Steam Direct
Also called: Steam Direct fee, Steam app fee, Steam Greenlight replacement
Steam Direct is Valve's sign-up path for publishing on Steam, with a $100 fee per game that is paid back once the game earns $1,000.
Steam Direct is the process any developer uses to get a game onto Steam. Valve launched it on 13 June 2017, a week after shutting down Steam Greenlight, where players voted games onto the store (Wikipedia, "Steam (service)", accessed 4 Nov 2026).
The fee is $100 for each new app. It is not refundable, but Valve pays it back in the payment made after the product reaches $1,000 in Adjusted Gross Revenue (Steamworks documentation, partner.steamgames.com/doc/gettingstarted/appfee, accessed 4 Nov 2026). Valve's Steam Direct page adds that onboarding paperwork takes 15 to 30 days, and that a first-time developer waits 21 days between paying the fee and release (partner.steamgames.com/steamdirect, accessed 4 Nov 2026). Our 29 October reading of that page showed 30 days, so a plan with 30 days of slack stays safe.
The fee covers access to Steamworks. Valve's review checks only that the game starts and matches its store page, so the build still needs its own QA before the review round.
Updated · Written by JJ, founder of Jumbo Jelly.
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Related terms
- Steam review process
The Steam review process is Valve's check of a game's store page and build before launch, each typically taking 3 to 5 business days.
- Build ID
A Steam build ID is the global number Steam assigns to each uploaded build of a game, used to tell builds apart and to set one live on a branch.
- Steam Early Access
Steam Early Access lets a studio sell a playable but unfinished game on Steam while development continues, with the store page saying so.