Reference · Updated mid-2026
The Caregiving Tech Price Index
Caregiving technology gets sold with a lot of hype and very few real prices. So here are the real ones — what the help that’s actually shipping today costs, set next to what hired human care costs. Every figure here is checked, not generated; it’s the same verified data behind our Tech Plan tool and our Caregiving by the Numbers reference.
First, what hired help costs
The context for everything below. When families weigh technology against hired care, this is the other side of the scale. (CareScout/Genworth, 2025.)
Non-medical home aide
Help with daily tasks, companionship, supervision
~$35/hr
Part-time (~20 hrs/wk) runs about $36,000/year.
Adult day health care
Supervised daytime care, meals, activities
~$95/day
Assisted living
Housing plus help with daily living
~$6,200/mo
Nursing home
24/7 skilled care, room and board
~$115,000–130,000/yr
24/7 in-home care
Round-the-clock aides in the home
~$216,000–324,000/yr
Geriatric care manager
A professional who coordinates the whole picture
~$75–200/hr
The affordable stack — here now
None of these is a robot. Each one is real, shipping, and a fraction of the cost of the human care above. Match them to the actual problem — that’s what the Tech Plan does for your situation.
Medical alert / PERS
Wearable help button; optional fall detection
Fall-detection add-on is usually +$8–15/mo. Real-world fall detection catches roughly 70–80% of falls — the 24/7 human response center is the actual safety mechanism, not the sensor.
Automatic pill dispenser
Schedules and dispenses medications, sends alerts
On a tight budget, free pharmacy blister/bubble packaging does most of the job. Dispensers can't verify swallowing — generally not suitable beyond early-stage dementia.
GPS locator (wandering)
Wearable, insole, or tag that locates a loved one
Representative: AngelSense ~$769 first year all-in; Jiobit ~$130 device + ~$9/mo.
Companion device (ElliQ)
Proactive voice companion; check-ins, reminders
Washington State Medicaid began reimbursing it in 2026 — worth one call to your Area Agency on Aging to ask what's covered where you live. Evidence is real but modest: less agitation and anxiety, no proven effect on cognition or depression.
Contactless / ambient sensing
Radar-based monitoring — no camera, no wearable
Representative: Cherish Serenity. Useful when a loved one won't wear a device.
Assistive cart robot (Labrador Caddie)
Carries items around the home
Sold mostly to care providers today — niche for families, but a real, shipping product.
And the humanoid robot?
The only home humanoid taking consumer orders in 2026 is the 1X NEO — $20,000, or $499/month, shipping late 2026. It relies on remote human teleoperators for anything hard, and no humanoid is a validated eldercare product today. Hardware may reach ordinary-family prices in the early 2030s, but the capability and trust to leave one alone with a frail person will take longer.
Which is the whole point of this page: the help that can actually lighten the load this year isn’t the thing on the magazine cover. It’s the quiet, affordable stack above.
The affordable robot isn’t a robot.
We dug into where caregiving tech and robot affordability are really headed — what’s here, what’s hype, and what to actually buy. Read the full take, then build a plan for your budget.
Figures are representative and verified as of mid-2026 from public sources; prices and availability drift fast, so confirm current pricing before you buy. This page is orientation, not financial advice — for your specific situation, talk to your Area Agency on Aging (free), and for money decisions, a licensed advisor.