How long do companion robots last?

Direct answer: Companion robots last as long as their maker’s servers, billing relationship, and parts channel last — often shorter than the plastic and motors would allow. We do not invent a single “average lifespan” number. Instead we publish longevity grades (A–F), server-dependency labels, and True 3-Year Cost on each profile, and we keep discontinued warnings like Moxie visible. Buy for the grade and the graveyard pattern, not for a marketing year count.

People ask “how long does it last?” expecting battery-cycle folklore. For companions — desk bots, robot pets, eldercare units — the binding constraint is almost always software continuity. Jibo’s farewell dance, Moxie’s January 2025 brick, and Vector’s second corporate death are not edge cases; they are the category’s operating history, recorded in our graveyard. This page explains how we translate that history into buyer-facing grades. It is not a “best companions” listicle — see best robot pets and the companion robots hub for catalogue browsing.

Active companions: longevity snapshot (dataset)

Robot	Price	Sub / mo	True 3-yr cost	Server	Grade	Score
Sony Aibo	$2,900	0*	$2,900+	full	B	77
ElliQ 3	$250	~$40	~$1,690	full	F	69
Loona	$500	$0	$500	partial	C	68
Miko 3	$199	~$15	~$739	full	D	66
EMO	$300	$0	$300	partial	C	63
Casio Moflin	$400	$0	$400	partial	B	62
Amazon Astro	$1,600	$0	$1,600	full	D	62
Eilik	$150	$0	$150	none	B	60

*Aibo: cloud plan bundled then renews; see profile limitations. Discontinued: Vector 2.0 and Moxie show status, not a longevity grade. Data verified 2026-07-10.

What actually ends a companion’s life

Cloud brick: Moxie — full dependency, company shutdown, bricked true (graveyard).
Repeated corporate failure: Vector — Anki then Digital Dream Labs; Escape Pod is the survival path, not a promise at retail.
Parts / repair sunset: original Aibo support end (2014) — motors without spares still die.
Subscription gate: useful conversational life ends when billing or the vendor ends — ElliQ grade F encodes that stack of risks.

We make no medical or psychological claims about companion robots. Eldercare and wellbeing products are discussed with published-evidence limits on the companion hub — never as care replacements.

How to buy for years, not months

Prefer none or partial server dependency when companionship is a daily presence (Eilik is the fully offline companion in-table).
Read True 3-Year Cost before cute demos — subscription lock-in checklist.
Treat discontinued rows as warnings left on purpose.
Cross-check longevity grade formula so an A/B grade means what you think it means.

FAQ

Is there a typical lifespan in years?

We do not publish a fake mean time-between-failure for the category. Lifespan is dominated by maker survival and cloud continuity. Hardware that still powers on after a shutdown can still be socially “dead” if conversation AI is gone — Moxie is the defining case.

Which active companions score best on longevity?

Among active companions in our data, Casio Moflin and Eilik reach longevity grade B with lower cloud exposure (Eilik is fully offline). Sony Aibo is grade B despite full cloud because company risk is low. ElliQ 3 is grade F (full cloud + ~$40/mo). Discontinued units show status, not a grade.

Do subscriptions shorten useful life?

They can. If intelligence is gated on billing, useful life ends when you stop paying or when the vendor stops operating — ElliQ’s True 3-Year Cost (~$1,690) illustrates the financial side; Moxie illustrates the shutdown side.

Where should I read next?

Start with /companion-robots/ for category scope, /graveyard for sourced deaths, and individual profiles for grades. Adult-oriented companion pages stay evidence-led with no medical claims.

Match companions by longevity grade and shutdown risk

Open the match engine →