Steam API

The Steam API here reads Steam's own public store endpoints in two modes. Pass a query and it searches the store, returning each hit's appid, name and icon. Pass a list of app_ids and it pulls the full store record per game: type, price with any discount, developers and publishers, genres and categories, release date, Metacritic score, recommendation count, supported platforms and the short description.

It is keyless — there is no Steam Web API key and no partner registration involved, because the storefront endpoints it reads are the same ones the store pages call. The typical flow is discovery then detail: search a term to collect appids, then send those ids back for the heavy record. Pricing is storefront-specific, so the country you pass decides which region's price and currency you get.

$0.0008 per delivered app, up to 50 apps per run. Nothing delivered means nothing charged.

How the Steam API works

Search mode and detail mode are one collector with two inputs. Give it a query for a lightweight list, or an app_ids array (appids or full store URLs) for the full node per game.

Inputs

Use query for search mode or app_ids for detail mode — one or the other. country sets the pricing storefront (default us), and max_results caps delivery at 50 apps. You pay only for apps actually returned.

What one app looks like

Search rows are light: app_id, name, icon, url. Detail rows add the store record — is_free, price/price_formatted/discount_pct, developers, publishers, genres, categories, release_date, metacritic, recommendations, platforms and short_description. Array fields come back empty rather than null when a game omits them.

What the Steam API costs

$0.0008 per delivered app ($0.80 per 1,000). Nothing delivered means nothing charged, and the $2 monthly free credit covers roughly 2,500 apps here. Volume tiers take up to 30% off.

$0.0008 per delivered app — $0.80 per 1,000 — with no subscription. The $2 monthly free allowance covers roughly 2,500 apps with no card on file.

Search-mode and detail-mode rows both bill at the same per-app price, so the cost of a discovery-then-detail pass is simply the search hits plus the ids you chose to enrich — nothing for appids you decided to skip.

Steam API vs the Steam Web API

Valve's Steam Web API is real, but it is built for game and partner integrations — inventories, achievements, ownership — and the pieces people actually want for market research (store pricing, genres, Metacritic, review counts) are spread across store endpoints with their own quirks and per-IP limits. This collector reads those store endpoints and flattens them into one row.

The honest trade: for a handful of appids you can hit the store endpoints yourself for free. At catalogue scale, the value is the rotation that keeps regional pricing requests from getting rate-limited and the single schema that drops Steam data into the same table as everything else you collect.

Versus calling the store endpoints yourself

The appdetails endpoint is easy to call and easy to get throttled on — it limits requests per IP fairly quickly, and it silently returns a success: false node for regions where a game is not sold, which is easy to mishandle as an error. The collector spreads calls across exits and gives you clean rows plus real region awareness.

Prefer to keep your own fetcher? Point it at our residential proxies for the regional exits and leave the parsing to yourself.

What people build with it

Price and discount tracking

Refresh a watchlist of appids per country and diff price and discount_pct to catch sales the moment a storefront flips them.

Catalogue and genre analysis

Enrich a list of appids to get genres, categories, developers and metacritic for a market map of a genre or a publisher's line-up.

Regional availability checks

Run the same appid across several country values; a game missing from a storefront's response is a clean signal it is not sold there.

Limits, regions and the legal bit

One run delivers up to 50 apps. Detail mode needs appids, so the discovery step (search mode) usually comes first. Regional pricing depends on the storefront being able to price the title; free-to-play and unreleased titles carry nulls where a price would be. Runs parallelise up to your plan's rate limit (60–1,200 requests/minute by tier).

Store data is public; Steam's terms govern automated access and downstream use varies by jurisdiction. This is not legal advice.

FAQ

Is the Steam API free?

The store endpoints this reads are free and keyless, so use them directly for small jobs. The collector adds rotating exits, regional pricing and one schema, plus a $2/month free allowance of its own — about 2,500 apps — with no card.

Do I need a Steam Web API key?

No. There is no Steam Web API key and no partner registration. You authenticate with your QuantumProxies key and choose search or detail mode.

How do I get a game's price in a specific currency?

Set country to that region's code. Pricing is storefront-specific, so the country decides the currency, the price and any discount_pct on the row.

Can it return reviews or player counts?

It returns the store record — including the Metacritic score and the total recommendations count — but not individual review text or live concurrent-player numbers, which sit behind different endpoints.

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