• What is a Steam Gift?
• How do I purchase games for friends and family?
• How do I change the delivery date?
• How do I refund a gift purchase?
• How do I accept a Steam gift that I received?
• I can’t send a gift to my friend. What do I do?
• How do I purchase Steam Gift Cards?
• How do I track my gift purchases?
• Do gifts expire?
• Why was my gift revoked?

What is a Steam gift?

When you add a game to your cart, you will see the option to "gift" the game to anyone on your Steam Friends List. The gift recipient will receive an e-mail with a personal message from you and instructions to redeem the game on their account.

A Steam gift purchase is a one-time transfer—after the recipient has redeemed the gift, it is now a part of his or her Steam games collection. Also note that you may only gift new purchases—you may not transfer games you already own.

How do I purchase games for friends and family?

To purchase a gift for a friend or family member, follow the steps below:

• Locate the game on the Steam Store and select Add to cart button.
• Select This is a gift from the drop-down menu.

• Select Continue to gift options and Select gift recipient.
• Select the gift recipient from your Friends List.
• Select the delivery option: As soon as possible or Schedule delivery. You can schedule your delivery up to 12 months from the purchase date.

• Select Continue to payment and enter your preferred payment method. Then, select Continue. Note: In the event your Steam Wallet balance doesn’t cover the full cost of this transaction, you’ll be asked to cover the remaining balance with a secondary payment method.
• Check the I agree button and select Purchase to finalize the payment.

When your gift is sent to the recipient, they'll have 30 days to accept or decline the gift. Once they do, we'll send you an email letting you know. If they don’t take any action, Steam will automatically cancel the purchase and issue you a refund after 30 days.

How do I change the delivery date?

If you initially selected a future date to send the gift, you can change the delivery date. Follow the steps below:

• Log into your Steam account, click on your account name at the top of the screen, select Account Details and click on View purchase history.
• Alternatively, if you are in the Help site, Select Purchases and choose View complete purchasing history to open your Purchase History
• Locate and select the gift you want to reschedule. Be sure to look for the gift icon.
• Scheduled Gifts are stored in your Steam Inventory until they are delivered to the recipient. Click on the Steam Inventory link shown below.


• Then, select Manage gift to select a different delivery date. When that time comes, we'll automatically send the gift to the recipient. You’ll also receive an email letting you know that your gift has been delivered.

How do I refund a gift purchase?

A refund may be issued for any gift that was purchased within fourteen days and has been played less than two hours by the gift recipient. If the refund request is approved, your purchase will be refunded to the original payment method. If your payment method does not support this, your Steam Wallet will be credited the full amount. For more information, review our Refund Policy.

Gift Not Redeemed
If the recipient has not redeemed the gift, you can follow these steps to request a refund for your purchase:

• Navigate to the Help Site and log into your Steam account.
• Select Purchases.
• Find the gifted game in the list and click on it. Be sure to look for the gift icon shown below.

• Select I would like a refund.
• Select the problem that best represents the reason why you're requesting a refund.
• Select Submit Request. You will receive an email once the refund request has been processed.

Gift Redeemed
If the gift has already been redeemed, the recipient needs to approve the refund first. If you submit a refund request before the recipient has approved the gift refund, your request will be declined. You'll see the following message when you try to refund a redeemed gift: This product was gifted to user (Account name). They’ll need to use the Help site to agree to a refund before you can request it for this product.

Please ask the gift recipient to follow these steps to approve the gift refund and removal:

• Navigate to the Help Site and log into your Steam account.
• Select Games, Software, etc.
• Find the gifted game in the list and click on it.
• Select the problem that best represents the reason why you're not keeping the gift.
• Select I'd like to request a refund.
• Finish the request by selecting the box for Allow the original purchaser of this gift to request a refund.

Once the recipient has given their approval, you will also need to submit a refund request for the gift purchase. Visit How To Request A Refund for additional guidance.

How do I accept a Steam gift that I received?

On the scheduled delivery date you will receive an email with a link to redeem the gift on your Steam account. You will also see a gift notification in the Steam Client.

• Select 1 New Gift to open up the gift page.


• Select Accept Gift to add the game to your Steam library. Note: If you select Decline Gift an automatic refund will be processed to the purchaser's payment method. The purchaser will also receive an email to let them know that their gift was declined.

Other Common Questions

I can’t send a gift to my friend. What do I do?

If you’re unable to select a recipient on your Friends List, check the following:

• Friend Owns Item. If anyone on your Friends List owns the game, their names will be grayed out and cannot be selected. Check your friend's Steam Community profile and click the link View all games to view their list of owned games.
  
• Region Restrictions. Due to regional price differences, some gifts cannot be sent to recipients located in other purchase regions. Territory restrictions are noted on the Steam Store page. Steam Support cannot make changes to territory or language restrictions.
  
• Gifting DLC. Check your friend's Steam Community profile and click the link to "View all games" to view their list of owned games. You won’t be able to purchase DLC (downloadable content) unless they already own the base game.
  
• Gifting Bundles. Some bundles are customized for your account and cannot be gifted. To identify these bundles, look for Complete Your Collection on the product’s store page.
  
• Gifting Multipacks. All multipacks (2-, 3-, and 4-packs) include multiple copies of the same game. Multipacks cannot be gifted but you can purchase them for your own account; the extra copies can be gifted to your friends and family. For more information, visit Extra Copies. Note: You can’t purchase a multipack if you already own the game on Steam.
• Game Cannot Be Gifted. Select titles may not be gifted and the option to send as a gift will not be available during checkout.

If you continue to experience an issue with the gifting process, consider sending your friend a Steam Gift Cards instead. For additional assistance, contact Steam Support.

How do I purchase Steam Gift Cards?

To purchase a digital Steam Gift Card for a friend or family member’s account, visit Steam Gift Cards. Once the purchase has been completed, the gift recipient will receive both an email and a gift notification on their Steam account.

How do I track my gift purchases?

You can view your gift history by going to your Steam Inventory, selecting ... and View Gift History.

Do gifts expire?

After a gift has been delivered to the recipient, they have 30 days to accept the gift. Once the gift has been accepted, the game is permanently added to the Steam account that it was redeemed on. If the recipient doesn't take any action after 30 days, Steam will automatically cancel the gift purchase and issue you a refund to the original payment method.

Why was my gift revoked?

When a gift is refunded due to fraud or a payment dispute, the gift is removed from your Steam library. You will also receive notification that the game is no longer available to play.

If you would like to play the game again in the future, you will need to purchase it from the Steam Store or redeem another gift copy of the title. Visit Revoked Gifts for additional information.