Two fees, not one
On the Steam Community Market listing window, the buyer sees a breakdown with two lines: the Steam transaction fee and the game-specific fee. The first is Steam’s. The second is specific to each game: Steam’s own economy script treats it as the publisher fee. That script uses 5% as the default for the first and 10% as the default for the second, and the Market page on the Team Fortress wiki lists the same two numbers for Team Fortress 2: 5% to Steam and 10% for the game.
The part that confuses people most: both percentages apply to the amount the seller receives, not to the final price. The price the buyer pays is your proceeds plus the two fees. That is why 5% + 10% = 15% on your proceeds comes to about 13% of the total paid (15 ÷ 115). The publisher fee can differ from game to game, so check the breakdown when you list; the calculator lets you edit both percentages.
total = recebe + floor(recebe × 5%) + floor(recebe × 10%)- recebe
- the amount that lands in your Steam Wallet, in cents.
- floor
- rounds down to the whole cent.
- total
- the price the buyer sees and pays.
The rounding rule, step by step
Steam’s front end works only with integers in the currency’s smallest unit (cents). The function that computes each fee multiplies the amount by the percentage, throws away the fraction with a round-down, and then applies the market floor: no fee may fall below 1 cent. That second step is what punishes cheap items.
- Pick what you want to receiveIn whole cents. Amounts below the market floor are raised to the floor (1 cent by default).
- Compute the Steam feeproceeds × 5%, rounded down, with a minimum of 1 cent.
- Compute the publisher feeproceeds × 10%, rounded down, with a minimum of 1 cent.
- Add it upProceeds + Steam fee + publisher fee is the price the buyer pays.
| You receive | Steam fee | Game fee | Buyer pays |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 5 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| 10 | 1 | 1 | 12 |
| 19 | 1 | 1 | 21 |
| 20 | 1 | 2 | 23 |
| 30 | 1 | 3 | 34 |
| 100 | 5 | 10 | 115 |
Notice that the lowest possible buyer price is 3 cents: 1 for proceeds plus 1 for each fee. And look at 19 cents: 5% of 19 is 0.95, so the Steam fee is lifted to the 1-cent floor, but 10% of 19 is 1.9, so the publisher fee drops to 1 because of the round-down. The chart below shows the effect on the share that never reaches the seller.
View the data
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| 1¢ | 66.7% |
| 2¢ | 50% |
| 5¢ | 28.6% |
| 10¢ | 16.7% |
| 19¢ | 9.5% |
| 20¢ | 13% |
| 30¢ | 11.8% |
| 100¢ | 13% |
| 1,000¢ | 13% |
Worked examples
The three cases below come from runs of the calculator’s own logic (5% and 10% fees, 1-cent floor and step). I used reais in Portuguese and dollars in English, but the math is identical in any currency with two decimal places.
| You receive | Steam fee (5%) | Game fee (10%) | Buyer pays |
|---|---|---|---|
| $10.00 | $0.50 | $1.00 | $11.50 |
| $123.45 | $6.17 | $12.34 | $141.96 |
| $0.19 | $0.01 | $0.01 | $0.21 |
In the second case, 5% of 123.45 is 6.1725 and 10% is 12.345; rounding down gives 6.17 and 12.34, and the buyer pays 141.96 rather than the 141.97 you would get by rounding up. It is a one-cent difference, but it proves that Steam’s math is not "multiply by 1.15".
Why the price you typed changes
When listing, the most common flow is to type the price the buyer will pay. Steam then has to work out what you receive. It makes a guess (total ÷ 1.15), adjusts the result in 1-cent steps for up to three tries, and stops when it finds proceeds whose total matches what you typed or overshoots it. The catch is that the total does not walk through every cent: when your proceeds go up by 1 cent, the total sometimes goes up by 2 or 3, because one of the fees gains a cent as well.
| You type | You receive | Buyer pays | Adjusted? |
|---|---|---|---|
| $10.00 | $8.70 | $10.00 | No |
| $10.10 | $8.79 | $10.09 | Yes |
| $10.11 | $8.79 | $10.09 | Yes |
| $20.00 | $17.39 | $19.98 | Yes |
At 20.00 the classic happens: receiving 17.39 makes the buyer pay 19.98; receiving 17.40 would make them pay 20.01. No proceeds value produces exactly 20.00, so the price "falls" to 19.98. The calculator flags these cases as adjusted and shows the next buyer price that does exist. Try the tool with your own values.
Profit, break-even and flipping
If you buy items to resell, you need to run the math backwards: given the cost, which listing price guarantees a profit? Because fees take about 13% of the buyer’s price, the break-even sits above the cost. For an item bought at 8.00, break-even is 9.20: you receive 8.00 and the buyer pays 8.00 + 0.40 + 0.80. For a 20% return on cost, you need to receive 9.60, which means listing at 11.04.
Buy at 8.00, sell receiving 10.00
- Buyer-facing listing: 11.50.
- Profit: 2.00, or 25% on cost.
- Ignoring fees, the same listing looks like it earns 3.50.
Target of 20% return
- Required proceeds: 9.60.
- Buyer-facing listing: 11.04.
- Break-even (zero profit): listing at 9.20.
Because the proceeds stay in your Steam Wallet (the Market sells items "for Steam Wallet funds"), profit only turns into cash value if you spend that balance on games and items. For more on percentage changes against cost, see the guide on percentage, increase and discount; for a similar platform economy with layered commissions, read about Robux and DevEx.
Frequently asked questions
How much does Steam charge to sell on the Community Market?
Why did the price I entered change by itself?
What is the lowest possible price on the Market?
Can I cash out my sales balance?
Is the publisher fee always 10%?
The Steam Market fee is the sum of 5% to Steam and, typically, 10% to the publisher, each computed on what you receive, rounded down to whole cents and with a 1-cent minimum. That comes to about 13% of the buyer’s price on regular items and a huge slice on items worth a few cents. Because the total skips values, the price you type sometimes becomes the nearest one below. To decide your listing, start from what you want to receive, add both fees, and use the calculator to check the last cent.