Steam Market fees: what the market takes and what you actually get

In short: two fees and one wallet

• The Steam fee is 5%, minimum $0.01. Steam Support states it directly: “The fee is currently 5% (with a minimum fee of $0.01).”
• The game fee is 10%. Steam Support calls it the “Counter-Strike 2 Fee”: a game specific fee determined and collected by the publisher, currently set at 10%.
• The buyer pays it, the seller feels it. Support says the buyer pays the Steam Transaction Fee and that it is shown on the confirmation page. In practice the listed price already contains both fees, and the seller gets the remainder.
• Both fees are computed from the seller amount. Not from the buyer price. Each is rounded down and can never be less than one cent.
• The money stays inside Steam. It cannot be withdrawn or transferred to another account — that is a separate line in the FAQ, not a rumour.
• Limits: about $2000 in the wallet, about $1800 per listing. Steam blocks a listing that would push your balance over the cap.

The exact formula

Steam does not subtract 15% from the price; it builds the price up from what the seller keeps. In minor units of the currency (cents) the algorithm is:

1. steam_fee = max(0.01, floor(net × 0.05))
2. game_fee = max(0.01, floor(net × 0.10))
3. buyer_price = net + steam_fee + game_fee

When you type the buyer price, Steam solves the inverse problem: it looks for the largest net amount whose total with fees does not exceed what you typed. That is why “you receive” is not the price divided by 1.15 but the nearest whole cent below it. The gap is usually a single cent — and that cent is exactly what breaks the “× 0.87” shortcut.

Fee calculator

It works in both directions with the same algorithm Steam uses: enter what you want to receive, or the price the buyer will see.

What you get and what the buyer pays

I want to receive Buyer pays

Amount to receive د.إ

Buyer pays د.إ11.50 Steam fee 5% د.إ0.50 CS2 fee 10% د.إ1.00 You receive د.إ10.00

Fees take 13.0% of what the buyer pays.

Live comparison on a real skin بيانات حية

AK-47 | Redline
(Field-Tested)

Route Listing Payout

Waxpeer د.إ102.94 د.إ96.76

DMarket د.إ98.72 د.إ96.74

Market.CSGO د.إ106.50 د.إ96.12

White.Market د.إ100.70 د.إ95.66

The Steam price is the current lowest listing; “payout” is what is left after both fees. For third-party markets the payout accounts for their seller fee and cash-out fee where one is published. Data refreshes about once an hour.

Computed in minor units of the selected currency: 5% + 10%, each fee rounded down and never below one minor unit. Steam may show a cent of difference because it approximates the inverse iteratively.

The money stays in Steam

The real constraint is not the fee but the fact that proceeds never become real money. Steam Support answers it as its own question: funds from Market sales cannot be withdrawn or transferred to another Steam account or to a bank account; they can only be spent on Steam, including gifts for other users.

• The wallet cap is about $2000. Other currencies get a near equivalent. A listing that would push your balance over the cap is refused.
• The maximum listing price is about $1800. Nothing sells higher on the Market.
• Purchases are final. “All purchases are final” — there is no refund and no reversal of a completed Market transaction.
• Market access has to be earned. It needs a successful purchase older than 7 days but not older than a year, and Steam Guard enabled for 15 days.
• A purchased item cannot be resold for a week. The re-trade and re-list restriction is 7 days; details in the trade cooldown guide.

Currencies and conversion

Sellers always list in the currency of their own wallet and buyers always see prices in theirs. Steam converts with its own exchange rate, updated daily — which is why the same item costs different money in different regions, and why the gap is not the interbank rate.

• The fee is charged in the currency of the listing. The “one cent” minimum becomes one kopeck, one yen and so on — in cheap currencies the floor bites harder.
• Regional gaps cannot be arbitraged. Prices are converted into your currency automatically; you cannot buy “from another region” for less.
• Our numbers are in dollars. The display currency switches in the site header and is converted with our rate, not Steam’s.

Steam versus third-party markets

The thing to compare is not the percentage but the payout and how fast it lands. Steam takes the largest cut, but the money arrives instantly and stays in the ecosystem. Third-party markets charge the seller less and then charge again to cash out.

The exact rates we hold for each market and the payout on a specific skin are in the live block above and in How to sell skins safely.

How to lose less

1. Price from the payout, not the listing. Type the net you want and let Steam compute the buyer price; that way you never miss by a cent.
2. Do not sell pennies one at a time. Below $0.25 the fee eats from 12% to 67%. Such items are better saved for a bulk sale or fed into a trade-up contract.
3. Check the buy orders first. If there is a queue of orders on your item, the sale is instant — but at the order price, not the listing price.
4. Remember the seven days. Bought cheap and planning to flip it? The week of waiting is part of the plan.
5. Compare payouts, not percentages. An 8% market fee plus a 5% withdrawal can be worse than “Steam’s 15%” if you wanted Steam balance anyway.

Fee myths

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