Cobot sales could double by 2030 as payloads rise and prices fall
10 June 2026 
Shipments of collaborative robots (cobots) will almost double between 2025 and 2030, expanding at an average annual rate of 17.3%, according to a new report from Interact Analysis. The growth is being driven by a combination of factors including large-scale equipment upgrades in electronics manufacturing, cyclical recoveries in the semiconductor industry, the increasing use of automation in logistics and warehousing applications, improved safety, easier operation, and falling cobot prices.
In 2025, global shipments of cobots rose by 14.5% to reach around 57,000, while revenues climbed by 10.5%, from around $1.1bn to more than $1.2bn.
Between 2025-30, Interact predicts that global cobot revenues will grow by an annual average of 13.6%, to reach more than $2.3bn in 2030, when it expects 128,918 of the robots to be shipped. It attributes the gap between shipment and revenue growth rates to falling average prices for cobots. However, the rate of decline is predicted slow due to the stabilisation of the price war in China, and rising manufacturing costs in Europe and the US.
China continues to dominate the global cobot market, with its year-on-year growth outpacing other major regions. Interact reports that China’s share of global cobot revenues rose from 28.9% in 2018 to 54.7% in 2025, and predicts that it could reach 61.4% by 2030. By contrast, it expects the EMEA region’s market share to drop from 18.1% to 13.5% over the same period, and to be overtaken by the Americas, despite a fall in market share in this region from 15.9% to 13.7%.
China’s share of cobot revenues is predicted to increase from 35% in 2025 to 42.4% in 2030 – an average annual growth of 17.8%, compared with 11% for the rest of the world. The rapid expansion is explained by its volume advantage, as well as falling average prices, which are starting to stabilise in China after several years of intense price competition. Average revenue per cobot fell by just 0.35% in 2025, compared with 7.9% in 2024.
Interact suggests that industry is shifting towards medium- and high-payload cobots. Traditionally, collaborative robots have focused on payloads below 10kg, but the market is increasingly moving to larger payloads – including machines with capacities above 20kg – blurring the lines between industrial and collaborative robots.
“This upward payload shift aligns closely with vendor product strategies,” explains Interact Analysis senior analyst, Samantha Mou. “Examples include ABB’s PoWa series for the Chinese market and Jaka’s 40kg model (with a 90kg model in development), both designed with higher payloads and reduced force control precision. These ‘industrial cobots’ penetrate traditional industrial robot applications, while retaining collaborative safety features, targeting scenarios such as automotive parts, metal processing, and warehousing & logistics that require high-payload, cost-effective automation.”
