Product Library / Cameras & Doorbells
Research profile · last verified 2026-08-18Aqara Camera Hub G3
⚠ Similar names, different products: Aqara now sells four 'Camera Hub' models at once and they are not tiers of one product — they differ on the radio, not just the lens. This G3 is the Zigbee-and-WiFi one with an infrared blaster: no Thread, no Matter, no Bluetooth named anywhere on its own pages. The G350 is the Matter-certified pan-tilt model with a shared Zigbee/Thread radio, the G5 Pro is the outdoor one, and the G410 is a doorbell. Buying the G3 expecting Matter is the mistake this line invites.
Exactly which product this is[1][2]
- Model number
- Not established
- Generation
- Not established
- Region this page covers
- US
- Also sold or listed as
- DTC-US-CM-G3
“Not established” means we have not sourced that detail yet — not that the product has no model number, generation or regional variant. We publish the gap rather than filling it.
Compatibility
| Ecosystem | Support | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon Alexa | WorksWorks with this ecosystem[3] | Named by Aqara for this model: 'Supports HomeKit Secure Video, Amazon Alexa, and Google Home, and makes the compatible child devices support HomeKit, Alexa, Google Assistant, and more.' ⚠ Read the second half of that sentence — it is doing real work. This is a hub as well as a camera, so Aqara is claiming two different things at once: that the camera itself reaches Alexa, and that the Zigbee devices behind it do too. The claim sits in a marketing block, not a specification row, so it records a documented path rather than an enumerated feature set. |
| Google Home | WorksWorks with this ecosystem[2][3] | On the same first-party compatibility statement as Alexa and Apple. ⭐ And on this product Google is not interchangeable with Apple, which is unusual enough to be the reason to check: Aqara states that 'IR functions aren't supported by HomeKit; use Aqara Home or Google Home instead', so the infrared blaster — the feature that lets this camera control a dumb air conditioner or TV — reaches Google Home and does not reach Apple Home. |
| Apple Home | WorksWorks with this ecosystem[2][3] | ⚠ Real HomeKit Secure Video, with two limits Aqara publishes itself. First the picture: the sensor is '2304 × 1296 pixel' 2K, but Aqara states the camera 'records in Full HD 1080p on HomeKit Secure Video' — Apple Home sees less than the hardware captures, the same shape of ceiling Aqara documents on the G350. Second the feature gap: 'IR functions aren't supported by HomeKit; use Aqara Home or Google Home instead', so the infrared blaster is invisible to Apple households. Not established here and deliberately not inherited from the sibling record: whether Aqara requires an iCloud+ plan and an Apple Home hub for HSV on THIS model — the G3's own pages do not say it. |
| SmartThings | InconclusiveWe researched this and the evidence doesn't settle it — the catch explains why[3] | Not established. SmartThings does not appear anywhere on Aqara's G3 product page or its storefront listing — and that is qualified silence rather than an evidenced absence, because the platform list here is a marketing block that names three ecosystems and then says 'and more'. A maker who publishes a short promotional list has not told you what is missing. The contrast with the sibling is the point: Aqara names SmartThings outright for the G350, which is why that page can say yes and this one cannot. |
| Home Assistant | InconclusiveWe researched this and the evidence doesn't settle it — the catch explains why[3] | Not established on any Aqara page we read for this camera, and we found no Home Assistant documentation naming the G3 either. Same reasoning as SmartThings: a marketing list that leaves something out is not a denial. We record it as unknown rather than assuming it from the fact that other Aqara cameras have Home Assistant paths. |
? Inconclusive means we researched that ecosystem and the evidence doesn’t settle it — the catch says why, and the sources are listed below. It is a statement about the available evidence, never a verdict on the product. A Setup Check researches your exact setup where the official sources don’t answer.
Protocols: WIFI · ZIGBEE[1]
What it can do[5]
You can tell it to
- Pan/tilt
It reports
- Person detected
- Pet detected
- Face recognised
Listed capabilities are what we could establish from vendor documentation. An ability missing here is unestablished — not necessarily absent.
Subscription reality[1][2]
✓ Works without a subscription: Yes.
Vendor account required: Not established — we have not sourced this yet.
No Aqara plan is required, and Aqara scopes the exception itself: 'AI and storage functionalities within the Aqara Home app can currently be performed locally. However, third-party cloud storage options such as HomeKit Secure Video or future cloud storage options may require additional subscription fee.' Read that as written — the paid path here belongs to Apple (HomeKit Secure Video runs on the buyer's own iCloud+ storage), not to Aqara, and the local path is a microSD card in the camera. The hedge 'or future cloud storage options' is Aqara reserving the right to add one; it is not a plan you can buy today.
Maintenance reality
- Works without the internet: Partly — some of it keeps working and some of it does not. See the detail below.[6]
- Mains device on a '5V-2A' input, so there is nothing to charge and the 24/7 duty cycle a camera needs is not a battery question. Two physical facts a buyer feels: it is a pan-tilt camera with a '360° rotation angle', which means motors and moving parts rather than a fixed lens; and local storage tops out at a 'microSD card, up to 128 GB storage' — a lower ceiling than the 512 GB its own G350 sibling accepts, which matters if 2K continuous recording is the plan.
Security updates[4]
Aqara declares security updates for this model until December 31, 2026 (UK-declared — the maker's legal commitment is filed for the United Kingdom). After that date the product keeps working; the manufacturer simply has no stated obligation to keep issuing security fixes.
Aqara's UK Statement of Compliance for the Camera Hub G3 (Model name: CH-H03) declares: 'we state that the defined support period for the product above is till 12/31/2026'. Signed for Lumi United Technology Co., Ltd. Signed Lean Wang / Senior Certification Engineer, Shenzhen, April 9, 2024. ⚠ A SECOND AQARA DOCUMENT DISAGREES AND RANKS LOWER, named here rather than hidden: Aqara's 2024-08 Product Security Support Policy table gives this model an 'End of security update support' of 2026-06-30. Method note 69 puts a signed per-product regulatory declaration above a vendor policy table, so the declaration governs — and the practical difference matters to a reader, because 2026-06-30 is already in the past while the declared period is not. ⊕ REGION: UK — the declaring document is a UK PSTI Statement of Compliance, filed under the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure Act. The scope is the filing's own: this is a promise made for the United Kingdom, and it is printed that way so a buyer elsewhere is never told a British legal commitment covers their unit (S-1b).
The catch
The radio is the catch, and the name hides it: this is the Camera Hub with no Thread, no Matter and no Bluetooth on its own specification row — a Zigbee 3.0 hub for up to 128 Aqara devices and nothing more, sitting in a line where the G350 is Matter-certified. If the plan is to buy one Aqara device that future-proofs the house, this is the wrong one. The second catch is that the infrared blaster — arguably the most useful thing here, since it turns an old air conditioner into something schedulable — is the one feature Apple Home cannot see: Aqara says plainly that 'IR functions aren't supported by HomeKit'. And Apple Home caps the picture at 1080p from a 2K sensor. Local storage stops at 128 GB.
Who it's for
A household already running Aqara Zigbee sensors that wants one indoor device to be the hub, the camera and the remote control for older infrared gear — an air conditioner, a TV, a fan that was never smart. It fits an Alexa or Google Home house, where the IR automations are reachable; Aqara states those IR routines run locally and 'will run even if there is no internet connection'. Apple households get genuine HomeKit Secure Video but lose the infrared half entirely, and anyone shopping for Matter should look at the G350 instead.
Sources & method
Numbered sources below back the facts marked with the matching number above. This is a research profile: compiled from manufacturer documentation, certification registries, and published testing — we state facts, not verdicts, and we have not physically tested this unit. How we work →
- [1] us.aqara.com, Camera Hub G3 product page — vendor-page research, verified 2026-08-18Backs: Product identity, Protocols, Wi-Fi bands it can use, Power source, Required hub or bridge, Installation, Subscription, Research status
- [2] us.aqara.com, structured storefront endpoint for the Camera Hub G3 — vendor structured-endpoint read (Shopify .js, per the standing method rule for this vendor), verified 2026-08-18Backs: Price, Product identity, Market availability, Subscription, Apple Home compatibility, Google Home compatibility
- [3] aqara.com, Camera Hub G3 product page — vendor-page research (positive claims read from a marketing block; absences recorded as absence of claims, never as denials), verified 2026-08-18Backs: Amazon Alexa compatibility, Google Home compatibility, Apple Home compatibility, SmartThings compatibility, Home Assistant compatibility
- [4] Aqara (Lumi United Technology Co., Ltd), Statement of Compliance for UK — Camera Hub G3, read 2026-08-19. Model name on the document: CH-H03. Verbatim: 'we state that the defined support period for the product above is till 12/31/2026'. Located via Aqara's own compliance library at https://www.aqara.com/en/security-certifications/, which lists this product with these model numbers. — first-party regulatory declaration read (BQ-192 security-support sweep, method note 69 precedence), verified 2026-08-19Backs: Security-update support period
- [5] Aqara (Lumi United Technology Co., Ltd), Camera Hub G3 product page and its Specifications tab, both read 2026-08-19. Overview page, verbatim: "110° wide-angle lens coupled with the Pan and Tilt motors provides up to 360° rotation angle, supports automatic cruising, and face and pet tracking." · "The G3's Pan/Tilt motor can be controlled by the pre-configured cruising path, a pet or person being tracked, via automations (such as, turn to the door in case a Door and Window Sensor was triggered) or manually." · "Thanks to a powerful NPU-equipped processor, the Camera Hub G3 is capable of recognizing faces, gestures, and pets locally, that can be used in notifications and home automation." · "AI-Powered Facial Recognition — By importing your photos, it can trigger personalized automations when you come home." · "it will guard your security by turning on the siren and notifying you in case an unknown person arrives at your home or any of your sensors are triggered while you are out." Specifications tab, verbatim: "Pan/Tilt Angle Horizontal 340°, vertical 45° (upward 30°, downward 15°)." — vendor-page research (BQ-198 camera-shelf resumption; BQ-187 standing rules), verified 2026-08-19Backs: Capabilities
- [6] Aqara US product page, Camera Hub G3 — 'Local Infrared Control': "The G3 has a built-in IR controller that can make your existing infrared-compatible devices smart and support local automations. Moreover, all the IR automations are local and will run even if there is no internet connection." 'Local AI-Powered Recognition': "Thanks to a powerful NPU-equipped processor, the Camera Hub G3 is capable of recognizing faces, gestures, and pets locally, that can be used in notifications and home automation." The specification list gives "Local Storage: MicroSD card". — vendor-page research, verified 2026-08-21Backs: Works without the internet
- [7] SmartHomeWorkflow record maintenance (BQ-250 securitySupport.region backfill) — internal-review of the document this record already cites, verified 2026-08-27
- [8] Aqara US store, Camera Hub G3 product page — verbatim: "Built-in Zigbee 3.0 Hub — The Camera Hub G3 is not only a camera, but also with an embedded smart home hub." · "Not Only a Camera, but Also a Smart Home Control Center — With a built-in Zigbee 3.0 hub, it can connect up to 128 Aqara sensors and controllers* and enjoy home automation, remote control, and third-party ecosystem support." — vendor-page research (BQ-319 provides sweep — first-party re-read through tools/lib/gated-fetch.mjs), verified 2026-09-02Backs: What it provides to your home
- [9] the record's own customer-facing prose fields as they stood before 2026-09-06 (no new external read) — consumer-translation pass (07 §2A.12) — customer-facing prose rewritten to the three-layer rule; NO FIELD VALUE, LEVEL, PATH OR TRANSPORT CHANGED. The research trail that used to sit inside those fields is preserved here verbatim., verified 2026-09-06
Compatibility and lifecycle information reflects the last-verified date above and can change without notice (firmware updates, cloud-service changes, discontinuations). It is provided as-is, for information — verify with the manufacturer before purchasing. Spot an error? Tell us and we'll fix it. Full terms: Terms of Service.