How to See Steam External Funds Used (TotalSpend Explained)
To see your Steam External Funds Used figure, sign in at the Steam Support External Funds Used page, or in the Steam client open Help > Steam Support > My Account > Data Related to Your Steam Account > External Funds Used. The TotalSpend value shows how much money your account has spent on Steam over its lifetime.
This guide covers where the page is, what TotalSpend, OldSpend and PWSpend mean, why the number can look wrong, and how to check it against your purchase history.
How to check External Funds Used on Steam
Steam External Funds Used is part of the account data section of Steam Support, and you can reach it from the Steam client, the Steam mobile app's browser or any web browser. The quickest route is the direct link: open help.steampowered.com/en/accountdata/AccountSpend and sign in with the Steam account you want to check.
To get there from inside the Steam client:
- Open Steam and sign in.
- Click Help in the top menu and select Steam Support.
- Click My Account.
- Scroll down and select Data Related to Your Steam Account.
- Click External Funds Used in the list.
The page loads a short table with your spending values. Only the signed-in account owner can see it: there is no public lookup for another user's spending, and Steam profile pages do not show it. If you manage several accounts, sign out and repeat the steps for each one. Steam Support menus are occasionally reorganized; if a label has moved, the direct link above still opens the same data page.
What TotalSpend, OldSpend and PWSpend mean
The External Funds Used page shows three values, and TotalSpend is the one most people are looking for.
| Value | What it shows |
|---|---|
| TotalSpend | The total amount of money spent on the account across its lifetime. |
| OldSpend | Spending before April 17, 2015, the day Valve's Limited User Account rules took effect. |
| PWSpend | Spending through a Perfect World account, the company that has operated Dota 2 and Counter-Strike in China. |
OldSpend exists because of the Limited User Account system: accounts that had not spent at least $5 USD on Steam lost access to some community features, so Valve needed to know what each account had spent before that cutoff. For most players outside China, PWSpend is zero.
What counts as external funds on Steam
External funds on Steam are payments that bring new money into your account from outside: credit and debit cards, PayPal and other payment methods, plus Steam Wallet top-ups and Steam gift cards or wallet codes. Valve does not publish a detailed definition, so treat the following as a practical reading of how the figure behaves.
- Usually counted: direct game and DLC purchases paid by card or PayPal, and money added to the Steam Wallet. If you need help redeeming codes, see how digital gift cards work on Steam.
- Possibly not counted: wallet balance earned by selling items on the Steam Community Market, because that money never came from outside Steam.
- Not subtracted: refunds. Users who compared their figures report that refunded purchases stay in TotalSpend.
This makes TotalSpend a measure of how much money Steam has received from you, not the current value of your library or of the games you still own.
Is Steam External Funds Used accurate?
Steam External Funds Used is a good estimate of lifetime spending, but it rarely matches a hand-made total to the cent. Common reasons for a gap:
- Refunds stay in the total, so the figure can be higher than what you kept.
- Currency: if your account region or currency ever changed, compare older purchases carefully, because your own sum may use different currencies.
- Recent purchases may take some time to appear.
- Gifts you received cost you nothing, while gifts you bought for others count as your spending.
To check the number, compare it with your Steam purchase history, which lists each transaction with its date, item, payment type and total. Add up the card, PayPal and wallet top-up lines and you should land close to TotalSpend. Remember that wallet-funded purchases appear in the history as well, so counting both the top-up and the purchase made with that balance doubles the amount.
Why people check their Steam spending
Most people check External Funds Used to see what their gaming hobby has cost over the years, to set a budget, or to confirm that an account is above the $5 limit. It is also useful when you suspect unauthorized purchases: a sudden jump in TotalSpend that you cannot match to your purchase history is a reason to change your password, enable Steam Guard and review your Steam privacy settings. If the support pages will not load at all, the problem is often the connection rather than your account, see how to fix Steam's could not connect to the network error.
FAQ
Can I see how much someone else has spent on Steam?
No. The External Funds Used page only shows data for the account that is signed in, and Steam does not display spending on public profiles.
Is there an External Funds Used tool or calculator?
The official page is the only source of the real figure. Third-party calculators estimate the value of a library from current store prices, which is not the same as what you actually paid.
Does External Funds Used include Steam Wallet purchases?
It includes the money you added to the wallet. Valve does not document whether purchases paid with that balance are counted again, so if the figure looks too high, compare it with your purchase history.
Related: Using digital gift cards on Steam, Changing Steam privacy settings, Steam client update with in-game Notes and redesigned overlay
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