Best Pet Cameras of 2026

Our recommendation

Furbo is our top-scoring pick in Pet Cameras, at 9.6/10 — it highlights “Tosses treats remotely via the app”.

Petcube scores 9.2 and is the one to compare against it — it highlights “Models with laser play and treat dispensing”.

Both scores are our editors’ assessment of published specifications, pricing and terms against the criteria in our rating methodology — they are not aggregated customer reviews.

Decide what you actually want to do remotely

Pet cameras split into three levels of capability, and the price difference tracks them closely.

Watch — a live view and recorded clips. Enough if you simply want to know the dog is asleep rather than eating the sofa.

Talk — two-way audio. Genuinely useful for interrupting a behaviour, and worth a caveat: a disembodied voice with no person attached distresses some animals rather than reassuring them. Try it while you are at home before relying on it.

Interact — treat dispensing, laser play, sometimes both. These are the most expensive and the most variable in real use. Treat tossing works well for food-motivated dogs and is largely ignored by cats; laser play amuses many cats and can frustrate them, since a laser never lets them catch anything.

The subscription question

As with home security cameras, the hardware is the smaller part of the cost. Most systems give you a live view free and put recorded history, person and pet detection, and barking alerts behind a monthly plan.

Before choosing, work out the five-year cost: hardware plus sixty months of the plan. Then check whether the plan is per camera or per household, which is the detail that dominates the total if you end up with two or three.

Some cameras record to a microSD card with no subscription at all. That is the cheapest route and the trade-off is that the recording lives in the camera — fine for checking on a pet, less useful if the camera itself is the thing that goes missing.

Specifications that matter for pets specifically

A wide field of view matters more than resolution. Pets move around a room, and a narrow lens means watching an empty frame while the dog barks somewhere off-camera. Look for 130 degrees or more.

Night vision is essential rather than optional, because a great deal of what you want to observe happens in a dark room while you are out or asleep.

Sound detection is arguably the most useful alert type. Barking, whining and crying tell you far more about a distressed animal than motion does.

Mounting height and stability deserve a thought. A camera on a low shelf will be investigated, knocked over, and in the case of treat dispensers, systematically attacked by a determined dog.

What a camera can and cannot tell you

Pet cameras are genuinely good at reassurance, at catching a specific behaviour you suspected, and at giving you a record to show a vet or trainer — footage of what a dog does in the first twenty minutes alone is far more useful diagnostically than a description from memory.

They do not solve separation anxiety. If the footage shows persistent pacing, howling, drooling or destructive behaviour throughout your absence, that is a welfare issue that needs a behaviourist or vet rather than more monitoring. Watching it happen live is distressing and does not help the animal.

They are also not a substitute for company. A camera tells you the dog has been alone for nine hours; it does not change that fact.

Privacy and placement

These are internet-connected cameras inside your home, and the same considerations apply as to any security camera. Check whether the manufacturer offers end-to-end encryption, what it says about employee access to footage, and what its data-sharing practices are. Several companies in the wider camera market have had documented incidents, and the policies are worth reading rather than assuming.

Practically: put the camera where it sees the pet's usual resting and trouble spots, not pointed at a doorway you never use. Avoid aiming it where housemates or visitors have a reasonable expectation of privacy, and disable audio recording if that is a concern, since audio is more tightly regulated than video in many places.

Features, subscription structures and privacy policies change frequently in this category. Confirm current plan pricing and terms with the manufacturer before buying.