How Steam pricing actually works -- and why naive currency conversion overprices your game
This calculator shows what a raw, naive currency conversion of your price would look like -- it is not Valve's recommended Steam price for any region. Valve's actual recommendations use a different method (see below) and are only available inside your Steamworks account.
| Currency | Illustrative rate | Naive converted price |
|---|
Rows flagged "PPP gap example" show currencies where a raw FX conversion tends to land far above what Valve's actual multi-variable recommendation would suggest. Valve's real recommendation factors in local purchasing power and the price of comparable entertainment goods in that market -- so for many lower-income regions, Valve's actual recommended price is typically significantly lower than the naive FX number shown above. Developers who just FX-convert their price often end up badly overpriced in these markets, which hurts unit sales without a corresponding revenue gain. We can't show Valve's specific number here (it's inside Valve's NDA-gated partner tools) -- but the direction and reason for the gap are public knowledge and worth understanding before you touch your regional prices.
Illustrative exchange rates only, as of 2026-08-01. Approximate spot FX rates, not live, not precise, and not a Steam price recommendation. Real exchange rates move daily -- use a live FX source if you need current rates for anything other than illustration.
Valve calculates and maintains those numbers itself, using data this page is not allowed to republish. Get them straight from the source: the Pricing Dashboard inside your Steamworks partner account.
Open Valve's Pricing DashboardRequires a Steamworks partner login -- that's expected, it's Valve's own tool for this data.
Read more: Why Steam Regional Pricing Isn't Just Currency Math
According to Valve's own Steamworks documentation (partner.steamgames.com/doc/store/pricing), Steam prices products in 37 currencies across 4 region groups. When you set a base price for your game, Steam needs a recommended price in every one of those currencies -- and Valve documents three different ways that recommendation can be derived.
The first is exchange-rate-only conversion: take your base price and apply the current market exchange rate. The second is purchasing-power-only conversion: price based purely on relative purchasing power in each region, ignoring the currency market. The third, and the one Valve actually uses for its own recommendations, is multi-variable conversion -- a blend that accounts for local purchasing power, the going cost of comparable entertainment goods in that market, and the exchange rate together, rather than any single factor alone.
Because multi-variable conversion is not a simple FX calculation, Valve's recommended price in a given region can differ substantially from what you'd get by just converting your price at today's exchange rate. Valve has also stated an intent to review these recommendations periodically, roughly annually, so the "right" number for a region can shift over time even if your base price never changes.
Here's the part we want to be upfront about: Valve's specific recommended price for your game, in any given currency, lives inside the Steamworks Pricing Dashboard -- a tool gated behind a Steamworks partner login, and the underlying page is marked as confidential, restricted-access material that requires an NDA or license agreement to use. We are not going to republish those numbers here, and if you ever see a tool claiming to give you Valve's exact recommended price for every currency without you logging into Steamworks, be skeptical of where that data came from.
What we can tell you, because it's publicly documented, is the shape of the difference: raw exchange-rate conversion treats a dollar the same everywhere, but a dollar does not buy the same amount of entertainment everywhere. Multi-variable conversion corrects for that. The practical result, widely understood among Steam developers, is that Valve's actual recommendation for many lower-income regions tends to come in meaningfully lower than a naive FX conversion of your US price. This is precisely why indie developers who set regional prices by just converting their USD price at today's exchange rate often end up overpriced in large parts of the world -- their price is technically "correct" by exchange rate, but far above what Valve's own purchasing-power-aware model would suggest, and well above what local buyers are used to paying for comparable games.
The naive-FX calculator above exists to make that gap visible in concept, using only public exchange-rate math -- not to stand in for Valve's real numbers.
Valve's recommendation is a strong starting point, not a rule you're locked into. Most developers should start there and only deviate with a specific reason. Common reasons developers adjust away from Valve's recommendation include:
Whatever you decide, treat Valve's Pricing Dashboard recommendation as your baseline and document why you deviated -- that makes it much easier to evaluate whether the change actually helped next time you review pricing.
Regional pricing decisions ultimately feed into your total Steam revenue, which is also affected by Steam's revenue share tiers. Since October 1, 2018, Steam has applied a marginal, per-game revenue split: 30% to Valve on the first $10M in gross revenue, 25% from $10M-$50M, and 20% above $50M. If you want to model your actual take-home across those tiers, that's a deliberately separate calculation -- see ToolRack's Steam Revenue Calculator for that.
Because a raw exchange-rate conversion ignores local purchasing power. In many regions it produces a price that's far higher than what local buyers can reasonably pay relative to their income and the cost of comparable entertainment, which suppresses sales without raising your effective revenue per buyer. Valve's own recommended prices use a multi-variable method instead of a simple FX conversion for exactly this reason.
Inside your Steamworks partner account, using Valve's Pricing Dashboard at partner.steamgames.com/pricing/explorer. That data requires a Steamworks partner login and is not publicly republishable, so this page cannot and does not list Valve's specific recommended numbers.
Valve has stated an intent to review regional pricing recommendations periodically, on roughly an annual cadence, to keep pace with exchange rate and purchasing power shifts. Check the Steamworks Pricing Dashboard for the current recommendation rather than relying on a cached or remembered number.
Steam prices products in 37 currencies, organized across 4 region groups, according to Valve's own Steamworks documentation.
Sometimes. Developers occasionally deviate to address key-reselling arbitrage, known piracy-heavy regions, or to align with direct competitors' regional pricing. Any deviation should be a deliberate, documented decision, not a guess -- start from Valve's recommendation and adjust with a clear reason.