The dollar rate in Steam: what it is and why it differs from the bank rate
Steam has a dollar rate of its own. Sums are converted at it whenever the currencies differ: when a wallet is topped up, a code in another currency is redeemed, or a deal is made on the Community Market.
What a dollar is worth in Steam today
The rate changes every day, so look the exact number up in the Steam exchange rates table: keep USD as the base currency and find the row of your currency. Next to it you see the change over a day and over ten days.
To convert a sum, type it into “Amount” — say, 20. The table shows what it is in every other currency at the Steam rate.
Why the Steam rate differs from the bank rate
- Steam refreshes its rates once a day, not in real time. The market rate moves during the day.
- A central bank sets an official rate, banks and exchange offices add a margin of their own, and Steam counts from its own data. These are three different numbers.
- The gap is usually within a few percent, but it can be wider on days of sharp moves.
The dollar rate and game prices are different things
A common mistake is to work out the local price of a game as its dollar price multiplied by the rate. It does not work that way: the publisher sets the price for each currency separately. A 60-dollar game may cost noticeably less or more in your currency than the rate suggests.
The rate matters in other cases:
- you top up the wallet and the payment is in another currency;
- you redeem a wallet code whose value is in dollars;
- you buy or sell items on the Community Market and the other side has another currency;
- you work out how much to add to lift the 5-dollar limit.
How the Steam dollar rate has moved
The rates page has a chart: a week, a month, three months, a year and the whole history. In the calendar you can pick any dates and see the rate on a particular day — for instance, compare today with the last sale.
Topping up Steam without doing the maths
When you top up with Play Wallet, the sum that will reach the wallet is shown before you pay, in the currency of your account. The result may differ by about one percent, so add a small margin if the money is for a particular purchase.
