Steam gifts are a popular way to send copies of games and digital gift cards to friends and family. Today we’re shipping some great new features that improve the gifting experience, making it easier to send both digital gift cards and games. These features pair nicely with the Wishlist categories and other improvements that are also now available.
In 2024, we added guest checkout, which lets a family member or friend make a gift purchase without needing to create a Steam account. This feature was limited to digital gift cards and hardware purchases at the time.
Now guest checkout can be used to buy any game on Steam.
You can send a wishlist share link to a friend or family member and they can purchase gifts directly from that list without needing a Steam account themselves. If a guest wants to send a gift as a surprise they can send it to any email address instead.
Don’t know your nephew’s Steam account? No problem, both digital gift cards and games can now be sent directly to email recipients. And don’t worry if your nephew’s email address is the same one they use for their Steam account. The email will include a link to let them sign in to their account and accept the gift.
Please note that any gift email not accepted within 30 days will be automatically refunded, so they cannot be scheduled for future delivery. The recipient of the gift must also live in the same country as the purchaser.
Buying a gift for a friend in a higher-priced region? In the past, digital gift cards were the solution for gifting, but that required you to know the full price of the game in your friend’s region.
Now you can gift games directly to your friend. Steam will calculate the cost in your friend’s region at checkout. Your friend needs to be on your Steam friends list to send this type of gift.
Sending a friend or family member a link to your wishlist is a great way to help them choose a great gift for your birthday or holiday. We have made a number of share link improvements, including:
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You can now send a digital gift card or gift a game directly from someone’s wishlist
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You no longer need to be friends on Steam to send gifts
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You can create a shared wishlist link that is filtered to specific games
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When a friend or family member clicks on your shared wishlist link, if they choose to gift you a game, the gift recipient in the cart will be pre-populated with your information.
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And remember from above, your friend or family member can checkout as a guest, without needing to create a Steam account
That wraps it up for today’s gift related updates. Check out our Steam Wishlist announcement to learn about wishlist categories and other improvements that are now available.
