The Steam Controller costs $99 in the US and went on sale on May 4, 2026, according to Valve’s Steam store listing, which showed $99.00 with no discount when we checked at 11:39 UTC on November 10. Valve now sells it through a reservation queue rather than a plain “add to cart” button, so the real question for most buyers is when your order email arrives, not what the sticker says.
Table of Contents
Steam Controller quick answer
- Price: $99.00 USD on Steam (checked 11:39 UTC, Nov 10, 2026). Valve also sells it in Steam Machine bundles.
- Release date: May 4, 2026, announced on Nov 12, 2025 alongside the Steam Machine and Steam Frame.
- In the box: the controller and a Puck, which Valve says is both the wireless transmitter and the main charging station.
- How you buy it: reserve in the queue, wait for an order email, then pay within 72 hours.
- Best first settings: let Steam apply the developer or community layout, then tune gyro and trackpads per game in the Steam Input configurator.
Steam Controller price and release date
Valve’s Steam page lists the controller as hardware made and published by Valve, with Windows, Mac and Linux marked as supported platforms. The US price is $99.00. We could not read prices for other regions from the pages we checked, so look at the reservation page in your own Steam account for local pricing.
| Item | Detail | Source and check time |
|---|---|---|
| Price (US) | $99.00 USD, no discount | Valve’s Steam store listing, 11:39 UTC Nov 10 |
| Release date | May 4, 2026 | Steam store listing and Valve’s May 4 blog post |
| Announced | Nov 12, 2025 | Valve’s Steam Hardware blog |
| Made by | Valve (developer and publisher) | Steam store listing |
| Sales model | Reservation queue since May 8 | Valve’s May 7 and Jun 18 posts |
Steam Machine bundle price
Valve’s June 22 launch post for the Steam Machine listed bundles that add a Steam Controller. The 512GB bundle was $1,128 against $1,049 for the console alone, and the 2TB bundle was $1,428 against $1,349. That works out to $79 for the controller inside a bundle, $20 less than the $99 standalone price. Those are launch-day figures from Valve’s post, so confirm the current price on the store page before you rely on them.
Can you buy the Steam Controller right now?
The short answer from Valve’s own posts is that it is sold by reservation and demand has been heavy. Here is the timeline, all from the Steam Hardware blog:
- May 4: launch day. Valve later said the buying experience was “incredibly frustrating” for many people.
- May 8, 10 am Pacific: the reservation queue opened. Place in line is saved, and order emails go out in the order reservations were made. Reservations were limited to one controller per user, and Valve’s May 7 post said the account needed to be in good standing with a Steam purchase made before April 27, 2026.
- Once you get the email: you have 72 hours to buy it on Steam or you drop out of the queue and Valve moves to the next person.
- Jun 18: Valve said demand beat its expectations and began showing each logged-in customer one of three estimated windows: by September 2026, by December 2026, or in 2027. For people reserving from that date on, it said the estimate pointed to 2027 and would be updated later. It also said it has no plans to stop making the controller.
Valve’s hardware page that shows your own queue window is rendered by script, so we could not read the current wait from it at 11:39 UTC. We are not guessing at today’s wait: log in to Steam and open the Steam Controller page to see your estimate. If you already reserved, the order email comes from Steam, so check the account’s email for it.
The face buttons and a magnetic thumbstick. Valve says the sticks use TMR technology. Image: Valve
What you get: inputs and features
Valve describes the controller as having every input of a standard gamepad plus four advanced inputs. This is what its April 27 and May 4 posts list:
| Feature | What Valve says it does |
|---|---|
| Thumbsticks | Next-generation magnetic sticks with TMR technology, aimed at feel, responsiveness and long-term reliability; they also support capacitive touch |
| Trackpads | Mouse replacement for games built around a mouse, or mapped as button clusters, a joystick, virtual menus and more |
| Gyro | Detects rotation of the whole controller for aiming, camera control, steering wheels and flight yokes |
| Grip Sense | One capacitive sensor in each handle that detects whether you are holding it; mainly used to switch gyro on and off |
| Grip buttons | Four extra buttons you can map to anything, such as ABXY so your thumb stays on the stick |
| Puck | Included wireless transmitter and magnetic charging station |
Valve says it works with PC, laptops, the Steam Deck, the Steam Machine and the Steam Frame. Its February FAQ adds that the controller can work with any game compatible with the Steam Overlay, so non-Steam games added to your library are not locked out. Valve’s hardware page spec sheet, with weight and battery details, is script-rendered, so we have not used it here and do not quote battery life.
The company also released CAD files for the controller’s outer shell and the Puck on May 5 under a Creative Commons license, for people who want to design accessories.
The L1 and L2 buttons; Valve says the triggers can be given separate soft-pull and full-pull actions in Steam Input. Image: Valve
Steam Controller settings: where to find them
Settings live in Steam Input, not on the controller itself, and Valve’s blog says they are saved per game. Valve’s steps:
- Desktop Steam app: open the game in your library and click the controller icon.
- In a game launched from the desktop app: press the Steam button on the controller, then the controller icon at the bottom of the screen.
- Big Picture Mode: from the game’s library page, select the controller icon under the artwork; in game, press the Steam button and open Controller Settings.
On the configurator home screen, the layout section lets you search layouts from developers, Valve and the community, apply one, edit it or export it. The recommended tab shows the developer’s layout, or Valve’s if the developer did not provide one. Valve also says the controller ships with community configurations for thousands of games, many carried over from Steam Deck work.
One more detail from Valve: in desktop mode the right trackpad moves the mouse cursor, and pushing it in gives a left click.
Best Steam Controller gyro settings
Gyro is off by default unless a game turns it on. Valve’s August 5 gyro guide offers three modes in the quick menu:
| Mode | Valve’s use case |
|---|---|
| Gyro to Mouse | Mimicking a cursor or aiming a camera; Valve recommends it for the best game feel |
| Gyro to Joystick (Camera) | Rotating a normal joystick-driven camera; keeps gamepad button prompts |
| Gyro to Joystick (Deflection) | Steering a car or flying with a virtual yoke |
Open the gear next to the gyro behavior to reach the settings. Valve’s key options:
- Choose Gyro Button(s): the default is a touch on the right trackpad or right thumbstick, so gyro only works while a finger is there.
- Enable, Suppress or Toggle: enable means gyro works while the button is active; suppress means it is always on unless the button is active; toggle flips it on each press.
- Gyro Sensitivity: the main slider to adjust per game. Valve says people tend to raise it as they get used to gyro.
- Invert X and Y: flips the output.
Valve’s own suggested setup is to use both Grip Sensors as the gyro buttons with “Hold to Enable Gyro”. With two buttons selected, “Any” means you must lift the fingers on both hands to turn gyro off, while “All”, which Valve recommends for grip sensors, turns it off when you lift either hand. If a game flickers button icons or stutters when gyro and a stick move together, Valve says to either use a keyboard-and-mouse style layout or switch to Gyro to Joystick (Camera), which needs more setup.
Two of the four grip buttons on the back of the controller, labeled R4 and R5. Image: Valve
Grip Sense and calibration
Grip Sense can do two jobs, per Valve’s August 5 guide. The first is “ratcheting”: lift your fingers, recenter the controller, then grip again, like lifting a mouse at the edge of the mousepad. The second is a menu trigger, so a weapon wheel, map or menu appears when you release the handles.
For the menu use, open the layout editor, assign a grip button input to the action, then open that button’s settings and turn on Invert Input. Without it, Grip Sense reads as pressed while you are holding the controller, which is the opposite of what you want.
To change how sensitive the sensors are, Valve gives this path in the desktop app: Steam > Settings > Controller, click “details” for the controller, scroll to Calibration & Advanced Settings, click Open, then go to Grip Sensors. Two sliders appear:
- Grip Sensor Range: further left means your fingers must be closer to count as touching, so a small lift switches the sensor off.
- Flicker Guard Size: further right makes the on and off states stickier. Valve warns that setting it all the way left can make the sensors flicker or react to touches on the trackpads or stick.
Trackpad, trigger and menu settings
For the trackpads, Valve’s configurator guide lists these common behaviors:
- As Mouse: a laptop-style cursor, but Valve calls it more responsive. Its settings include sensitivity, vertical sensitivity (useful in shooters, where you turn horizontally freely but look up and down only so far), axis inversion and Trackball Mode, where a swipe keeps rolling after you let go.
- As Joystick: mouse-like feel with a thumbstick output. Valve recommends it if a game misbehaves when mouse and gamepad inputs arrive together, for example flashing glyphs.
- Directional Pad: each direction of the trackpad can be mapped to any output.
- Virtual menus: radial menus, touch menus and hotbars with up to 20 entries; Valve suggests keeping menus on the D-pad or ABXY to about 8 entries.
Triggers default to a normal analog pull. Valve’s guide says you can add separate “soft pull” and “full pull” actions, where a full pull means the trigger bottoms out. Once you have a layout you like, export it from the gear icon in the layout section: personal saves can be reused on another PC or Steam Machine, and you can also share a layout with the community.
Is the Steam Controller worth $99?
We have not used the controller, so this is a buying checklist rather than a verdict. Valve built it to play any game on Steam, and names the genres where the trackpads stand in for a mouse: shooters, puzzle games, point-and-click adventures and deck builders. It lists the controller as working with PC, laptops, Steam Deck, Steam Machine and Steam Frame. If you only play pad-friendly games and never open the configurator, you may not use most of what the $99 buys. Also weigh the waiting time: Valve’s own estimates run as far as 2027 for new reservations. For a different kind of controller launch, see our Xbox Nano Controller post, and if you are buying other Valve hardware this season, our Steam Deck Black Friday post tracks sale prices.
Frequently asked questions
How much is the Steam Controller?
$99.00 USD on Steam as of 11:39 UTC on November 10, 2026. It is $79 extra when bought in a Steam Machine bundle, per Valve’s launch-day prices.
When did the Steam Controller come out?
May 4, 2026. Valve announced it on November 12, 2025.
Does it work with non-Steam games?
Valve says it can work with any game compatible with the Steam Overlay.
Where are the Steam Controller settings?
In Steam Input: click the controller icon on a game’s library page, or press the Steam button in game. Settings are saved per game.
Sources: Steam store listing for Steam Controller (checked 11:39 UTC, Nov 10); Valve’s Steam Hardware blog (read 11:39 UTC, Nov 10): Steam Controller is almost here (Apr 27), Steam Input Configurator guide (May 1), Steam Controller is here (May 4), CAD files (May 5), Reservations open May 8th (May 7), Reservations update (Jun 18), Steam Machine launches today (Jun 22), Gyro and Grip Sense guides (Aug 5), Trackpads and Virtual Menus guides (May 20), Launch timing and other FAQs (Feb 4). Images: Valve.
Live: Follow today’s gaming news as it happens
Featured image: Valve
