Hugging Face thinks it can sell 50,000 robot ducks. It sold more than 5,000 in the first day, and Christmas is already gone. Meet the Microduck robot.
The Microduck robot went on pre-order on August 27, 2026, and the store buckled almost immediately. Pollen Robotics and Hugging Face priced their 25 cm open source biped at $399. Within roughly six hours, orders passed $1 million. Within a day they passed $2.6 million and more than 5,000 units, and the Christmas delivery promise quietly disappeared.
What Is the Microduck Robot?
The Microduck robot is a 25 cm biped from Pollen Robotics, the French company Hugging Face bought in April 2025. It weighs under 800 g and moves on 15 motors spread across its legs, neck and head. An articulated beak lets it pick small objects up off the floor.
It is also not a clean-sheet design. Microduck is the assembled, shippable version of the community Open Duck Mini project, which is why so much of the software already existed. The name trips people up, though. Plenty of searches arrive as micro duck in two words, or as microduct. There is one product here, and it is spelled Microduck.
Out of the box it runs seven trained behaviours: walking, sitting and standing, kicking, grabbing, roller skating and getting back up after a fall. However, none of those are fixed. The whole stack ships under Apache 2.0, so you can retrain them or teach it something new.
Microduck Price, Specs and Where to Buy It
The robot costs $399 before tax and shipping, or about €340 in Europe. Three add-on packs sit next to it in the cart. A charger pack costs $39, an accessory pack $39 and a dev pack $119. In addition, four colours are on offer, and the hardware underneath them is identical.
| Component | Microduck |
|---|---|
| Height and weight | 25 cm, under 800 g |
| Motors | 15, across legs, neck and head |
| Compute | Rockchip RK3566 with an AI accelerator |
| Memory and storage | 1 GB RAM, 32 GB storage |
| Sensing | Camera, LiDAR, two IMUs, microphone, speaker |
| Battery | 2,600 mAh, about one hour of use |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi and Bluetooth |
| Colours | Cream, Graphite, Lavender, Sky |
| Licence | Apache 2.0, SDK and RL stack on GitHub |
Orders go through the official Pollen Robotics store, which ships to North America, Europe and the UK. There is no retail channel and no Amazon listing, so that store is the only legitimate place to buy one.
Microduck Pre-Orders Sold Out the Christmas Run
Hugging Face cofounder Thomas Wolf posted the numbers as they landed. Pre-orders crossed $1 million about six hours after the announcement. Then, by the 24 hour mark, they stood above $2.6 million, which works out to more than 5,000 ducks.
Chief executive Clement Delangue went further, saying he believes the robot can reach 50,000 units and roughly $20 million in revenue. Meanwhile the company had clearly not built for that pace. The distance between those two numbers is the entire story of this launch.
Microduck vs Reachy Mini: a Much Faster Start
Hugging Face has run this play before. Reachy Mini, the desk robot it launched in July 2025, needed five days to reach $1 million. Its duck needed about six hours.
| Milestone | Reachy Mini (July 2025) | Microduck (August 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Launch price | $299 lite, $449 wireless | $399 |
| First day | About $500,000 | Over $1 million in about six hours |
| Time to $1 million | Five days | About six hours |
| First 24 hours | Not reported | $2.6 million, 5,000+ units |
| Units to date | 10,000 by May 2026 | 5,000+ booked on day one |
| Delivery today | Shipping | Four to six months |
That comparison matters because Reachy Mini was already treated as a success story. In fact, it passed 10,000 units by May 2026. In other words, Microduck booked half of that lifetime figure before its first full day was over.
Why New Orders Now Wait Four to Six Months
The product page carries the correction in plain language. Pollen Robotics says it can no longer promise Christmas delivery for new orders, and it now estimates four to six months. So for anyone ordering this week, that means 2027.
As a result, a resale market appeared before a single unit shipped. Reseller trackers already flag early pre-order slots as a December flip, because supply cannot move and demand has not cooled. It is the sneaker playbook, pointed at a robot duck.
So if waiting until 2027 does not appeal, four legs are the faster route. Our ranking of the AI robot dogs covers six machines you can order today, from a $79 toy to the quadruped that climbs stairs.
Microduck GitHub: MuJoCo, ONNX and an RK3566
The interesting half of this product is software, and all of it is public. Specifically, two repositories carry it: one for the robot runtime and SDK, one for the reinforcement learning tools. Policies train in MuJoCo, export to ONNX, then run at 50 Hz on the Rockchip RK3566 inside the robot.
That sim to real loop is the whole point of the machine. Training happens on your own hardware first, so it is worth checking your card against our picks for the best GPU for AI before you queue up a few thousand episodes.
What the Nvidia Deal Could Mean for the Microduck Robot
One day before pre-orders opened, The Information reported that Nvidia had agreed to buy Hugging Face for about $12.9 billion. Meanwhile, Bloomberg put the figure above $13 billion. Neither company has confirmed anything, and reporters stress that no contract is signed.
Still, the timing colours the launch. Hardware that sells out in hours is a convenient data point for a company in acquisition talks. However, open source robotics under a chip maker is a different proposition. Buyers of a $399 duck get no vote in that either way.
Want More on the Microduck Robot?
Some robots already do a job instead of waiting to be trained. Our ranking of the AI robot lawn mowers covers the LiDAR and vision models shipping today. And if you plan to retrain those policies yourself, start with the hardware in our guide to the best desktop for AI.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Microduck robot?
Microduck is a 25 cm open source biped from Pollen Robotics and Hugging Face. It weighs under 800 g, runs on 15 motors and a Rockchip RK3566, and ships with seven trained behaviours you can retrain yourself.
How much does the Microduck cost?
Pricing starts at $399 before tax and shipping, roughly €340 in Europe. In addition, optional packs add a charger for $39, an accessory bundle for $39 and a developer kit for $119.
When will the Microduck ship?
First units were targeted before Christmas 2026. After the launch rush, Pollen Robotics withdrew that promise for new orders. Instead, the estimate is now four to six months, which pushes fresh orders into 2027.
How many Microducks were sold?
More than 5,000 units, worth over $2.6 million, were booked as pre-orders in the first 24 hours. Cofounder Thomas Wolf posted the figures, and $1 million had landed within about six hours.
Where is the Microduck GitHub code?
Two public repositories hold it: the robot runtime and SDK in one, the reinforcement learning training tools in the other. Both are Apache 2.0, and all seven shipped policies can be retrained and redeployed.
Microduck or Reachy Mini: which one should you buy?
Reachy Mini suits desk projects, speech and app work, and it ships now. The duck suits locomotion and reinforcement learning experiments, but a new order will keep you waiting for months.
Sources
TechCrunch, Engadget, Axios, The Register, Popular Science, CNX Software, Fortune, Resell Calendar, CNBC, Pollen Robotics, best-ai.news. *Photos: Pollen Robotics press kit, cropped and resized.*
