If Steam shows “You’ve made too many requests recently” when you open your inventory, the most likely explanation is that Steam is temporarily limiting requests to inventory or Market pages. Community users describe this as an IP-based limit, but Valve has not published a confirmed cause, request threshold, or cooldown for this specific message. You may see it even if you have not deliberately opened your inventory repeatedly.
Why the error can appear when you have barely used your inventory
Steam Community users report this message on inventory pages and also discuss it in connection with the Steam Market. Their explanations point to request limiting, potentially associated with a shared IP address, rather than a limit that only counts the times you personally click your inventory. These are user explanations, not confirmed Valve policy. A July 2023 discussion of the exact message describes an IP rate limit; replies speculate that shared connections and tools making background requests may contribute.
That could help explain why the warning appears despite little or no recent inventory activity from you: other people or devices may use the same public connection, or a browser extension, userscript, or inventory tool may make requests in the background. Neither factor is established as the cause in any individual case. A 2022 ArchiSteamFarm support discussion describes an inventory-access problem associated with a particular automated feature, but it does not show that ordinary extensions or your account caused this Steam message.
What to try
- Stop refreshing the inventory or Market page for a while. The message asks you to wait, and community replies recommend slowing down rather than repeatedly retrying. Users discussing the error suggest waiting, but do not establish a guaranteed recovery time.
- Temporarily turn off Steam-related extensions, userscripts, or inventory tools. Then leave the page alone for a while before trying again. Community users suggest that tools can generate extra requests; the available sources do not identify which tools, if any, trigger this particular limit.
- Consider whether your connection is shared. Check whether other people or devices use the same network, or whether your connection goes through a VPN or proxy. Community reports raise shared IP use as a possibility, not a proven diagnosis. Changing your IP is not a guaranteed fix and should not be treated as a way to bypass Steam’s limits.
- If it continues, contact Steam Support. The cause may be account- or connection-specific, and the reports do not provide a confirmed diagnostic procedure for this error.
How long does the restriction last?
There is no verified cooldown duration in the available sources. Reports range from hours to more than two days, but those are individual accounts, not a published Steam rule or a reliable estimate for your case. Waiting without repeated retries is a reasonable first step; no exact time can be promised.
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What is not confirmed
Valve has not confirmed, in the sources available here, the request threshold, whether the restriction is scoped to an IP address, or how long it lasts. The forum discussions support that players encounter the message and propose possible explanations; they do not establish a universal trigger or prove why it appeared for a particular player.
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