How to Change Steam Region Using a VPN

Steam is available worldwide, but what it looks like can vary depending on where you are. Different stores can have significantly different regional pricing and, in some instances, access to different games.

It’s possible to change your Steam region by using a VPN. By spoofing your geolocation and changing your IP address, a VPN can easily trick Steam into thinking that you’re in a different country.

However, the absolute cheapest Steam regions, like Turkey and Argentina, require a credit or debit card from within that country. Our testing has discovered the cheapest, easiest, and most reliable region to switch your Steam account to is India, as it doesn’t have that requirement. Here’s how to do it:

The process may seem intimidating, but our guide makes it as simple as possible. We’ll give you in-depth, step-by-step, illustrated instructions so that you know exactly what you’re doing.

We’ll also answer any important questions you might have including what changing your Steam region does and doesn’t do, whether or not Steam gift cards are worth it, and if you’ll get banned for using a VPN on Steam.

There are some important things you should know before changing your Steam account region:

If you want to change your Steam region to get cheaper games, then you need two things: a VPN with an India server location and a Skrill account.

Follow our step-by-step instructions below where we walk through the whole process (we recommend you do this on your desktop or laptop computer, rather than your smartphone):

1. Sign up for a VPN with servers in India

To make India your Steam store region, you need to change your IP address to an Indian one. ExpressVPN is the best choice for this, although CyberGhost is an excellent alternative.

Once you’ve subscribed, download and install the VPN onto your computer.

2. Create a Skrill account

India is unique on Steam: it offers games for significantly cheaper than the US while also accepting a third-party payment provider. That means you don’t need an Indian payment method.

This payment provider is Skrill, and it’s 100% legitimate and trustworthy. You’ll need to provide some personal details when setting up your Skrill account, but the whole process is very straightforward — it’s no different to similar services like PayPal.

Verification is quick, and you should be done in less than half an hour.

3. Using your VPN, connect to an Indian VPN server, open Steam, and add a title to your cart

Pick any title you want to buy — for now it will still be in your local currency. View your cart and take a look at the ‘Country’ dropdown menu in the top-right corner.

Click on it and select ‘India’. The game’s currency will have switched to Indian rupees — and its price will likely have decreased significantly.

4. Complete the purchase on Steam Using Skrill FastLane

Head back to the Steam desktop client to complete the purchase. You’ll be asked to add billing details for your new region.

These details do not need to match your Skrill account or bank card. All you need to do is open Google Maps and pick a random address from within India.

Choose Skrill as your payment method. When you’re directed to the Skrill payment window select Skrill FastLane as your payment method. This lets you pay with your regular debit card via Skrill. Payment will process as normal and your chose title will now be in your Steam library.

You have now successfully changed your Steam region.

Following the completion of your purchase, your new Steam region is now set to India. You can disconnect from your VPN.

All store prices will now show in Indian rupees but, other than that, nothing else has changed. You can still play all of your old games without any issues, and without using your VPN.

Any purchases you make in the future can be done without the VPN, too — you just need to keep your Skrill account topped up.

How to Get a Payment Method from a Different Country

You may have read about how much cheaper Steam games are in countries like Argentina and Turkey.

However, there’s one catch that there’s no way around: even with a VPN on, cheap regions demand a payment method from a local bank.

We’ve spent hours trying to get access to a Turkish or Argentinian payment method. Conventional bank accounts, digital wallets, apps — we tried every approach. However, we were unsuccessful.

You may have read on other websites and forums that a bank card from your own country but administered by a bank like Revolut, Monzo, or Starling will work as they are capable of generating virtual cards that use foreign currencies — we can confirm that this will not work.

Steam looks at the first four digits of your payment card, which are used to identify the origin of the bank which administered it. Even a Turkish lira or Argentinian peso virtual card from one of these banks will still have a country code that reveals its true base of operations.

This is why we exclusively recommend switching to India and using a Skrill account. Skrill is available in a huge number of countries and does not require any tricks or complex setup.

How to Get the Cheapest Steam Games Using a VPN

If you’re reading this article in North America, Western Europe, or Oceania, then chances are you’re in one of the most expensive Steam regions in the world.

Steam game prices are generally adjusted to match the buying power of a country’s currency. Stable, widely-accepted currencies like the US dollar and British pound sterling pay a comparatively high price for most games as a result.

In countries with a great deal of economic instability and a lower average salary, though, Steam games are priced much cheaper so that locals can better afford them.

Turkey and Argentina are often cited as the regions with the cheapest Steam prices, with AAA games from those regions allegedly over 65% cheaper than their price in US dollars, and indie games a staggering 97% cheaper.

However, following Valve’s decision to remove local currency support for those regions on 20 November 2023, Turkey and Argentina are no longer the cheapest Steam store regions.

Many developers haven’t updated pricing for their titles in these regions and, as a result, games in Turkey and Argentina are now often just as expensive as in the US.

Even if those regions were still the cheapest, though, using a VPN to change your location to one of them is only the first step. As we explain in the section above, you cannot purchase from those countries without a local bank card.

Unless you know someone in one of those countries or are able to somehow obtain a bank card of one of your own from them, India is the cheapest region for Steam games.

India is now consistently one of the cheapest Steam regions, with AAA titles on Indian steam costing up to 55% less than on US Steam, and indie titles costing up to 75% less.

Before Steam updated pricing in Argentina and Turkey we took a random sample of 10 of the most popular games on the platform (five AAA titles and five indie releases) and compared their US pricing to five other store regions:

We’ll update this chart with new pricing data once it becomes available. For now, just follow the steps we outline on this page and you’ll be saving money in no time.

Can You Change Steam Regions Without a VPN?

The only way to change Steam regions without a VPN is to physically be in another country.

If you move or go on holiday then your Steam store region will automatically change to reflect your new location. However, just like using a VPN, that’s not enough — even if you’re really in the country, you’ll still need a working payment method from that country.

If you do go to another country and acquire a local payment method, then you still might want to think twice before completing a purchase: you can only change your Steam region once every three months.

Unless you’re permanently moving to this new country you may want to consider leaving your region unchanged.

Changing your Steam store region, while simple, can take a while to do properly. You should be absolutely certain that you want to do it before you follow the steps in this guide.

Here are the benefits of changing your Steam account region:

Get Cheaper Games & Software

This is by far the best, and most popular, reason to change countries on Steam. The potential savings are enormous, and there’s no limit to how many games you can buy this way.

Access Games Blocked in Your Country

This is a little more niche, but it may still apply to you. If you live in a region where video games are banned or often censored, like the UAE, Russia, or even Australia, then the library of games available to you on Steam will be restricted.

If you use a VPN to change your Steam account region to one where the games you want aren’t banned, you’ll then be able to freely purchase and play them.

Access Games Early on Release Day

Games on Steam usually become playable at midnight on their day of release. However, if you’re on the West Coast of the US, midnight for you arrives 17 hours after midnight on the East Coast of Australia.

If you get an Australian IP address and change your Steam region to Australia or New Zealand then it would allow you to play new releases a day early.

There’s a lot of misinformation on other sites and forums online about how to change your Steam region and what exactly this will achieve.

We’ve spent hours researching and trying everything out for ourselves, so we can say for sure what does and doesn’t work. Here’s what changing your Steam country won’t do:

Unban Your Account

If you’ve earned a Steam account ban for whatever reason, changing your region will not unban your account. There’s nothing you can do to remove that ban, unless specified by Valve in the ban’s terms.

Unblock Steam on Your Network

If Steam is blocked or banned on the internet network you’re connected to, changing your Steam store region won’t do anything to change that.

The good news, though, is that the solution may be far simpler. If you connect to a VPN server and then attempt to install or use Steam, it may well now be unblocked.

Fix Lag or High Ping

Your Steam region mostly affects things to do with the storefront. Lag and ping times in-game aren’t affected by it.

Instead, they’re affected by other, more complex, factors. Where you are in the world, where the game’s server is, the server load, how fast your internet connection is, and how your device is connected to the internet are all factors that affect ping while gaming on Steam.

Change Your In-Game Lobby

It’s actually very rare nowadays for your server or lobby in an online game to be dictated by the region of your Steam account.

If you want to get a different or easier lobby then you should take a look inside the game’s settings menu — there’s a good chance you’ll be able to simply change it there without altering your Steam account region.

If that doesn’t work, try connecting to the region you want on your VPN and then starting the game. That might work, too, and without you having to actually change your account region.

Almost any VPN will work with Steam. However, if you want to follow the steps in this guide to get the cheapest Steam games possible, you’ll need to make sure you choose a dependable one with servers in the right location.

After testing 62 VPNs with Steam, these are our three best recommendations:

Whether or not Steam can ban you for using a VPN depends on what you’re using the VPN for.

You will not get a Steam ban if you just have a VPN connected while playing games. VPNs are legitimate pieces of software, and just having one turned on while you use Steam does not break any of its rules or terms.

Steam mentions VPNs just once in its Subscriber Agreement:

It specifies that you should not use a VPN to bypass content blocks or to purchase games at a cheaper price.

It’s important to bear this in mind when following any instructions laid out in this guide. However, during research and testing our account was not banned, nor have we seen any evidence or stories online of anyone else’s account being banned for this.

If you choose to change your Steam region with a VPN then you do so at your own risk — but we believe the risk is minimal. If you’re still unsure if you want to change your Steam region with a VPN, you could always create a new Steam account so that, should it get banned, you still have your original account and library to fall back on.

Changing your Steam region can be a little complex, but if you follow our steps closely you’ll be fine. If you can’t change your Steam region for any reason, though, here’s how to get around the most common errors:

Steam Error: “An unexpected error occurred. Your purchase has not been completed.”

If you see this error message, you are trying to use a payment method that does not match your desired Steam region. This is most common when trying to change regions to one significantly cheaper, like Argentina, where you absolutely must have a payment card from a bank within the country.

The solution is to try to change Steam regions to India following our guide instead, or to choose a region where you have access to a local bank card.

Steam Error: “Your Purchase could not be completed because it looks like the currency of funds in your Steam Wallet does not match the currency of this purchase”

This error message will show if you try to change Steam regions by making a purchase using funds already in your Steam Wallet.

Using Steam wallet funds as a way to bypass the payment requirements for changing Steam regions may seem like a good idea but, sadly, it won’t work — this is the message you’ll be shown if you try it.

If you change Steam store regions by following our guide, you’ll then be able to add all the funds to your Steam Wallet that you like — but only after making your first purchase using a different payment method.

Steam Error: Why Is My Purchase Not Showing in My Library?

This is a fairly common error that can arise when purchasing games via Skrill. The transaction will have been completed on Steam and the money will have been taken from your account, but the game will still not show in your library.

If you don’t want to wait for the product to appear, then the solution to this is to simply speak with Steam support:

1. In your web browser, go to store.steampowered.com and click Support in the top menu bar.
2. Click on Purchases, then the title you’re having a problem with.
3. Click on the title again under the header I have a problem with a product in this purchase.
4. Click It’s not in my library.
5. You’ll now be asked to fill out a message for Steam Support. Just explain that money has been taken from your Skrill account, but the game is not yet in your library.
6. Steam Support should reply promptly (usually in under an hour) and ask you for a screenshot of your Skrill account proving the funds have been taken. Once it receives this proof, the game will appear in your library.