The Best Automatic Litter Box of 2026: Petkit and Litter-Robot

Published 1 July 2026 · india

Compare Our Picks Connected to an app? Entry size Footprint size Compatible litter Suitable cat size Special features Petkit Purobot Max Pro 2 Yes 10.7

Compare Our Picks Connected to an app? Entry size Footprint size Compatible litter Suitable cat size Special features Petkit Purobot Max Pro 2 Yes 10.7 x 10.5 inches 21.2 x 25.9 inches Any clumping litter with granules shorter than 0.5 inches From 6 months old or weighing 3.3 to 22.1 pounds AI-powered camera; deodorizing cartridges Whisker Litter-Robot 4 Yes 15.75 x 15.75 inches 22 x 27 inches Clumping or scoopable clay litter (translucent or crystal may affect litter level monitoring) 4 pounds minimum, no maximum LitterHopper auto-refill attachment Petkit PuraMax 2 Yes 7.87 x 8.85 inches (76 liter interior) 24.4 x 21.2 inches Clay, tofu, mixed, and bentonite litters (incompatible with crystal) 3.5 to 18 pounds Odor eliminator attachment in the waste bin; a deodorizing spray that goes off periodically Lesure Self-Cleaning Electronic Litter Box Yes 16 x 20.5 inches 23 x 19 inches Any (must change sifter panel type) From 6 months old or weighing 3.3 to 18 pounds Connected app, deodorizing cartridges PetPivot Autoscooper 11 No 16.3 x 15.4 inches (10 liter interior) 21.5 x 21.5 inches Benonite and mineral litters (incompatible with tofu or crystal) 3 to 22 pounds No Petkit Purobot Ultra Yes 8.58 x 9.84 inches 20.9 x 32.2 inches Clay, tofu, mixed, and bentonite litters (not recommended with litter longer than 0.5 inches or wider than 3 mm) 3.3 to 22 pounds Camera to see inside and out of the litter box; two-way audio; AI cat identification; auto-packing and -sealing waste bag Homerunpet Self-Cleaning Litter Box CS106 Yes 10 x 10.5 inches 27.4 × 23.6 inches Tofu, bentonite, clay, and mixed litters Up to 20 pounds Self-filling litter reservoir Whisker Litter-Robot 5 Pro Yes 15.75 x 15.75 inches 22 x 27 inches Clumping or scoopable clay litter (translucent or crystal may affect litter level monitoring) 3 to 30 pounds AI-powered camera; WasteID smart detection Others We Tested Photograph: Kat Merck Litter-Robot 5 for $799: The base model Litter-Robot 5 offers several improvements and design tweaks over the base Litter-Robot 4: easier assembly and waste removal; an LCD screen; and, if you have a Whisker+ subscription, a new WasteID feature that is supposed to distinguish between feces and urine. This only worked intermittently in the first four months of testing, as did the LR’s ability to tell my cats apart by their weights. However, the firmware on the 5 was recently updated and seems to have improved greatly over the past few weeks, with fewer error codes and more consistent WasteID readings. I will continue to update my observations over time. Note that I very much prefer Litter-Robot’s larger opening to Petkit’s, the ease of cleaning, and the fact it can hold a week’s worth of waste from my two cats before needing to be emptied. —Kat Merck Photograph: Molly Higgins Petcove PurrTek Covered Self-Cleaning Litter Box for $360: I was surprised when my two large cats easily took to this very small automatic litter box. I wasn’t even sure my 16-pound cat would be able to fit inside. Set up was super easy: Just insert the step (my cats preferred to use it without because they’re so large and it took up valuable real estate inside), plug in, download the connected app, and connect the box to Wi-Fi. The waste bag was already installed, and there were also large buttons on the front to manually control settings like auto- or manual-cleaning, deodorization, auto-leveling, waste or litter emptying, and sensing. I’ve grown to really appreciate easy outside buttons, which are a game-changer when the often buggy app crashes or you aren’t near your phone. Like many automatic litter boxes I test, this product would be vastly improved with a better app interface and clearer English translations. It was very hard to figure out what the settings were asking or even if they were set, mostly because of the poor translation. Waste bin calibration could be set from zero to 15, and litter leveling setting could be set from zero to six, seemingly arbitrary numbers that didn’t seem to change settings. “Do not disturb” mode could be set, but only for a specific clock time, such as 11:30 pm, rather than a time span, which wasn't useful. It also took an egregiously long time to sift the waste, at almost four and a half minutes for the whole cycle. I wish the waste bin were at the bottom of the device, because emptying and refilling the bag was often messy and had litter leakage. The device worked without issue overall, and my cats liked it, but for almost $400, I’d get the Petkit PuraMax 2, which fluctuates at a similar price but works so much better. Photograph: Kat Merck Els Pet Orbitie for $300: This is one of the least expensive automatic litter boxes, but it functions much like the more expensive models, with an internal 65-liter-capacity orb that rotates and catches clumps with a plastic grate, depositing them into a bag-lined box below. The opening is a generous 12 by 12 inches—plenty big enough for my two 8-year-old cats, who took to it almost immediately despite never having seen anything but a traditional litter box. The accompanying Orbitie app doesn’t offer an extensive amount of information; it tells the user the volume of litter and what step of the cleaning phase the box is currently in, as well as how many times the box has been used and at what times. The first test unit I received was faulty—it sent multiple phantom alerts to the app, letting me know it had cleaned itself as many as 36 times a day, which I knew for a fact was not true.