US startup with rental service: Will this robot soon clean your apartment?

The startup Gatsby from San Francisco will in future send humanoid robots to clean apartments. Customers book the service via app, a robot is then brought to the apartment and cleans up, the company announced. According to its own information, the company carried out its first cleaning in mid-May.

Gatsby founder Aron Frishberg launched the company in January 2026. Nvidia Inception, the startup program of the AI ​​chip giant Nvidia, and Entrepreneurs First, an international investor in young talent, are supporting the project. The booking process is similar to ordering food, they say. For the first assignment, Gatsby selected a random apartment from a waiting list of interested parties in San Francisco. A Unitree G1, a humanoid robot from China, was then delivered to the apartment using an Uber-like service.

This is how the robot cleaning service works

However, the robot only does the work partially autonomously; employees with remote access are also used. Gatsby does not provide any precise information about the exact technical implementation. The robot will probably be positioned at certain points in the home in order to independently complete previously trained tasks.

For complex tasks, an operator intervenes remotely. How long the cleaning takes and how well it works has not yet been independently verified; Gatsby is also silent on the matter and there are no videos. The apartment owner, who was the first test subject, has not yet commented on the quality of the work.

Price comparison: robots versus human cleaners

Gatsby initially charges $150 per cleaning, regardless of apartment size, but the price is expected to rise. Because for San Francisco that’s a moderate price. Professional human cleaning services there cost between $150 and $300 per session. The price then depends on the size of the apartment.

The startup positions the service as an alternative to purchasing a household robot. Such robots are not yet available to buy as a finished product, but the first US companies are importing small quantities from China. Meanwhile, the US company 1X wants to deliver its humanoid robot Neo to the first private households this year. The price is at least $20,000 or $500 rent per month. A combination of autonomy and remote control is also used here. However, tests such as filling and closing a dishwasher proved to be time-consuming.