Games
How To Refund A Game On Steam – Everything You Need To Know

How to refund a game on steam and its policy is explained in detail, including how the regulations operate and what you need to know about returning titles.
In 2015, Valve announced the Steam refund system, promising to make buying digital games as stress-free as buying any physical good. If a game didn’t function, wasn’t as described, or was just plain poor, you could get your money back swiftly and easily without having to exchange a novel’s worth of letters with customer care thanks to Steam refunds, giving you the confidence to buy.
Two years later, Steam refunds are still having trouble keeping their promise. It is difficult to comprehend why the system operates the way it does because a large portion of the refund procedure is either poorly described or totally concealed from the typical Steam user.
Even Valve’s own refund FAQ for Steam only provides the most basic explanations of what you may and cannot return, ignoring a number of crucial inquiries that Steam customers should have their queries answered.
Basically, how to refund a game on steam work?
- Click “Purchases” on the Steam support page, then choose the game you want to have refunded.
- Select “I’d want to seek a refund” after selecting “I’d like a refund.” Next, you may select your Steam Wallet or the payment method you want to use to get your refund.
- If you seek a refund within 14 days of your purchase and have played for less than two hours, it will be automatically granted.
- Your purchase will be returned within a week.
Does the 14-day/two-hour window apply to requests for games?
The answer is yes, and Valve will take everything into consideration individually. However, if the refund request is denied if it is long over the 14-day window,
How many games can you return before hitting the refund threshold?
No. You are permitted to use Steam to request as many refunds as you’d like, but if Valve suspects that you are abusing the service, it may cancel your authorization to do so in the future.
Can you appeal the decision if your refund is denied?
Yes. A separate Valve employee will review your request for a refund if you believe it was improperly denied the first time. It might just take a pair of fresh eyes to approve it.
How soon after a refund has been granted does the money start to appear?
Refunds for orders made using foreign payment methods may take longer to process, but generally speaking, they are handled within seven days after approval. Some public refund statistics are made available by Steam.
What part of the refund procedure is automated?
Any refund request for a game with less than two hours of playing filed within 14 days of the purchase would reportedly be automatically authorized, according to Valve. Your refund request won’t be automatically authorized if you’ve recently made a lot of refund requests or if it occurs outside of the 14-day/two-hour timeframe; rather, it will be manually examined by a Valve employee.
How do the developer’s and Valve’s financial side of refunds operate?
The money you spend on a game on Steam does not go directly to the creator. Developers don’t get sales income from Valve until the end of the month after the month in which the sales were made, thus money from January’s sales doesn’t reach them until February. Developers technically don’t lose money on refunds because the Steam refund window normally lasts for 14 days—instead, they simply never see the sale in the first place.
A warning for returning too many games is possible.
Yes. If you submit several refund requests quickly, Valve will email you a warning along with your refund ticket informing you that the refund system should not be used to demo games. There isn’t a set limit on how many games you may return before getting a warning, but it tends to start happening after about five returns in a six-month period. The typical cautionary statement reads as follows:
“You’ve requested a bunch of refunds recently. Please keep in mind that refunds are not a method for trying out games. If we think the refund system is being misused we’ll decline to grant future refunds.”
Can you farm video games for accomplishments or cards and then refund them for cash?
This was an issue when Steam refunds initially started to be offered, however, Valve later made two significant changes to the Steam Trading Card system to reduce misuse. The first modification delays the occurrence of cards until after you have invested at least two hours into a game, at which point you are no longer entitled to an automatic refund. Originally, this limitation extended to all Steam users, but Valve has now restricted it to new accounts and those that have recently requested a refund.
The second modification Valve made to the trading card system prevents cards from being dropped as soon as a game is available on Steam. Instead, a game’s cards won’t start falling until it reaches a predetermined number of owners and participants.
This cutoff, which Valve refers to as its “confidence measure,” changes from game to game and is designed to stop the proliferation of “fake” games that are only created in order to mine trade cards for profit. This might imply that cards won’t start falling for less well-known games until after the 14-day return period has ended.
It’s also important to keep in mind that even while you may seek a refund outside of the two-hour/14-day timeframe, Valve may find out if you abuse this to farm cards and bar you from doing so in the future.
In contrast, there are no such farming limitations on achievements, thus they may be freely obtained within the two-hour refund window without any problems.
How have refund procedures changed as a result of Steam’s new gifting system?
Gifting games on Steam functions a little differently as of May 1, 2017. Gifts are no longer available as things in your inventory; instead, they must be given or planned to a buddy on Steam at the time of purchase. If a buddy rejects your gift, you’ll get your money back rather than having the game show up in your inventory. Refunding gifts otherwise functions mostly in the same way as previously.
Can you get your money back for a present you bought someone else?
Yes, assuming the recipient hasn’t already used the present that you purchased for them.
Can you give me a gift back that I previously used?
Yes, however, the gift receiver will need to start the refund request. Additionally, the request must be submitted within 14 days after the gift’s purchase, and the recipient must have spent more than two hours playing the game. You will be able to submit your own request as usual after the receiver has started the refund request on their end.
Can you only refund one game if you purchase many games in one go?
Yes, however, the procedure is really perplexing. Remember that this only applies if you buy numerous separate games in the same transaction, not if you buy many games as a package.
To begin with, you must return the purchase to your Steam Wallet; if you choose to return the purchase to a credit card or other external payment method, you must do so either in full or at all. Then, you must disregard the fact that Steam will mention each game from the transaction in your refund request and instead focus on the refund’s overall amount.
This should match the total cost of the games you chose to get refunded. Only those titles will be deleted from your library after they have been authorized, and the price of those games will be added to your Steam wallet. Although it is a difficult procedure, it is effective.
Can I refund bundles?
Yes, provided that the total playtime for all the games in the package is under two hours. When you initially purchase a certain package that includes non-refundable DLC, Steam will inform you that you might not be able to get a refund.
Can a single game from a bundle be refunded?
No. Only whole bundles are eligible for refunds.
Can you get a refund and repurchase a game at a lower cost if it goes on sale after you had bought it?
Yes, but as refunds might take up to seven days to complete, you might have to pay the lower fee upfront.