Mentra Live
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| Mentra Live | |
|---|---|
| Basic Info | |
| Type | Smart glasses |
| Subtype | Wearable camera |
| Platform | iOS 15.1 or later, Android 12 or later (through the Mentra app) |
| Developer | Mentra |
| Release Date | First batch scheduled to ship 15 February 2026 (United States) |
| Price | US$449 (Mentra online store, United States, September 2026); US$299 at the January 2026 launch |
| Website | https://mentraglass.com/live |
| System | |
| Operating System | MentraOS (formerly AugmentOS) |
| Chipset | MediaTek MTK8766 |
| Display | |
| Display | None |
| Audio | |
| Audio | Stereo speakers |
| Microphone | Three microphones |
| Camera | 12 MP, 119 degree field of view (landscape orientation); 1080p video; 3264 x 2448 still images |
| Connectivity | |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi (5 GHz supported), Bluetooth |
| Ports | Magnetic "Infinity Cable" connection on the glasses; USB-C port on the charging case |
| Battery Capacity | 260 mAh (glasses); 2,200 mAh (charging case) |
| Battery Life | 12+ hours mixed use (manufacturer claim) |
| Device | |
| Dimensions | 162 x 148 x 47 mm (L x W x H) |
| Weight | 43 g |
| Color | Matte black |
| Input | Two temple buttons, touch swipe bar, voice commands |
Mentra Live is a pair of camera-equipped smart glasses made by Mentra, a San Francisco company founded in 2024. The glasses have a 12-megapixel camera, three microphones and stereo speakers but no display, and they weigh 43 grams.[1][2] They run MentraOS, Mentra's open-source operating system for smart glasses, and were the company's first smart glasses.[3]
Mentra took pre-orders in 2025, and its December 2025 shipping update was addressed to existing US batch 1 customers.[4] Its first press release for the glasses, issued on 15 January 2026, gave a price of US$299 and said the first batch of 1,000 pairs would ship on 15 February 2026.[1][5] Press coverage at launch compared the glasses with Ray-Ban Meta, pointing to the livestreaming support for many platforms and the app store.[6] By September 2026 Mentra sold the glasses for US$449 and marketed them as "Camera smart glasses for enterprise workflows".[2]
Announcement and release
Background
Mentra's operating system was originally called AugmentOS and was renamed MentraOS in mid-2025.[7] On 6 July 2025 the company announced MentraOS 2.0 together with a US$8 million funding round. Backers named in the announcement included Y Combinator, Toyota Ventures, the Amazon Alexa Fund, Android co-founder Rich Miner, YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim, Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky and Paul Graham.[1][8] Mentra's co-founder and chief executive is Cayden Pierce.[1]
In its coverage of the funding round, AR Insider described Mentra Live as a "modular camera-and-audio smart glasses kit" for enterprise and developer users, available for pre-order at US$249 with shipping planned for fall 2025.[5] Engadget reported that developers had had access to the MentraOS software development kit since early 2025.[3]
Redesign and delay
In a December 2025 post, chief executive Cayden Pierce and chief technology officer Alex Israelov wrote that Mentra had planned to ship Mentra Live in summer 2025, but that in the preceding months the team had found problems that led to a redesign.[9] According to the post:
- the camera was upgraded from 8 megapixels to 12 megapixels, and the weight fell from about 50 grams to 43 grams;
- the MediaTek MTK6765 processor was replaced by the more efficient MTK8766, because the original chip overheated after more than 15 minutes of high-quality streaming, and the main circuit board was redesigned to physically separate the Wi-Fi chip;
- a new antenna added 5 GHz Wi-Fi for 1080p streaming and faster photo and video sync;
- the charging case failed when held upside down and shaken, so production was halted and the case was given a stronger spring and longer charging pins.[9]
In a separate post the same day, Mentra said it was delaying shipping by six weeks, to 15 February 2026, for all US batch 1 customers. It said the hardware was complete and working end to end, and that the extra time was for software and quality work, including the charging case fix, microphone improvements, camera stabilization software, its Mentra Notes feature and point-of-view video calling.[4]
Launch
Mentra issued its first press release for Mentra Live on 15 January 2026. It gave a price of US$299, with batch 1 (1,000 units) shipping on 15 February 2026 and a limited batch 2 in the first quarter of 2026.[1] On 29 January 2026 Mentra announced that batch 1 had sold out, that batch 1 orders would begin shipping in the second week of February, and that batch 2, also limited to 1,000 units, would ship in March.[10] By 21 March 2026 the product page listed the glasses at US$299 with the note "Ships in 1-2 days".[11]
The price later rose. The product page showed US$349 in April 2026, and in September 2026 it listed US$449, including the glasses, charging case and Infinity Cable.[12][2] Retail orders from Mentra's website ship only to addresses in the United States; business orders, including shipments outside the United States, are handled by email.[2]
| Date | Price | Context |
|---|---|---|
| July 2025 | US$249 | Pre-order price reported by AR Insider[5] |
| January 2026 | US$299 | Launch price in Mentra's press release[1] |
| April 2026 | US$349 | Price on Mentra's product page[12] |
| September 2026 | US$449 | Price on Mentra's product page[2] |
Design and hardware
Mentra Live resembles ordinary glasses and has no display. 9to5Google noted that the frame looks somewhat like the Wayfarer style of Ray-Ban Meta.[6] The frame has a matte black finish and ships with clear non-prescription lenses.[2] Mentra's website lists prescription lenses as a separate product.[13] The glasses are not waterproof, and Mentra describes them as suitable for light rain, sweat and everyday use.[2]
A front camera records 1080p video and takes 3264 x 2448 still images through a 119 degree field of view in landscape orientation.[2] Mentra's developer documentation lists RGB feedback LEDs plus a white privacy light.[14] The glasses have stereo speakers and three microphones, and are controlled with a button on each temple, a touch swipe bar (forward, backward, up, down, tap and double tap) and voice commands.[2] The processor is a MediaTek MTK8766, paired with a low-power microcontroller according to the press release.[1]
The glasses hold a 260 mAh battery and the charging case a 2,200 mAh battery.[2] The specification list gives "12+ hours mixed use" for the glasses, while the product page FAQ gives 10+ hours of mixed use, 5+ hours of music, 40+ minutes of live streaming and 1+ hours of video recording.[2] The press release says the case adds more than 50 hours.[1] The glasses can also be powered through the magnetic Infinity Cable, which clips to the back of the frame and connects to a phone, power bank or other USB-C source. Mentra says the same cable gives developers USB access to the glasses' software.[9]
| Component | Specification |
|---|---|
| Chipset | MediaTek MTK8766[2] |
| Camera | 12 MP,[1] 119 degree field of view, 1080p video, 3264 x 2448 images[2] |
| Audio | Stereo speakers, three microphones[2] |
| Battery | 260 mAh (glasses), 2,200 mAh (case)[2] |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi and Bluetooth; compatible with iOS 15.1+ and Android 12+[2] |
| Frame dimensions | 162 mm L x 148 mm W x 47 mm H[2] |
| Charging case dimensions | 176 mm L x 68 mm W x 53.6 mm H, USB-C port[2] |
| Weight | 43 g[2] |
| Display | None[2] |
Software and features
Mentra Live runs MentraOS and connects to an iPhone or Android phone through the Mentra app.[2] Mentra describes MentraOS as open source, and the project's GitHub README states that "Every component is open source under the MIT license".[15] The same operating system also supports third-party glasses, including the Even Realities G1, Even Realities G2 and Vuzix Z100.[16] According to the "Making Mentra Live" post, MentraOS uses a dedicated audio pathway on the glasses: a microphone stream compressed with the LC3 codec is sent over Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE GATT), in parallel with standard Bluetooth audio for calls and media.[9]
At launch, Mentra promoted the MiniApp Store, which it described as the only app store for smart glasses.[1] Example apps named at launch included AI Notes and Poker Probability, and a "Chess Cheater" app that, according to Engadget, uses the camera and AI to analyze a chess position and whisper a suggested move.[1][3] Through the Mentra Stream app, the glasses could livestream to platforms including YouTube, X, Twitch and OnlyFans, which 9to5Google contrasted with Ray-Ban Meta's more limited livestreaming options.[6]
Mentra later changed how apps run. In June 2026 Pierce wrote that the cloud-based design added latency, since a button press could take "hundreds of milliseconds before the app can respond", and raised concerns about control, privacy and enterprise deployment. Mentra stopped building its cloud SDK in June 2026 and moved apps to run locally on the phone, with legacy support for cloud miniapps scheduled to end in October 2026.[17] Under Mentra 3.0, announced on 17 August 2026, all miniapps run entirely on the phone, and local speech-to-text and text-to-speech models download over Wi-Fi so that apps can keep working when the internet connection is lost. The initial 3.0 release did not include the Miniapp Store. The same update added 5, 15 and 30 fps recording modes and hardware-accelerated video encoding on Mentra Live, and Mentra wrote that it had shipped thousands of Mentra Live devices since launch.[18]
Developers can also control Mentra Live directly with the Mentra Bluetooth SDK for Android, iOS and React Native. The SDK covers the camera, microphone audio, speaker playback, Wi-Fi, hotspot and hardware events, and supports photo upload to a webhook and RTMP, SRT or WebRTC streaming to a developer's own endpoint. The SDK and the glasses software must use the same release version.[19]
Enterprise focus
In the Mentra 3.0 announcement, Pierce wrote that "The greatest need for smart glasses today is in enterprise", naming automotive repair, manufacturing, logistics, HVAC and frontline work.[18] In September 2026, Mentra's website marketed its products as "AI Glasses for Frontline Workers", with point-of-view video calling, AI assistants and automatic work documentation. Its Mentra Call product lets a remote expert see what the worker sees and guide the work through the customer's Microsoft Teams account.[13]
Reception
Launch coverage in January 2026 compared the glasses with Meta's camera glasses. 9to5Google's Ben Schoon highlighted the app store and broader livestreaming support, repeated Mentra's claims of lower weight and 12-hour battery life, and noted that the US$299 price was below Meta's starting price for the Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2).[6] TechSpot's Rob Thubron reported Mentra's claims that the glasses' battery life was longer than that of the Ray-Ban Meta (Gen 2) and that they were lighter.[20] Android Police's Andy Boxall described them as around five grams lighter than Ray-Ban Meta and noted that there is no ongoing subscription.[7] Android Headlines also covered the launch, focusing on the open-source operating system and MiniApp Store.[21]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 "Mentra Releases First Smart Glasses With An App Store". Mentra. 2026-01-15. https://mentraglass.com/blogs/blog/our-first-press-release-mentra-releases-first-smart-glasses-with-an-app-store. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 2.13 2.14 2.15 2.16 2.17 2.18 2.19 2.20 "Mentra Live". Mentra. https://mentraglass.com/live. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Matt Tate (2026-01-15). "Mentra's first smart glasses are open-source and come with their own app store". Engadget. https://www.engadget.com/wearables/mentras-first-smart-glasses-are-open-source-and-come-with-their-own-app-store-150021126.html. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Alex Israelov, Cayden Pierce (2025-12-21). "Mentra Live Shipping Update". Mentra. https://mentraglass.com/blogs/blog/mentra-live-shipping-update. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Charlie Fink (2025-07-09). "Mentra Reframes Smart Glasses Operating Systems". AR Insider. https://arinsider.co/2025/07/09/mentra-rethinks-smart-glasses-operating-systems/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Ben Schoon (2026-01-15). "These $299 smart glasses best Ray-Ban Meta with YouTube livestreams, app store". 9to5Google. https://9to5google.com/2026/01/15/mentra-live-smart-glasses-youtube-livestream/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Andy Boxall (2026-01-15). "These Ray-Ban Meta challengers will fulfill all your livestreaming dreams". Android Police. https://www.androidpolice.com/these-ray-ban-meta-challengers-will-fulfill-all-your-livestreaming-dreams/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ "Announcing MentraOS 2.0 and Our $8M Raise". Mentra. 2025-07-06. https://mentraglass.com/blogs/blog/announcing-mentraos-2-0-and-our-8m-raise. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Cayden Pierce, Alex Israelov (2025-12-21). "Making Mentra Live". Mentra. https://mentraglass.com/blogs/blog/making-mentra-live. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ "Batch 1 Sold Out: Mentra Live Featured in Engadget, Gizmodo, NY Post". Mentra. 2026-01-29. https://mentraglass.com/blogs/blog/mentra-live-featured-in-engadget-gizmodo-new-york-post-and-more. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ "Mentra Live Camera Glasses (archived 21 March 2026)". Mentra. 2026-03-21. https://web.archive.org/web/20260321063526/https://mentraglass.com/live. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Mentra Live (archived 16 April 2026)". Mentra. 2026-04-16. https://web.archive.org/web/20260416173002/https://mentraglass.com/live. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 "AI Glasses for Frontline Workers". Mentra. https://mentraglass.com/. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ "Hardware Integration". MentraOS Documentation. Mentra. https://docs.mentraglass.com/bluetooth-sdk/hardware. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ "MentraOS". GitHub. Mentra Labs. https://github.com/Mentra-Community/MentraOS. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ "MentraOS". Mentra. https://mentraglass.com/os. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ Cayden Pierce (2026-06-09). "Mentra Roadmap Update: Moving to Miniapps on the Phone". Mentra. https://mentraglass.com/blogs/blog/mentra-roadmap-update-moving-to-miniapps-on-the-phone. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Cayden Pierce (2026-08-17). "Mentra 3.0 - Local Miniapps, Full User Control, and Enterprise Smart Glasses". Mentra. https://mentraglass.com/blogs/blog/mentra-3-0-local-miniapps-full-user-control-and-enterprise-smart-glasses. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ "Mentra Bluetooth SDK". MentraOS Documentation. Mentra. https://docs.mentraglass.com/bluetooth-sdk/overview. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ Rob Thubron (2026-01-16). "The open-source Mentra Live smart glasses are built for livestreaming to platforms, including OnlyFans". TechSpot. https://www.techspot.com/news/110955-new-mentra-live-smart-glasses-built-livestreaming-platforms.html. Retrieved 2026-09-29.
- ↑ Sai Krishna (2026-01-16). "Mentra Live Smart Glasses Bank on Open-Source OS & MiniApp Store". Android Headlines. https://www.androidheadlines.com/2026/01/mentra-live-smart-glasses-bank-on-open-source-os-miniapp-store.html. Retrieved 2026-09-29.