How to Find Your Steam Trade URL and When Not to Share It

If you frequently play video games that have thousands of tradeable skins, sooner or later you will want to find your Steam trade URL and understand how it works. Without this understanding, you may end up doing some very risky things without even realizing the dangers you’ve exposed yourself to.

Say you’ve collected more than a hundred CS2 skins, and a skin trading website like those on our CS2 trading list has asked for your Steam trade URL. Without it, you cannot use its services.

On Steam, you can easily trade with people on your friends list. If you want to trade with people who are not on that list or even with bots, you will need to give them a way to access your Steam trade URL.

Before we tell you where to find it, how to reset it, and what to avoid, it’s important to note that sharing this URL with others does not, on its own, expose you to great risks. It can, however, invite attention from people who might want to scam you. This guide teaches you all you need to know to avoid that.

What Is a Steam Trade URL?

The Steam trade URL is simply a way for you to trade with the outside world. As its name implies, it is a URL on your Steam account that allows you to receive external trade offers. What you do with those offers is entirely up to you.

Just because you’ve shared your Steam trade URL with others does not mean that they can just break into your account and take whatever they want. All they can do is send you trade offers.

Before accepting an offer, you can inspect it and find out what it contains and who sent it. If you do not like it for whatever reason, you can simply decline it.

How to Find Your Steam Trade URL on Desktop

To find your Steam trade URL on a PC, follow these steps:

1. Open Steam and log into your account.
2. On the left side of the Steam window, near the top, you will see the “Store”, “Library”, and “Community” navigation tabs. To the right of “Community”, you can see your name. Hover over it and click on “Inventory”.
3. Click the “Trade Offers” button. It’s located near the top, on the right.
4. Click the “Who can send me Trade Offers?” link. It’s located on the right, below “Incoming Offers” and “Sent Offers”.
5. Find the “Third-Party Sites” section. It’s the first section from the bottom. Inside of it, you will see your trade URL. Select and copy it.

According to Valve’s rules, every outgoing trade requires confirmation, either through email or the mobile app. A trade offer expires after two weeks.

How to Find the Steam Trade URL on Your Phone

To find your Steam trade URL on a smartphone, follow these steps:

1. Open the Steam app and log into your account.
2. In the top-right corner, locate your profile image and tap on it.
3. Below the “Add friends” button, you will find a section named “MY CONTENT”. Tap on “Inventory”.
4. Locate the circle with 3 horizontal lines situated to the right of your name. Tap on it.
5. Tap on “Who can send me Trade Offers?”
6. Locate your Steam trade URL. It’s located in the “Third-Party Sites” section, near the bottom of the page. Double-tap it and select Copy.

How to Make Your Steam Inventory Visible to Others

Making your Steam inventory visible is necessary if you want others to be able to send you trade offers.

If you only want to trade with your friends, set your inventory visibility to “Friends Only”. If you want to trade with the outside world, set it to “Public” and share your Steam trade URL. If you choose the “Public” option, don’t forget to set it back to “Private” or “Friends Only” after you’re done.

How to Change Your Privacy Settings on Desktop

1. Open Steam and log into your account.
2. On the left side of the Steam window, near the top, you will see the “Store”, “Library”, and “Community” navigation tabs. To the right of “Community”, you can see your name. Hover over it and click on “Inventory”.
3. Click the “Trade Offers” button. It’s located near the top, on the right.
4. Click the “Who can send me trade offers?” link. It’s located on the right, below “Incoming Offers” and “Sent Offers”.
5. Click on the “Edit privacy settings” link. It’s located right under your name, near the top of the page.
6. Set “My profile” to “Public” or “Friends Only”, depending on your goals. Set “Inventory” to “Public”, “Friends Only”, or “Private”, depending on your goals. To set your inventory to public, your profile must be public.

How to Change Your Privacy Settings on Mobile

1. Open the Steam app and log into your account.
2. In the top-right corner, locate your profile image and tap on it.
3. Below the “Add friends” button, you will find a section named “MY CONTENT”. Tap on Inventory.
4. Locate the circle with 3 horizontal lines situated to the right of your name. Tap on it.
5. Tap on “Who can send me Trade Offers?”
6. Tap on the “Edit privacy settings” link. It’s located right under your name, near the top of the page.
7. Set “My profile” to “Public” or “Friends Only”, depending on your goals. Set “Inventory” to “Public”, “Friends Only”, or “Private”, depending on your goals. To set your inventory to public, your profile must be public.

How to Change Your Steam Trade Link

Let’s say you’ve shared your Steam trade link with a person or a group of people and now you’re getting spammed with unwanted trade offers.

To put an end to this, you can just change your trade link, which is easy to do. Simply create a new one by pressing on the “Create New URL” button located on the “Item Inventory > Trade Offers > Who can send me Trade Offers?” page.

When you create a new trade link, your old link stops working instantly, so any services that rely on it will stop working until you add your new link. If your account has been compromised, or you suspect it has, it’s a good idea to make a new trade link so the old one is revoked. Keep in mind that making a new link does NOT log anyone out, and it does NOT remove an API key.

What Is Steam’s 7-Day Trade Protection?

Steam’s Trade Protection page tells you everything you need to know about this topic. But if you’re in a hurry, here’s the essential part. For 7 days after a trade, the items involved in it cannot be transferred, modified, used in trade-ups, or moved into a Storage Unit.

If you go to “Item Inventory > Trade History”, you can see your Steam trades and reverse all eligible protected trades from the last 7 days. Keep in mind that if you choose to do this, your account automatically receives a 30-day trading and Market restriction.

What Can Block Trading on Steam?

Steam restrictions can apply even if you’ve used your Steam trade URL correctly. For example, if you remove your authenticator, you will be restricted from trading for 15 days. Logging in on a new device or browser can also block trading from that device for 7 days, unless your Mobile Authenticator has been active for at least 7 days.

Items from other games can be held for up to 15 days if you don’t use the Steam Mobile Authenticator. CS2 items are not held at all. They get the 7-day protection described above instead. If you cancel a held trade, you get a 7-day trading restriction. Resetting a forgotten password also blocks trading for 5 days, or 30 days if the account was idle for 2 months.

Why You Should Keep Your API Key Private

Trading with others doesn’t require an API key. Some sites still ask for it so they can read your trade offers and trade history and see if a trade is done or reversed, and the trade URL alone can’t give them that.

An API key can’t be used to log in or accept trade offers. However, it CAN be used to see and cancel your offers, and that’s where the common scam comes in. The scammer cancels your offer and sends a near-identical offer from a bot that looks like the site. Valve’s stance is to always keep it secret.

It’s a good idea to check even if you never made an API key. You can check it here. If there’s an unknown domain listed there, click “Revoke My Steam Web API Key”. If you didn’t generate the API key on your own, someone with access did. If you believe you were compromised, change your password and use “Deauthorize all other devices” in your Steam settings.

What a Real Steam Login Looks Like

A website may ask who you are, but never for your password. A real Steam login always goes through steamcommunity.com, so always watch the URL to make sure you didn’t land on a fake phishing version of the Steam website. Check the address bar. If you log in with a QR code, check that the location shown in the Steam app is yours.

If the worst happens and your items are gone, Steam Support won’t restore them. Your only way of getting them back is the 7-day reversal window, which is your safety net.

Which Trading Sites Ask for an API Key?

In early November 2026, we read the help pages of the sites on our CS2 trading list. 22 ask for a trade URL, 24 require you to sign in through Steam, and only 5 ask for an API key. At least one, CSFloat, uses a browser extension to follow how trades go instead.

Before you paste your trade URL on a site, read what other players say about it on our CS2 trading list.