Home Assistant Green is the official $199 plug-and-play hub for running Home Assistant. For anyone considering home automation but unwilling to spend a Saturday assembling a Raspberry Pi, Green is the right answer. It ships pre-configured with Home Assistant OS, takes about 10 minutes from unboxing to first dashboard, and gives you the full Home Assistant experience without the DIY learning curve.
This is the complete setup guide for 2026: what is in the box, the step-by-step onboarding, adding your first smart device, and the signs that it is time to outgrow Green for something more powerful.
What Home Assistant Green is
Home Assistant Green is a small fanless computer designed and sold by Nabu Casa, the company that develops Home Assistant. The hardware is purpose-built for residential home automation: enough CPU and RAM to run Home Assistant comfortably, ethernet for reliable networking, low power draw, and an aluminum heatsink that keeps it silent.
Inside, the specs are:
- CPU: Rockchip RK3566 quad-core ARM Cortex-A55 at 1.8 GHz
- RAM: 4 GB LPDDR4X
- Storage: 32 GB eMMC flash
- Network: Gigabit ethernet
- USB: 2x USB 2.0 Type-A (5V, up to 2A combined)
- HDMI: Yes, but for diagnostic use only
- microSD slot: Recovery use only
- Power: 12V DC 1A barrel connector. Idle draw about 1.7 watts.
- Dimensions: 112 mm x 112 mm x 32 mm, weighs 340 grams
What is not in the device, by design: WiFi, no internal Zigbee/Thread/Matter radio, no PoE. If you need any of those, plan to use USB add-ons or consider the Home Assistant Yellow instead.
What is in the box
Open the Green and you get:
- The Home Assistant Green hub
- A gigabit ethernet cable (CAT5e, about 1 meter)
- A universal 12V power supply with interchangeable EU, US, and UK adapters
- A quick-start card with warranty and safety information
That is the full kit. No HDMI cable (which is fine because you do not need one for normal use), no Zigbee USB stick (purchase separately if you want Zigbee devices), no documentation beyond the quick-start card (the full docs live online at home-assistant.io/green).
Setup: 10 minutes from unbox to dashboard
Step 1: Place and connect
Put the Green somewhere with reliable ethernet. The unit needs to be powered on 24/7, so a permanent location near your network switch or router is ideal. The device is fanless and silent, so noise is not a constraint.
Connect the ethernet cable from the Green to your router or switch. Plug the power supply into the wall and into the back of the Green. The unit boots automatically; there is no power button. The LED on the front will pulse blue while booting.
Boot takes about 60 seconds on first power. You can move on while it boots.
Step 2: Open the onboarding URL
From any computer on the same network, open a browser and go to http://homeassistant.local:8123. If your network blocks .local mDNS resolution (some corporate networks do, residential rarely), use the device's IP address instead, which you can find from your router's connected devices list.
You should see the Home Assistant onboarding screen with a "Create my smart home" button.
Step 3: Create your account
Click create. Pick a name, username, and password. This is the local administrator account for your Home Assistant instance. Save the password somewhere safe; if you lose it, recovery requires physical access to the device.
Step 4: Set location and units
Home Assistant will ask for your location (used for sun-based automations and weather). Drag the map pin to your home. Set your time zone, country, language, and unit preferences (Fahrenheit/Celsius, mph/kph, etc.).
Step 5: Let it discover devices
Home Assistant automatically scans your local network for compatible devices: Philips Hue bridges, Sonos speakers, Apple TVs, printers, Chromecasts, and dozens of other devices with mDNS or UPnP discovery. The discovered devices show up at the end of onboarding. Add the ones you want now; you can always add more later.
Step 6: You are done
The onboarding flow ends at your dashboard. Out of the box, the dashboard shows a weather card, a few discovered devices, and the floor plan. You are running.
Total elapsed time: about 10 to 15 minutes if your network is well-behaved.
Adding your first smart device
The fastest path to "I am actually using this" is adding a smart device that has an obvious purpose. A smart bulb in a frequently-used lamp, a smart plug on a fan, or a contact sensor on the back door are good starter choices.
For a smart bulb, the flow is:
- If the bulb is Zigbee, plug a Zigbee coordinator USB stick into the Green (see our Zigbee2MQTT setup guide for the coordinator pick and setup process).
- If the bulb is WiFi, follow the manufacturer's app to get it on your WiFi, then add the manufacturer's integration in Home Assistant under Settings → Devices and Services → Add Integration.
- If the bulb is Matter (the new universal standard), add the Matter integration and follow the QR code scanning flow.
For a smart plug or contact sensor, the same paths apply: Zigbee through your coordinator, WiFi through the manufacturer's integration, or Matter through the Matter integration.
Once the device is in Home Assistant, click it from your dashboard and you can control it from the web UI. Adding it to an automation comes next.
Nabu Casa Cloud: subscribe or skip?
During onboarding, Home Assistant prompts you about Home Assistant Cloud, a paid subscription service from Nabu Casa that adds three things:
- Secure remote access to your Home Assistant from anywhere (without port forwarding or VPN setup).
- Alexa and Google Assistant integration for voice control.
- Text-to-speech and speech-to-text engines for the Home Assistant voice features.
The subscription cost is documented on nabucasa.com (pricing has shifted over time; check current rates). For most users, the Cloud subscription is worth it if you want any of the three features. The alternative is setting up a Cloudflare Tunnel, a VPN like Tailscale, or self-hosting voice via Whisper and Piper, all of which are doable but take real time to configure.
Skip Cloud if you only use Home Assistant inside your home, do not use Alexa or Google, and do not need voice features. Add it later from Settings if your needs change.
When to upgrade beyond Green
Green is sized for typical residential workloads: 50 to 200 entities, a few dozen automations, dashboards on 2 to 4 family devices. It handles all of that comfortably with headroom.
Three signals tell you it is time to graduate to bigger hardware:
- Frigate or other camera processing. Green's CPU cannot keep up with object detection on more than one camera. If you want a multi-camera Frigate setup, you need a mini PC.
- Hundreds of automations or AppDaemon apps. Some heavy users push 500+ entities and run Python automation frameworks alongside YAML. Green still works but the dashboard feels sluggish.
- You need PoE or NVMe storage. The next step up is Home Assistant Yellow (PoE, NVMe, integrated Zigbee radio) or a custom Raspberry Pi 5 + accessories build.
If those signals are not relevant to you, Green will serve happily for years.
What to do next
With Home Assistant running, the next steps are populating your dashboard with devices and writing your first automation. The Best Home Assistant Integrations in 2026 guide covers the integrations and add-ons worth installing. For sample automations to start with, see 10 Home Assistant Automations Worth Setting Up First.
For comparison shopping, our Home Assistant Green vs Yellow breakdown explains when the more advanced Yellow is worth the extra setup work.
Frequently asked questions
What is Home Assistant Green?
Home Assistant Green is the official entry-level hardware from Nabu Casa for running Home Assistant. It is a small fanless hub priced at $199 with Home Assistant OS pre-installed, designed for plug-and-play setup in about 15 minutes.
How much does Home Assistant Green cost?
$199 USD at the recommended MSRP from Nabu Casa, with regional pricing variation. The box includes the hub, a gigabit ethernet cable, and a universal power supply with EU, US, and UK adapters.
What are the specs of Home Assistant Green?
Rockchip RK3566 quad-core ARM Cortex-A55 CPU at 1.8 GHz, 4 GB LPDDR4X RAM, 32 GB eMMC flash storage, gigabit ethernet, two USB 2.0 Type-A ports, HDMI (diagnostic only), microSD slot (recovery only). Idle power draw is about 1.7 watts.
How long does Home Assistant Green setup take?
About 10 to 15 minutes for the initial onboarding flow (account creation, network detection, integrations discovery). Adding your first smart device takes another few minutes. Going from unboxing to your first working automation is realistic in 30 minutes.
Does Home Assistant Green support PoE?
No. Green uses a 12V DC barrel connector for power. If you want PoE, look at Home Assistant Yellow instead, which supports PoE+ natively.
Does Home Assistant Green have a built-in Zigbee radio?
No. Green has no internal Zigbee, Thread, or Matter radio. To add Zigbee devices, plug a USB Zigbee coordinator (such as the Home Assistant Connect ZBT-1 or Sonoff ZBDongle-P) into one of the USB 2.0 ports.
Curated with AI assistance via Charmed.