If you're wondering how to delete a Steam account, the process is short and the result is permanent. You ask Steam Support, prove the account is yours, and 30 days later everything on it is gone for good, CS2 inventory included. Here's how the request works, what you can still undo, and what to do with your items and wallet first.
How to delete your Steam account
Deleting a Steam account is a request to Steam Support, made from the deletion page on the Steam Support site, which asks you to sign in with your password first. Steam Support then checks that you own the account before it does anything.
That check is Valve's Proof of Ownership process. It means showing payment details previously used on the account, or retail product codes activated on it. For a card, Steam Support asks for the card type, the name on the card, the billing address with city and postal code, and the last four digits. It says plainly not to send the full card number. For PayPal it wants the account's name and billing address, plus a screenshot of a Steam purchase with its invoice ID.
Once ownership is confirmed, the account is queued for deletion. For 30 days it's restricted from making purchases and using community features, and Steam reminds you when the 30 days are up. Valve's privacy policy calls this a grace period, there so you don't lose an account by mistake, through lost login details or through hacking, and so Valve can finish any financial activity you started before the request.
Can you cancel a Steam account deletion?
Yes, but only during those 30 days. Sign in to the account, open the red notification at the top of the page and click cancel. After the account is deleted, Steam Support says neither the account nor any information related to it can be restored.
The same rules protect you if someone else tries it. Steam Support requires comprehensive proof of ownership before queuing an account, and if you find a deletion you didn't ask for but can't sign in to cancel it, it asks you to send a new help request. If the account was taken over, recovery is the route instead, as our guide to recovering a hijacked Steam account explains.
What happens to games, wallet funds and CS2 items
Steam Support's deletion FAQ spells out what goes and what stays:
| What | After deletion |
|---|---|
| Game licenses | Deleted; games that need a Steam account can't be played |
| Inventory items, including CS2 skins | Deleted permanently, not recoverable |
| Steam Wallet funds | No longer available |
| Past purchases | Not refunded automatically |
| CD keys you registered | Not freed; a key can't be registered twice |
| Community profile | Removed, with avatars, screenshots, artwork and name history |
| Discussion posts and comments on other profiles | Not deleted |
| Your account name | Can never be used again |
| Your email address, profile name and payment methods | Can be used on another account |
The queue itself has a CS2 catch. Steam Support says games that require a VAC server can't be played during the 30 days, and CS2's store page lists VAC (Valve Anti-Cheat) as its anti-cheat.
Personal data goes too, with limits set out in Valve's privacy policy. It's marked for deletion, but transactional data is kept for up to ten years under commercial and tax law. Matches that affected other players' matchmaking stay on record, with your connection to them anonymised.
Before you request deletion
Do these before you send the request. Once it's queued, the account can't make purchases or use community features for 30 days, and whatever is left when the queue ends is gone.
- Ask for refunds first. Deletion doesn't refund anything, so Steam Support suggests requesting refunds on qualifying purchases beforehand. Most CS2 purchases have tight refund rules, covered in our guide to Steam refunds for CS2 purchases.
- Spend your Steam Wallet. The Subscriber Agreement says wallet funds are non-transferable, have no cash value and can't be exchanged for cash, and that cancelling an account doesn't entitle you to a refund.
- Move or sell your CS2 items. Tradable items can go to another account of yours by trade offer, under the usual trade rules; our guide to moving CS2 items between your own accounts covers what can't move yet. You can also sell them, for example on CS2Sell's Sell page, where you sign in with Steam and sell items from your CS2 inventory.
- Save your profile content. Screenshots and artwork disappear with the profile, so download anything you want to keep.
- Check your data. Steam Support's account data page, at
help.steampowered.com/accountdata, shows the personal information Steam holds on you. - Hand over developer roles. The privacy policy says an account with a business relationship with Valve, such as work for a game developer, can only be deleted once that role has passed to another user or the relationship has ended.
When deleting isn't the answer
If what you want is a new account name, deleting won't help: Steam Support says account names can only be used once, even after the account is gone, and the name itself can't be changed. Our guide to changing a Steam account name covers what you can rename instead.
Steam Support pitches deletion at people who don't expect to return to the games on their account and want its information removed. If that's you, clear out the items and wallet first, then send the request. Either way, the 30-day queue is the last chance to change your mind.
Sources
- Account Deletion - Common Questions — Steam Support
- Providing Proof of Ownership — Steam Support
- SteamID, Steam Account Names, Merging Accounts and Deleting Accounts — Steam Support
- Delete account request — Steam Support
- Privacy Policy — Steam
- Steam Subscriber Agreement — Steam
- Counter-Strike 2 on Steam — Steam Store
