A Steam gift card costs more than the money on it
Measured 2026-09-17 across every Steam wallet code we track that is redeemable in the United States. By playze.io.
We price 579 Steam wallet codes across the key resellers we track. Of the 92 US-redeemable ones carrying a dollar denomination, 90 cost more than the credit they load — a median of +12.5%. The best card in the entire catalogue is $30 of Steam credit for $29.59, a saving of 1.4%.
That is not a bad week. It is the structure of the product. Steam wallet credit is the one thing on a key reseller that is reliably worse value than buying direct.
What a Steam gift card actually costs
| Card | Cheapest we track | Against face value |
|---|---|---|
| $5 | $5.03 | +0.6% |
| $10 | $10.42 | +4.2% |
| $15 | $16.28 | +8.5% |
| $20 | $20.67 | +3.4% |
| $25 | $28.20 | +12.8% |
| $30 | $29.59 | −1.4% |
| $35 | $39.30 | +12.3% |
| $40 | $45.57 | +13.9% |
| $45 | $49.04 | +9.0% |
| $50 | $50.80 | +1.6% |
| $60 | $66.49 | +10.8% |
| $70 | $86.59 | +23.7% |
| $90 | $100.12 | +11.2% |
| $100 | $107.29 | +7.3% |
| $110 | $112.40 | +2.2% |
Denominations with at least four US-redeemable listings. "Cheapest we track" is the lowest live price across every reseller in our catalogue, not a median — so these are the best cases, and they are still above face on all but one row.
Why there is no discount on Steam credit
A discounted game key exists because a publisher sold that key into distribution below the shelf price; the reseller is passing on somebody else's margin. Wallet credit has no such margin to pass on. A dollar of Steam credit is worth exactly a dollar at Valve, to everyone, always — so a reseller has to acquire it at face and then cover payment processing, fraud risk and its own cut. The price can only go up. Anything that looks like a real discount on Steam credit is a card that was bought somewhere cheaper, which brings us to the second finding.
The cheap ones are locked to another country
Of the 579 Steam cards in our catalogue, 469 are foreign-market variants — codes sold as "Steam VENEZUELA", "Steam PAKISTAN", "Steam IRAQ / OMAN / BAHRAIN". They are consistently cheaper than the American ones, and that is the whole reason they exist: they are priced off a market where Valve charges less. A US Steam account cannot redeem them.
We were showing those cards to American shoppers until 2026-09-17, when this study found them. Because they were the cheapest, they sorted to the top of the page. They are now filtered out, which is why the list below is short and the numbers above are worse than they were yesterday. A gift card you cannot redeem is not a cheaper gift card.
Buy the game, not the credit
If the goal is a specific game, the saving is in the key, not the wallet. Across the eurozone catalogue the cheapest key we track sits 54.2% below that game's official store price — against the −1.4% best case on wallet credit. If the goal is a present, a card bought from Valve or a supermarket at face value beats every reseller listing on this page.
Steam gift cards we track (92)
Live prices, cheapest first, restricted to codes redeemable in your region. Read the percentages above before buying any of them. Buy buttons go to the store's own page. Some are affiliate links: playze may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Method
Every Steam wallet listing in our catalogue on 2026-09-17, priced in US dollars. Face value is parsed from the denomination in the listing title, and a card counts as US-redeemable only when it names the United States or names no market at all — a code labelled with any other country is excluded, because an American account cannot redeem it. That leaves 92 cards with a comparable face value out of 579 listings. Prices are what a buyer is charged before any payment-method surcharge the reseller adds at checkout, so the real premium is a floor, not a ceiling.
The −54.2% key comparison is from our eurozone price study. Definitions on our methodology page.
Using these figures
Quote them freely with a link to this page. If you want a cut we have not published — a single reseller, another card brand, a month-by-month series — ask and we will run it. Get in touch.