How To Get A Refund Steam

How to Refund a Game on Steam and Get Your Money Back

If you're not happy with the Steam title you just bought, you need reimbursing. Here's how to get a Steam refund.

Have you bought a game on Steam and realized it isn't your cup of tea? That your system can't run it smoothly? Or found that it's gone on sale the next day?

Whatever the reason, it's really easy to refund a game on Steam. We're going to show you the process, along with detailing the Steam refund policy.

What Is the Steam Refund Policy?

You can refund most games that you purchase directly through Steam. You can also refund games that someone has gifted to you, with the money returned to the original purchaser.

Steam has a refund policy, which it follows to determine whether you are eligible to get your money back:

You must request the refund within 14 days of purchase, or within 14 days of the game's release if it was a pre-order.
You must have played the game for less than two hours.

You can still request a refund even if your purchase doesn't pass the two eligibility rules. Steam will manually review your request and decide, though it's under no obligation to give you a refund. Therefore, it's important to give as much detail as possible why you want a refund.

How the Steam Refund Policy Works for Other Purchases

The rules are similar for most DLC: request a refund within 14 days, and you must have less than two hours of playtime on the base game after purchasing the DLC. Be aware that some DLC isn't refundable, but Steam will display this on the Store page.

Bundle purchases count as a single package, so you must have less than two hours of playtime across all the games in the bundle. You can't refund individual games from a bundle.

If Valve's anti-cheat system has banned you on a game, you cannot refund it. Also, game keys you purchased elsewhere and activated through Steam are not refundable.

In-game purchases work differently. Steam will offer refunds for in-game purchases on any Valve-developed games within 48 hours of purchase, providing you haven't consumed, modified, or transferred the game. Third-party developers can use this system and Steam will notify you of that at the point of purchase—otherwise, the purchase is not refundable.

Why Can You Refund a Game on Steam?

Steam hasn't designed its refund policy as a way for you to get free games.

You can use it to refund games you don't like for several reasons: if it doesn't work on your system, you purchased it accidentally, or it's simply not fun. It's even acceptable to refund a game that goes on sale shortly after you buy it.

That said, if Valve believes you are abusing the system, it might stop offering you refunds.

You can find further information on Valve's refund policy on the Steam Refunds page.

How to Refund a Game on Steam

Go to help.steampowered.com and log in to your Steam account.
Click Purchases.
Click the game you want to refund. If you don't see it on this list, it's definitely not eligible for a refund.
Click I would like a refund.
It will offer you tips on how to fix gameplay or technical issues. Assuming you don't want this, click I'd like to request a refund.
Use the Choose refund method drop-down to select where you want to receive the refunded money. This can be to your Steam Wallet or the original payment source (like PayPal), providing your payment provider supports it.
Use the Reason drop-down to explain why you are requesting a refund.
If you have any comments, place them in the Notes field.
Click Submit request. You will receive an email confirmation of your request. Within a week, another email will follow this to accept or deny the refund.

Does Steam Offer a Fair Refund Policy?

In the early years of Steam, its refund policy was murky, and you had to deal with slow customer service representatives. Now, it's quick and easy to request a refund on any Steam purchase thanks to its fair refund policy.

Steam's refund policy is like that of the Epic Games Store, though many people consider the former to be the superior game service.

Steam vs. Epic Games Store: Which Is Best?

In this article, we pit Steam vs. Epic Games Store, taking a look at different aspects of these two stores.