Free VAC ban check
Steam ban checker: VAC, game and trade bans
Check a Steam account before you trade, buy an account or invite someone to your server. Paste a profile link or SteamID to see every public ban Steam reports.
Updated
Which bans does Steam show?
| Ban | What it means | Can the account trade? |
|---|---|---|
| VAC ban | Valve Anti-Cheat detected cheats in a VAC-secured game. Permanent for that game. | Yes |
| Game ban | The game developer banned the account, for example CS2 Overwatch. Permanent for that game. | Yes |
| Trade (economy) ban | Steam blocked trading and the Community Market. Probation is the warning stage. | No (probation: yes) |
| Community ban | Steam blocked the account from the Steam Community: profile comments, groups, forums. | Usually yes |
What the checker cannot see
Steam's public Web API reports VAC bans, game bans, community bans and trade bans. It does not report temporary trade holds after a new device login or a password change, cooldowns in CS2 matchmaking, FACEIT or server bans, or the game a VAC ban was issued in.
A clean result therefore means Steam reports no public ban, not that every trade will go through. Ask the other party to send a trade offer and check the hold Steam shows before you confirm.
How to read days since last ban
Steam returns the number of days since the most recent VAC or game ban. It does not return the date of each ban. A large value means the last ban is old; it does not tell you which of several bans it refers to.
VAC and game bans are permanent and cannot be removed by the player. Valve only reverses bans issued in error.
Frequently asked questions
Does a VAC ban block trading?
No. A VAC ban blocks VAC-secured servers in the game it was issued for, but the account can still trade. A trade (economy) ban is a separate restriction that blocks trading.
What does probation mean?
Steam puts an account on probation before or after a trade ban. The account can still trade during probation, but a further violation leads to a full trade ban.
Can I see which game a VAC ban is for?
Not through the public API. Steam's profile page shows the number of bans, and some games show their own ban notice, but the API only returns the counts.
Is it legal to check someone's bans?
Yes. Ban status is public information that Steam shows on every profile. The checker reads the same public data.
For developers
Player security API
Screen hundreds of accounts at once with the batch player security endpoint in the WOK Steam API.