Free Steam games to keep: how to claim giveaways automatically
Steam gives games away more often than people think: a paid game at 100% off for a few days, a DLC, sometimes a soundtrack. Add it to your account while the offer runs and it stays in your library for good; miss the window and it is gone. Here is what counts as free on Steam, what you keep, and how to stop missing them.
5 min read · Updated 2026-09-15
Four kinds of free, and only one disappears
“Free” on Steam covers four different things:
- Free to keep: a paid game or DLC at 100% off for a limited time. Click “Add to Account” on its store page before the end and the licence is yours for good, even after the price comes back.
- Free to play: always free. You get a licence when you add or install it, so there is nothing to rush.
- Free weekend: the full game for a few days, locked again afterwards unless you buy it.
- Demos and playtests: separate, limited versions that do not give you the game.
Where to find the giveaways
Steam does not put most giveaways on its front page. The store search shows them if you filter the price to free and tick special offers: what comes up is what is currently at 100% off. SteamDB keeps a public list of free promotions with their end dates, and communities such as r/FreeGameFindings post them as they appear.
Claiming them by hand
Open the store page while signed in and click “Add to Account”. The game appears in your library right away, with nothing to install. A few rules apply: some giveaways are limited to certain regions, some DLCs need the base game, and a handful only work from the store page itself.
Claiming them automatically
Checking every day is the part nobody keeps up. ArchiSteamFarm can add free licences with its addlicense command, and community plugins automate the search, on a machine you keep running. AFK Hours does it from its servers for every account you link, on every plan, the Free plan included: in the account's settings, set “Free games” to “Every free-to-keep game”. While the account idles, AFK Hours reads the store's current giveaways at sign-in and then every six hours, and asks Steam for each one the account does not own yet.
Steam grants what it can. A region-locked deal or one that only works from the store page stays unclaimed; the rest lands in the library, and the morning report tells you what was added.
Free-to-play games and hours
A free-to-play game counts playtime once its licence is on the account. If you add one to your idle list by App ID without ever having played it, AFK Hours claims it when the session starts, so the hours count from the first minute. That is what the default setting, “Only the games I idle”, does.
Quick answers
- Do free-to-keep games stay forever?
- Yes. Once the licence is on your account it stays like a game you bought, after the offer ends too.
- Can Steam refuse a free game?
- Yes: offers limited to some regions, DLCs whose base game you do not own, and a few deals that only work from the store page. Nothing is charged either way.
- Do I need to be online to claim them?
- By hand, yes, on the store page. With AFK Hours, no: the account's session on our servers claims them while it idles.
Never miss a Steam giveaway
Every plan claims the store's free-to-keep games while the account idles, the Free plan included. Link an account with a QR code and turn it on in its settings.