Steam has officially announced that PayPal will no longer support transactions on its platform for the majority of world currencies. According to a message from Steam Support, this change went into effect in early July 2025 after PayPal’s acquiring bank for these payment transactions “immediately terminat[ed] the processing of any transactions related to Steam”.
This means that if you’re trying to buy a game using PayPal, you’ll likely be out of luck unless you’re using a few specific currencies. The currencies that are still supported are EUR, CAD, GBP, JPY, AUD, and USD. For everyone else, PayPal is a no-go for the foreseeable future, and Steam is now recommending alternative payment methods or using a Steam Wallet code to add funds to your account.
Steam and PayPal Are on Rocky Terms
This is a pretty big deal for a lot of people, especially since this isn’t the first payment issue Steam has had to deal with recently. The official statement from Steam Support is the first we’ve heard about this, even though the problem has been happening for about a month. The exact reason behind the change is still up in the air.
While the official statement from Steam doesn’t give a clear explanation, some people are speculating that it might be connected to the ongoing controversy with Visa and Mastercard. It seems payment processors have been putting pressure on Steam to remove games they consider “sexual” or “offensive,” and this could be another domino in that whole situation. To be fair, this is only a theory, but it’s not a great look for Steam either way.
The removal of PayPal for many currencies is a major headache for a lot of players. For those who rely on PayPal as their primary way to pay for things online, this is going to make buying new games a huge pain. The support message states that Steam is “evaluating adding additional payment methods” to help those affected, but the timeline for getting PayPal back is “uncertain”.
So, for now, you’ll have to find another way to pay. The good news is that if you can’t use any of the other payment methods, you can still buy Steam Wallet codes to get around the issue. This isn’t a perfect solution, but at least it’s a workaround.
PayPal and Steam Need to Get Back Together
This is one of those moments where you realize just how much a company’s relationship with its payment processors can affect you as a consumer. This whole situation with PayPal, Visa, and Mastercard feels like a bad back-and-forth that we’re all caught in the middle of. The pressure from payment companies on platforms like Steam and Itch.io is having a real impact, with some creators even having their games de-indexed because they were deemed “offensive”.
It’s a lot to unpack, but the end result is a less-convenient shopping experience and a lot of frustrated users. For anyone who’s been affected, you’ll need to go through Steam’s checkout process and either use a different payment method or purchase a Steam Wallet code. While this isn’t ideal, it’s the only way to get your games for now if you’re in an unsupported currency region and you were previously using PayPal.
This whole mess is just another reminder of the complex issues surrounding digital storefronts and payment services. It makes you wonder what’s going to happen next and if things will get even worse before they get better. Hopefully, Steam and PayPal can work things out, but for now, it’s time to find a new way to pay for your games if you’re not in one of the lucky few countries where it’s still supported.
Source: Steam
