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“Free to Keep” is a temporary Steam giveaway that awards a permanent game license. You must claim the game while the promotion is active, but the promotional license you obtain is intended to remain on your Steam account after the offer ends. Valve defines it as “a time-limited promotion that allows a player to permanently acquire a license for a game for free” in its Steamworks documentation.
The phrase describes the license you receive, not a guarantee that the game’s servers, publisher services, operating-system compatibility or store availability will never change. Those are separate issues.
How a Free to Keep promotion works
A publisher can temporarily set a normally paid game to a special 100% discount. During that window, Steam lets customers add the promotional package to their accounts without paying. After the window closes, the special package is removed from the store page, but a customer who claimed it keeps the promotional license.
The important distinction is between the offer and the license. The offer is temporary; the license awarded through a successful claim is permanent in the sense defined by Steamworks. You do not need to finish the download, install the game or play it before the deadline. The critical action is claiming the offer while it is live.
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Claiming the offer
- Open the game’s current Steam store page while the promotion is running.
- Read the Free to Keep notice and its displayed end time. A game-specific deadline is controlled by that promotion, not by a universal Steam calendar.
- Use the page’s free acquisition button to add the promotional license to your account before the offer expires.
- Confirm that the game appears in your Steam Library. You can install it later; installation is not what establishes the claim.
If the promotional wording and free-claim control disappear, the giveaway has ended. Buying the game later may be possible, but the ended Free to Keep offer cannot be claimed retroactively.
What “permanent” does—and does not—promise
“Permanent” describes the type of license Steam awards through the promotion. Once you have claimed the promotional package, the end of the marketing event does not turn that license into a temporary trial. The package can disappear from the public store page while remaining associated with accounts that claimed it.
That wording should not be expanded into a promise about every future condition surrounding the game. Steamworks’ definition does not guarantee that online servers will operate indefinitely, that a publisher will continue a particular service, or that every future version of Windows, macOS or Linux will support the title. It also does not settle what happens if a game is delisted for legal, technical or business reasons. Those circumstances are different from the duration of the license originally awarded.
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Free to Keep vs. Free Weekend vs. free-to-play
Steam uses similar-looking “free” language for three different arrangements. The result for your account depends on which arrangement the store page identifies.
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| Steam offer type | What is free | What happens after the period | Reader takeaway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free to Keep | A normally paid game can be claimed at no cost during a limited promotional window. | The acquired promotional license is permanent; the special claim package is removed from the store page when the window ends. | Claim it while the offer is active if you want the license. |
| Free Weekend | Temporary access to play the game. | Access under the temporary license ends when the event ends. | Playing during the event is not the same as claiming a permanent Free to Keep license. |
| Free-to-play | The game is free for customers to acquire on an ongoing basis. | It remains free to acquire, although an individual game can sell optional content or apply its own restrictions. | No limited-time giveaway is required to acquire the base game. |
Valve’s Steamworks explanation explicitly contrasts Free to Keep with Free Weekend and free-to-play. The labels therefore should not be treated as interchangeable.
Why a Free Weekend is not a permanent claim
A Free Weekend grants a temporary license. You may be able to download, play and evaluate the game during the event, but that access is scheduled to end with the event. Unless the store page separately offers a Free to Keep promotion or you purchase the game, playing during the weekend does not establish the permanent promotional license described above.
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Why free-to-play is a different model
A free-to-play title is permanently free for customers to acquire rather than being a paid title temporarily discounted to zero. Steam Support explains that these games can be downloaded and played without a subscription or credit card, while noting that individual games may impose their own limits or offer optional purchases. The details are in Steam Support’s free-to-play guidance.
How long do Free to Keep offers last?
There is no single duration that applies to every game. Steamworks says a Free to Keep promotion must run for at least 24 hours. Valve’s reason is to give customers in different time zones a fair chance to claim it. Steamworks generally recommends keeping such promotions under two weeks, but that is developer guidance rather than a guaranteed maximum or a promise about a particular title.
Those figures describe the rules and recommendations for setting up promotions; they do not tell you when a specific game’s current offer ends. Use the live Steam store page for the title’s displayed end time. An offer could last one day, several days or longer while still fitting the general framework.
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Checking an end time safely
- Look for the Free to Keep wording on the game’s store page, not merely a social-media post or an old deal listing.
- Note the date, time and time-zone presentation shown by Steam.
- Claim before the displayed deadline rather than waiting for the final minutes; store pages and account actions can take time to update.
- If the page no longer shows the free-claim package, treat the promotion as ended unless Steam displays a new, separate offer.
No particular game or live offer is identified here, so a title-specific deadline cannot be inferred from the general 24-hour rule or the under-two-week recommendation.
What changes when the promotion ends?
When the window closes, Steam removes the special promotional package from the game’s public store page. That removal is about the offer’s availability to new claimants. It does not erase the promotional license already acquired by customers who claimed it during the active period.
A person who claimed the game can therefore return to the title through their Steam Library and install it later, subject to the ordinary technical and service conditions of that game. A person who did not claim it cannot rely on the old page, a previous screenshot or the fact that friends received it; they need a current purchase or a later promotion.
Keep records of the claim only as a convenience. The decisive evidence is the game’s presence in your account library and Steam’s account records, not whether the store still advertises a zero-price button.
Reviews and trading cards under the promotional package
Steamworks identifies two differences between this promotional package and a standard paid license:
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- Reviews written by Free to Keep players are readable, but they do not count toward the game’s overall review score.
- Players using that package do not receive Steam Trading Card drops through it.
These rules affect how activity from giveaway recipients is treated on Steam. They do not change the central license distinction: the game can remain permanently licensed to the customer even though review-score and card-drop treatment differs from a paid purchase.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Common mistakes and how to avoid them
Waiting until after the event
Seeing that a game was once free does not create an ongoing entitlement. The promotional acquisition is available only during the stated window. If you want it, claim it before the store page’s deadline.
Confusing “play for free” with “keep for free”
Free Weekend access is designed for temporary play. A successful weekend download or launch is not proof that a permanent license was added. Check which offer Steam is presenting before assuming you can return to the game after the event.
Assuming every zero-price game is a giveaway
A free-to-play game is an ongoing free-to-acquire product, not necessarily a time-limited promotion. It can include optional purchases or game-specific restrictions even though acquiring the base game does not require a subscription or credit card.
Treating “permanent” as an uptime guarantee
The term refers to the license’s duration. It does not promise uninterrupted servers, perpetual publisher support or compatibility with every future computer configuration. Separate technical or service changes can still affect how a licensed game works.
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Relying on a generic deadline
The 24-hour minimum and under-two-week recommendation come from Steamworks’ developer-facing guidance. Neither is the exact deadline for every promotion. Always read the current store page for the specific title.
How these promotions are arranged
For developers, Free to Keep is not a completely self-service discount switch. Steamworks says the developer contacts Steam to request this type of promotion. That background explains why the offer appears as a distinct promotional package rather than as an ordinary permanent price change, but players do not need to contact Steam to claim it.
From a player’s perspective, the useful sequence is simple: identify the offer on the live store page, claim it before the displayed end time, and verify that the title is in the Library. After that, the promotion can end without converting the claimed license into a Free Weekend trial.
The practical answer to “If you get a paid game for free, will it be permanent?”
If “get for free” means you successfully claimed an active Free to Keep promotion, the promotional license is permanent under Steamworks’ definition. If it means you only played during a Free Weekend, access is temporary. If the title is free-to-play, it is continuously free to acquire, subject to that game’s own restrictions and optional purchases.
The offer label and the claim timing answer the question. Do not infer permanence from the word “free” alone.
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