Meta Quest 3 and Quest 3S in 2026: what to know before you buy

In the US, Meta Quest 3S costs $349.99 with 128GB of storage or $449.99 with 256GB, and Meta Quest 3 costs $599.99 with 512GB. Those prices took effect on April 19, 2026, when Meta raised them by $50, $50 and $100, citing "the global surge in the price of critical components," memory chips in particular. The two headsets share a chip, cameras, controllers and an app store; Quest 3 adds better lenses, a sharper display and a wider view.

This guide compares the two using Meta's published specifications and prices. We haven't tested either headset for this article.

Quest 3 and Quest 3S prices in 2026

Meta said the same increase applies to refurbished headsets, while accessories kept their old prices. "We're making this change because the cost of building high-performance VR hardware has risen significantly," the company wrote. Prices went up in other countries as well.

What's different between Quest 3 and Quest 3S

Meta pitches Quest 3S at people "beginning to explore the incredible possibilities of virtual reality" and calls Quest 3 its "ultimate virtual reality device." Its comparison page lays out what separates them:

The lenses are the biggest difference. Quest 3 pairs pancake lenses with higher-resolution panels, a combination Meta calls its "Infinite Display." Quest 3S uses Fresnel lenses and lower-resolution panels, and lets you set the distance between the lenses in three positions instead of a continuous range. Quest 3 also shows more of the scene at once: 110 degrees across, compared with 96 on the 3S.

Battery life favors the cheaper model on paper. Meta rates Quest 3S at about 2.5 hours of general use and Quest 3 at about 2.2 hours.

What's the same

Under the shell, the two are more alike than the price gap suggests. Both have a Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 chip, which Meta says has twice the graphics power of Quest 2's, and 8GB of memory. Both use the same full-color passthrough cameras, rated at 4 megapixels and 18 pixels per degree, for mixed reality. Both support refresh rates of 72Hz, 90Hz and 120Hz, both come with two Touch Plus controllers, and both track your hands without them.

Both come with a soft strap and a charging cable. A hard strap and a charging dock are sold separately for either model.

They also run the same software. Meta sells the newest games and apps as exclusives for Quest 3 and Quest 3S together, and features like the redesigned Navigator interface and Surface Keyboard and Touchpad, which turns a desk into a keyboard and trackpad, arrive on both through updates. This season, Meta is also streaming select college football games in 180-degree immersive video in the Quest TV app with ESPN.

Which one to buy

Going by the specifications:

• Quest 3S with 128GB is the cheapest way into Meta's VR library, and it runs everything Quest 3 runs. It suits people who mostly play games.
• Quest 3S with 256GB makes sense if you expect to install many large games.
• Quest 3 is the pick if image quality matters to you, for example for reading text, watching video or long sessions. Its pancake lenses, extra pixels and wider field of view are the hardware differences that change what you see.

The gap is $250 between the base 3S and Quest 3, and $150 between the two 3S models.

Those are Meta's list prices, and retailers do discount them. During Amazon's Prime Day sale in June, Road to VR found Quest 3S bundles for $300 with 128GB and $380 with 256GB, the first cuts since the April increase, while Quest 3 stayed at full price apart from refurbished units on Meta's store. With the holidays coming, it's worth checking before you pay $349.99 or more.

What's coming to Quest

Connect also brought news for people who already own a Quest, according to Meta's recap. Beat Saber gets what Meta calls its biggest update ever next spring, on both Quest and VR Glasses, with a new hand-tracking mode called Flux and its first visual refresh in nearly a decade. Meta also listed new games built around hand tracking that you can play with controllers on Quest, including Cardmada, Dice Throne Digital, Dragon Grove, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney Dual Destinies, Supernatural, Tetris Effect: Mixed Realities and Two Point Hospital.

Where Meta VR Glasses fit

At Connect in September, Meta announced Meta VR Glasses, a roughly 100-gram headset shaped like glasses that goes on sale in spring 2027 for $1,299.99. Meta says it's five times lighter than Quest 3 because the battery, processor and storage sit in a puck you clip to a pocket or bag, connected by an optical cable. It uses micro-OLED panels with 37 pixels per degree, a new Snapdragon Reality Elite chip and up to three hours of video playback per charge.

It runs the same operating system and store as Quest, so the Quest catalog carries over, and it supports Touch Plus controllers, which you can buy separately or borrow from a Quest 3 or 3S, Road to VR reported. There are trade-offs. Road to VR puts its field of view at about 70 degrees horizontally, well short of Quest 3's 110, and it ships without controllers, built around eye and hand tracking. Meta is pitching it for 3D movies, live sports and multi-screen work, with more than 75 games at launch designed for hands alone. Our Meta VR Glasses guide covers them in detail.

Here is how the three compare on the numbers Meta and Road to VR have published:

Meta itself doesn't present VR Glasses as a Quest replacement. "It's a different product for a different market," Meta's vice president of VR, Ryan Cairns, told Road to VR. In practice, the choice looks like this: Quest 3S and Quest 3 for games and the lowest price, VR Glasses for a much lighter headset with more pixels per degree, if you can wait until spring and spend more than twice as much as a Quest 3.

Is a Quest 4 coming?

Meta hasn't announced one. Its April pricing post said the company has "a long-term roadmap full of new hardware and experiences," and when Road to VR asked about a future gaming-focused headset after Connect, a Meta spokesperson said: "We are continuing to explore a robust roadmap of VR devices tailored to different audience segments as the market grows and matures."

That answer came after a year in which Meta pulled back on VR content. According to Road to VR, Meta closed three of its internal VR studios this year, cut funding to partner studios and separated new Horizon Worlds development from its headsets. Quest 3 turned three years old this month. If you buy one now, expect it to stay Meta's main gaming headset for a while, because nothing announced so far replaces it.