A download key is a special URL that gives someone access to a project’s files.
There are a few ways a download key can come into existence:
When someone downloads a free project a download key is not created. Someone will not own a game just by downloading it for free
We've described in detail what happens when someone pays for your project in the How buying works guide. One important thing to note: If someone pays for a project that is free (minimum price of 0), they will still get a download key. If you decide to add a price in the future they will still have access.
A download key’s URL is unique and should not be shared. If a download key is linked to an account then it can only be viewed by the owner when they are logged into their account.
The purpose of a download key is to give download access to the files you've uploaded to your project. By default, any file you've uploaded will be available for download. The currently uploaded set of files to your page will always be available, if you remove, update, or add files that that will be reflected on every owner’s download page.
If you change the minimum price of your project then key holders will still have access to their files. There’s one exception to this rule though: any files that are individually priced.
There are two ways to set a price on your downloadable files: You can set a minimum price on your entire project, or you can individually set a price on files of your choosing.
All download keys have an associated price. It’s used to unlock any individually priced files. This price is set when someone buys your project, or if you manually set it when generating a download key.
From the Distribute tab of your project’s edit page you can find the Download keys section. There are two ways to generate keys: singular or in bulk.
If you're looking to give access to your game to a friend or press, we recommend generating a single key. If you need to generate many keys, such as for a promotion on another site, then we recommend the bulk generator.
Individually generated keys give you finer control over the key: you can set a label for easy identification, track how often it’s been used to download, and revoke it if necessary.
Keys created in bulk have two additional options:
If your project is being sold on other marketplaces, such as Steam, you can give away external keys to people who own your project. (e.g. with each itch.io purchase, see below for who can access keys)
An external key can only be given to someone who has access to an itch.io download key, and that download key must grant access to exernal keys.
To make external keys available for owners of your project, navigate to the External section tab on the Distribute tab on your project’s edit page to add keys to your project.
Note: It’s good idea to triple-check before submitting external keys, as it may be difficult to correct mistakes after keys have been made available. You can contact us if you made any mistakes and need our help.
Ensure you add enough to be available for your buyers. If someone tries to claim their external key and there are none left in stock, they will be told to try again later.
Read How buying works to see how buyers can redeem external keys.
When considering selling external keys, it’s important to note that we generally prefer that sellers focus on selling their product directly on itch.io. External keys should be provided as an additional access option rather than the primary means of distribution. It is not possible to sell external for a higher price than the price of the project itself.
Selling directly on itch.io allows us to ensure that content is available, and in cases of refunds, we can directly control access to the product. Pages that only contain a link to another platform do not represent the kind of content we want to promote, don’t meet our quality guidelines, and may not be eligible for indexing in our discovery features.
By default, projects on itch.io cannot be listed as selling only a Steam Key or other external key. Projects must include files that users can download directly from itch.io in order to also offer external keys.
We recognize that some projects can only be distributed on other platforms due to specific runtime requirements (such as networking, inputs, DRM, or other platform specific functionality that itch.io does not provide). If you think your page is a special case, you can reach out to our support team explaining why you feel your page should be eligible for Steam Key-only distribution.
Note: For certain larger bundles, we intentionally disable the distribution of Steam keys. This is to avoid burdening each participant with the need to generate enough Steam keys for every buyer. Additionally, highly discounted bundles are often targeted by fraudsters who use stolen credit card information to drain Steam keys from product pages. In such cases, we may also disable the distribution of external keys with a purchase.
Given these considerations, if you plan to create a Steam key-only page for inclusion in a bundle, please first confirm that the bundle will indeed be distributing Steam keys. This will help avoid any confusion or disappointment for both creators and buyers.
External keys are generally available to people who have access to an itch.io download key for your project, aka the owners of your project.
There are a few ways people can own something:
The following do not give ownership:
When someone owns your project, they are given access external keys if they are available, unless external keys have been explicitly disabled. This can be controlled from the external keys dashboard page.
Note: For projects that are free, but accept pay-what-you-want donations: Any payment will give the buyer ownership, and therefore grant access to keys. This means someone is able to pay the minimum ammount itch.io allows and get a key.
Note: For sub-products (aka DLC), external keys are not granted with those payments. Only a purchase of the main product is suitable for getting external keys.
When using any of our tools to generate download keys to grant access to a project, you can decide if you want to also include external keys. If you do not explicitly enabled them, then those download keys will not come with any external keys.
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