Asymptotic velocity is defined as the Cesàro limit of velocity. As such, its existence has been proved for bounded interaction potentials. This is known to be wrong in celestial mechanics with four or more bodies. Here, we show for a class of pair potentials including the homogeneous ones of degree − α for α ∈(0, 2), that asymptotic velocities exist for up to four bodies, dimension three or larger, for any energy and almost all initial conditions on the energy surface. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Finite dimensional integrable systems: new trends and methods’.