steamtradeindex
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FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Quick answers about trading bots, listing yours, pricing and how live rates work.

What is a Steam trading bot?+
An automated Steam account that trades on a fixed set of rules: card bots trade trading cards for keys or Gems so you can craft badges, gem bots exchange Gems for keys (or back), crypto bots trade cryptocurrency for Steam items, and holiday bots do the same as card bots during seasonal trading-card events.
How do I trade with a card bot?+
  1. Make sure what you're offering is tradeable, market purchases are locked for 7 days.
  2. Open a Steam chat with the bot and send its command prefix (usually !commands) to see what it supports.
  3. Send the trade offer the bot asks for. Large trades can take a few minutes to process.
  4. Craft every badge you receive before starting another trade, bots check your badge page, not your inventory.
I sent keys but didn't get a trade offer, what now?+
  • Confirm your items are actually tradeable (not in the 7-day market lock).
  • Double-check you sent the right key type and amount.
  • Confirm you used the exact command the bot listed.
  • The bot may simply be offline, check its “Updated” freshness indicator on its listing.
  • If it's misbehaving, message the owner from its bot page.
How do I list my bot?+
Sign in with Steam, then go to List your bot. It starts with a free 14 day trial and goes live once it has been reviewed. From there you can push live rates from your bot's own software via the API, or update them by hand.
How much does a listing or an ad cost?+
Every new bot listing and every banner ad starts with a free 14 day trial. After that, a bot listing costs 1 TF2 key per 10 days, a small banner costs 2 keys per week and a main page banner costs 3 keys per week. See Advertise for the details.
How do I get my bot verified?+
There is no separate fee. Verification comes with a normal listing (1 TF2 key per 10 days after the free trial) once our team has checked the bot. See How to get verified for the steps and what we check.
How does the Hall of Fame work?+
There's no way to verify a Steam trade happened from the API alone, so Hall of Fame entries are recorded by hand once the team confirms a donation went through, the same way every bot-directory donation board actually runs. A repeat donor's contributions add up under one entry (matched by their Steam profile) rather than splitting across several. There isn't a self-serve donate button yet, it's arranged directly rather than through a form on the site.
Why do some listings say "stale" or "data incomplete"?+
SteamTradeIndex trusts the freshness of a bot's own data, not a fixed schedule. A listing is marked stale once 24 hours pass without a push, and sorts below current listings by default, so a bot that's gone quiet doesn't keep looking like the best deal.