Professional cleaning robots: sales up 40% in 2025, according to the IFR

The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) presented its annual World Robotics report on 24 September 2026. Among professional service robots, cleaning is one of the fastest-growing applications, with sales up 40% in 2025. Here is what the IFR published, what these figures really measure and what they say about the market for anyone responsible for cleaning a building.

What the IFR published

The World Robotics 2026 report covers both industrial robots and service robots. For professional service robots, those that work in businesses and public spaces rather than in homes, the IFR counts almost 250,000 units sold in 2025, up 24%. Among the main applications, professional cleaning shows growth of 40%.

In its press release, the IFR places transport and logistics well ahead, at 117,500 units, or 47% of the total and up 21%. Hospitality robots, such as mobile guidance systems, information points and telepresence, come second. Professional cleaning robots come third, with floor cleaning as the main application in that segment. In other words, the machines this site deals with, autonomous scrubber-dryers, sweepers and vacuums, make up the bulk of the cleaning category.

The IFR also highlights the role of robots-as-a-service models, rental with maintenance included, which it says continued to grow in popularity even though outright sales remain the main channel. These models clearly lower the barrier to entry. It is the model we offer, and the reason we compared it with outright purchase in our guide to renting or buying a cleaning robot.

Two years of strong growth

The 2025 figure follows on from 2024: in its previous report, the IFR counted more than 25,000 professional cleaning robots sold, up 34%. Cleaning has therefore been among the fastest-growing uses two years running.

The explanation comes down to two things: labour and return on investment. Floor cleaning is a repetitive, measurable task carried out on known surfaces, so the gain is easy to calculate, which is not true of every use of service robots. On the other side of the equation, cleaning operative posts are increasingly hard to fill in many markets. When the work is hard to staff and the saving easy to measure, adoption tends to follow.

Measurability deserves a closer look, because it explains why cleaning moves faster than other service applications. A robot's output can be read in square metres per hour, its runtime in hours per charge, and its work in reports that show the area covered each night. A site manager can set those numbers against the hours spent on the same floors today. The method is set out step by step in our guide to calculating cleaning robot ROI.

What these figures measure, and what they do not

Three words of caution. These are units sold worldwide, not revenue and not an installed base, and they come with no country-by-country breakdown. The data rests on returns from some of the manufacturers: 238 producers out of more than 1,000 identified for this edition, and the IFR itself advises against strict comparisons between survey waves. Finally, consumer robots are counted separately: almost 34.2 million units in 2025, up 37%, which have nothing to do with professional machines.

In practice, this means the headline growth rates describe a direction of travel, not the precise size of any national market. A 40% increase on a base of a few tens of thousands of units is a strong signal, but it does not tell a buyer which models are available locally, which are backed by a service network, or which have published their safety conformity. For the market model by model, our robotic cleaning observatory lists the commercial robots on offer, their manufacturers and what they publish on safety and interoperability.

Why floor cleaning lends itself to robots

The IFR does not break down the cleaning segment by building type, but the reasons floor cleaning leads the way are visible on the ground. Floors are large, flat and mapped once; the task repeats every day or every night; and the result can be checked. A robot does not need to understand a complex scene to scrub a corridor: it needs to follow a route, detect obstacles and people, and report what it has done.

The other side of the picture matters just as much. A floor robot leaves edges, stairs, washrooms, touch points and cluttered areas to the cleaning team. That is why deployments that work are cobotic: the machine takes the repetitive coverage, and the team keeps everything that calls for judgement. Market growth does not change that division of labour; it makes the tools more mature.

What it changes for a site manager

Growth on this scale has two concrete effects for a buyer. The offer is broadening and becoming more professional, with automatic docking stations, run reports and lift integration becoming standard features. How far these features have spread across models is tracked in our study of interoperability, lifts and fleets. And field experience is building up: cleaning robots are no longer prototypes, but machines whose successful uses, and less successful ones, are now known. An on-site demonstration remains the best way to find out which category yours falls into.

Reading market statistics as a buyer: four questions

Market reports are useful context, but they do not choose a robot for you. Before letting a headline figure shape a decision, it helps to ask four questions.

1. What exactly is being counted? Units sold, revenue or installed base tell different stories. A fast-growing unit count can coexist with a small installed base.
2. Which machines are included? A cleaning category may mix scrubber-dryers, sweepers, vacuums, window and pool robots. Check whether the machines you are considering sit inside it.
3. Is local support available? Global volumes say nothing about spare parts, technicians or response times where your site is.
4. Is safety documented? Growth does not guarantee conformity. Ask whether the model publishes an IEC 63327 declaration; our IEC 63327 barometer shows how few do.

Sources

Sources: IFR, World Robotics 2026 presentation of 24 September 2026, and IFR press release "Global Sales of Professional Service Robots Surge 24%"; IFR, World Robotics 2025, for the 2024 figures.

Sources and references

Regulations, public bodies and manufacturer documents this article draws on. Links open in a new tab.

• Global Sales of Professional Service Robots Surge 24% (International Federation of Robotics (IFR)) : The IFR release on World Robotics 2026: almost 250,000 professional service robots in 2025 (+24%), transport and logistics first, cleaning third with floor cleaning as the main application, consumer robots at 34.2 million, and growing robots-as-a-service models.