When juggling work, family, or other priorities, cleaning can be the last thing on your mind. However, you can't ignore the mess on your rugs or carpet forever, especially since removing debris from high-pile textiles can be difficult. While a traditional upright or canister vacuum requires time and energy, a robot vacuum can automate the cleaning process and even operate when you're not at home, which can be a huge time-saver. Although many robot vacuums struggle to move on carpet, a few can do a decent job.
We've tested 80 robot vacuums, and below are our recommendations for the best robot vacuums for carpet you can buy. These picks are selected based on their performance, feature set, design, and price. Check out our recommendations for the best robot vacuums, the best budget robot vacuums, and the best robot vacuums for pet hair. If you're not convinced and want to look for a completely different type of vacuum for carpeting, check out our recommendations for the best vacuums for carpets and the best vacuums for shag carpet.
Quick Look
Our robot vacuum recommendations come from our independent testing of more than 80 different models. We purchase every robot vacuum we test, with no cherry-picked units or data. Every robot vacuum goes through the same suite of tests that covers everything from user maintenance to obstacle avoidance. Our testers and writers validate the results to ensure you can easily compare each model side by side, and we keep the products in our lab so we can continuously go back and retest them against the newest models.
Check out our How We Test Robot Vacuums article to learn more about our purchasing, testing, and writing procedures.
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Best Robot Vacuum For Carpet
Debris Pickup: Carpet7.0Low-Pile Carpet Pickup7.0See all our test resultsHigh-Pile Carpet Pickup7.0The Dreame X50 Ultra is the best robot vacuum for carpets we've tested. This flagship model uses twin counter-rotating rubber brushrolls that agitate carpet surfaces, allowing it to clean most large and medium debris; it leaves some fine material along edges and corners, though. As you'd expect of a high-end model, it's packed with advanced features. The body houses a retractable LIDAR sensor for getting under low furniture, while its threshold crossing system props the robot vacuum up on legs to climb over transitions between rooms or particularly thick carpet and other floor surfaces. And its obstacle avoidance system is among the best on the market, as it's capable of identifying and maneuvering around many household objects, so you won't have to clean up before your robot vacuum cleans up.
You'll find the workload of day-to-day maintenance tasks greatly reduced with the full-featured multifunction dock. This dock automatically empties the robot vacuum's dustbin. If you have hardwood or tile floors, this dock fills the robot vacuum's mop water tank, empties the dirty water tank, washes the mop pads with hot water, and dries them with hot air. You can also choose to have the robot vacuum detach and leave its mop pads behind at the dock for intensive carpet cleaning sessions, where you don't want damp mop pads dragging over your carpet.
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Best Lower Mid-Range Robot Vacuum For Carpet
Debris Pickup: Carpet6.7Low-Pile Carpet Pickup6.5See all our test resultsHigh-Pile Carpet Pickup7.0The Dreame L40 Ultra is a good alternative to the Dreame X50 Ultra for carpet cleaning if you don't want to spring for a flagship. Carpet cleaning performance is decent, almost as good as the X50, though it leaves more fine and medium debris behind on low-pile carpets. Its battery life is exceptional, nearly as good as the X50, and uses the same mopping system with identical performance. Its full-featured self-emptying dock has all the functions of its higher-end sibling as well.
In the interest of affordability, it drops a few of the X50's high-end features; it doesn't have the retractable LIDAR sensor for getting under low furniture or the advanced threshold crossing system. While its obstacle avoidance is decent, it's not top-tier performance here either. Still, it's a good choice if you want the convenience of a self-empty dock and real-time obstacle avoidance in a robot vacuum for carpet cleaning.
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Best Budget Robot Vacuum For Carpet
Debris Pickup: Carpet6.7Low-Pile Carpet Pickup6.5See all our test resultsHigh-Pile Carpet Pickup7.0The Wyze Robot Vacuum is worth considering if you're looking for a slightly more affordable robot vacuum. At this price point, overall performance on carpeting is nothing special; the vacuum struggles with fine debris embedded deep within carpet fibers, though it doesn't have much trouble maneuvering on low-pile carpeting or picking up pet hair from carpets. Although it isn't compatible with a self-emptying station like the Roborock Q7 Max and lacks the Dreame X50 Ultra's retractable LIDAR sensor, threshold crossing hardware, or hazard-avoidance system, it's still a very good option if you have no need for those features and want to save some money. The Wyze's LIDAR mapping sensor allows it to generate a pretty accurate map of your home, which you can then access in its companion app to set up virtual boundary lines or direct the vacuum to clean specific rooms.
However, you'll want to use a full-size vacuum to clean any shag-pile rugs you might have at home, as the Wyze can get bogged down in plush carpeting. Note that this robot vacuum is discontinued, but still available at some Walmart locations. However, you may have difficulty finding one in your area.
Notable Mentions
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Shark AI Ultra Robot AV2501S:
The Shark AI Ultra Robot is a mid-range self-emptying robot vacuum with a LIDAR sensor. It delivers good overall performance on carpeted surfaces but has a very clunky companion app, making for a less user-friendly experience than the Wyze Robot Vacuum.
See our review
Recent Updates
Nov 25, 2025:
We removed the iRobot Roomba S9+ from the Notable Mentions due to iRobot's probable closure. The Roborock S8 Pro Ultra is discontinued; we replaced it with the Dreame X50 Ultra. The Roborock Q5 Max+ has also been discontinued; we replaced it with the Roborock Q7 Max. We removed the discontinued Notable Mentions Roborock S8+ and Roborock Qrevo.
Apr 22, 2025:
We've made minor updates to the text and checked that the products are in stock. However, our recommendations have remained unchanged.
Jan 13, 2025:
Verified that all picks are valid and available. Small text changes for clarity and conciseness.
Oct 09, 2024: We've done a major overhaul of this article, updating our recommendations based on our new pet hair testing and to reflect the best available products on the market. To this end, we replaced the Roborock S8+/S8 with the Roborock S8 Pro Ultra, the Roborock Q5+ with the Roborock Q5 Max+, and the eufy RoboVac 11S with the Wyze Robot Vacuum.
Jun 20, 2024: Replaced the Shark ION Robot AV753 Series with the eufy RoboVac 11S because the Shark is getting hard to find.
All Reviews
Our recommendations above are what we think are currently the best robot vacuums for carpet cleaning for most people. We factor in the price, feedback from our visitors, and availability.
If you would like to do the work of choosing yourself, here is the list of all our robot vacuum reviews, ranked by their high-pile carpet performance. Be careful not to get too caught up in the details. While no vacuum is perfect for every use, most are good enough to please almost everyone, and the differences are often not noticeable unless you really look for them.