Steam

About Steam

This page documents the Steam Web API, a reference for the interfaces and methods exposed by Valve's Steam platform. The documentation is auto-generated from GetSupportedAPIList combined with public and publisher keys, and supplemented with service methods parsed from the Steam client's protobuf files. It covers a large number of interfaces spanning account management, store and catalog data, user statistics, inventory, matchmaking, workshop content, broadcasting, and game-specific APIs for titles including Counter-Strike 2, Dota 2, Team Fortress 2, Deadlock, Portal 2, Dota Underlords, and Artifact.

Access to the API operates at three levels: public methods requiring no authentication, methods requiring a user Web API key available to any Steam account holder, and protected methods requiring a publisher Web API key for sensitive data or actions. Requests can supply a key via a query parameter or an x-webapi-key header, or use access tokens (used by Steam's own Store and Community pages) via an access_token parameter, though not all methods support both. The API also supports Steam as an OpenID provider for third-party authentication.

The public API is hosted at api.steampowered.com or community.steam-api.com and sits behind Akamai's edge cache, with IPs that can change. A partner-only host at partner.steam-api.com is available for higher availability from secure servers, is HTTPS-only, is not behind Akamai's cache, and requires a publisher key on every request. Publisher keys must be stored securely server-side, never distributed with game clients, and used only over HTTPS; many methods have undocumented rate limits that return HTTP 429 or specific eresult codes when exceeded. The site includes an interactive interface for entering a key or access token, selecting an output format (JSON, VDF, or XML), and executing requests directly in the browser. This resource is intended for developers building tools or integrations against Steam's platform data and services.

Key features

• Extensive catalog of Steam Web API interfaces covering games, store, community, and account services
• Interactive browser-based API request execution with key/value input forms
• Supports JSON, VDF, and XML output formats
• Authentication via Web API key or access token, including x-webapi-key header support
• Dedicated partner-only API host (partner.steam-api.com) for higher-availability server requests
• Steam OpenID provider for third-party user authentication

Frequently asked questions