If you’re looking for a Hello Robot Stretch 3, the model you can order today is Stretch 4. Hello Robot’s purchase page lists it at $29,950, shipping within 2–4 weeks of a purchase order or prepayment, and says it doesn’t offer upgrades from Stretch 3 or earlier robots. Stretch 4 is currently certified only for laboratory and research use, so it’s a research platform, not a consumer home robot you can buy for a family member yet.
What Stretch is
Stretch is a lightweight mobile manipulator: a round wheeled base, a tall vertical mast, and a telescoping arm that slides up and down the mast and reaches out horizontally. Instead of a humanoid arm with many joints, it uses that simple lift-and-extend design to reach tabletops, counters and the floor. Hello Robot pitches it for three groups on its home page: assistive use for people with severe mobility impairments (through a pilot program), robotics research, and enterprise partners.
It ships with an open-source ROS 2 stack and a Python SDK, plus reference demos for mapping, navigation and grasping.
Stretch 4 specs
From the Stretch 4 product page:
- Height and footprint: 160 cm tall, 45 cm diameter base.
- Reach: 55 cm arm extension plus a 6 cm wrist.
- Payload: 2.5 kg with the arm extended, 4 kg with it retracted.
- Weight: 46 kg, or 33 kg with the ballast removed for transport.
- Runtime: about 8 hours at light computer load, with self-charging on a dock.
The full datasheet is a PDF linked from that page.
What changed from Stretch 3
Hello Robot announced Stretch 4 on May 12, 2026. According to The Robot Report’s launch coverage:
- The arm, lift and base move about twice as fast as Stretch 3’s.
- Total reach grew by about 10%, and the robot is taller and heavier.
- Sensing was rebuilt: a wide-angle 3D sensing head, two hemispherical 3D lidars, high-resolution and fisheye RGB cameras, and laser line sensors for floor hazards.
- A new power system gives up to 8 hours of runtime and uses a removable 30 lb (13.6 kg) battery pack.
- A quick-release end-effector mount lets you swap between the compliant gripper, a parallel-jaw gripper or a tablet holder.
The same report says more than 1,000 users in 23 countries have used Stretch robots since 2020.
If you already own a Stretch 3: there’s no upgrade path to Stretch 4. Hello Robot offers a full robot refurbishment starting at $2,000, priced by the robot’s condition and shipping, if you want to keep an older unit running.
What’s in the box and what costs extra
The $29,950 price includes the Stretch compliant gripper, battery and ballast, wall power supply, a reflective ArUco tag kit and ArUco cube, a gamepad and a pistol-grip teleoperation controller, and tools and cables.
Add-ons listed on the purchase page:
- Docking station for autonomous charging: $1,495
- Parallel gripper (quick-connect): $1,495
- NVIDIA Jetson Orin NX 16GB, preinstalled, for running AI models on the robot: $2,995
- Spare battery and ballast (LiFePO4, 25.6 V, 20 A): $1,495
- Extended warranty to 3 years: $2,495
A research setup with the dock, parallel gripper and onboard Jetson comes to $35,935 before shipping and taxes.
Limits to know before you order
- Research use only, for now. The purchase FAQ says Stretch 4 is certified only for laboratory and research use while the company works on further certifications.
- Government funding restrictions. Stretch 4 uses lidar sensors from Hesai, which the US Department of Defense has placed on its 1260H list of Chinese military companies. Hello Robot warns this may block purchases paid for with certain US government funds. If you’re buying on a federal grant, check with your grants office first.
- Export limits. Hello Robot ships to most countries, except those under ITAR and similar restrictions.
- Warranty and returns. A 1-year limited warranty and a 30-day return policy, under the terms of sale.
How to buy
- Go to the Buy Stretch 4 page and send a quote request with the add-ons you want.
- Hello Robot replies with a quote and an estimated lead time.
- Pay by check, wire transfer or purchase order. Credit cards aren’t listed as an option.
- The robot typically ships 2–4 weeks after Hello Robot receives the PO or prepayment.
Outside the US, the purchase page lists local distributors: Nihon Binary, Tegara/UNIPOS and Sogo Electronics in Japan, CN Best in China, and ROAS and JPUBLIC in South Korea.
Is Stretch a home robot?
Not as a consumer product yet. Hello Robot runs an assistive pilot program for people with severe mobility impairments, and the robot has been tested in homes, but the current certification covers lab and research use. For robots you can actually order or preorder for a home, see our home robot buying guide. If you’re comparing research platforms, Stretch sits between a wheeled base like those covered in our AMR guide and a full humanoid such as the Unitree G1.