Are LoL Overlays Allowed? What Riot's Policy Says in 2026
Are LoL overlays allowed? Yes, with limits: Riot allows third-party apps and overlays as long as they do not hurt game integrity or give an unfair advantage. In Riot's own words, “No software should compromise game integrity or negatively impact the in-game player experience, from the moment you press “Play” until you log off.”
Where the line sits depends on what an overlay does, not on what it is called. Below is what Riot's policy pages allow, what they ban, what can get an account suspended, and what changed in October 2026. Every quote is taken from a Riot page and linked where it is used.
What does Riot allow third-party apps to do?
Riot allows apps that help you play without playing for you: its third-party application page names “onboarding newer players, tracking your stats, finding like-minded teammates, hosting/playing tournaments, and more.” For overlays, the League of Legends developer policy lists “Game overlays that provide static data that is available prior to the game” as an approved use case.
The same policy describes the kind of help Riot wants: “Products should not remove game decisions, but may highlight decisions that are important and give multiple choices to help players make good decisions.”
Which overlay features does Riot not allow?
Riot does not allow features that give a measurable advantage. The third-party application page names four: exposing information that is intentionally hidden, taking actions on your behalf, drawing conclusions for you during gameplay, and altering your field of intelligence, such as zoom hacks or global ult alerts.
The developer policy adds concrete cases. The table puts the main rules side by side, each with Riot's own wording.
| What the overlay does | Riot's rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Shows builds, runes or stats known before the match | Approved: “Game overlays that provide static data that is available prior to the game.” | Developer policy |
| Highlights important decisions and gives options | Allowed: products “may highlight decisions that are important and give multiple choices” | Developer policy |
| Tracks enemy ultimate cooldowns | Not allowed: “information not present in the game client that would give players a competitive edge” | Developer policy |
| Shows facts about the current game you could not otherwise know | Not allowed: “game-session-specific information that would be previously unknown to the player” | Developer policy |
| Tells you what to do | Not approved: “Apps that dictate player decisions.” | Developer policy |
| Shows win rates for Augments or Arena items | Not allowed anywhere: “This applies to all websites, applications and overlays.” | Developer policy |
| Clicks, casts or moves for you | Not allowed: “Taking actions on your behalf (botting or scripting)” | Third-party application page |
| Zoom hacks, global ult alerts | Not allowed: “Altering your field of intelligence” | Third-party application page |
Can you get banned for using an overlay?
Yes, if the app breaks the rules. Riot's third-party application page says “If an application offers any unauthorized services, continuing to use it may still result in the loss of your account,” and suspensions for scripting or botting go up to “permanent suspension for consistent, blatant use.”
Riot adds: “If these applications were used to climb in Ranked, we may also remove the account's ranked rewards for the season.” On the other side: “If a third party application is approved and built using the official Riot API, players should rarely have an issue.”
Riot does not publish a list of safe apps: “Because there are so many third parties developing applications, we can't provide a full list of which ones are safe to use.” Its advice for doubtful cases is short: “better to be safe and not use it.”
What changed with game memory access in October 2026?
Riot announced that from October 6, 2026 it would block game memory access by default for every unknown third-party app. The announcement of September 29, 2026 covers “all titles, including League, TFT, and VALORANT,” and gives known, approved tools a grace period “until April 2027, after which time, they will need to have switched to the official APIs.”
The change does not ban players on its own. Asked “Will I get banned for using 3rd party tools after this update?”, Riot answers: “No. This change does not result in bans by itself—it just blocks unauthorized tools from interacting with the game client.”
Does it matter how an overlay gets its data?
Yes: after the memory change, Riot names its official API “the only allowed mechanism for retrieving game data,” so reading game memory is on its way out. The League Client API (LCU), which apps use to read champion select from the client, is a separate case: Riot's developer policy says “This service is not officially supported for use with third party applications.”
Riot still expects LCU apps to keep working. Its Vanguard FAQ says “Apps developed using the LCU and in-game APIs are still expected to work,” while warning that Riot “cannot offer support or guarantee updates when using these methods.” The developer policy asks apps that use the client endpoints to tell Riot about it: “we need to know about it.”
How can you check an overlay before installing it?
Check what it shows and when it shows it. If a feature reveals hidden information, acts for you or decides for you mid-game, it is on Riot's not-allowed list; if you are unsure, Riot's own advice is to skip it.
- Does it show anything you could not see in the game yourself, such as enemy cooldowns?
- Does it press keys, click or move for you?
- Does it tell you what to do, or does it give you options with reasons?
- Does it show win rates for Augments or Arena items?
- Does it ask for your Riot password? Riot's own sign-in for apps sends you to auth.riotgames.com (see the developer policy), so an app has no reason to ask for it directly.
Where does Counterplay stand?
Counterplay works in champ select only. It reads the draft from the League client's local API (LCU), suggests several picks and bans with the reasons behind them, and by default hides to the system tray when the match starts; it never reads game memory and never asks for your Riot login.
We learned where Riot draws the line by reading its policy, not by guessing. In September 2026 we considered showing augment stats for ARAM: Mayhem. Riot's developer policy rules it out by name — “Products cannot display win rates for Augments or Arena Mode items. This applies to all websites, applications and overlays.” — and the same list rejects “Apps that dictate player decisions.” We dropped the feature. Seeing something similar in another app told us nothing: a feature can be unapproved, tolerated, or older than the rule.
The same reading showed that our own rule is stricter than Riot's. Riot approves “Game overlays that provide static data that is available prior to the game,” so an overlay that stays on during the match can be within the rules. Counterplay still shows nothing once the match starts: draft help is the whole idea, and the match is yours to play.
Comparing apps? See how the best-known LoL overlays differ. For the draft itself, start with how to counter pick without losing the game you just drafted.
Written by the Counterplay team. We build a champion-select app and our own stats pipeline from ranked matches collected through the official Riot API. Policy quotes were checked against Riot's pages on October 22, 2026.