Valorant is free, you can download it in a few minutes and it takes up less space than most shooters today. The catch is elsewhere: it installs together with the Riot Vanguard anti-cheat, which is a separate program on your system and stays on your computer when you uninstall the game. So we’ll cover both: where to download the game and how to install it, and then how to get all of it off your computer, Vanguard included.
Where to download Valorant
There are two legitimate ways. The first is Riot’s official website, playvalorant.com, which has a Download button that gets you a small installer. The second is the Epic Games Store: Riot released its games there, and you can install Valorant through it exactly like anything else from Epic.
Both ways end up in the same place: you get the Riot Client installed, the launcher Riot uses to run all of its games. If you already have League of Legends or Teamfight Tactics on your computer, the Riot Client is already there and you just add Valorant through it.
Don’t get the game anywhere else. Valorant isn’t on Steam and never has been, and all the “mirrors”, “repacks” and sites promising a free installer are pointless at best and at worst bring something extra onto your computer. The game is free straight from Riot, so there’s no reason to look elsewhere. What actually costs money in Valorant is covered in the article about VP, skin and Night Market prices.
Installation step by step
- On playvalorant.com, click Download and get the installer (it’s a few dozen MB).
- Run it. The Riot Client installs and immediately asks you to log in.
- Log in with your Riot account or create a new one.
- In the client, select Valorant and click Install. This is where the bulk of the game data downloads.
- After the download, Riot Vanguard installs and the client asks you to restart your computer. The game won’t launch without a restart, because Vanguard has to load when the system starts.
How long it takes depends almost entirely on your connection. On 100 Mbps, the download takes roughly half an hour, and unpacking and installing on an SSD then take a few minutes. On a slower connection, it can easily take several hours. The Riot Client can pause the download and resume it later.
How much space Valorant takes
In its official requirements, Riot says you should have roughly 30 GB ready on your disk. In reality, in 2026 it’s a bit less: the download comes to roughly 23 GB, and after installation the game sits on your disk at roughly 26 GB, including Vanguard, which on its own takes up a few tens of megabytes.
The numbers change with every patch, though, and the game gets a patch roughly every two weeks. On top of that, during an update the new data downloads next to the old data, so you need free space afterwards too. 40 GB of free space is a sensible buffer, so no update will catch you out.
Either way, Valorant is tiny by today’s standards. Warzone or Call of Duty are in the hundreds of gigabytes, while Valorant fits on any reasonable SSD. That comes down to how the game is built technically, and the same reason is behind its low system requirements.
Riot account: what you need
You can’t get into the game without a Riot account. It’s free to create and only asks for your email, password, date of birth and in-game name. It’s the same account used for League of Legends, Teamfight Tactics and Riot Mobile, so if you play LoL, you don’t need to create a new one.
Two things are worth mentioning. First, the name you choose isn’t your in-game nickname; that’s made up of your Riot ID and tag (for example Player#EUW1) and can be changed later. Second, turn on two-factor authentication for your account right away, via email or the Riot Mobile app. Riot also requires verification through Riot Mobile for some competitive accounts, typically at higher ranks and for accounts that look shared, so you’ll end up turning it on anyway.
How to uninstall Valorant
Here’s the part most people come here for. Uninstalling Valorant doesn’t remove Riot Vanguard, and Riot says so in black and white on its support site. Vanguard is a separately installed program with a kernel-level driver that starts with Windows. If you delete only the game, Vanguard stays on your computer and keeps launching at every startup.
The right order looks like this:
- Close Vanguard. In the system tray at the bottom right (possibly under the arrow with hidden icons), find the Vanguard icon, right-click it and choose Exit Vanguard.
- Uninstall Valorant. Windows + I → Apps → Installed apps, find VALORANT and click Uninstall. You can also do it through Control Panel → Programs and Features.
- Uninstall Riot Vanguard. In the same list, find the Riot Vanguard entry and remove it separately. This is the step people skip most often.
- Restart your computer. The driver only unloads after a restart.
If you don’t want to uninstall it but just silence Vanguard for an evening, the first step is enough: Exit Vanguard turns it off until the next restart. The only way to bring it back is a restart, and Valorant won’t start without it. How Vanguard works and why Riot handles it this strictly is covered in more detail in the article about Riot Vanguard.
Leftover files
If you want to clear out everything Riot left behind (for example before reinstalling the game because of an error), check these folders after restarting and delete whatever is left in them:
- C:Riot Games: the default location of the game and the client
- %appdata%Riot Games and %LocalAppData%Riot Games: settings and logs
- %ProgramData%Riot Games
Only delete the Riot Client if you don’t have any other Riot game on your computer. Your skins, rank and match history are stored on the servers with your account, not on your disk, so uninstalling won’t lose them.
FAQ
The download comes to about 23 GB, and after installation the game takes up roughly 26 GB. In its system requirements Riot recommends having about 30 GB ready, and with a buffer for updates it makes sense to plan on 40 GB of free space.
No. You download it from the official website playvalorant.com or from the Epic Games Store. Both ways install the Riot Client, which launches the game.
Almost always because you didn’t restart your computer after Vanguard was installed. The anti-cheat loads when the system starts, and the game won’t launch without it.
First close it by right-clicking its icon in the system tray and choosing Exit Vanguard. Then in Settings → Apps → Installed apps, find the Riot Vanguard entry and remove it separately from the game. Finally, restart your computer.
No. Everything is tied to your Riot account and stored on the servers. After reinstalling and logging in, you’ll find your inventory and rank just as you left them.
Information verified as of 1 September 2026, patch 13.05. Before you download the game, take a look at the system requirements and settings, especially if you have Windows 11, where Vanguard requires TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot to be enabled. After the first launch, the overview of agents and their abilities and of weapons and buying at the start of a round will come in handy. Everything else about the game is in the Valorant section.