How to Earn and Use Steam Points

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Purchasing profile cosmetics with Steam’s digital currency

Co-authored by Luke Smith, MFA Reviewed by Luigi Oppido

Last Updated: September 10, 2024 Fact Checked

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Using Steam Points

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What are Steam Points?

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Earning Steam Points

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What can you buy with Steam Points?

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Tips

Steam Points are a digital currency used in the Steam Points store to buy profile cosmetics like avatars, backgrounds, badges, and more. Earn them by spending money in Steam, or by having other users award your game reviews. We’ll tell you everything you need to know about Steam Points, including what they are, exactly, how to get them, and what you can buy with them.

Things You Should Know

Steam Points are used to buy profile cosmetics, chat emoticons, and Community Awards in the Steam Points Shop. They can’t be used to buy games.
Earn 100 Steam Points for every $1 you spend in Steam, or earn 100 points for every Community Award on your game reviews.
Steam points can also buy Steam Deck keyboards and startup movies.

Section 1 of 4:

Using Steam Points

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Install Steam if you haven’t already. Then, open the Steam application. On the Steam homepage, click the Points Shop tab to get to the Points store page.^{[1]
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Once in the Points Shop, navigate to different item categories using the sidebar on the left. For example, click Avatars to browse avatars available to purchase with Steam Points.^{[2]
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Select an item and confirm your purchase in the popup window. Click on any item your wish to buy in the Points Shop. A popup window will appear with a description and preview of the item. Click on the blue button in the bottom right of the window with the item’s cost to purchase it. Or, select Cancel to cancel your purchase.
- Once purchased, another popup appears. Select Equip Now to equip the purchased item to your profile, or Later to exit.

Section 2 of 4:

What are Steam Points?

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Steam Points are digital currency used to buy bonus items on Steam. Think of it like an arcade gift shop on Steam, where you turn in tickets to buy little trinkets. Except here, the trinkets are items used to trick out your Steam profile, like special avatars, avatar frames, chat stickers, and more.^{[3]
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Research source} They’re untradeable and unsellable, so don’t expect to make any sort of profit on them, but they also never expire.
- Check how many Points you have by clicking the Points Shop tab on the Steam home page, then look in the top right corner.

Section 3 of 4:

Earning Steam Points

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Earn 100 Points for every $1 spent on Steam. The first, and maybe simplest, way of earning points is just by spending money. Every $1 you spend in the Steam store earns your 100 Steam Points. That includes purchasing games, DLC, in-game items, soundtracks—if it’s available on the Steam store page, you’ll earn points for it.^{[4]
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- This includes spending money added to your Steam Wallet, not just when you use a card to purchase games directly.
When you write a review for a game on the game’s store page, you can choose to make your review public. If another user reads and enjoys your review, they can spend their own Points to award it a Community Award. You earn a different number of points based on the award given to you.^{[5]
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Section 4 of 4:

What can you buy with Steam Points?

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Your avatar is the icon that represents you as a Steam user. You can make your own avatar, or you can nab a special one from the Points Shop. Points Shop avatars are often animated, and many of them are released by game developers to tout their games. Avatar Frames are just what they sound like—they border your avatar to add a little flair, and many of them are also animated. Avatars typically cost 3,000 points, while frames often cost about 2,000 points.^{[6]
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Profile backgrounds and game profiles View your profile page by clicking on your icon in the top right, then View Profile. Your profile background is the wallpaper that appears on your profile page, ( customize your background by clicking “Edit Profile”) and both animated and static backgrounds are available in the Points Shop for 500-2,000 Points.^{[7]
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Research source} Game profiles (5,000-10,000 Points) are more complete packages that include game-specific backgrounds, avatars, and frames that might not be available individually.
- Mini-profile backgrounds (2,000 Points) appear when someone hovers over your icon or username in Steam.
- Seasonal badges (1,000-40,000 Points) are limited-time items that appear on your profile to mark your participation in Steam events, like the Summer Sale.
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Chat stickers, effects, and emoticons Stickers and emoticons can be used while talking to your friends in Steam chat. Many are animated and themed to specific games.^{[8]
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Research source} Use chat effects to give your Steam conversations a little pizazz, like the confetti effect to turn any conversation into a celebration.
- Stickers usually cost 1,000 Points, chat effects cost 1,500 Points, and emoticons cost 100 points.
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Community awards Buy Community Awards to let another user know how you feel about their review of a game.^{[9]
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Research source} Unlike other Points Shop items, these are purchased on the Store Pages of individual games, in the review section. Just click on the little gold ribbon icon on any review, then select the Award to give to the user.
- Awards cost anywhere from 300-1,200 Points.
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Steam Deck keyboard themes and startup movies. If you’re a Steam Deck owner, you can buy some nifty Deck customizations in the Points Shop. Keyboard themes skin your Deck’s virtual keyboard.^{[10]
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Research source} Startup movies are the short animations you see when you power on your Steam Deck (or Big Picture mode).
- Keyboard themes cost 5,000 Points, while startup movies cost 3,000.

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Tips

Unfortunately, you can’t use Steam Points to buy actual Steam games, just profile cosmetics, though this may be possible in the future.^{[11]
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