Valve’s Steam Frame costs $1,059

The Verge » Games RSS Feed✍ Jay Peters📅 September 14, 2026⏱ 4 min read(about 5 hours ago)

Overview & Key Takeaways

Valve is finally releasing its Steam Frame headset, which can run both flat and VR games locally and stream both kinds of games from your PC. The Steam Frame will start at $1,059. Valve will also offer a 1TB model that starts at $1,299. Every Steam Frame will come with a copy of Half-Life: Alyx, […]

Every Steam Frame will come with a copy of Half-Life: Alyx, Valve’s made-for-VR entry in the Half-Life franchise, and Valve has ported the game to run natively on the headset as well as via streaming.

Here are the prices for the Frame across several different currencies for the two configurations:

Steam Frame 256GB: $1,059 / $1,529 CAD / €1,049 / £889 / $1,609 AUD / 4,539 zlotys
Steam Frame 1TB: $1,299 / $1,859 CAD / €1,279 / £1,089 / $1,969 AUD / 5,549 zlotys

Like with the Steam Machine, Valve will have a waitlist system for interested Steam Frame buyers, with a lottery for the first batch. Between now and September 17th at 10AM PT, you can sign up for the Steam Frame configuration you’d like to potentially buy. After that deadline, Valve will randomize the list, then tell buyers if they’ve won the lottery or will instead be added to the waitlist.

If you’re chosen in the lottery, Valve should let you purchase on September 18th. If not, you can still join the waitlist. Once you get an offer to purchase a Steam Frame, you’ll have 72 hours to complete your order.

If you want the least pressure on your face, my colleague Sean Hollister, who reviewed the headset, strongly recommends Valve’s ergonomic accessories kit, which comes with a removable top head strap that really helps the 1-pound headset float more comfortably, as well as a nose piece that blocks out more light for better immersion and a pair of “Knuckles”-style hand straps that can let you fully open and close your hands in VR games without dropping the controllers.

There’s also an accessory replacement kit with replacement parts (with one face gasket, one head cushion, and one light blocker), and although the Frame doesn’t come with a USB-C charger, Valve is selling a separate one.

Here are the prices for those extra accessories:

Ergonomic accessories kit: $59 / $89 CAD / €69 / £59 / $99 AUD / 279 zlotys
Accessory replacement kit: $49 / $69 CAD / €59 / £49 / $89 AUD / 229 zlotys
PSU (charger): $29 / $49 CAD / €39 / £29 / $49 AUD / 139 zlotys

The Arcturus Vision Camera accessory.

Photo: Kelsey McClellan / The Verge

Plugged in.

Photo: Kelsey McClellan / The Verge

Additionally, Valve will be linking to one third-party accessory developed by a close partner: the Arcturus Vision Camera, a $149 accessory that plugs into the Steam Frame’s nose bridge port to give it color passthrough vision (the Frame has monochrome passthrough by default) and record spatial video. It’s a 5K60 10-bit HDR stereo camera that closely hugs the curve of the Steam Frame’s lens and switches the view to color the moment you plug it in.

Arcturus, which also helped Valve develop the computer vision systems it uses for all of the Frame’s headset tracking, says it’ll be careful not to ship the camera as soon as you order it, because the company knows not everyone will manage to get a confirmed Steam Frame preorder. “Launch orders will be held for several days to allow customers to coordinate with their Steam Frame orders,” it writes.

And while we don’t have a date, price, or photo just yet, Valve designers Joy Lyons and Jeremy Selan tell The Verge they’ll launch an additional modular “enthusiast kit” that changes out the Steam Frame’s entire head strap, battery, and audio solution for one that lets you stack a second magnetic battery onto the first one to double the Frame’s battery capacity, a premium set of off-ear floating speakers based on the Valve Index Ear Speakers, and additional eye spacers that can get you even closer to (or farther from) its lenses.

Valve first revealed the Steam Frame alongside the new Steam Controller and Steam Machine late last year, and while it initially expected to launch the headset sometime in early 2026, the release was pushed back due in part to RAMageddon. The company ended up releasing the products over the course of the past several months, starting first with the Steam Controller in May, then the Steam Machine in June, and now the Steam Frame.

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