A Steam API key lets you embed Steam features into your websites, apps, or ap­plic­a­tions. But first, you’ll need a Steam account. In this article, we’ll show you how to create Steam Web API keys.

What is a Steam API?

Would you like to make Steam features like group info, friend lists, game achieve­ments, or social network info available, and keep it up to date? Then you’ll need access to Steam’s HTTP-based web API. Valve’s API is called Steam­works and can be used as a pro­gram­ming interface for external ap­plic­a­tions, websites, or apps. Steam’s API enables secure and reliable data transfers, helping you optimise projects with your Steam in­form­a­tion.

What is a Steam API key?

To use the Steam API, you’ll need an API key. This is a secret, one-time key that you use to au­then­tic­ate au­thor­ised access. When the Steam API confirms your Steam Web API key, you can start using Steamwork’s tools and services. Together with the Steam Guard Au­then­tic­a­tion Token, the API key provides a pro­tec­tion mechanism to enable au­thor­ised external access and data transfers.

What features does the Steam API offer?

Some of the key features you’ll get with Steamwork’s Steam API include:

  • ISteam­News: View news feed for any Steam game
  • ISteamUser­Stats: View or unlock game achieve­ments and stats
  • ISteamUser: Get in­form­a­tion about Steam users, as well as lead­er­boards, group lists, and friend lists
  • ITFItems_440: Get in­form­a­tion about users’ items
Image: All Steam Web APIs
The Steam Web API Doc­u­ment­a­tion provides an overview of all available Steam Web APIs. / Source: https://steam­com­munity.com/dev

Get an overview of all Steam APIs in Steam’s Web API Overview.

Is Steam’s API free?

Currently (August 2023), Valve is offering the Steam API for free, including access to Steam­works’ features. This means you can integrate select features into external services and ap­plic­a­tions via the API. All you need to do this is a Steam account with admin rights and a Steam ID.

What are the ad­vant­ages of the Steam API and API keys?

Steam is con­sidered the biggest and most suc­cess­ful online platform for buying and dis­trib­ut­ing games. By embedding popular features like achieve­ments and stat­ist­ics, your own social Steam networks, or group and friend lists, you can boost your website or app’s user ex­per­i­ence. This can be es­pe­cially useful and effective for online mul­ti­me­dia marketing that focuses on gaming to showcase variety in your offering.

What should you know about Steam API keys?

If you’ve created an API key for your Steam account, make sure not to share it with un­au­thor­ised people or publicly. A stolen or com­prom­ised key can lead to account hijacking or data misuse. Scammers and fraud­sters target API keys to get in­form­a­tion only intended for users with access rights.

What’s the dif­fer­ence between a User Key and Publisher Key?

Steam API keys can be dis­tin­guished between these two variants:

  • Steam User Keys: User Keys are Steam API keys that can be created by anyone with a Steam account. You can use the key to integrate Steam­works functions into external services.
  • Steam Publisher Keys: Publisher keys are required when sharing sensitive data or per­form­ing protected actions that need access rights. With ap­pro­pri­ate key para­met­ers, you can specify which methods the API key is used for. Publisher keys are as­so­ci­ated with a publisher group and provide access to all app IDs in the group. Typically, these keys are only available to secure publisher servers, must be kept secure, and shouldn’t be shared with a game. The creation also requires admin rights.

Can Steam API keys be deleted or disabled?

You can delete a Steam Web API key at any time from Steam’s API page. To do this, simply sign in with your account and go to Revoke My Steam Web API Key. The key will then be de­ac­tiv­ated and can no longer be used to access the API. If you have a key that you think has fallen into the wrong hands, you can also exchange it for a new one. To do this, simply generate a new key.

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How to generate a Steam API key

To create a Steam Web API key, follow these steps:

Step 1: Go to the Steam API keys community page and sign in to your Steam account.

Step 2: Add a domain name or a place­hold­er name for your Steam API key. Agree to the Steam Web API’s terms of use and click on ‘Register’.

Step 3: A new window will now open with the generated API key con­sist­ing of 32 char­ac­ters and digits. Copy and paste the key into your code, app, or CMS (content man­age­ment system).

Tip

Curious about creating API keys not only for Steam, but also for services like Google Maps, Open­Weath­er, or YouTube? Have a look at our guides:

How to find Steam API keys

If you want to find, disable, delete, or recreate API keys you’ve already created for Steam, follow these steps. To start, sign in to the Steam API keys community page. Here you’ll find a list of created API keys, which you can delete at any time with the ‘Revoke My Steam Web API Key’ button.

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