Steam Market fees explained
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When a CS2 item sells on the Steam Community Market for €10.00, the seller receives €8.70. The €1.30 in between is two fees, each worked out and rounded on its own. This page shows how Steam calculates them, with the same rules as Steam's own market script.
The 15% is added on top
Steam's fee is quoted as 15%, but it is not 15% of the price the buyer pays. It is added on top of what the seller receives, in two parts:
- Steam transaction fee: 5% of the seller's amount.
- Game fee: 10% of the seller's amount for CS2, set by Valve as the game's publisher.
For a seller amount of €100.00 the buyer pays €115.00. As a share of the buyer's price the fee is 15 / 115, which is 13.04%.
Each part is rounded down, and is at least one cent
Each fee is calculated on its own, rounded down to the cent, and is never less than €0.01:
buyer pays = seller receives
+ max(€0.01, 5% of seller amount, rounded down)
+ max(€0.01, 10% of seller amount, rounded down)This is the calculation in Steam's economy_common.js (GetTotalWithFees and CalculateFee). ForceBuy checked it against 200 public CS2 listings in euros, and all 200 matched.
| Seller receives | Steam fee | Game fee | Buyer pays |
|---|---|---|---|
| €0.01 | €0.01 | €0.01 | €0.03 |
| €0.10 | €0.01 | €0.01 | €0.12 |
| €0.19 | €0.01 | €0.01 | €0.21 |
| €0.20 | €0.01 | €0.02 | €0.23 |
| €1.00 | €0.05 | €0.10 | €1.15 |
| €8.70 | €0.43 | €0.87 | €10.00 |
| €86.97 | €4.34 | €8.69 | €100.00 |
| €100.00 | €5.00 | €10.00 | €115.00 |
€0.03 is the lowest price an item can sell for. At low prices the one-cent minimum makes the fee far larger than 15%: at €0.03 the buyer pays three times what the seller receives.
From the buyer's price to what you receive
If you know the buyer's price, Steam works backwards: the seller gets the largest amount whose buyer price, with both fees, is not more than that price.
| Buyer pays | You receive | Fees |
|---|---|---|
| €1.00 | €0.88 | €0.12 |
| €10.00 | €8.70 | €1.30 |
| €100.00 | €86.97 | €13.03 |
Dividing by 1.15 is often a cent off. €1.00 / 1.15 is €0.8696, which rounds to €0.87, but Steam pays €0.88: €0.88 plus €0.04 and €0.08 is exactly €1.00. €100.00 / 1.15 is €86.96; Steam pays €86.97.
Not every amount can be a buyer's price. After €0.21 the next one is €0.23. Between €0.03 and €1,150.00, about one amount in eight never occurs as a buyer's price.
What your market history shows
For a sale, your Steam market history shows what you received, after both fees. For a purchase it shows what you paid. When you compare a Steam sale with a sale elsewhere, check which of the two numbers the other marketplace reports: CSFloat and Buff163 report the buyer's price, so their fee still has to come off.
The money stays in your Steam Wallet
Proceeds go to your Steam Wallet. The balance buys games and items on Steam, but it cannot be withdrawn. Turning it into money elsewhere means selling at a discount, and that discount is a market rate, not a fee Steam publishes. ForceBuy assumes 25% by default for that step and lets you set your own number.
Other marketplaces
Most other marketplaces take their fee from the buyer's price. These are ForceBuy's default rates. Check each marketplace's current terms; several lower the rate with volume.
| Marketplace | Seller fee | Of a €100.00 sale you receive |
|---|---|---|
| Steam Community Market | 15% on top (13.04% of the buyer's price) | €86.97 |
| CSFloat | 2% | €98.00 |
| Buff163 | 2.5% | €97.50 |
| YouPin898 | 2% | €98.00 |
| Skinport | 12% | €88.00 |
| C5Game | 5% | €95.00 |
Steam pays into a wallet you cannot withdraw from. The others pay out money, with their own charges for the payout.
Other currencies
The examples are in euros, where the calculation was checked against live listings. Steam's script uses the same formula in every currency, with a minimum and a step size set per currency. Other currencies have not been checked against live listings.
See also: How to find what you paid for your CS2 skins · FAQ · How ForceBuy works