How to download faster on Steam: 7 tricks that work in 2026

You have 600Mbps fiber. Steam downloads at 5MB/s. Your next gaming session gets pushed back 4 hours. Welcome to PC’s most frustrating club.

The problem is almost never your internet — it’s Steam’s default settings, which fall short for modern connections. These 7 tricks are the ones that actually work in 2026 (I’ve seen thousands of “solutions” in forums that are smoke).

The 30-second test: is it your connection or Steam?

Before touching anything, rule out the obvious. Open fast.com and compare with the speed Steam shows.

If fast.com says 600Mbps and Steam says 5MB/s = it’s Steam, not your internet → keep reading
If fast.com also gives 5Mbps = it’s your internet → call your ISP, this post won’t help

Trick 1 — Change download region (the most important)

Steam auto-assigns the closest server. It’s almost always wrong. Closer servers can be saturated; a farther one can be 10x faster.

Steam → Settings → Downloads
Download region → dropdown → try these in order if you’re in US:
- USA - Northeast (or wherever you are)
- USA - Southwest
- Canada - Toronto
- Mexico - Mexico City
After changing, pause and resume the download to see effect

Heuristic: at peak gaming hours (7-11 PM), try a server in a different country. At 6 AM-12 PM, the local one usually goes better.

This alone fixes 70% of slow cases.

Trick 2 — Remove the artificial limit

Steam has a “Limit bandwidth” field that comes filled by default with low values in some installations (legacy of when connections were slow).

Settings → Downloads → Limit bandwidth to
Make sure it says “No limit”
If it’s any number (10MB/s, 50MB/s), remove it

Sometimes this is the main culprit and nobody checks it.

Trick 3 — Allow downloads during gameplay

Settings → Downloads
Enable “Allow downloads during gameplay”

By default Steam pauses or slows downloads while you play. If you’re doing something else in another window (browser, video) while playing, that pause SHOULDN’T apply — but Steam applies it anyway.

Trick 4 — Antivirus + Windows Defender can throttle Steam

Windows Defender (included in Windows 11) and third-party antiviruses (Norton, McAfee, Avast) scan every file Steam decompresses. This can drop effective speed 50-80%.

Safe solution: add exceptions for Steam:

Windows Defender: Settings → Privacy & security → Windows Security → Virus & threat protection → Manage settings → Exclusions → Add → Folder → select C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam (or wherever you installed)
Third-party antivirus: search “exclusions” or “safe folders” in its menu, add same folder

Doesn’t reduce your real security — Steam already verifies downloads with its own hashes.

Trick 5 — Clear download cache if corrupted

Sometimes Steam’s cache corrupts and downloads at half the possible speed. Clearing it is trivial and solves mysterious cases:

Steam → Settings → Downloads
“Clear Download Cache” button (bottom) → confirm
Steam asks you to log in again → do it
Resume the download

Takes 30 seconds, no risk, fixes more than you’d expect.

Trick 6 — Hard drive vs SSD vs NVMe

The bottleneck might be the disk, not the connection. If you download on a mechanical HDD (not SSD), Steam has to download AND decompress AND write, and the disk can’t keep up.

Quick test: during a slow download, open Task Manager → Performance tab → Disk. If your disk is at 100% usage, that’s the problem, not your internet.

Solutions:

Move Steam to an SSD (official instructions in Steam → Settings → Storage → Move)
Or change the temp download disk to an SSD if you have both

Steam Deck OLED already has fast SSD/eMMC, so this doesn’t apply.

Trick 7 — Scheduled pre-load

If you have a pre-ordered game or a big patch announced, schedule it to download at night:

Settings → Downloads → Schedule auto-updates
Set window like 02:00 - 09:00
Steam downloads while you sleep, ready when you wake up

Bonus: at 3 AM Steam servers are empty, you download at max speed without sharing bandwidth.

What does NOT work (common myths)

❌ Closing Chrome / browsers: irrelevant on modern connections
❌ Changing DNS to Google/Cloudflare: helps with browsing, irrelevant for Steam downloads
❌ VPN to “avoid ISP throttling”: in the US/EU no major ISP throttles Steam. Only applies in countries with weak net neutrality (some Asian countries).
❌ Offline mode during download: breaks the download, doesn’t speed it
❌ Defragmenting the disk: only applies to very old HDDs, on SSD it hurts

The bonus trick: Steam Workshop / Mods

If you download Workshop mods/content very slow, the problem is different — Workshop has its own servers separate from Steam’s main CDN. Solution: patience, no config will speed it.

Final diagnosis if nothing works

If after all this you’re still at 5MB/s with 600 fiber:

Test with Ethernet cable (rule out WiFi as bottleneck). WiFi-5 in ideal conditions gives ~80MB/s real. WiFi-6 exceeds gigabit. But a bad router/WiFi client limits you to 5-20MB/s.
Change your router if it’s 5+ years old. Old routers with many clients saturate.
Verify your ISP plan is what you think. Some carriers sell “600Mbps fiber” that’s actually 100 guaranteed + 500 best-effort.

To not overpay on Steam while you wait

While your download finishes, check you paid the best price. If you bought the game on Steam directly, there was usually a key on Eneba / Instant Gaming 30-50% cheaper.

And for future purchases, set up alerts on your Steam Wishlist so it warns you of deals before you pay full price.

Compare prices and save before buying →