What is SteamChat?
SteamChat is Valve's web crawler that fetches URL previews and metadata for links shared within Steam's chat functionality, enabling rich link previews in conversations between Steam users. You can set up Agent Analytics to see when SteamChat visits your website.
Category
| Operated By | Valve Software |
| Source | Official Website |
| Triggered By | Shared link |
| Used for AI Model Training | Not expected |
| Affects AI Chat & Search Visibility | Not directly |
| Expected To Follow Robots.txt | No |
Why Is SteamChat Visiting My Website?
Someone shared a link to your page. SteamChat fetched it to build a preview card, and each new share may trigger another request. A spike often means your content is circulating more widely.
Should I Block SteamChat?
Usually not. Blocking SteamChat may leave shared links without a title or image, making them less inviting to click. If it begins fetching at unexpected volume, try rate limiting before blocking it outright. For context, 7% of the top websites we track currently have robots.txt rules for SteamChat.
Insights for SteamChat
As of October 29, 2026, this data reflects agent visits measured across thousands of websites using Agent Analytics, combined with daily scans of the top 1000 websites and their robots.txt files.
Robots.txt Compliance
Country of Origin
Robots.txt Blocked Percentage
SteamChat Traffic
Frequently Asked Questions
What Traffic Patterns Should I Expect From SteamChat?
SteamChat usually makes a single request within seconds of a URL being shared, without crawling further. Traffic rises and falls with sharing activity, so a widely circulated link can produce a sharp burst of fetches.
Does SteamChat Follow Robots.txt Rules?
No. SteamChat is not expected to follow robots.txt rules, so a disallow rule only communicates your preference. Enforce the block with firewall or server rules, then use Agent Analytics to verify that its requests stop.
Is SteamChat Used for AI Model Training?
Not ordinarily. SteamChat is not categorized as an AI training scraper or data provider, so AI model training is not its expected purpose.
Does Blocking SteamChat Affect AI Search or Citations?
Not directly. SteamChat's expected purpose is not to supply an AI search index or retrieve pages for AI-generated answers.
Does SteamChat Access Private Content?
No. SteamChat has no credentials and should access only the public URL and assets needed for a preview. It does not continue through the rest of your site.
How Can I Verify a Request From SteamChat?
Agent Analytics tracks SteamChat visits in real time. You can also check your server logs for requests whose user-agent string contains "SteamChat". Look for a page and its preview assets being requested without follow-up navigation. Because SteamChat does not publish a verification method, any client can claim its identity and a log match is only a clue.