A Steam trade hold is a delay Steam adds before a trade or Market listing actually goes through. The items sit in a held state where neither side can use them, and the trade completes only when the hold ends. Steam uses holds to give a real account owner time to notice and cancel trades made by someone who stole their password.
The standard hold is 15 days. It applies when the account has no Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator, or when the authenticator was added less than 7 days ago. Once the authenticator has been active for 7 full days, trades and listings go through without a hold.
How long is a Steam trade hold?
The hold lasts up to 15 days from the moment both sides accept the trade. You can cancel a held trade at any time before it completes, and the items return to their original owners. Removing the Mobile Authenticator also triggers a block: the account cannot trade or use the Community Market for 15 days after removal. Use the trade hold calculator to see when a specific trade will clear.
How do I avoid a trade hold?
Install the Steam Mobile app, turn on the Mobile Authenticator and wait 7 days before trading. Keep it active. If you switch phones, move the authenticator to the new device instead of removing it, because removal restarts the waiting period.
A trade hold is different from CS2 trade protection. Trade protection is a 7-day window after a completed trade in which the received items cannot be traded again and the trade can be reversed. A trade hold happens before the trade completes; trade protection happens after. Most marketplaces will not accept trades from accounts that would trigger a hold, so setting up the authenticator is the first step before selling anything.