Steam refunds any game or piece of software, for any reason, if you ask within 14 days of buying it and have played it for under two hours.

You do not need a fault, a justification or the developer’s agreement. Inside those two limits the refund is effectively guaranteed. Outside them it becomes a manual decision that Valve can make either way.

That is the headline, and it is where most explanations stop. The problem is that the headline only covers games and software. DLC, in-game items, subscriptions, bundles, gifts, wallet funds and pre-orders each run on their own clock with their own conditions, and a request that would sail through for a game gets refused for an item bought inside one.

This page is the full rulebook: every category, every condition, and the exclusions that catch people out. If you already know you qualify and just want the buttons, read our guide to how to refund a game on Steam instead.

What This Guide Covers

• The Standard Rule: 14 Days And Two Hours
• Every Category At A Glance
• How Steam Counts Your Two Hours
• DLC And In-Game Purchases
• Pre-Orders And Early Access
• Bundles, Gifts And Wallet Funds
• Subscriptions Billed Through Steam
• What Steam Never Refunds
• The Abuse Clause And Refund Limits
• Where Consumer Law Beats The Policy
• Frequently Asked Questions
• The Short Version

The Standard Rule: 14 Days And Two Hours

Valve’s stated position is that you can request a refund on any game or software title purchased on Steam, for any reason, and it will be granted if two conditions are both met: the request comes within two weeks of purchase, and total playtime on that title is under two hours.

Three things follow from the wording that are worth being precise about.

The reason genuinely does not matter. “I did not enjoy it” and “it crashes constantly” get the same answer inside the window. The dropdown reason on the request form is for Valve’s analytics, not a test you have to pass.

Both conditions must hold, not either. This is the single most common misunderstanding. Twenty minutes of playtime does not help you on day 20, and day two does not help you at three hours played.

Outside the window is a maybe, not a no. The policy commits Valve to refunding inside the limits. It does not forbid refunds outside them, and Valve does grant those by hand for genuine problems. It is discretionary rather than owed.

Every Category At A Glance

What you bought	Time limit	Usage limit	Other conditions
Game or software	14 days from purchase	Under 2 hours played	None. Any reason accepted
DLC	14 days from purchase	Under 2 hours in the base game since buying the DLC	DLC must not be consumed, modified or transferred, and must not have permanently changed the base game
In-game purchase, Valve game	48 hours from purchase	Item unused	Not consumed, modified or transferred
In-game purchase, third-party game	48 hours, if offered at all	Item unused	Only if that developer enabled refunds. Many did not
Pre-order, before release	Any time up to release	Not applicable	Always refundable while unreleased
Pre-order, after release	14 days from release date	Under 2 hours played	The clock starts at release, not at purchase
Early Access title	14 days from purchase	Under 2 hours played	Unfinished state is not itself grounds for a later refund
Bundle	14 days from purchase	Under 2 hours across all items combined	Refunded as a whole. No item may have been transferred out
Gift, unredeemed	14 days from purchase	Not applicable	The buyer requests it
Gift, redeemed	14 days from purchase	Under 2 hours played by the recipient	Only the recipient can request it. Money returns to the buyer
Steam Wallet funds	14 days from purchase	Entirely unspent	Spending any part of the balance ends eligibility for all of it
Subscription billed by Steam	48 hours from purchase or renewal	Unused in that billing period	Applies per renewal, not just the first payment
Steam hardware	Separate policy	Separate policy	Handled under Valve’s hardware refund terms, not this one
Movies and video	Not refundable	Not refundable	Excluded from the policy entirely

How Steam Counts Your Two Hours

The counter measures how long the game process has been running, not how long you were engaged with it. Everything below burns the clock:

• Sitting on the main menu or in the settings screen
• A paused game while you make dinner
• Shader compilation and first-run setup
• Sitting in a multiplayer lobby or queue
• The game minimised in the background while you do something else

It also accumulates across every session since purchase. Four half-hour sessions is two hours, and the fifth minute after that puts you outside the automatic window.

Two practical consequences. If you are unsure about a game, quit it rather than leaving it open while you think. And check the real number before you file, by right-clicking the game in your Library and opening Properties, rather than guessing from memory.

Offline play still counts. The client records the time and reports it when you reconnect.

DLC And In-Game Purchases

These are the two categories where people most often assume the game rules apply and find they do not.

DLC is refundable within 14 days, but the playtime test is measured on the base game since you bought the DLC, not on the DLC itself. So buying an expansion and then playing 10 hours of the base game will kill the DLC refund even if you never touched the new content. There is a second condition too: the DLC must not have been consumed, modified or transferred, and must not have permanently altered the base game. Content that unlocks something irreversibly in your save is not coming back.

In-game purchases run on 48 hours rather than 14 days, and only in games where refunds are enabled. Valve’s own titles support it. Third-party developers choose whether to offer it, and a great many do not, which is why the option is simply absent for most games. The item also has to be unused, unmodified and untransferred. Anything you have already spent, equipped in a way that consumes it, or traded to another player is gone.

Nothing bought with an in-game currency you purchased separately is covered. The currency purchase may be refundable; what you spent it on is between you and the developer.

Pre-Orders And Early Access

Pre-orders get the most generous treatment on Steam. Before the game releases you can refund at any point, with no time limit at all, because there is nothing to have played. That makes a Steam pre-order effectively risk-free right up to launch day.

After release, the standard rules resume but with the clock reset: the 14 days runs from the release date rather than the date you paid. Someone who pre-ordered six months early still gets a full fortnight from launch.

Early Access is different and less forgiving. It uses the ordinary 14 days from purchase, and the fact that the game is unfinished is not itself grounds for a refund later. Valve’s position is that you knew it was in development when you bought it. If an Early Access title is abandoned by its developer a year after you bought it, the policy does not cover you.

Bundles, Gifts And Wallet Funds

Bundles are all or nothing. You cannot keep the good game and refund the rest. The whole bundle is refunded together, the combined playtime across every title in it must be under two hours, and no item may have been transferred out of your account. One 90-minute session in one game plus 40 minutes in another puts the bundle over.

Gifts depend on redemption. If the recipient has not redeemed it, the buyer refunds it normally. Once redeemed, only the recipient can file the request, and the money still goes back to whoever paid. This surprises people who gifted something and want to undo it quietly, because it requires asking the recipient to do it.

Wallet funds are all or nothing too. Unspent Steam Wallet balance is refundable within 14 days of adding it. Spending any part of it ends eligibility for the entire remaining balance, not just the part you spent. Add $50, buy a $5 game, and the other $45 is stuck on Steam permanently.

Subscriptions Billed Through Steam

Some games and services sell recurring subscriptions through Steam rather than through their own site. Those get 48 hours from the purchase or from each renewal, and only if the subscription went unused during that billing period.

The useful detail is that the window applies to every renewal, not only the first payment. An unwanted annual renewal that you catch within two days and have not used is refundable on the same terms as the original purchase. After 48 hours it is not, so the renewal email is worth reading rather than archiving.

Cancelling a Steam-billed subscription and refunding one are separate actions. Cancelling stops the next charge; it does not return the one you already paid.

What Steam Never Refunds

• Movies and video content. Excluded from the policy outright, with no window at all.
• Anything bought outside Steam. Keys from third-party marketplaces, retail codes and bundles from other stores were not sold to you by Valve, so Valve cannot refund them. That seller’s policy is the one that applies.
• A game on which your account has a VAC ban. Once you are banned for cheating in a title, that title is permanently non-refundable.
• Items consumed, modified or transferred. Applies across DLC, in-game items and bundle contents alike.
• Wallet funds you have partly spent. Any spending voids the whole balance for refund purposes.

The Abuse Clause And Refund Limits

Valve publishes no numeric cap on refunds. What the policy says instead is that if it appears you are abusing refunds, Valve may stop offering them to you.

That is deliberately vague, and in practice it targets a pattern rather than a count. The behaviour it exists to stop is using the two-hour window as free rental: buying short games, finishing them in 100 minutes, refunding, repeating. Someone who refunds four games in a year because they did not run properly is in no danger. Someone who refunds most of what they buy, always just under the limit, is.

The consequence is that refund requests stop being granted on the account. It is not a ban, your library is untouched, and it is not usually announced. You find out when a request that should have gone through does not.

Where Consumer Law Beats The Policy

A store’s refund policy does not override statutory consumer rights, and in several regions those rights are broader than what Valve offers voluntarily.

In the European Union and the United Kingdom, consumers have distance-selling and digital-content rights covering goods that are faulty or not as described, which can apply well past 14 days. Australian Consumer Law guarantees apply to digital purchases and were the basis of a successful regulatory action against Valve over exactly this issue, which is part of why the current policy exists in the shape it does.

If you are outside the window with a genuinely faulty product, say so plainly in the request and reference the fault rather than your disappointment. That is a different conversation to a discretionary refund, and Valve handles it differently. This is general information rather than legal advice, and the rules vary by country.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Is The Steam Refund Policy?

Steam refunds any game or software purchase, for any reason, if you request it within 14 days of buying and have under two hours of playtime. DLC, in-game items, subscriptions, bundles, gifts and wallet funds each have their own separate conditions.

Can You Refund Games On Steam?

Yes. Inside 14 days and two hours it is close to automatic and needs no justification. Outside those limits you can still ask, and Valve grants some requests by hand, but it is discretionary.

Does Steam Have A Refund Limit?

There is no published number. The policy says only that Valve may stop offering refunds if it appears you are abusing them. It targets a pattern of using the two-hour window as free rental rather than a specific count.

Can I Refund DLC On Steam?

Within 14 days, if you have played under two hours of the base game since buying the DLC, and if the DLC has not been consumed, modified or transferred, and has not permanently changed the base game.

Can I Refund In-Game Purchases On Steam?

Only within 48 hours, only if the item is unused and untransferred, and only in games where the developer enabled it. Valve’s own games support this. Many third-party games do not.

Can I Refund A Steam Pre-Order?

Before release, at any time with no deadline. After release, within 14 days of the release date and under two hours of playtime. The clock does not start on the day you paid.

Does The Two-Hour Limit Include Idle Time?

Yes. Steam counts the time the game is running, including menus, pauses, shader compilation, lobbies and time spent minimised in the background. It also counts offline play once you reconnect.

Can I Refund Part Of A Steam Bundle?

No. Bundles refund as a unit. Combined playtime across everything in the bundle has to be under two hours and no item may have been transferred out of your account.

Can I Get My Steam Wallet Money Back?

Only if the balance is entirely unspent and you added it within the last 14 days. Spending any part of it makes the whole remaining balance non-refundable.

Are Steam Keys From Other Sites Refundable?

Not by Valve. A key bought from a third-party marketplace is refunded, if at all, under that marketplace’s policy. Valve can only refund what it sold you directly.

The Short Version

Games and software: 14 days and under two hours, any reason, effectively guaranteed. Everything else runs on its own clock. DLC uses base-game playtime. In-game items get 48 hours and only where the developer allows it. Subscriptions get 48 hours per renewal. Bundles and wallet funds are all or nothing. Pre-orders are refundable indefinitely until release, then 14 days from launch.

Movies, third-party keys and VAC-banned titles are never refundable. Outside the window Valve can still say yes, but it is a favour rather than a right, and in the EU, UK and Australia your statutory rights on faulty digital goods sit above the policy regardless.