Aqara G2H Pro vs Aqara G3: Which Should You Buy?

Overview

These are Aqara's two classic camera-hubs, and on paper they look like close relatives: both are white indoor cameras that double as Zigbee 3.0 hubs for up to 128 Aqara child devices, both record to microSD and to Apple HomeKit Secure Video, both offer two-way audio, and both work with Apple Home, Alexa, Google Home and IFTTT. If you want the single-product breakdowns first, read our Aqara Camera Hub G2H Pro review and our Aqara Camera Hub G3 review — this page is the head-to-head.

The differences are size, movement and brains. The G2H Pro (model CH-C01) is a tiny fixed tombstone of a camera — 82.4 × 56.5 × 50.5 mm and about 115 g — that stares at one wide 146° view and never moves. The G3 (model CH-H03) is a much larger robot-shaped pan-and-tilt camera (123.4 × 85.1 × 67.8 mm, 250 g) whose single 2K lens rides on motors, carries a local AI processor, and hides an infrared blaster for legacy TVs and air conditioners. At Aqara's own US store the gap is $50 ($69.99 vs $119.99, checked October 26, 2026), so the question is whether movement, resolution and AI are worth it in your room.

Full specification comparison

Source note: specs and prices are from Aqara's official global product pages and its official US and EU stores (us.aqara.com and eu.aqara.com product data), checked October 26, 2026. One figure is genuinely unsettled: Aqara's own pages disagree on the G2H Pro's microSD ceiling — 512GB in the US store description and in the camera's feature copy, 128GB in one official specification table. We report both rather than picking one; buy a card size confirmed by the support page for your region if 512GB matters to you. Neither camera's frame rate is stated in the official material we consulted, so none is quoted.

Video and coverage: wide and fixed vs sharper and moving

The G2H Pro's one real camera win is width: its 146° diagonal lens takes in more of a room from a corner than the G3's 110° lens sees in a single frame — Aqara attributes the extra width partly to the absence of distortion correction, so expect a mild fish-eye look at the edges. What it cannot do is look anywhere else: no pan, no tilt, no tracking. If the action leaves that fixed frame, the G2H Pro never saw it.

The G3 answers with resolution and movement. Its 2304×1296 sensor records noticeably more detail than 1080p in the Aqara Home app, and its motors swing the lens 340° horizontally and 45° vertically, with an auto-cruise mode that patrols preset views — Aqara markets the combination as up to 360° of viewing angle. For a single camera covering an open-plan living space, that movement is worth more than the G2H Pro's extra static width.

One shared catch, and it matters most for Apple households: HomeKit Secure Video treats the two cameras differently. The G2H Pro is a native 1080p camera, so HomeKit records everything it has. The G3 is capped at 1080p inside HomeKit Secure Video and its pan/tilt controls do not work in the Apple Home app — you need the Aqara Home app for 2K and for moving the camera. Our guide to the best indoor cameras for Apple HomeKit explains what that trade-off means in practice.

Detection and AI

The G3 runs its recognition on the camera itself: a built-in NPU handles face recognition, pet recognition and gesture recognition (Aqara lists gestures such as V sign and OK sign as automation triggers), all without sending faces to a cloud for analysis. The G2H Pro detects motion and abnormal sounds on-device and raises a siren and a phone alert, but its face and package recognition is a HomeKit feature — the processing happens on your HomePod or Apple TV hub under HomeKit Secure Video, not in the camera. Both approaches keep processing local to your home; the difference is which box does the work, and that the G3's recognition also works for Aqara Home and Alexa/Google households, while the G2H Pro's smart recognition effectively requires the Apple setup.

Hub duties and platforms

As hubs, they tie: each is a Zigbee 3.0 hub for up to 128 Aqara child devices (Aqara's footnote notes repeaters may be needed to reach that number), each syncs Aqara sensor events onto the camera's video timeline, and each exposes its child devices to Apple Home, Alexa and Google. The G3 then adds two things the G2H Pro lacks: the 360° IR blaster, which learns your existing infrared remotes and runs local automations for a TV or air conditioner even if the internet drops, and dual-band Wi-Fi, which matters in crowded 2.4GHz apartment buildings. The G2H Pro answers with WPA3 on 2.4GHz and the fullest HomeKit treatment Aqara offers on either camera, including all four HomeKit Security System modes synced with Aqara's own alert system and HomeKit-enabled two-way audio.

Neither camera speaks Matter or Thread — both predate Aqara's Matter line. If that is your deciding factor, skip both and look at the comparison in our Aqara G350 vs Aqara G3 head-to-head, or the Aqara Camera Hub G350 review: the G350 is the Matter-certified successor to this whole design.

Storage: the one place the cheaper camera wins

Counter-intuitively, the $69.99 camera is the storage champion. Beyond microSD, the G2H Pro can back up to a local NAS over Samba (Aqara requires a microSD card in the camera and SMB1.0-compatible software on the NAS side), and Aqara's US store copy puts its card ceiling at 512GB — four times the G3's hard 128GB limit, subject to the disagreement between Aqara's own pages flagged in the source note above. The G3 records to its smaller card and to HomeKit Secure Video or Aqara's cloud, with no NAS path in its official material. If you want weeks of local history without a subscription, the G2H Pro is genuinely the better tool; if 128GB of rolling footage is enough, this section is a tie that costs the G3 nothing.

Pros and cons

Aqara G2H Pro — pros

• $50 cheaper at Aqara's US store, and far smaller (about 115 g, magnetic base)
• Wider single-frame view: 146° vs 110°
• Bigger claimed microSD ceiling plus Samba NAS backup — the G3 has neither
• Native 1080p, so HomeKit Secure Video loses nothing
• Full HomeKit Security System sync and 940nm no-glow night vision

Aqara G2H Pro — cons

• Fixed camera: no pan, tilt or tracking, ever
• 1080p only, and 2.4GHz Wi-Fi only
• No local AI recognition, no IR blaster
• Micro USB power, and no adapter in the box
• Aqara's own pages disagree on its microSD ceiling (512GB vs 128GB)

Aqara G3 — pros

• 2K video with 340°/45° pan-and-tilt and auto-cruise
• Local face, pet and gesture recognition on the camera itself
• 360° IR blaster for legacy remotes, with local automations
• Dual-band Wi-Fi and modern USB-C power, plus UVC video output
• Physical privacy masking — the lens physically tilts away

Aqara G3 — cons

• $50 more, and more than twice the size and weight
• microSD capped at 128GB and no NAS backup
• HomeKit Secure Video caps it at 1080p and freezes pan/tilt in the Apple Home app
• Privacy mode is controlled from the Aqara Home app, not HomeKit

Who should buy which?

Buy the G2H Pro if you want an inexpensive Zigbee hub with a camera attached: a nursery, hallway or front room watched from one wide angle, an Apple household that lives in HomeKit Secure Video, or anyone who values long local recording (microSD plus NAS) over resolution. It is also the sensible second or third camera once a home already has a hub strategy.

Buy the G3 if this will be the only camera in a large or open-plan room, if you want faces and pets recognised on the camera itself, if your TV and air conditioner still run on infrared remotes you would like automated, or if your 2.4GHz band is congested and 5GHz Wi-Fi matters. The extra $50 buys movement, resolution, AI and the blaster — four separate upgrades in one step.

Buy neither if Matter support is the point of the purchase: both cameras predate it, and Aqara's current line (G350, G5 Pro) is where Matter lives.

FAQ

Where to buy

Prices checked October 26, 2026, at Aqara's official stores; prices change, and neither link carries any affiliate tag from us yet.

Aqara Camera Hub G2H Pro at Aqara's US store — $69.99

Aqara Camera Hub G3 at Aqara's US store — $119.99

Aqara Camera Hub G2H Pro at Aqara's EU store — €69.99

Aqara Camera Hub G3 at Aqara's EU store — €99.99