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Steam Frame, Valve’s next VR headset, has been announced, but the company has yet to reveal the price. However, the company says its goal is for Frame to be cheaper than its first VR headset.

Steam Frame has finally been revealed and is planned for launch in early 2026, but Valve says it hasn’t been given a price for the headset just yet. However, during an interview the company told Road to VR that it expects the price of Steam Frame to be ‘cheaper than Index’, without offering much more detail.

I take this ‘cheaper than Index’ statement to mean cheaper than the $1,000 ‘full kit’ cost of Index, which included the headset, controllers, and two tracking beacons. The Index headset alone, however, costs $500.

Although Steam Frame includes ‘less’ in the box than Index (because it doesn’t require external tracking beacons)—and therefore might seem like it shouldn’t cost as much as Index—it actually includes quite a bit more in the headset itself. Unlike Index, Steam Frame has an on-board Snapdragon processor, RAM, SSD, and battery. That’s in addition to more advanced optics and displays. For that reason, it makes sense to expect that Steam Frame’s price could land under $1,000, but maybe not by much.

More Steam Frame Announcement Coverage

Valve Unveils Steam Frame VR headset to Make Your Entire Steam Library Portable: Valve shows off Steam Frame, the standalone headset that can stream and natively play your entire Steam library—with only a few caveats right now.

Hands-on: Steam Frame Reveals Valve’s Modern Vision for VR and Growing Hardware Ambitions: We go hands-on with Valve’s latest and greatest VR headset yet.

Valve Says No New First-party VR Game is in Development: Valve launched Half-Life: Alyx (2020) a few months after releasing Index, but no such luck for first-party content on Steam Frame.

Valve is Open to Bringing SteamOS to Third-party VR Headsets: Steam Frame is the first VR headset to run SteamOS, but it may not be the last.

Valve Plans to Offer Steam Frame Dev Kits to VR Developers: Steam Frame isn’t here yet; Valve says it needs more time with developers first so they can optimize their PC VR games.

Valve Announces SteamOS Console and New Steam Controller, Designed with Steam Frame Headset in Mind: Find out why Valve’s new SteamOS-running Console and controller will work seamlessly with Steam Frame.

Steam Frame vs. Quest 3 Specs: Better Streaming, Power & Hackability: Quest 3 can do a lot, but can it go toe-to-toe with Steam Frame?

Steam Frame vs. Valve Index Specs: Wireless VR Gameplay That’s Generations Ahead : Valve Index used to be the go-to PC VR headset, but the times have changed.