find a robot vac that doesn’t have some form of mopping, but not all mops are created equal. I looked for mopping bots that could get up dried-on stains, like milk and ketchup, and scrub up small wet spills without messing themselves up. Oscillating, spinning, or vibrating mop pads clean better than bots that just drag a wet rag around, but the new self-cleaning roller mops that are beginning to appear are even more effective. Auto-carpet sensing is also important since it prevents the robot from accidentally mopping your rug. A big bin ... Collapse A big bin means you don’t need to empty it as often. The largest I’ve seen is 800ml, but anything over 500ml is decent. With many bots now pulling double duty as mopping robots, plus the popularity of self-empty dock / charging bases, it’s getting harder to find small robot vacs with big bins. But they’re worth considering — especially if you have carpets and pets. I love self-empty docks, but sometimes you don’t have space for them, and if you like your robot to be out of sight (living under your bed or sofa), you’ll want a big bin and no dock. ... Or a self-empty dock Collapse These are becoming standard now and coming down in price (thankfully). A self-empty dock turns the charging base for your robot into a motorized emptying station that sucks out the dirt from its bin. (Warning: this process is loud!) This saves you from having to pull out the bin after every few runs and empty it yourself. Instead, you’ll have to replace the bag (and buy new ones) when it gets full, generally about once a month. Many robots now have a self-empty dock option you can add later, although buying them together is generally cheaper. AI-powered obstacle avoidance Collapse Another nice-to-have feature, AI-powered obstacle avoidance helps your robot “intelligently” avoid clutter (and a potential poop apocalypse if it encounters pet waste). These models use cameras (worth noting) to see objects in their path and onboard processors to “decide” how to approach them based on what they see. All AI is not created equal, however, and some are much better at this than others, but the end result is robot vacuums with AI avoidance are less likely to get stuck when cleaning, so you’re more likely to come home to a clean floor rather than a beached bot. Reliable mapping Collapse A robot that maps your house will get into every nook and cranny better than one that bumps and rolls around. Mapping also lets you send the robot to clean specific rooms rather than the whole space and add virtual walls to prevent your bot from going where you don’t want it to. These are crucial if you have delicate objects or areas in your home that regularly trap robots. Most robots use variations on simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) technology such as lidar or VSLAM. Easy-to-use app and voice control Collapse A good app has easy controls to stop and start your vacuum, scheduling options (including do-not disturb hours), plus good mapping features. Nice-to-have features are room-specific cleaning and settings (so you can tell your vacuum to clean the kitchen or have it mop and vacuum the kitchen but only vacuum the living room). My biggest frustration with apps is maps that are fiddly to update and / or crash and must be rebuilt constantly. Most vacuums now have voice control (see FAQs), but some offer more in-depth control, such as telling Alexa to have the robot clean twice under the dining room table. Good battery life Collapse Nearly all robot vacuums can “recharge and resume” — take themselves back to their dock when they’re low and recharge before picking up where they left off, but a vacuum with at least 120 minutes of runtime (180 is ideal) will clean the whole house in one go. If it takes too long, noisy robots that are constantly running will get shut off by annoyed family members who aren’t about to clean the room for you. Repairability Collapse Robot vacuums are quite an investment, and it’s important to be able to buy replacement parts to keep them going for longer and have access to good support in case your robot has a serious issue.
Best robot vacuum overall
Dustbin capacity: 270ml / Self-empty dock option: Yes / Auto-refill mop option: Yes / Mop-lift: Yes, 20mm / Mop washing: Hot water and heated air drying / Mapping: Yes, lidar / AI-powered obstacle avoidance: Yes / Suction power: 10,000Pa / Remote check-in: Yes / Keep-out zones: Yes, virtual / Brush style: Dual rubber / Works with: Matter, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Siri Shortcuts
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