Am I allowed to use a VPN with Steam? (lemm.ee)

submitted 1 year ago by HawlSera@lemm.ee to c/games@lemmy.world

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Recently got a VPN because I've become increasingly paranoid (It's getting crazy out there), but.... is it a bannable offense to use it while on Steam?

I'm finding mixed answers, and I wanna be safe, so I figured the Fediverse might know.

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[-] Chozo@kbin.social 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Valve only cares if you're setting your VPN to a different region to take advantage of differences in currency exchange rates. It used to be really popular to buy the version of a game released for random eastern European countries with poorer economies for a lot less than you'd spend in USD, until Valve started cracking down on that.

As long as any purchases you make from your account are done from the correct country for the content you're buying (and as long as the billing address on your credit card also matches the correct country), the VPN shouldn't set off any red flags or result in any bans.

[-] HawlSera@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

Cool, so the only thing I'd need to worry about is if I actually went into my Steam settings to change the region, not so much the VPN?

[-] Chozo@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Yup, as long as all your Steam Store and payment method settings match the country you're buying from, you should be good. My roommate games on Steam from a VPN all the time and has had no issues in the several years that he's done that (though I don't believe he's using the VPN to change his location, just to hide his IP).