Aqara Curtain Driver E1

Compiled by SmartHomeWorkflow Research · Aqara · Blinds, Shades & Curtains · ~$89.99 (at time of research, Aqara's US store — the listing's own 'From $89.99 USD' floor, which is the Track Version. The Rod Version is listed at $99.99 USD. The two versions differ only in what they mount to: Aqara describes the Rod Version as supporting 'all the types' while 'a more cost-efficient Track Version only supports U- and I-Rails'. Never treated as a live price.)

Exactly which product this is^[1]

Model number: CM-M01
Generation: E1
Region this page covers: Not established
Also sold or listed as: Aqara Smart Curtain Motor E1

“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
Apple Home	WorksWorks with this ecosystem^[1]	The one platform every Aqara surface agrees on — named as 'HomeKit' on the product overview, 'Apple Home' in the compatibility section, and 'Apple Home' again on the US store. Reached through the Aqara hub, which is what actually appears in the Home app; no hub, no Apple Home. Aqara's example phrasing is its own: 'Hey Siri, open the curtain'.
Amazon Alexa	WorksWorks with this ecosystem^[1]	Named on all three Aqara surfaces, as 'Alexa' and 'Amazon Alexa'. Requires the Aqara hub and account-linking, which means an Alexa routine that opens the curtain depends on the internet being up as well as on the hub being online.
Google Home	WorksWorks with this ecosystem^[1]	Named on all three surfaces, though Aqara cannot keep the name straight — 'Google Assistant' on the product overview, 'Google Home' in the compatibility section and on the store. Those are the voice service and the app respectively; the substance is the same cloud link through the Aqara hub.
SmartThings	PartialPartial support — see the catch^[4]	Aqara contradicts itself, and this cell is the disagreement rather than a resolution of it. The compatibility section of Aqara's own product page states 'Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, SmartThings, and Home Assistant are supported'. The ecosystem section higher up the SAME page lists 'HomeKit, Alexa, Google Assistant, IFTTT, and the upcoming Matter' and omits SmartThings entirely, and Aqara's US store listing — the page actually selling the product — names 'Aqara, Apple Home, Alexa, Google Home, and IFTTT' and also omits it. One affirmation against two silences, on three surfaces the same company controls. Recorded partial for the reason the Aqara water leak sensor record uses: the vendor will not commit consistently on its own pages. Aqara names no mechanism either — the plausible route is Matter bridging through a Matter-capable Aqara hub, which Aqara's own footnote describes as an OTA-delivered hub capability rather than a shipped fact, so the path stays unknown instead of being guessed.
Home Assistant	PartialPartial support — see the catch^[4]	Same conflict as SmartThings and the same reasoning. Home Assistant appears in exactly one of Aqara's three surfaces — the compatibility section's 'Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, SmartThings, and Home Assistant are supported' — and is absent from the ecosystem section on the same page and from the US store listing. Worth being concrete about what this probably means in practice, without recording it as fact: Home Assistant users commonly reach Aqara Zigbee devices either through a Matter-bridging Aqara hub or by pairing the device directly to their own Zigbee coordinator, and Aqara explicitly disclaims the second route by stating that hubs from other brands are not compatible. Neither party has published anything specific to this curtain driver, so the level records the vendor's own inconsistency and the path stays unknown.

Protocols: ZIGBEE^[1]

Needs before it works: Yes, and only an Aqara one. The device is Zigbee 3.0 with no Wi-Fi, no Bluetooth path and no Matter radio of its own, and Aqara's US store states the dependency twice over: 'An Aqara Hub is required and sold separately', followed by '(NOTE: Hubs from alternative brands are not compatible.)' Aqara's specification tab records the requirement as an 'Aqara Zigbee 3.0 HUB'. Hubs reported compatible on the store listing include the M2, M1S, M1S Gen 2, E1, Camera Hub G2H, G2H Pro and G3 — indicative rather than authoritative, since Aqara publishes no hub-by-hub compatibility matrix for this product. Which hub you buy is a live decision rather than a formality: Aqara's own footnote says 'Matter support may be unavailable by the time of the launch, and will be rolled out as an OTA update of a compatible Aqara Zigbee 3.0 hub', so a Matter path through this curtain driver depends on the hub's firmware rather than the motor's.^[1][2]

What it can do^[1]

You can tell it to

Open/close

It reports

None documented by the vendor

Listed capabilities are what we could establish from vendor documentation. An ability missing here is unestablished — not necessarily absent.

Subscription reality^[2]

✓ Works without a subscription: Yes.

Vendor account required: Yes — you must create a vendor account to use it.^[7]

No subscription is referenced on any of the three Aqara surfaces read for this product. Recorded with the same honesty caveat the Aqara water leak sensor record carries: this rests on absence — no Aqara statement creating a subscription for curtain hardware was found, but neither is there an explicit pledge that it stays free. Aqara's paid tiers cover camera and doorbell video storage, which has no bearing on a motor.

Maintenance reality^[3]

Batteries: built-in 6000 mAh lithium-ion, not user-replaceable, charged over USB-C — expect roughly 12 months per set
Works without the internet: Not established — we have not sourced this yet. It does not mean the product fails without the internet.
Aqara rates the 6000 mAh pack at 'up to a year' between charges and, to its credit, states the test basis and the variables rather than leaving the number bare: the figure refers to opening and closing a curtain on a 5 ft track once a day, and 'The actual battery life may vary depending on curtain weight, track length, and friction.' The USB-C port can also power the driver continuously, with the caveat that the cable must be routed so it cannot tangle. Motor pull is rated at a maximum of 12 kg (26.4 lb) and travel at 12 cm/s; rated torque 0.2 N.m at 100 r/min, rated input 5 V, 7.5 W, 1.5 A. A built-in light sensor allows brightness-based automation. IP20, operating range 0-45 C and 0-95% RH non-condensing. Track fit is specific and worth checking before ordering: U-rail needs a bottom slotting width of 8 mm (0.31 in.) or less, I-rail a bottom width of 10 mm (0.39 in.) or more, extendable rods are not supported, and 'U-rail gliders without wheels are not supported'. Dimensions 145.7 x 96 x 46 mm, weight 461 g; model CM-M01, FCC ID 2AKIT-CMM01. The box holds the driver, a USB-C to USB-A cable and two track gliders.
Security updates: 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.^[6]

The catch

The hub is not optional and it is not yours to choose freely. This is a Zigbee 3.0 device with no Wi-Fi, no Bluetooth and no Matter radio, and Aqara states both halves of the dependency on its own store: an Aqara hub is required, and hubs from other brands are not compatible. Budget for one before budgeting for the motor. The second thing to check is the track, because this is the rare smart-home product where the wrong measurement makes it useless: the Track Version fits U- and I-rails only, U-rails need a bottom slot of 8 mm or less, I-rails need 10 mm or more, extendable rods are not supported, and U-rail gliders without wheels are not supported. The Rod Version costs $10 more and fits more things. Third — and this is the finding a buyer cannot get from any single page — Aqara's own surfaces disagree about which ecosystems this works with. SmartThings and Home Assistant are named in one section of one Aqara page, and omitted from both the ecosystem section on that same page and the US store listing that sells the product. Matter is described as something that 'will be rolled out as an OTA update of a compatible Aqara Zigbee 3.0 hub' rather than as a shipped capability, which means the Matter answer depends on which hub you own and what firmware it is running. Finally, the good news is unusually well documented: Aqara rates the 6000 mAh battery at up to a year and, rather than leaving that bare, publishes the duty cycle it was measured at and the three variables that will make your result worse.

Who it's for

Someone already inside the Aqara ecosystem — a hub on the shelf, sensors on the walls — who wants existing curtains to open on a schedule, at sunrise, or by voice, and whose track matches one of the two mounting versions. The 12 kg pull and the year-long battery make it a genuinely low-maintenance choice for ordinary household curtains. It is a poor first Aqara purchase, because the mandatory brand-locked hub means the real price is the motor plus a hub. It is the wrong pick if the window has slatted blinds rather than draw curtains, if the track is an extendable rod or uses gliders without wheels, or if SmartThings or Home Assistant is the intended home and a firm answer matters — on those two platforms Aqara's own pages contradict each other, and this catalogue records the contradiction rather than picking the flattering side.

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] Aqara product pages, Curtain Driver E1 (Track Version) and (Rod Version) — overview body copy and specification tab — vendor-page research, verified 2026-08-01
Backs: Product identity, Required hub or bridge, Apple Home compatibility, Amazon Alexa compatibility, Google Home compatibility, Capabilities, Protocols
[2] Aqara US store listing, Curtain Driver E1 — vendor-page research, verified 2026-08-01
Backs: Price, Market availability, Research status, Required hub or bridge, Subscription
[3] Aqara product pages, Curtain Driver E1 — specification tab, battery and installation sections — vendor-page research, verified 2026-08-01
Backs: Maintenance, Power source, Installation
[4] Aqara product page (two sections) and Aqara US store listing — vendor-page research, verified 2026-08-01
Backs: SmartThings compatibility, Home Assistant compatibility
[5] Aqara's Curtain Driver E1 specification tab, re-read 2026-08-18 — dimensions, power, Zigbee 3.0 and accessories; no statement about automations running locally or the driver working during an internet outage. — vendor-page research, verified 2026-08-18
[6] Aqara (Lumi United Technology Co., Ltd), Statement of Compliance for UK — Curtain Driver E1 (Rod Version and Track Version, both named on one document), read 2026-08-19. Model name on the document: CM-M01. 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 2026-08-19
Backs: Security-update support period
[7] Aqara Curtain Driver E1 (Track Version) user manual, 'Preparation before use' — "1.This product needs to be connected with the Aqara Home app before being installed on the curtains. Before activating the product, please make sure you have the Aqara Home app and the Aqara Zigbee 3.0 hub installed"; product introduction adds "*An Aqara Zigbee 3.0 hub is required. Some functions require specific models of hubs." — vendor-page research, verified 2026-08-21
Backs: Vendor account required
[8] SmartHomeWorkflow record maintenance (BQ-250 securitySupport.region backfill) — internal-review of the document this record already cites, verified 2026-08-27

Where sources disagree

Where two sources we consider reliable say different things, we publish both positions and what we recorded, rather than quietly picking one.

SmartThings compatibility, Home Assistant compatibility

Aqara product page, 'Wide Compatibility' section (as of 2026-08-01): 'The Curtain Driver E1 is compatible with a wide range of smart home ecosystems and voice assistants. Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, SmartThings, and Home Assistant are supported.' — SmartThings and Home Assistant named as supported.
Aqara product page, 'Wide Ecosystem Support' section (same page, higher up) (as of 2026-08-01): 'Compatible with a wide range of ecosystems and voice assistants. HomeKit, Alexa, Google Assistant, IFTTT, and the upcoming Matter will be supported.' — an enumeration that names IFTTT and Matter and omits both SmartThings and Home Assistant.
Aqara US store listing, works-with row (as of 2026-08-01): Works with 'Aqara, Apple Home, Alexa, Google Home, and IFTTT' — the page selling the product omits both SmartThings and Home Assistant.

We publish: partial

One affirmation against two silences, all three from Aqara itself and two of them on the same page. An omission is silence rather than a denial, so 'none' would be wrong; but a single affirmation the vendor contradicts on the page that takes the money is not a commitment we can pass on as 'full'. Partial records exactly that state, and follows the resolution the aqara-water-leak-sensor record already made when Aqara's prose and its own badges disagreed. Nothing resolves this from our side: Aqara names no mechanism for either platform, and neither SmartThings nor Home Assistant publishes anything specific to this product. What would settle it is a consistent Aqara enumeration, or a counterparty page naming the Curtain Driver E1.

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.

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