That design is deliberate. Valve’s FAQ says a timed launch rewards bots, fast connections and people who can refresh a page on cue, and the multi-day window gives it time to check that signups come from real accounts. It is the same system Valve used for the Steam Machine.
Check that you qualify
Valve lists three requirements. Your Steam account has to be in good standing. You need to have bought something on Steam before April 27, 2026, so an account you made this week will not get in. And it is one signup per household. Valve says it will compare payment methods, shipping addresses and other details to remove extra entries, so a second signup from another account at the same address is exactly what it is looking for.
When the list closes where you live
10:00 AM Pacific on Thursday is 1:00 PM Eastern and 17:00 UTC. In London it is 6:00 PM. In Berlin and Paris, 7:00 PM. Australia gets the rough one: 3:00 AM on Friday, September 18 in Sydney and Brisbane. If you are signing up from Australia, do it Thursday evening before you go to bed.
Pick your model once
You choose the 256GB kit ($1,059) or the 1TB kit ($1,299) at signup. Each model has its own list, and there are separate lists for each shipping region: North America, the UK and EU, and Australia. You land in your region’s list automatically. After the shuffle you cannot change models. Leaving to sign up for the other one releases your spot, and anyone who joins after the cutoff goes to the back of the waitlist.
On storage, the headset has a microSD card slot, so 256GB is not a hard ceiling. The extra $240 buys internal UFS storage (Universal Flash Storage, the same kind of chip phones use). Valve calls the Frame streaming-first. If most of your play will be streamed from your PC, those games stay installed on the PC. If you plan to install a lot of standalone games on the headset itself, compare the 1TB kit against the price of a large card before you pick.
What the emails mean
After the shuffle on September 17, you get one of two emails. The first says you are in the reservation queue. A unit of the model you chose is now reserved in your name, and you wait for a second email with the option to buy. Valve starts sending those on September 18, in shuffle order. You have 72 hours from that email to complete the purchase. Miss it, and the reservation moves to the next person.
The second email says you are on the waitlist. Your number came up past the units Valve currently has for reservation. You can still move up if people ahead of you cancel, and Valve says future production runs will be offered to the waitlist in order. If someone online says they got a purchase email off a waitlist while you are still sitting in the queue, Valve’s answer is that they are likely in a different region. No list touches its waitlist until its own queue is used up.
Decide on the charger before checkout
The Frame does not include a power supply. Valve sells a 45W USB-C unit with a 2.5 meter cable for $29, alongside a $59 Ergonomic Accessories Kit and a $49 Accessory Replacement Kit. All three are add-to-cart options at checkout only, for people who received a purchase email. So look at what you already own now. Valve says a Steam Deck charger works, and so does any USB-C charger rated at 45W or higher. Alex Reeves has the full breakdown of the prices in our launch coverage.
Claiming Half-Life: Alyx
Every Frame includes Half-Life: Alyx. You redeem it in Settings when you first log in on the headset. It is one copy per device. If Alyx is already in your Steam library, you cannot redeem another copy, and Valve’s FAQ does not mention anything offered in its place.
Outside the Steam regions
Valve ships directly to the US, Canada, the UK, the EU and Australia. In Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Frame is sold through KOMODO, Valve’s authorized distributor there, which lists the local pricing and how to order. South Korea is coming later, with no date given.
That is the whole process. Sign up once, for one model, before Thursday morning Pacific. Then watch the inbox tied to your Steam account, because 72 hours goes by fast.
