The best robot vacuums of 2024, tested by editors

The best robot vacuums can make your life easier by skillfully and thoroughly cleaning the floors in your home with little to no effort from you. Some are masters of artificial intelligence (AI) obstacle avoidance — smart enough to detect and steer clear of obstacles while vacuuming dirt and debris. Other robot vacuums are particularly adept at sucking up loads of pet hair, keeping your home free of fur and hairballs.

Some robots combine vacuuming with mopping thanks to their built-in water tanks. (But for this review, we’ve focused on vacuum-only models.)

We’ve spent years reviewing robot vacuums, from the original Roomba models to some of today’s most advanced machines. With another round of testing complete, we’ve reassessed which robot vacuums we feel are truly the “best” at navigating a living space, picking up dirt and simplifying your home cleaning routine. Below are three of the best robot vacuums we’ve ever tested that meet those expectations and are worth investing in.

Best robot vacuum: Roborock Q5 Max+ Robot Vacuum

We recently named Roborock’s S8 Max V Ultra our top pick in our best robot mops tested roundup, so we had high expectations when testing Roborock’s non-mopping model, the Q5 Max+ Robot Vacuum -— and it didn’t disappoint.

The Roborock Q5 Max+ Robot Vacuum has powerful cleaning performance (5,500 Pa suction), an intuitive app that is easy to use, improved mapping and an automatic, dust-emptying charging base. With a $600 price tag, we think it’s the best robot vacuum available.

Roborock ramped up the cleaning efficiency in the Q5 Max+ Robot Vacuum in several ways, bringing it more on par with the cleaning ability of the iRobot Roomba j9+ robot vacuum we’ve also tested. The Roborock Q5 Max+ model now has a second roller brush (its predecessor, the Q5+, had only one brush), which helps pull dirt and debris from carpeting and hard floors.

The Roborock Q5 Max+ Robot Vacuum has a self-emptying, 2.5L dust bag that holds up to seven weeks’ worth of debris while filtering allergens in the home. It also now has a whopping 240 minutes of runtime, and it was able to clean our 1,500-square-foot test home in one run.

Roborock’s thoughtful app makes the cleaning experience intuitive and smooth. Its faster mapping ability (it took less than 15 minutes to map the whole home) was accurate and reliable. Once our rooms were fine-tuned and named, the app offered smart suggestions for no-go zones that might cause the robot to get tripped up or stuck. Unlike the Shark Detect Pro we tested, the Roborock Q5 Max+ offers more advanced customization options such as scheduled cleaning for individual rooms and custom suction power for each room.

If you have more than one floor in your home, the app allows for multi-floor mapping. Of course, you’ll need to carry the robot up and down the stairs; it has smart sensors that keep it away from steps on its own.

The option to turn off self-empty mode or set DND (do not disturb) times to avoid hearing the loud sound it makes when it empties the dustbin is a bonus, something the iRobot Roomba j9+ doesn’t offer. (I mean, nothing like having a huge whooshing sound like a plane taking off wake your family members or interrupt a work call, am I right?)

However, the Roborock Q5 Max+ Robot Vacuum isn’t perfect; it can’t compete with the iRobot Roomba j9+’s navigation and obstacle avoidance capabilities. The forward-facing camera on the $900 iRobot Roomba j9+ helps it recognize obstacles as it moves around the house, steering clear of things like power cables, cats and, most importantly, pet poop. While the more premium Roborock S8 Max V Ultra uses artificial intelligence (AI) avoidance, the Roborock Q5 Max+ Robot Vacuum has no camera and instead uses LiDAR laser navigation to make its way through the home. It worked well in our testing, avoiding most, but not all, the obstacles we placed in its way.

Best budget robot vacuum: Eufy BoostIQ RoboVac 11S Max

If you don’t want smart features like mapping, don’t need a self-emptying dustbin and don’t mind picking up before you start the vacuum, the Eufy 11S is the budget robot vacuum we recommend. It’s a basic and affordable vacuum with a slim profile, good suction and quiet operation, and should work well for anyone who wants to maintain their floors in between manual vacuuming.

The Eufy does a superb job picking up dirt, excelling on hardwood floors, tile and low-pile carpets. It filled its dustbin with pet hair and cat litter, though it wasn’t able to get up all the litter on a higher-pile carpet.

What sets the Eufy 11S above the budget competition is the ability to change the power level while the unit is cleaning. It offers Standard, Boost IQ and Max. This is the only unit we tested that lets you change the power and suction level while the vacuum is operating. The more expensive Shark IQ XL and the Ecovacs Deebot N79S can only be changed with the remote when the unit is stopped. I appreciated this feature as I was able to turn on Boost IQ and then Max when the vacuum got close to the living room, which has a medium-pile carpet. It performed admirably climbing up onto the carpet to clean, though it did get stuck several times on the base of my barstools and had to be rescued.

Unlike our overall pick, the Eufy 11S doesn’t have any smart mapping features, so you can’t create a map or direct it with Alexa or Google — it’s a classic “bump bot” and finds its way by random or bounce navigation, running in a straight line until it bangs into an obstacle like a table or chair leg. This ends up in surprisingly good overall coverage, but you may find that some areas that trap the robot (under a table, for instance) get lots of attention, and more open areas (like the middle of the living room) just get one quick pass.

It took a few hours for the vacuum to fully clean my entire home, which is about 1,500 square feet, and watching as it maneuvered in and out of my office several times for varying lengths of time made me a little frazzled, but to get smart linear navigation, you’ll need to spend at least $200 more.

Luckily the Eufy has a recharge and resume feature, so if it runs low on battery, it makes its way back to the base to recharge itself and when ready resumes the cleaning job. In our testing this worked well, except for the fact that it resumed right in the middle of a dinner with friends, but it was easy enough to stop the cleaning run by pressing the button on the vacuum.

The Eufy is smart enough to keep itself from getting into trouble — in our testing, it had no trouble detecting stairs with a combination of infrared sensors and anti-drop sensors. And at just 2.8 inches tall, the Eufy 11S is almost a full inch shorter than the slightly more expensive Roborock S4, allowing it to get under more furniture like console tables and kids’ beds.

The dustbin on the 11S needs to be emptied manually, like others in this price range. It’s easy to open and empty, even easier than the higher-end Shark IQ XL. Since there’s no indicator to show when the bin is full, we recommend emptying it each time it returns to the base to recharge. This ensures the bin won’t fill up mid-cleaning run. You’ll also get the satisfaction of seeing how much dirt and pet hair the vacuum picks up that you might not otherwise be able to reach.

The included remote lets you create a schedule for the vacuum; however, you can only set a single daily schedule. Otherwise, you can either press the button on the machine itself to start a cleaning job or use the remote, which comes with a handy guide to the button symbols on the back. There are five different cleaning modes to choose from: Auto sends the vacuum from room to room, Spot cleans a specific area and Edge will send the vacuum hugging the walls of your house for perimeter cleaning. You can also choose a single room or pilot the robot with the directional arrows on the remote.

If you live in a home without high-pile carpets and find yourself constantly vacuuming up pet hair or dirt, and don’t need the ability to map your home and create virtual walls or no-go zones, the Eufy 11S is a top choice.

Best robot vacuum for pet hair: iLife V3S Pro

If your main struggle is keeping up with pet hair and small pieces of debris like cat litter, you don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars to get a well-performing robot vacuum. In our testing, the iLife V3S Pro did the best job on cat hair and cat litter on my hardwood floors.

The V3S Pro uses a small suction opening to scoop up debris, much like a regular vacuum, instead of the spinning roller brush on the bottom used by most robots. While the suction isn’t the strongest I’ve seen on devices in this price range, it avoids having hair and carpet threads build up and get stuck in a brush, and therefore helps it pick up more hair and dirt. Two side brushes with three bristles each push hair and dirt into the robot’s path, and do a great job.

Like the Eufy 11s, this vacuum uses random, or bump and run navigation, so while it does take time to clean the house, it covers every room. Again like the Eufy, it returns to the charging base if it runs out of battery before the house is finished and then resumes the job once fully charged. Infrared sensors keep it off the stairs, though like other bump bots, it can’t avoid obstacles like lamp cords.

The iLife V3S Pro was able to transition easily from a rug to a floor and back up onto the rug without any problem. Because of its low 11.8-inch-by-3-inch profile, it also fits under a dresser that the Shark IQ and iRobot j7+ couldn’t get under.

Though it doesn’t alert you when the bin is full, it’s easy to access the dustbin from the top of the unit, right under the cover (most other vacuums have it located on the side).

As with other inexpensive robots, you can only set a single daily schedule; the V3S Pro also offers three cleaning modes — whole floor, spot and edge — accessible from the included remote.

If you’re a pet parent who needs help keeping hardwood, tile or low-pile carpeting fur-free, the iLife V3S Pro is the right vacuum for you. If getting pet hair out of high-pile carpeting is a priority, you should step up to the iRobot 694, which has two brush rollers that work great on higher-pile carpets, but that will cost you about $100 more and the iLife does a better job overall.

How we tested

After researching which robot vacuums to test, we chose 12 models with various features and prices. (For this roundup, we looked at vacuum-only models; if you’re interested in combination robots that can vacuum and mop, read our best robot mops guide instead.)

Our test house was an approximately 1,500-square-foot home with two cats, kitchen tile, hardwood floors, low-pile rugs and high-pile carpet. We sent each robot vacuum on multiple runs over our floors covered with everyday dirt and debris, followed up with multiple runs to see how well they picked up cat litter and pet hair. We assessed all the models on the following criteria:

Unboxing and setup

Design and build

Performance

Usability of apps

How to choose a robot vacuum

Consider the layout of your home and whether you have mostly hardwood floors or deep-pile carpeting. If you live in a Victorian-style home or have medium- to high-pile carpeting, then a robot vacuum will likely require a lot of input from you. However, if you live in a more modern, open-flow style of home with tile or hardwood floors, then a robot vacuum is a great option. You’ll also want to ask yourself how much time you want to devote to prepping the house before you vacuum.

If you don’t mind picking up toys and lamp cords and anything else that might get in the way or get snarled in the roller brush, then you can get one of the more affordable robot vacuums. These robots — such as our most affordable robot vacuum recommendation, the Eufy BoostIQ RoboVac 11s Max — typically run in a random “bump and run” fashion, and don’t have any smart mapping features. As a result, they’ll run for a long period to clean the whole house instead of progressing intelligently from room to room.

If you’re not willing to devote the time to prepping the house, opt for a robot that uses AI obstacle avoidance that is smart enough to detect and steer clear of obstacles. Spending the time during the initial setup, mapping your home and creating in-app “no-go zones” will save you the hassle of decluttering each time you run the vacuum.

You’ll pay more money for these models but you get the capability of setting schedules, designating specific rooms to be cleaned and using smart home voice assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant to control your vacuum. How are you with touching dirt and pet hair clumps? If you don’t mind emptying the dustbin after every cleaning run, a standard robot vacuum is best. If you’d prefer never to touch the dirt, opt for the self-emptying models that automatically empty themselves into a bag or bin. The bag usually only needs to be changed every 60 days or so.

Consider if a robot vacuum is worth it for you

If you’re pressed for time or have a pet who sheds, a good robot vacuum is a worthwhile investment. They’re particularly great for pet owners, since even if you depend on a traditional vacuum cleaner, a basic robot vacuum can stay on top of the hair, dander and litter daily, making your chores a little easier once you get around to deep cleaning.

However, as independent as they can be, a robot vacuum requires time and input from you. The newer models require you to set up a map and define the zones of your house you’ll want them to clean or stay away from, and even the best robot vacuum can get stuck and need human intervention.

Robot vacuums won’t completely replace an upright vacuum, canister vacuum or cordless stick vacuum with cleaning attachments. Even the most advanced models can’t get into every crevice and hard-to-reach space, and they can’t vacuum upholstery, drapes, closets, drawers and kitchen cabinets.

They can, however, get under beds, dressers and couches and reach some places the uprights can’t go, making them a solid investment that can stay ahead of dust and dirt build-up. How much of an investment depends on how much you want it to do. Newer and more expensive models have better navigation capabilities and use artificial intelligence (AI) to avoid commonly left-out items like cords and running shoes.

While older models aren’t great at taking care of household accidents, the latest models have features such as spot cleaning and the ability to clean up small liquid messes. There are even premium robots that identify and avoid pet poop, keeping an accident from getting way worse.

For cleaning up larger liquid spills or mopping the kitchen floor, consider a robot vacuum/robot mop hybrid model. These relatively new robots add a mopping component to the arsenal of floor-cleaning tools; they are worth the higher price tag if you live in a home with lots of hardwood or tile floors.

Other robot vacuums we tested

If you like the idea of a self-emptying robot vacuum but not the high price tag of the iRobot Roomba j7+, then we recommend the Shark IQ XL. It has smart features such as linear navigation, in-app mapping, scheduling and voice control. You can’t schedule specific rooms to be cleaned with the Shark IQ XL, nor can it automatically adjust power levels to deal with different flooring surfaces like the Roomba j7+, but you get a lot of functionality and effective cleaning for cheaper.

Like other self-emptying robot vacuums, the Shark IQ XL returns to the base and empties its contents. The Shark, however, is the only vacuum we tested that features a bagless self-emptying base. You simply detach the bin and empty it manually over the trash to empty it. This can get messy as dust flies around, but you save money buying replacement bags.

The base itself stands about 15 inches tall and has a window so you can see how full it is. Shark says it will hold about a month’s worth of cleaning.

Another feature that stands out on the Shark IQ XL is Evacuate and Resume, which is designed for homes with lots of pet hair. Instead of waiting for the vacuum to run out of battery life and return to the base, where it will empty its onboard dustbin, in this mode it will return and empty the dustbin after 30 minutes of cleaning, so the robot doesn’t fill up with pet hair. Once it empties itself, it picks up where it left off.

The Shark IQ XL navigates efficiently in a linear fashion and easily gets over and around furniture. It’s the only vacuum out of the 11 we tested that could get up and over the base of barstools without getting stuck.

It can get just as loud as the iRobot when cleaning, especially on Max mode, but in our testing, it did a good job on pet hair and cat litter.

The Shark Detect Pro robot vacuum is a capable vacuum with an auto-empty dustbin that holds up to 60 days of debris, plus washable HEPA filters. It can adjust its suction power for different types of flooring (carpeting, hardwood, etc.), which is something the Shark IQ XL we previously reviewed couldn’t do.

“DirtDetect” technology helps boost the cleaning power of the Shark Detect Pro, sending the robot over dirty messes a few times, hovering in the area before moving on. Two scanning lasers helped it navigate around obstacles and, while the app isn’t the most intuitive, it did do a good job creating a map of our test house.

Unfortunately, even with that well-mapped info, we still couldn’t schedule individual rooms to be cleaned, only the whole house. This is a convenient feature available in other robot vacuums in this price range, and could be a deal breaker for those who like to schedule specific rooms to be vacuumed while they’re out.

We liked the iRobot Roomba j9+ robot vacuum’s streamlined self-empty dock, but with the flood of new robot vacuums from competitive brands like Roborock, Ecovacs and Eufy, it makes it harder to justify paying its premium price when the Roborock Q5 Max+, our winning pick for best robot vacuum, is just as capable as the iRobot Roomba j9+ — and costs a few hundred dollars less.

That’s not to say the iRobot Roomba j9+ isn’t a fantastic robot vacuum with features like Dirt Detective, which figures out which rooms are the dirtiest and prioritizes cleaning them first, Carpet Boost to increase the vacuum suction as it goes between floor and carpeting, and the dual rubber brushes which have always wowed us with their ability to pick up dirt, pet hair and kitty litter from carpeting.

The forward-facing camera enables more precise mapping, and it does AI obstacle avoidance of power cables, cats and, most importantly, pet poop, better than the competition. If those matter to you, then it might be worth the extra money. But before you plunk down $900 for a robot vacuum, you might consider spending a bit more to get the top-of-the-line Combo j9+ robot vacuum and mop, which we’ve seen on Amazon for under $1,000. Otherwise, save the money and get the $600 Roborock Q5 Max+.

During our initial round of testing, the iRobot Roomba j7+ had beat out most of the others we tested in mapping, creating virtual boundaries and detecting and avoiding obstacles. This means it was among the best “set it and forget it” smart robot vacuums available at the time — even able to empty itself. More importantly, it still picks up dust and debris and cat litter from hardwood floors and low-pile carpeting very well.

iRobot uses what it calls Dirt Detect, focusing more cleaning effort when it detects a concentration of dirt. We spilled cat litter on the hardwood floor and the j7+ recognized it as a “dirt event.” It got to the end of the cat litter spill, reversed itself back to the beginning of the spill area and took another pass at it. It did this several times until all the litter was picked up. Even litter that got scattered by the sweeping motion of the side brush was eventually picked up.

The j7+ leaves behind neat rows of just-vacuumed carpeting, and the powerful suction of the unit was able to pick up cat litter and pet hair in our bedroom carpeting. Its multi-surface rubber brushes on the underside kept the brush from getting tangled with pet hair.

When the j7+ is done cleaning, it returns to the base and empties itself into a bag in the larger dustbin at the back of the base. You need to change that bag every two months or so, but other than that, you likely won’t have to interact with it very much at all.

The Eufy RoboVac X8 uses AI to detect and avoid obstacles and builds a virtual map that you can watch in real time, something other vacuums don’t do. It took a few tries to get our unit to create the initial map. It also got into a few tangles with power cords and had to be rescued but did a great job scooping up a cat toy that we later found in the dustbin. It’s a solid machine, but it’s worth upgrading to the self-emptying and superior iRobot Roomba j9+.

With the iRobot Roomba 694 robot vacuum, you can schedule cleaning sessions or use a voice assistant to start one. But even though it’s connected, you can’t map your home or target areas to be cleaned. We don’t think the extra connected features are worth the extra money, so for less money, we found the Eufy 11S to be a better value.

The Neato BotVac D8’s signature D-shape design makes it easier for it to get into corners and edges, plus it was the easiest of all the connected vacuums to set up. However, we couldn’t get it to complete the mapping process despite several attempts and a call to customer service. The vacuum uses LiDAR to map and navigate, along with infrared drop sensors to detect stairs. But it kept mistaking the base of our cat condo for stairs and asked to be moved away from it. Though it claims a whopping 180 minutes of runtime, it ran down at 110 minutes and died before it made it back to its base.

The Samsung JetBot+ stands at 21 inches tall and is 9 inches deep. Its base is just so big and noticeable; we much prefer the smaller, less obtrusive base of the iRobot Roomba j7+. The Samsung vacuum has a forward camera and obstacle detection, but our testing found it not to be as precise as the Roomba j7+.

While Shark Ion RV765 robot vacuum has some good features, such as voice control and in-app scheduling, it just didn’t function half as well as the similarly priced Eufy Boost IQ RoboVac 11s Max in our testing.

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This guide’s writer, Andrea Smith, has written for CNN Underscored for years and has covered the robot vacuum beat for even longer. She has a deep well of experience testing everything from the best robot mops and the best vacuums for pet hair to this guide on the best robot vacuums. Smith has been the main contributor to this guide for years and constantly tests new robot vacuums to include in future updates.