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For a Steam-store game, Valve’s standard refund offer requires both that you request the refund within 14 days of purchase and that the game has less than two hours of playtime. Inside those limits, you can ask for a refund for any reason. To apply, sign in at Steam Support, open Purchases, select the game, and choose I’d like to request a refund. If you are past either limit, you can still submit a request, but approval is not promised.
What is Steam’s 14-day, 2-hour refund rule?
For games and software bought on the Steam store, the standard offer has two requirements: the request must be made within 14 days of purchase, and the title must have been played for less than two hours. Both clocks matter. A game bought 10 days ago but played for three hours is outside the standard offer; so is a game played for 30 minutes but bought 20 days ago.
The 14 days run from the purchase date, not the first time you launch the game. The playtime total includes online, offline, and shared-library play. Steam records time while a game is running, so leaving it open in the background can use up part of the two-hour allowance.
Within the standard window, you do not need to prove the game is defective or provide a special reason. Valve says it will refund a qualifying purchase “for any reason”; its examples include an accidental purchase, a computer that does not meet the game’s requirements, or simply deciding you do not like the game. The voluntary offer applies worldwide to games and software applications purchased on Steam. The Steam Refunds policy is the controlling reference; it lists 23 April 2024 as its last update.
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These are the standard rules, not a guarantee that every product type uses the same clock. DLC, in-game purchases, subscriptions, gifts, and pre-orders have additional conditions. If you are outside the standard limit, Valve says you may still ask and it will review the request, but there is no promised outcome.
How do I request a Steam refund?
Submit the request through Steam Support using the account that bought the game. The support form is used whether you are inside the standard window or asking for an exception.
- Go to help.steampowered.com and sign in to the purchasing account. In the Steam client, you can also open Help → Steam Support.
- Choose Purchases.
- Select the game or purchase. If it is not listed, Valve says it falls too far outside the refund window and is ineligible through this flow.
- Choose the problem that best describes the issue, then select I’d like to request a refund.
- Complete the form. Where offered, choose Steam Wallet or the original payment method.
- Submit the request. Steam sends an email confirming submission, followed by another email when the request is processed.
Valve’s published instructions are in its How To Request A Refund FAQ. You can also reach the purchase wizard directly at Steam’s purchase-help wizard.
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If a request appears to have been handled incorrectly, Valve’s common-questions guidance says to submit another request through Steam Support and explain the issue in detail so another employee can review it. For a missing in-game purchase, contact the game’s support team first; if they cannot resolve it, include that correspondence with your Steam Support request.
Which Steam purchases have different refund rules?
The two-week and two-hour standard is not universal. Use the product-specific conditions below before submitting; a purchase may be ineligible even when the main game is still within its refund period.
| Purchase type | Window | Important condition |
|---|---|---|
| Game or software bought on Steam | 14 days from purchase | Less than 2 hours played, counting online, offline, and shared-library time. |
| DLC | 14 days from the DLC purchase | The underlying game must have less than 2 hours of playtime since the DLC was bought. The DLC must not have been consumed, modified, or transferred. Some third-party DLC is marked nonrefundable on its Store page before purchase. |
| In-game item in a Valve-developed game | 48 hours from purchase | The item must not have been consumed, modified, or transferred. |
| In-game item in a third-party game | Only if the developer opted in | Steam indicates at purchase whether the item is refundable. Otherwise, Steam does not offer a refund for it. |
| Unreleased pre-order | Any time before release | Once released, the standard 14-day period begins on the release date, with less than 2 hours of playtime required. |
| Early Access or Advance/Advanced Access | 14 days from release | Pre-launch playtime counts toward the 2-hour limit, except for beta testing. An Advanced Access purchase can be refunded before Advanced Access begins. |
| Bundle | Standard refund window | Combined use must be under 2 hours and none of the items may have been transferred. Steam discloses at checkout if a nonrefundable item makes the bundle ineligible. |
| Steam Wallet funds purchased on Steam | 14 days | The funds must be unused. |
| Renewable subscription | 48 hours from initial purchase or automatic renewal | It must be unused during the current billing cycle: no games played and no benefits or discounts used, consumed, modified, or transferred. Cancelling stops renewal; access continues through the current cycle. |
| Unredeemed gift | Standard 14-day / 2-hour conditions | The buyer submits the request through Purchases; look for the gift icon. |
| Redeemed gift | Standard 14-day / 2-hour conditions | The recipient must initiate and approve removal first. The refund goes to the original purchaser. |
| Unaccepted gift | 30 days without acceptance | Steam automatically cancels the gift and refunds the buyer. |
| Video, such as a movie or tutorial | Generally not refundable | An exception may apply when the video is part of a bundle with other refundable, non-video content. |
| Third-party CD key or Steam Wallet card bought elsewhere | Not refundable through Valve | Valve cannot refund purchases made outside Steam. |
| Game with a VAC ban on that title | Not refundable | Valve says a VAC ban on a game removes the right to refund that game. |
| Steam Hardware | Separate policy | Hardware is covered by a separate Hardware Refund Policy, not the game-refund rules. |
These distinctions come from Valve’s refund policy and its support pages for pre-orders and gifts. When a product’s eligibility is unclear, check its Store-page disclosure and the purchase-specific option in Steam Support.
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Can I refund a game after two hours or 14 days?
You can submit a request, but it falls outside Valve’s standard refund offer if either limit has passed. Valve says it will take a look at requests outside the published rules; that is discretionary review, not an extension of the guaranteed standard window.
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Faulty-game rights may be separate from Steam’s voluntary refund offer. Valve notes that consumers in some jurisdictions may have additional rights when a game is faulty. Its Subscriber Agreement also preserves consumer guarantees under Australian law and New Zealand’s Consumer Guarantees Act 1993, including potential remedies for a major or substantial failure. Those rights depend on the applicable law and circumstances; they are not the same as the worldwide 14-day / 2-hour offer.
How do refunds work for pre-orders and Early Access?
An unplayable pre-order can be refunded at any time before the game is released. After release, the standard period is measured from the release date, with a less-than-two-hour playtime limit.
Early Access and Advance Access can change the playtime calculation. If you play before the full release, those hours generally count against the two-hour limit; the stated exception is beta testing. Steam’s pre-order FAQ uses the spelling “Advanced Access” and says a purchase may be refunded any time before Advanced Access starts. Its 14-day refund period still begins on the game’s release date.
If a pre-order was purchased more than six months ago, Valve says a refund to the original payment method may not be available. You may still request Steam Wallet credit. For a gifted pre-order that has been redeemed, the recipient—not the buyer—must initiate the refund and approve removal from their account. See Valve’s pre-order FAQ for the specific terms.
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How do I refund a Steam gift?
The right person has to start the request, depending on whether the recipient accepted the gift. For an unredeemed gift, the buyer can open Help → Purchases, select the gifted purchase (identified by a gift icon), choose the refund option, and submit the request.
For a redeemed gift, the recipient must first approve removal from their account. The buyer cannot bypass that step; a request made before recipient approval is declined. Once approved, the refund returns to the original purchaser’s payment method, or to their Steam Wallet if that payment method cannot accept the refund.
A recipient has 30 days to accept or decline a gift. If they take no action, Steam automatically cancels it and refunds the buyer. Valve’s Steam Gifts FAQ also says a gift may be refunded if it was purchased within 14 days and played for less than two hours by the recipient.
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Choose the original payment method if you want the money returned through the payment route used for the purchase and Steam offers that option. Choose Steam Wallet if you want the refund as Steam balance; Wallet credit may arrive sooner, but it can be spent only on Steam.
Valve’s published timing is up to seven days for approved refunds to appear, while approved Wallet credit may take 24–48 hours. International payment methods can take longer. If Steam cannot return money to the original method, the refund may go to the Wallet instead.
There is a notable exception when Steam approves a refund within 24 hours of purchase: Valve says it cancels the original transaction. That may mean you do not see a separate refund credit. The bank can take up to 30 days to confirm that Steam never received the funds and release the pending hold.
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If the refund seems missing, check Account Details → View purchase history first; Wallet funds may already have been used for another purchase. If an approved refund has not appeared after seven days, Valve advises contacting your bank about a pending refund. For more detail, see the Common Refund Questions FAQ.
Can I refund a game bought just before a sale?
Yes, if the original purchase still qualifies for a refund. Valve explicitly says it does not consider it abuse to request a refund for a title bought just before a sale and then immediately buy it again at the sale price.
The timing can still matter: Steam Wallet credit may take 24–48 hours, and an approved refund can take up to seven days to appear. If the sale ends before the refund arrives, the sale price may no longer be available. Refund timing is not a way to reserve a sale price.
Can frequent refund requests get my account blocked?
Valve publishes no numeric cap on eligible refund requests, and its FAQ says you can submit any number of requests for eligible purchases. It also reserves the right to stop offering refunds if it believes the system is being abused, such as treating games as free rentals. Valve does not publish an approval-rate percentage or a typical review-time statistic, so claims of a guaranteed approval rate or fixed review period should not be treated as Valve policy.
A refund removes the game license from the account, but Valve says playtime and achievements remain on the Steam Community Profile. The refund policy is intended to reduce purchase risk, not to provide ongoing access after repayment.
How does the EU/UK withdrawal right differ from Steam’s refund offer?
For people domiciled in an EU member country or the UK, the statutory right of withdrawal for digital content is a separate legal track from Steam’s worldwide voluntary refund offer. Valve’s EU/UK FAQ says that withdrawal ends 14 days after purchase or when the user first starts downloading the content and services, whichever happens sooner.
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That timing can be less useful than Steam’s voluntary offer for someone who has already started downloading: the voluntary policy can still apply after download if the request is within 14 days and playtime is under two hours. For hardware, the statutory 14-day period runs from physical possession. Valve directs users to Steam Support to exercise withdrawal and says it will acknowledge the request on a durable medium such as email. Its EU/UK FAQ states that statutory reimbursements are made without undue delay and no later than 14 days after Valve receives the withdrawal notice; that is not the worldwide voluntary-refund processing window.
Valve says the voluntary offer is more customer-friendly than its legal obligations, and its Subscriber Agreement preserves applicable statutory rights. Read Valve’s EU/UK Right of Withdrawal FAQ and Subscriber Agreement for the relevant terms.
What should I do if the purchase was outside Steam?
Steam’s refund system covers purchases made on Steam, not third-party CD keys or Steam Wallet cards bought elsewhere. Valve says it cannot provide refunds for purchases made outside Steam. Contact the seller that took payment for the key or card; Steam Support cannot refund that transaction through its purchase flow.
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A key bought elsewhere may still be redeemable on Steam, but redeeming it does not make Steam the seller or transfer the original payment to Valve. For games with a VAC ban, Valve also states that the account loses the right to refund that particular game.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Steam publish how long it takes to review a refund request?
Valve does not publish a standard review-time estimate or a median handling time. Its published figures describe when an approved refund may appear in your account, not how long the decision itself takes.
Will Steam refund the sales tax on a game?
Steam’s refund guidance covers the refund of the purchase, but the supplied policy material does not specify a separate tax calculation or timing rule. Check the itemized transaction in your purchase history and ask Steam Support if the refunded amount does not match the original charge.
Can I get a Steam refund if someone else made the purchase on my account?
The request must be made from the account that made the purchase. If you do not recognize a charge, use Steam Support’s purchase-help process to identify the transaction rather than treating it as an ordinary change-of-mind refund.
Does requesting a refund delete my Steam Community profile?
No. A refund affects the license for the refunded purchase, not the Steam account itself. Valve says playtime and achievements remain on the Community Profile.
