Valve has started emailing Steam Frame reservation holders with the option to buy the headset, and its announcement says the first batch of those emails began going out on September 18. What Valve has not published is any date for when the headsets themselves start leaving its warehouses.
The reservation system is the same one Valve used for Steam Machine, which it credits with improving the purchase experience and limiting resellers. That matters because a queue place is not an order, and an order is not a shipment.
How the Steam Frame reservation queue works
Sign-ups opened with Valve’s September 14 post and closed on September 17 at 10 a.m. Pacific. Valve then ran a one-time randomization to set reservation and waitlist order.
Everyone who signed up was emailed on September 17 with the result. A place in the reservation queue means the chosen model is held in that person’s name, according to Valve.
Purchase emails then arrive as units become available to ship. Anyone on the waitlist sits beyond the number of headsets currently available to reserve, and Valve says it will notify people who move into the queue.
The queues are regional. Valve’s Steam Frame hardware page lists separate lists for North America, the United Kingdom and European Union, and Australia, assigned automatically by region.
Who was eligible to sign up in the first place
Valve’s FAQ sets three conditions, and they are more specific than a general reference to restrictions. The Steam account must be in good standing, it must have made a purchase on Steam prior to April 27, 2026, and there is a limit of one signup per household.
Valve says it uses payment method, shipping address and other information to eliminate multiple entries. That household check is the part of the process aimed at resellers, an audience already visible in a Steam Frame presale listing priced at $2,049.99 on eBay.
The mechanics were visible before any of this went live, when the reservation system turned up in the Steam backend ahead of launch.
What the two kits cost and what is not in the box
Valve prices the Steam Frame 256GB Kit at $1,059 and the 1TB Kit at $1,299, with all prices inclusive of VAT where applicable. The headset launched at that $1,059 starting price with Half-Life: Alyx included.
The two kits are identical apart from storage. Both list a 4 nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 platform, 16GB of unified LPDDR5X memory and a 2160 x 2160 LCD per eye. Valve also lists a 72-144Hz refresh range with 144Hz marked experimental, a 21.6 Wh battery and SteamOS 3.
Both listings also carry a blunt line that is easy to miss: power supply not included. The PSU is a separate first-party accessory at $29, a 45W unit with a 2.5m cable.
Two other kits sit alongside it. The Ergonomic Accessories Kit is $59, with two controller hand straps, a headset top strap and an extended light blocker. The Accessory Replacement Kit is $49, covering a face gasket, a head cushion and a standard light blocker.
None of the three can be bought on their own. Valve’s FAQ says first-party accessories are available only as an add-to-cart option at checkout, for customers who have received a purchase email.
| Item | US price |
|---|---|
| Steam Frame 256GB Kit | $1,059 |
| Steam Frame 1TB Kit | $1,299 |
| Ergonomic Accessories Kit | $59 |
| Accessory Replacement Kit | $49 |
| PSU (45W, 2.5m cable) | $29 |
Half-Life: Alyx is redeemed in settings after signing into the headset, and Valve says only one copy can be redeemed per device. Anyone who already owns the game cannot claim a second copy.
Where it ships, and what Valve has still not said
Valve ships Steam Frame directly via Steam in the U.S., Canada, the UK, the EU and Australia. In Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong it ships through authorized distributor KOMODO, with South Korea listed as coming soon, and Valve points to KOMODO Station for pricing in those regions.
Valve has never stated a date on which physical units began reaching customers. The claim that the first batch started shipping comes from an unaffiliated tracking account, Steam Hardware Updates on X. It said orders would “likely” ship based on how past Valve hardware timing worked, and that the prediction would not apply to all orders.
A separate line about Valve expecting current Steam Machine reservations to be cleared by the end of the year has been reported, but no Valve post carrying it could be verified for this article. Valve’s own announcement was last edited as recently as September 22, 2026, so the details above are still moving.
Prices and queue mechanics here were checked on September 22, 2026, from Valve’s Steam Frame announcement and store listings. Valve has not published a shipping window, a unit count or a date for the next batch of purchase emails.
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