# How to Scrape Official Steam Community Market Catalog

> Valve's official Steam Community Market exposes `market/search/render` for discovering CS2 `market_hash_name` values and current search summaries. The route has no API key or provider fee, but it is undocumented, rate limited, and is not an official Steam Market API.

## Build the search request

The request path is `https://steamcommunity.com/market/search/render`. Set `appid=730`, `start=0`, `count=100`, `search_descriptions=0`, and `norender=1`. Leave `query` empty to enumerate the catalog or URL-encode a phrase to narrow the results.

Useful optional parameters include `sort_column`, `sort_dir`, and CS2 category filters. Public implementations such as [Steam Market API V2](https://github.com/Allyans3/steam-market-api-v2) demonstrate filters including `category_730_Type[]` and `category_730_Exterior[]`. Treat tag values as upstream identifiers and retain them separately from display labels.

## Inspect the result and page the catalog

A shortened representative response is `{"success":true,"start":0,"pagesize":10,"total_count":1,"results":[{"hash_name":"Fever Case","sell_listings":410171,"sell_price":89,"sell_price_text":"$0.89","asset_description":{"appid":730,"classid":"6918191812","market_hash_name":"Fever Case"}}]}`. Counts and prices will change, but the nesting shows where the useful fields live.

The JSON response identifies `start`, `pagesize`, and `total_count`. Its `results` array can contain:

- `hash_name`, the exact name required by item-specific Market routes.
- `sell_listings`, the current active sell-listing count shown in search.
- `sell_price`, an integer value in the response's minor currency unit.
- `sell_price_text`, the localized display value.
- `asset_description`, including class IDs, instance IDs, names, type text, and image paths.

Advance `start` by the returned page size until it reaches `total_count`. Do not assume Steam honors the requested count or that the total remains fixed during a long crawl. Deduplicate by `appid` plus `hash_name`, not by a localized display string.

## Store identity separately from price

Search is most valuable as a discovery feed. Save the exact market hash name, class and instance IDs, icon path, and first-seen time. Store `sell_price` and `sell_listings` as observations with their own collection time because they can change while identity does not.

Run a full catalog crawl less often than per-item price checks. If a page returns HTTP 429, stop advancing the cursor and resume later from the last completed offset. A null or HTML body is not an empty catalog.

## Use a maintained schema instead

The [cs2.sh item schema](/docs/schema) provides the maintained CS2 catalog, stable item IDs, images, collections, wears, and supported Doppler, Gamma Doppler, and Case Hardened variants. It does not replace Steam search for non-CS2 applications or every upstream search tag.

Use Steam search when discovering the marketplace itself is part of the product. For a reliable full crawl, however, you must handle moving totals, duplicate results, partial pages, rate limits, blocked responses, localized values, and catalog changes indefinitely. When the goal is a CS2 item selector or stable identity layer, [cs2.sh](https://cs2.sh/) removes that collection and maintenance work.

## The same data from cs2.sh

`GET /v1/schema` returns the maintained CS2 catalog in one response, on all plans including Demo and Developer, with no cursor to advance and no moving total to reconcile.

```json
{
  "schema_version": "v3",
  "generated_at": "2026-08-12T22:18:51Z",
  "counts": {
    "items": 48696,
    "by_category": { "skin": 21924, "sticker": 11132, "container": 479 },
    "collections": 110
  }
}
```

| Property | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Contents | About 47,500 items and 110 collections, keyed by `market_hash_name` |
| Per item | Rarities, wears, float ranges, marketplace ids, images |
| Variants | Included, with collections and containers where applicable |
| Refresh | Automatically when Counter-Strike 2 game files update |
| Access | Available on all plans, including Demo and Developer |

Because the schema is keyed by `market_hash_name`, it is the same identity used by every price endpoint, so a catalog built from it joins directly to prices without a separate mapping table. Steam search remains the right tool when discovering the marketplace itself is the product, or for non-CS2 applications.

Disclosure: this free DIY guide is published by cs2.sh. Valve does not document this route as a supported API. Review the [Steam Subscriber Agreement](https://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement/) before automation and do not interpret a public response as a guaranteed right or service level. Route and field behavior were reviewed on August 5, 2026.