Valve just ended the longest guessing game in VR. On September 14, 2026, the Steam Frame got a price, a reservation queue, and a pack-in game — and the window to get in line closes in 72 hours.
Steam Frame price and reservations: the short version
- Price: $1,059 for the 256GB Steam Frame, $1,299 for the 1TB model (USD, VAT-inclusive where applicable).
- Included: headset, two tracked controllers, 6GHz wireless adapter, and a free copy of Half-Life: Alyx for anyone who doesn't already own it.
- Reservations: open now on Steam, closing Thursday, September 17, 2026 at 10:00 AM Pacific.
- It's a lottery, not a queue: Valve randomizes every sign-up once, after the deadline. Signing up early gains you nothing; signing up late costs you.
- First purchase emails: September 18, 2026. Units ship on a rolling basis after that.
- Where: direct from Valve in the US, Canada, UK, EU and Australia; via KOMODO in Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong, with South Korea to follow.
Everything below comes from Valve's official announcement and the Steam Frame product page, plus the full spec sheet, the controller detail that matters if you shoot in VR, and what's missing from the box.
Steam Frame price: every model and region
Valve is selling two storage configurations. Both include the headset, both tracked controllers, and the 6GHz wireless adapter dongle. The only difference is onboard UFS storage — and both models have a microSD slot, which matters more than you'd think.
| Region | Steam Frame 256GB | Steam Frame 1TB |
|---|---|---|
| United States | $1,059 | $1,299 |
| Canada | C$1,529 | C$1,859 |
| Europe | €1,049 | €1,279 |
| United Kingdom | £889 | £1,089 |
| Australia | A$1,609 | A$1,969 |
| Poland | 4,539 zł | 5,549 zł |
All prices are inclusive of VAT where applicable. Valve ships the Steam Frame directly in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the EU and Australia. In Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong it ships through KOMODO, Valve's authorized regional distributor, with pricing published via KOMODO Station; Valve says South Korea is coming soon.
For context: the Valve Index kit launched at $999 in 2019. In a November 2025 interview, Valve said it expected the Frame to come in cheaper than the Index — while making clear no price had been set yet. At $1,059, that expectation didn't hold. The counter-argument is that the Frame is standalone hardware with no base stations to buy and a $60 game in the box, so the real cost of entry is lower even though the sticker price isn't.
How the Steam Frame reservation queue works
This is the part people are getting wrong, so read it carefully. It is not first-come, first-served. Valve is running the same randomized reservation lottery it used for the Steam Machine, and says the system helped with "improving the purchase experience and limiting resellers."
Here's the sequence:
- Now through Thursday, September 17 at 10:00 AM PT (1:00 PM ET / 12:00 PM CT / 5:00 PM UTC) — sign-ups are open on Steam. You pick which storage model you want when you register.
- September 17, when sign-ups close — Valve performs, in its words, "a one-time randomization to determine reservation and waitlist order." That single shuffle sets your position. Everyone who registered inside the window gets identical odds, whether they signed up in minute one or hour seventy-one.
- September 17 — emails go out telling you whether you're in the reservation queue or on the waitlist. Waitlisted means your place in line is beyond the number of units currently available to reserve.
- September 18 onward — the first batch of purchase emails goes out. As units become available to ship, people in the reservation queue get the option to buy. Based on how Valve has handled previous hardware rollouts, expect a limited window to act before the offer moves on, so don't sit on the email.
- After September 17 — you can still register, but you go to the back of the waitlist behind everyone from the initial randomization.
Valve hasn't published how many units it has produced, so nobody knows what queue position is "safe." What we do know is that the waitlist moves as production ramps and as unclaimed offers expire.
Practical takeaway: register before Thursday at 10 AM Pacific. It costs nothing, it doesn't obligate you to buy, and it's the only way to be in the randomized pool instead of behind it.
When does the Steam Frame actually ship?
Valve says the Steam Frame "launches today," but there is no single street date when everyone's headset arrives — and that has confused a lot of coverage.
The Frame ships on a rolling basis. The first purchase emails go out September 18, 2026, and units leave Valve's warehouse shortly after those orders are completed. As Road to VR put it, the first units should land on customers' doorsteps shortly thereafter. If you're near the front of the queue, you could have one in hand within roughly a week. If you're deep on the waitlist, it could be weeks or months depending on production.
That's the trade Valve made: no artificial launch-day scarcity theater, but also no date you can circle on a calendar.
256GB or 1TB — which one should you reserve?
The $240 gap is real money, and the honest answer is that most people should take the 256GB.
Both models have a microSD expansion slot. SteamOS handles microSD storage the same way the Steam Deck does — you install and launch games directly from the card. A high-endurance 1TB microSD runs a fraction of the $240 Valve charges for the storage bump, and standalone VR titles are generally small compared to modern flatscreen games.
The case for 1TB: UFS internal storage is meaningfully faster than microSD, so if you plan to run large flatscreen games natively through Proton and FEX emulation — think Hades II, Silksong, or heavier Steam library titles on the Frame's virtual big screen — the internal drive will load noticeably quicker. If you're primarily streaming from a gaming PC anyway, storage barely matters at all.
One wrinkle worth knowing: you choose your storage model when you register, not when you check out. Pick carefully.
What's in the box — and what isn't
Included with every Steam Frame:
- Steam Frame headset with head strap and rear-mounted battery
- Two Steam Frame controllers
- 6GHz Wi-Fi 6E wireless adapter (USB dongle for PC streaming)
- Half-Life: Alyx, free, for anyone who doesn't already own it
Not included: a power supply. The Frame charges over USB-C, and Valve expects you to use a charger you already own. Valve sells a 45W unit with a 2.5m cable for $29, but any decent USB-C PD charger will do the job.
An important catch on first-party accessories: Valve says its PSU, Ergonomic Accessories Kit and Accessory Replacement Kit are "available as an add-to-cart option only at checkout for those who have received a purchase email." You cannot buy them separately, and you cannot buy them before your invite arrives. If you want them, add them when your purchase email lands — there's no second chance at that cart.
Half-Life: Alyx, running standalone
This is a bigger deal than a typical pack-in. Half-Life: Alyx isn't just streamed from a PC — Valve rebuilt it as a native 64-bit ARM build that runs directly on the headset, with eye-tracked foveated rendering and Steam Cloud save sync. You can play the best VR game ever made, untethered, on the hardware itself, with no gaming PC in the room.
If you already own Alyx, you can't redeem a second copy — Valve limits it to one redemption per device. That's the one sour note for longtime Index owners.
Full Steam Frame specs
| Display | Dual LCD, 2160 × 2160 per eye |
|---|---|
| Lenses | Multi-element pancake |
| Field of view | 110° horizontal × 110° vertical |
| Refresh rate | 72Hz, 80Hz, 90Hz and 120Hz, plus an experimental 144Hz mode |
| IPD adjustment | Manual dial |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (ARM64, 4nm) |
| Memory | 16GB LPDDR5X unified |
| Storage | 256GB or 1TB UFS, plus microSD expansion |
| Operating system | SteamOS (Arch Linux based) |
| Compatibility layers | Proton (Windows games), FEX (x86 emulation), Lepton (Android apps) |
| Weight | ~185g visor core; ~440g complete with strap, battery, facial interface and speakers |
| Battery | 21.6Wh, rear-mounted in the strap, user-replaceable, USB-C charging |
| Tracking | Inside-out SLAM via four outward-facing greyscale fisheye cameras |
| Eye tracking | Yes, with IR illuminators — powers foveated streaming and foveated rendering |
| Passthrough | Monochrome only (color available via optional add-on module) |
| Hand tracking | Not supported — controllers required |
| Audio | Built-in dual-driver speakers |
| Wireless | Wi-Fi 7 with dual radios, Bluetooth 5.3, bundled 6GHz Wi-Fi 6E adapter |
| Expansion | One-lane PCIe Gen 4 port with dual 2.5Gbps MIPI camera interface |
Full hardware details are catalogued on the Steam Frame Wikipedia entry, which tracks Valve's published figures as they're confirmed.
Foveated streaming is the headline feature
The Frame's eye tracking does something no other headset does well: it allocates streaming bitrate based on where you're actually looking. Instead of compressing the whole frame evenly, the encoder spends its bandwidth budget on your fovea and lets the periphery go soft — which your eye can't resolve anyway.
Crucially, this happens at the encoder level. Developers don't have to implement anything per-game. Every PC VR title you stream benefits automatically. Combined with the dedicated 6GHz point-to-point link on the included dongle, this is the strongest wireless PC VR pitch anyone has shipped. UploadVR's hands-on coverage has more on how it holds up in practice.
The Steam Frame controllers — and why the design matters
The controllers are the most interesting hardware story here, and they're the part that directly affects anyone building or buying accessories.
- Ringless design with 18 infrared LEDs per controller tracked by the headset's cameras. No tracking rings at all.
- Gamepad-style layout: D-pad on the left controller, A/B/X/Y all on the right — so the Frame can play your flatscreen Steam library without a separate gamepad. Valve documents the full button map in its Steamworks controller reference.
- TMR thumbsticks (tunneling magnetoresistance) instead of potentiometers, which should effectively eliminate stick drift.
- Capacitive sensing on every input and on the handle, enabling finger-pose detection.
- One AA battery per controller, rated at roughly 40 hours. No proprietary charging dock, no built-in cell to degrade.
- Grip straps are sold separately in the Ergonomic Kit — and per Valve, only purchasable at checkout with your headset.
Here's the part worth understanding if you shoot in VR: because there are no rings, the tracking constellation is a spread of LEDs across the controller body itself. That changes the rules for mounting hardware. A stock or mount that covers part of the controller body can occlude LEDs in a way a ring-based controller would have tolerated, and clamping surfaces have to sit around the LED field rather than through it.
It also means ring-clearance is no longer a design constraint at all — which is exactly why Steam Frame controller cups look nothing like Quest 3 or Index cups. If you're buying a stock, you want one built specifically around the Frame's controller geometry, not a generic clamp.
Official Steam Frame accessories and prices
| Accessory | Price (USD) | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Ergonomic Accessories Kit | $59 | 2 controller hand straps / battery doors, headset top strap, extended light blocker |
| Accessory Replacement Kit | $49 | Face gasket, head cushion, standard light blocker |
| USB-C Power Supply | $29 | 45W power supply with 2.5m cable (not included with the headset) |
Again: all three are checkout-only add-ons for people who've received a purchase email. Plan accordingly.
The color passthrough module (third-party, not yet priced)
One accessory sits outside Valve's own lineup and is worth knowing about. Arcturus Industries — the computer-vision team behind the Frame's camera tracking stack — has a color passthrough camera module that plugs into the Frame's PCIe/MIPI expansion port. Specs that have surfaced point to dual 32MP sensors, 10-bit HDR, 5K/60 capture, and support for spatial video recording and real-time environment mapping.
It is not part of Valve's September 14 announcement, and neither a price nor a release date has been confirmed — the details came from a product listing that went live early. If mixed reality matters to you, it's the thing to watch. If you're a seated or roomscale VR gamer, the built-in monochrome passthrough is fine for finding your desk and your drink.
Steam Frame vs Quest 3 vs Valve Index
| Steam Frame | Meta Quest 3 | Valve Index | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $1,059 | $600 (512GB) | $999 (kit, discontinued) |
| Resolution per eye | 2160 × 2160 | 2064 × 2208 | 1440 × 1600 |
| RAM | 16GB | 8GB | N/A (PC-driven) |
| Chipset | Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 | Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 | N/A |
| Weight (full) | ~440g | 515g | 809g |
| Eye tracking | Yes | No | No |
| Passthrough | Mono (color via add-on) | Color | Mono |
| PC streaming | Dedicated 6GHz dongle + foveated streaming | Wi-Fi or Link cable | Wired DisplayPort |
| Base stations | None | None | Required |
| Storefront | Full Steam library | Horizon Store (+ Steam via Link) | Full Steam library |
Worth noting that the gap narrowed on its own: Meta raised Quest 3 to $600 and Quest 3S to $350 in April 2026, blaming the same global memory-chip shortage that pushed Valve's own pricing announcement months past its original window. The Frame is no longer competing against a $499 Quest 3.
The plain reading: the Quest 3 is still substantially cheaper and remains the right call for casual and social VR. The Steam Frame is for people whose VR library already lives on Steam, who want it wireless, and who care about PC streaming quality more than about a cheap entry point. And if you're still on an Index with base stations bolted to your walls, the Frame is a straightforward upgrade in every dimension except color passthrough — at 440g versus 809g, your neck will notice immediately.
On the library side, Valve says over 100 games are already Steam Frame Standalone Verified and the list is growing — you can browse the current catalogue on Valve's Great on Frame page. It's a mix of native VR titles like Beat Saber, Pistol Whip, Pavlov Shack and SUPERHOT VR, plus flatscreen games like Portal 2, Hades II and Balatro that run on the Frame's virtual big screen.
Gunstocks for the Steam Frame
If your Steam Frame plans involve Pavlov, Onward, Contractors, Ghosts of Tabor or Into the Radius, a gunstock is the single highest-impact accessory you can add. Two hands on a rigid frame turns floaty motion-controller aim into something that actually tracks like a rifle — shoulder it, cheek weld it, and your grouping tightens immediately.
We build VR gunstocks here at Olen VR, and Steam Frame support is already listed as a preorder option on our two flagship platforms:
The Asset — modular, upgrade-proof
The Asset uses interchangeable "Slip Grips" — the controller cups where your controllers actually seat. Choose Steam Frame (Preorder) from the headset dropdown and the correct cups ship with your stock. When you change headsets down the road, you buy the new grips instead of a whole new stock. Starting at $57.99.
SPINE — magnetic, no calibration
SPINE is our all-in-one stock: fully metal underside, 1.6 lbs, adjustable from 24" to 28", with magnetic controller mounting that requires zero in-game calibration. Snap in, shoulder it, play. Steam Frame (Preorder) is a selectable headset option. Starting at $81.99, in eight colorways.
Because the Frame's controllers are ringless with an 18-LED tracking constellation, our Steam Frame cups are designed around that LED field rather than adapted from an existing Quest or Index cup. Reserving your stock alongside your headset reservation means both show up in the same window instead of your Frame sitting on a shelf waiting on an accessory.
Every Olen VR gunstock carries a 1-year warranty, and U.S. orders over $100 ship free.
Browse all VR gun stocks by headset →
Steam Frame FAQ
How much does the Steam Frame cost?
The Steam Frame costs $1,059 for the 256GB model and $1,299 for the 1TB model in the United States. Both include two tracked controllers, the 6GHz wireless adapter, and a free copy of Half-Life: Alyx.
When do Steam Frame reservations close?
Reservation sign-ups close Thursday, September 17, 2026 at 10:00 AM Pacific Time (5:00 PM UTC). Registering after that deadline puts you at the back of the waitlist.
Is the Steam Frame reservation first-come, first-served?
No. Valve does a one-time randomization of every sign-up from the registration window to determine reservation and waitlist order. Signing up on day one gives you no advantage over signing up on day three — but signing up after the deadline does put you behind everyone else.
When does the Steam Frame ship?
Valve has not announced a fixed delivery date. The first batch of purchase emails goes out September 18, 2026, and headsets ship as units become available. Delivery depends on your queue position and Valve's production rate.
Does the Steam Frame need a gaming PC?
No. The Steam Frame is a fully standalone headset running SteamOS on a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Valve says over 100 Steam titles are already Steam Frame Standalone Verified, including Half-Life: Alyx. A gaming PC unlocks the full PC VR library via wireless streaming, but it isn't required.
Does the Steam Frame come with a power supply?
No. It charges over USB-C and Valve expects you to use an existing charger. Valve sells a 45W power supply with a 2.5m cable for $29, but any quality USB-C PD charger will work.
Can I buy Steam Frame accessories separately?
No. Valve's PSU, Ergonomic Accessories Kit and Accessory Replacement Kit are add-to-cart options at checkout, available only to people who have received a purchase email. Third-party accessories like gunstocks can be bought at any time.
Does the Steam Frame have color passthrough?
Not out of the box — the built-in passthrough is monochrome. Arcturus Industries, the company behind the Frame's camera tracking system, has a color passthrough module with dual 32MP sensors that attaches via the Frame's expansion port, but Valve did not announce it on September 14 and no price or release date has been confirmed.
Do Steam Frame controllers work with a gunstock?
Yes, but they need a mount built for their specific geometry. The Frame's controllers are ringless and tracked by 18 infrared LEDs each, so a stock has to clamp around the LED field rather than across it. Olen VR's Asset and SPINE stocks both offer a Steam Frame controller cup option.
Can I still get a Steam Frame if I miss the deadline?
Yes. Registration stays open after September 17, but late sign-ups join the back of the waitlist behind the entire randomized queue. Expect a considerably longer wait.
Sources
- Valve — "Steam Frame is here!" official announcement (September 14, 2026)
- Steam Frame product page and Great on Frame
- Steamworks — Steam Frame Controllers documentation
- Road to VR — Steam Frame price, release and pre-orders
- UploadVR — Steam Frame price revealed
- Meta — An Update on Meta Quest Pricing
- Wikipedia — Steam Frame
Published September 14, 2026 by Olen VR. Pricing and reservation details reflect Valve's official announcement. We'll update this page as shipping windows and the Steam Frame Standalone Verified library expand.
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