Steam BBCode Cheat Sheet: Every Supported Tag
Steam store descriptions use a BBCode dialect, not HTML or Markdown — and Valve has never published one clean, current reference for it. Here's the verified tag set, plus a free editor with a live preview.
Try the Steam Description Formatter free →
The problem
Steam's store description field ignores raw HTML and doesn't use Markdown — it renders a specific BBCode dialect. There's no single official tag reference for it, so most devs either guess, copy from a years-old forum thread, or reverse-engineer it by trial and error directly on their live store page. Some commonly-assumed features — colored text, custom fonts — were never actually supported, no matter how often they get requested.
How it works
- Write your description in BBCode on the left pane.
- Watch it render in a live preview styled to approximate the real store page on the right.
- Fix lint warnings for unclosed tags, raw HTML, and unsupported tags before you paste it into Steamworks.
Your description text never leaves your browser. All parsing and rendering happens locally.
When to use this tool
Use it any time you're writing or editing a store description and want to see the formatted result before committing it in Steamworks — especially useful for tables, nested lists, and quote blocks, which are easy to get wrong by hand.
Tips and reference
| Tag | Syntax |
|---|---|
| Headings | [h1]x[/h1], [h2], [h3] |
| Bold / italic / underline / strike | [b] [i] [u] [strike] |
| Spoiler | [spoiler]x[/spoiler] |
| Link | [url=https://example.com]text[/url] |
| List | [list][*]a[*]b[/list] (items don't close) |
| Quote | [quote=Author]x[/quote] |
| Code / table | [code], [table][tr][td] |
Not supported, despite being commonly requested: [color], [size], custom fonts. [img] is documented for Steam's Events editor but unconfirmed for store descriptions specifically — the tool flags it rather than presenting it as certain.
Built with vanilla HTML/JS. No frameworks, no backend, loads instantly.