Valve just put a number on the last piece of its new Steam Hardware trio — and it is not a casual-impulse price.
As of September 14, 2026, the Steam Frame standalone VR headset is listed on Steam at $1,059 for the 256GB Kit and $1,299 for the 1TB Kit (USD, Steam package API / store pricing checked live at write time). Those figures match reporting from The Verge and Game Informer the same day, which also published CAD/EUR/GBP/AUD/PLN conversions from Valve’s rollout materials.
Interest reservations are open now. Valve is running the same lottery-style first-wave system it used for Steam Machine: sign up for the configuration you want through September 17, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific (1:00 p.m. Eastern). After the cutoff, Valve randomizes the list. Selected buyers should get purchase emails starting around September 18; everyone else lands on a waitlist. Once you receive a purchase offer, you have 72 hours to complete the order.
That closes the hardware set Valve previewed late last year: Steam Controller (May), Steam Machine (June), and now Steam Frame. The headset is the wireless VR chapter of the same SteamOS story.
What you actually get in the kit
Per Steam’s live package listing for the Steam Frame kits (as of Sept. 14, 2026), the hardware stack includes:
- 4 nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (ARM64)
- 16GB unified LPDDR5X RAM
- 256GB or 1TB UFS storage, plus microSD expansion
- 2160×2160 LCD per eye, 72–144Hz (144Hz experimental)
- Inside-out camera tracking
- Headset Wi‑Fi 7 (2×2) with dual radios
- Wireless adapter included (Wi‑Fi 6E) for a dedicated PC streaming link
- Bluetooth 5.4, dual speakers per ear, dual mics
- SteamOS 3
- Steam Frame Controllers (6‑DOF + gamepad controls)
- Half-Life: Alyx included (Valve has also discussed a native ARM build alongside PC streaming)
One practical caveat Valve puts in green text on the store listing: a power supply is not included. Game Informer notes any USB‑C charger that supports 45W or higher (including a Steam Deck charger) should work; Valve also sells a separate PSU.
Optional Valve accessories called out in The Verge’s Sept. 14 piece include an ergonomic accessories kit ($59), an accessory replacement kit ($49), and a USB‑C PSU ($29). Partner accessory Arcturus Vision Camera ($149) adds color passthrough / spatial video via the nose-bridge port — monochrome passthrough is the Frame default.
Why the price lands where it does
At $1,059 / $1,299, Steam Frame sits above Valve Index’s old U.S. sticker in Digital Foundry’s framing, while still being positioned as a streaming-first standalone that can also run flat and VR titles locally on SteamOS. The included wireless adapter is the PC-tether story: play the heavy library from a gaming PC or Steam Machine without a DisplayPort cable hanging off your face.
Valve told Digital Foundry it is comfortable with Frame inventory levels heading into the reservation window — soft language, but notable after years of scarcity-and-scalper hardware launches. The lottery is explicitly framed (in Valve’s Machine-era messaging, reused here) as a way to improve the purchase experience and limit resellers.
How to move if you want one
If you are serious: pick 256GB or 1TB on the official Steam Frame page, enter the reservation before Sept. 17 at 10 a.m. PT, and watch email around Sept. 18 for a purchase window. Miss the lottery and you are not locked out forever — you are just behind the randomized first queue. Have payment ready; the 72-hour clock is real.
For RCG readers who bought into the Controller / Machine wave already, Frame is the VR companion that completes the desk-to-living-room-to-headset loop Valve has been building toward for a year. For everyone else, the headline is simpler: Valve’s new headset is real, priced, and the signup window is short.
Figures and reservation timing verified against Steam package pricing and Steam Frame store/sale page copy as of September 14, 2026, cross-checked with The Verge and Game Informer reporting the same day. Dexerto’s matching URL timed out at fetch time and was not used for primary claims.
