Best cheap robot vacuums in 2024

Robot vacuums are an excellent way to keep your home floors neat and tidy, but some of the best models on the market can cost upwards of $500. Fortunately, though, you don’t need to spend nearly that much dough to score an awesome robot vac. In fact, some of our favorite self-efficient bot sweepers can be had for $250 or less. For our intents and purposes, we’ll call these models “cheap robot vacuums,” with cheap referring exclusively to price and not overall performance.

The following is a list of cheap robot vacuums from trusted brands that go above and beyond to deliver a safe and efficient cleaning experience for you and yours. You can also expect these products to include must-have features like top-shelf filtration systems, long battery life, and smart assistant compatibility.

You get a lot for the price with our best overall pick for cheap robot vacuums. The Dreametech D9 Max is an excellent robot vacuum, coupled with a decent moping function. You won’t need to worry about this vac clumsily bumping into your furniture, thanks to its built-in LIDAR mapping.

This vacuum packs a ton of suction power (4,000Pa) even at its mid-range price. It’s a speedy and thorough cleaner of hard floors like vinyl, tile, and hardwood, with decent performance on shorter-pile carpets, too. And with a battery lasting over two hours, the D9 Max has a plenty large power reserve to cover its entire domain.

If you have a lot of hardwood, tile, or vinyl floors to keep mopped but want the assistance of a robot vacuum to get it done, you may need something with a more efficient mopping process than the D9 Max. Its antibacterial mopping cloth is great for a light buffing, not so much for deep cleans. But if your mopping needs are minimal — for example, just a tile kitchen or small living room — then Dreametech’s affordable vac is a viable option. We like it for its reliable navigation, high-capacity dustbin, and great battery life.

If you have a slightly larger budget but want to stay closer to $500 than $1,000 for a capable robot vacuum, consider the Roborock Q8 Max. This vac boasts greater suction power than the other picks on this list (5,200Pa), so it’ll tackle dirty hard floors and short-pile carpets effortlessly. It also intelligently navigates your space with proprietary hazard detection plus LiDAR navigation. The Q8 Max uses a pair of bristleless brushes to effectively clean carpets, too. The bristleless brushes and higher suction power, plus a battery life that’ll last a couple hours, makes the Q8 Max a great choice for homes with a lot of ground to cover, especially if the majority of that ground is carpeted.

The Q8 Max’s mopping capabilities are okay. We like that it features a mode where the vacuum itself doesn’t dispense any water; in this case, you coat the floor with your preferred cleaning solution and let the vacuum do the rest. However, this vacuum doesn’t have a moving brush or scrubber for mopping, so it’s more efficient at polishing up already-relatively-clean floors or wiping away a recent (ie, not dry) stain.

Still shying away from the Q8 Max because of its higher price tag? Take comfort in knowing an excellent app supports this vac, where you can view your home map and name rooms, create invisible barriers, and identify no-mop or no-go zones. This vacuum, like all of the rest, isn’t without its caveats, but a unique brush design and powerful suction make up for the less than stellar mopping and higher price.

When you’re trying to save a few dollars on your robot vacuum purchase, we believe the Eufy BoostIQ RoboVac 11S Max is going to be the best budget-friendly choice for most folks. One of this model’s standout features is its relatively slim design (2.85 inches tall), which is the perfect height for the bot to dip around and under most furniture. It’s also rated for up to 2,000Pa of suction and will run for up to 100 minutes. If the battery is running low, the 11S Max is also smart enough to return to its charging base for a quick recharge.

While the 11S Max only uses bounce detection for navigation, it has a built-in drop detection sensor to ensure the bot doesn’t tumble down the stairs. It’s also equipped with anti-collision sensors and perimeter padding to make sure the 11S Max doesn’t damage any walls or keepsakes it comes into contact with.

The Deebot lineup from Ecovacs has been making waves in the robot vacuum marketplace for several years now, and when it comes to cutting-edge tech and helpful add-ons, the Deebot N8 Pro is one of the best models you can buy. It is designed to output up to 2,600Pa of suction power and has a formidable battery that’ll last for up to 110 minutes. Dust bunnies, be warned! Aside from dust and dirt, the device does double duty, providing coveted mopping functionality.

The N8 Pro also uses LiDAR mapping to create custom scans of each room of your house. You can then use these maps to tell your Deebot which rooms to clean, which spaces to avoid, and what parts of your home to avoid. The N8 Pro also works with Alexa and Google Assistant, so you can fire up your Deebot with a few simple voice commands to your smart speaker or display.

Pets can make one heck of a mess in our homes, but robot vacs like the iRobot Roomba 694 are more than equipped to tackle fur, dirt, and other muck. One of the O.G. robot vac brands, this Roomba model uses a three-stage cleaning system to loosen, lift, and suck up even the most deep-seated detritus. With its hefty main brush and edge-sweeping side brush, you’ll never have to worry if the 694 can handle the many different surfaces of your house or apartment.

The Roomba app is another great way to optimize your cleaning experience. You can use it to start and stop cleaning cycles, check the bot vac’s battery level, and see how much progress the 694 has made during its current clean cycle.

Sometimes, we deal with the types of homes that have multiple floors, with each section filled with more nooks and crannies than the last. This is why robot vacuums like the Shark RV2502AE really come in handy. On top of a powerful HEPA filtration system and an excellent app for customizable cleanups, the RV2502AE is built to last for up to 120 minutes on a single charge.

Conveniently, you’ll also be able to start and stop cleaning cycles using Alexa or Google Assistant. We also like that the dirt disposal tank will hold up to 60 days of dirt and debris before you need to change the bag. If you’re dealing with a large floor plan and need a vacuum that’s capable of tackling it all in one cleaning session, the Shark ION AV751 is the model for you.

Robot vacuums themselves are quite small, able to slip under and between furniture mostly without issue. The real space gobbler is the vacuum’s docking station which, laden with an XL dustbin, clean water reservoir, and dirty water tank, sticks out like a sore thumb in your space. The SwitchBot K10+ Mini Robot Vacuum comes with a petite docking station for easy stashing in a corner or under a table. The base itself is barely over one foot tall!

Even though it’s touted as being the “world’s smallest robotic vacuum cleaner,” the SwitchBot K10+ uses a modest 2,500Pa of suction and rubber bristles, making it an ideal candidate for vinyl, hardwood, or short-pile carpet floors. The SwitchBot K10+’s mopping feature is okay, but we wouldn’t recommend relying on it to keep your floors pristine, especially since this vacuum uses a single-use mop cloth instead of a washable mop head.

While $500 may still be more than you’re looking to spend on a robot vacuum, the well-balanced strengths of the Dreamebot D10s Plus make it a plenty worthwhile investment. LiDAR navigation is already quite reliable on its own, but the D10s Plus further supports precise obstacle navigation and maneuvering with an AI-driven camera mounted on its nose.

The Dreamebot D10s Plus is a powerful vacuum at 5,000 Pa suction, but it still won’t drown out everything else in the home while running, so it’s a great choice to consider for work-from-homers who are sick of their robot vacuums being comparable to a jet landing in their living room when set to higher suction power modes. Plus, the battery lasts over 4 hours, which is more than enough juice to make a pass through the house.

There’s quite a bit of manual involvement in this vac’s mopping — you have to dampen the mop pad manually, and the vacuum doesn’t wash the mop pad while cleaning, so if you want to refresh it, that means pausing the cycle to take the mop pad off — and it really doesn’t do much more than swipe the mod pad over the floor. There’s no actual scrubbing involved. So while there’s a mopping function in the D10s Plus, we’d recommend it more for buffing up your hard floors rather than deep cleaning them.

Enjoy low-cost cleaning with these robot vacuums

Robot vacuums were once a niche, luxurious investment, but now that they’ve been around for a minute, you can get a great deal on pretty much any robot vac on the market. That being said, the most advanced robot vacuums cost well over $1,000, which why this budget-friendly list exists. The models perform just as well as higher-priced products but at a cost that most of us can wrap our heads around.

This is why we think the Dreametech D9 Max is the best overall cheap robot vac for the vast majority. It’s plenty powerful, an efficient vacuumer, and has a large dustbin, so you won’t have to worry about emptying out the gross very often. And if you’re shopping on a limited budget, the Eufy BoostIQ RoboVac 11S Max costs less than the other models on our list but still delivers an exceptional cleaning experience. It’s a simple yet effective cleaner that doesn’t need a companion app to run.

For those who want the very best without any budget busting, there’s the Roborock Q8 Max. Using a combination of onboard sensors and LiDAR mapping, the Q8 Max is the only device you’ll need to keep your floors free of dirt, debris, and other detritus. Aside from sweeping, it’ll mop, too. So, you really get what you pay for.