Rate Limiting by the Steam API

If you're vaguely aware of the Steam Web API Terms of Use, you'll be somewhat aware of the 100 000 daily request limit when using the Steam API. The following things will happen when you start approaching or outright exceed that limit:

• Responses from the Steam API will start returning a Too Many Requests error (also known as HTTP 429).
• If you keep making requests to the Steam API and ignore the HTTP 429 errors, you will eventually start getting Forbidden errors (also known as HTTP 403). This effectively means the local network you've been using has been blacklisted by the Steam API servers.
  • This means certain functionality in the Steam Client will not be accessible.
  • This also means other Steam users within the same local network will also lose certain functionality that relies on the Steam API, such as loading Points Shop content.

The safest resolution is to just wait until the Steam API servers remove your network from the blacklist, which can take at most 48 hours. It is currently unknown if the consequences of rate limiting are amplified for repeat offences.