How to Refund a Game on Steam (the 2-Hour and 14-Day Rules)
Steam refunds any game for any reason within 14 days if you played under 2 hours. The rules for DLC, pre-orders, gifts, and bundles, and what to do past the window.
Steam has one of the most generous refund policies in gaming and one of the most misunderstood. The headline rule is simple: any game, any reason, within 14 days of purchase, under 2 hours of playtime. The details are where people trip: DLC, pre-orders, gifts, and bundles each have their own clock. Here is the whole map, verified against Valve’s official policy.
The quick answer
- The rule: refund for any reason within 14 days of purchase if the game has under 2 hours of playtime
- Where: submit the request at help.steampowered.com
- Money back: full refund within a week of approval, to your Steam Wallet or the original payment method
- Missed the window? Ask anyway. Valve’s own policy says it will take a look at out-of-rule requests
- Abuse note: refund a lot and Valve “may stop offering them to you”
Key facts at a glance
| Purchase type | Refund rule |
|---|---|
| Game or software | 14 days from purchase, under 2 hours played |
| DLC | 14 days, base game under 2 hours played since the DLC purchase, DLC not consumed/modified/transferred |
| In-game purchase (Valve game) | Within 48 hours, item not consumed, modified, or transferred |
| In-game purchase (third-party game) | Only if that developer enabled refunds |
| Pre-order or Early Access | 2-hour rule applies; the 14-day clock starts at the release date |
| Gift, unredeemed | Standard 14-day / 2-hour rule |
| Gift, redeemed | Same rules, but the recipient must initiate the refund |
| Steam Wallet funds | 14 days, only if none of the funds were used |
| Bundle | Nothing transferred, and combined playtime across all items under 2 hours |
How to submit the request
- Go to help.steampowered.com and sign in with your Steam account
- Select Purchases, then the game or item you want refunded
- Choose the problem that fits, then select “I’d like to request a refund”
- Pick where the money should go: Steam Wallet (fastest) or the original payment method, add a note if you want, and submit
Once approved, Valve issues the full refund within a week. Wallet refunds tend to land first; card refunds depend on your bank’s processing.
The two clocks people confuse
The 14 days run from purchase; the 2 hours run forever. Playtime is cumulative and includes time with the game running while you were in menus or idle. If you are on the fence about a new game, check your playtime on the game’s store or library page before your session pushes past two hours, because the window does not care that 90 minutes of it was a loading-screen bug.
Pre-orders flip the clock. Buying a game months before release does not burn your window: the 14-day count only starts on the release date. The 2-hour rule still applies from the moment you can play.
Missed the window? Ask anyway
This is the most useful line in the entire policy, quoted directly: “even if you fall outside of the refund rules we’ve described, you can ask for a refund anyway and we’ll take a look.” A game that broke after a patch, a purchase during a family emergency, a title that will not launch on your hardware: submit the request with an honest explanation. Approval is discretionary, but the door is officially open, and consumers in some jurisdictions have additional legal rights when a game is faulty.
The counterweight is the abuse clause: if it looks like you are using refunds to play games for free in two-hour slices, Valve “may stop offering them to you.” Occasional honest refunds are explicitly fine; a pattern is not.
What refunding does
The game is removed from your library and the full price comes back. There is no partial refund and no penalty on your account for requests made in good faith. If you refund a gift you sent, redeemed or not, the money returns to you as the purchaser once the rules above are met.
Bottom line
Under 14 days and under 2 hours: request it at help.steampowered.com and the refund is close to automatic. Outside the rules: ask anyway with an honest reason, because the policy explicitly invites it. Just watch the playtime clock before you decide to sleep on it, since the 2 hours keep counting whether you are enjoying the game or not.
Rules verified against Valve’s official Steam Refunds policy. If Valve changes the policy, this guide will be updated with the revision noted.