Steam -118

On screen: Failed to load web page (unknown error) — Error Code: -118

What it actually means

This is not a Steam platform code. It comes from the Chromium browser embedded in the Steam client, with the sign inverted: Steam's -118 is Chromium's ERR_CONNECTION_TIMED_OUT.

Chromium's own description of that error is: a connection attempt timed out. The client's browser tried to reach a page and got no answer in time.

Which means the rest of Steam is very likely working. Your library opens, your games launch, and a part of the client that happens to be a web browser cannot load a page.

How to tell which one you have

Open the Steam store in a normal web browser. If it loads there and not in the client, the platform is fine and the client's browser is the problem. If your library and games work too, that confirms it — Steam is not down.

Fixes, in the order worth trying

1. Delete the client's web browser data — Steam, Settings, Web Browser, Delete Web Browser Data. This is the equivalent of clearing a browser cache and it resolves most of these.
2. Flush the DNS cache — ipconfig /flushdns on Windows.
3. Change DNS to 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8
4. Turn off VPN, proxy and any ad blocker affecting the system
5. Check firewall and antivirus — Some security products inspect the client's browser traffic and time it out.

Steam's client embeds a Chromium browser, and these numbered codes are Chromium's own network errors with the sign flipped. We verified each one against Chromium's error list rather than guessing. That is why the on-screen message is the same unhelpful line for all of them while the causes are completely different — and why most of them mean Steam is working fine. Valve publishes no article for this code. Worth knowing: Valve publishes no status page of its own. The link in their own support article now redirects to a sales chart. That gap is why we measure Steam ourselves, by probing its public endpoints every five minutes.

Common questions