IFR’s first humanoid count: about 7,000 robots sold worldwide in 2025

About 7,000 humanoid robots were sold worldwide in 2025 for industrial and professional service applications, according to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), as reported by Reuters on September 21, 2026. It is the first year the IFR has compiled humanoid figures alongside the industrial and service robot statistics it has tracked for three decades.

Why it matters: the number gives the sector an independent baseline. Funding rounds, order books and forecasts have run far ahead of any audited unit count, and 7,000 is the figure future growth claims will now be measured against.

How many humanoid robots were sold in 2025?

The IFR puts the 2025 total at about 7,000 units. For comparison, the federation counted around 542,000 industrial robots installed in 2024 and almost 200,000 service robots sold for professional use in 2024, a 9% increase on the prior year. Humanoid sales, on those numbers, equal about 1.3% of the industrial robot installation base for a single year.

IFR Secretary General Susanne Bieller described humanoids as a fraction of the overall robot market. According to Reuters, she said many of the 2025 units went to research institutions and to companies gathering data to train AI models, rather than doing productive work. Carmakers, among the earliest buyers, are running pilots with single-digit or sometimes double-digit numbers of robots per site.

What counts as a humanoid robot in the IFR data?

To qualify, a robot must have a human-like appearance and operate autonomously in environments designed for people. Legs are not required, so wheeled-base humanoids are included. The count excludes consumer and military models, and medical robots are classified separately. The data is collected from robot suppliers and national industry associations.

That scope matters when comparing figures. Company-reported totals can use different scopes, such as consumer units, orders or production. The IFR number is narrower: industrial and professional service sales in one calendar year.

How fast is the humanoid market expected to grow?

Forecasts are far higher than the base. Bank of America Global Research, cited by Reuters, projects 90,000 humanoid robots will be shipped in 2026, rising to 1.2 million by 2030. The 2026 forecast is about 13 times the IFR’s 2025 count. The bank’s figures measure shipments, a different basis from the IFR’s sales count, so the two are not strictly comparable.

The gap between the two numbers is where most of the sector’s capital is committed. Our review of physical AI funding in the first half of 2026 tracks how much money has gone in ahead of volume, and our supply chain analysis covers where the components for any ramp would come from. The next useful data point will be the IFR’s 2026 count, which will show whether units bought for data collection turn into units bought for work.