The badge around your Steam level number changes colour every 10 levels and shape every 100. This page lists every step: the exact colour codes for levels 0 to 99, the name of every shape after that, and the last new design, which arrives at level 6,100.
All of it comes from Steam's own stylesheet, the file that tells your browser how to draw the badge, checked against the live copy on 20 October 2026. (If levels are new to you, the complete guide to leveling up on Steam starts from the beginning.)
What colour is each Steam level?
Levels 0 to 99 get a plain ring that changes colour every 10 levels: grey, then red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, magenta, maroon and bronze. At level 100 the ring becomes a hexagon, and from there a new shape arrives every 100 levels, each cycling through ten colours. The last new shape appears at level 6,100.
Your level number does all the work: the hundreds pick the shape and the tens digit picks the colour. Level 47 is a green ring. Level 347 is the books design at its fifth colour step. Level 1,000 is crystals, back at the first step.
Levels 0–99: the ring colours
Below 100 the badge is a thin circle around the number, and only its colour moves. Steam writes each colour into its stylesheet as a code, so these are exact:
| Levels | Looks roughly | Hex code |
|---|---|---|
| 0–9 | Grey | #9b9b9b |
| 10–19 | Red | #c02942 |
| 20–29 | Orange | #d95b43 |
| 30–39 | Yellow | #fecc23 |
| 40–49 | Green | #467a3c |
| 50–59 | Blue | #4e8ddb |
| 60–69 | Purple | #7652c9 |
| 70–79 | Magenta | #c252c9 |
| 80–89 | Maroon | #542437 |
| 90–99 | Bronze | #997c52 |
The colour names are our descriptions; the stylesheet only has the codes. Paste one into any colour picker to see the precise shade.
The order follows the rainbow from red to magenta, then breaks it: the 80s are a deep maroon, the darkest colour on the list, and the 90s a muted bronze just before the shape changes. Every new account starts on grey.
Level 100 and up: a new shape every 100 levels
At level 100 the ring is replaced by a small image. Each image holds ten versions of the same shape, stacked one above another, and Steam moves down to the next version every 10 levels. So the colour keeps changing every ten levels all the way up. Only the outline waits for the next hundred.
One consequence: the hex codes above are exact for the ring only. From 100 up, the colour is part of the image rather than a code in the stylesheet, so there's no official value to quote for a hexagon at level 150.
The stylesheet doesn't name the shapes either. The labels below come from the file names of the images, tidied up:
| Levels | Shape |
|---|---|
| 100–199 | Hexagons |
| 200–299 | Shields |
| 300–399 | Books |
| 400–499 | Chevrons |
| 500–599 | Circle |
| 600–699 | Angle |
| 700–799 | Flag |
| 800–899 | Wings |
| 900–999 | Arrows |
| 1,000–1,099 | Crystals |
| 1,100–1,199 | Space |
| 1,200–1,299 | Water element |
| 1,300–1,399 | Fire element |
| 1,400–1,499 | Earth element |
| 1,500–1,999 | Air element, five images |
| 2,000–2,499 | Geo, five images |
| 2,500–2,999 | Mandala, five images |
| 3,000–3,499 | Spiro, five images |
| 3,500–3,999 | Patterns, five images |
| 4,000–4,499 | Shapes, five images |
| 4,500–4,999 | Grunge, five images |
| 5,000–5,299 | Halftone, three images |
| 5,300–5,399 | Dashes |
| 5,400–5,499 | Crosshatch |
| 5,500–5,599 | Spiral |
| 5,600–5,699 | Leaves |
| 5,700–5,799 | Mountain |
| 5,800–5,899 | Rain |
| 5,900–5,999 | Tornado |
| 6,000–6,099 | Snowflake |
| 6,100–6,199 | Crown |
Where a row says five or three images, each hundred in that range gets its own picture from the same family. Count them all and it comes to 61 shapes on top of the ring.
Most of that list is rarely seen, and the reason is arithmetic. A normal game badge crafts only five times, and there aren't enough games with cards to go past roughly level 1,170 on card sets, a wall the story of the highest Steam levels works through. Anyone wearing a shape from there up needed sale and event badges to get it, because those have no craft limit.
The highest badge
The crown at 6,100 is the last design Steam has. The stylesheet has no rule for 6,200 or anything above it, so an account that passed 6,199 would presumably keep the crown. No one is known to have got that far: the record account was last reported at about level 6,022, which puts it on the snowflake, one design short.
Cards will never get anyone there. On Steam's XP curve, level 5,000 already takes 125,250,000 XP. That's 1,252,500 card sets, and since each game's badge crafts only five times, you'd need sets from 250,500 different games. Fewer than 14,000 games have cards at all. Steam's maximum level is a separate question with its own answer.
What the next colour or shape costs
Every colour step costs more than the one before, and the pattern is easy to carry in your head: moving from one multiple of ten to the next costs as many card sets as the level you arrive at. Red at 10 is 10 sets. Blue at 50, from 40, is 50 sets. The first shape at 100, from 90, is 100 sets. At $0.345 a set, our card and PayPal price in October 2026, that last step is $34.50.
That works because each complete set crafts into a badge worth 100 XP, and Steam adds 100 XP to the cost of a level every ten levels.
Starting partway through a band costs less. From level 47, blue is three levels away at 500 XP each, so 15 sets. If you know your XP total but not where it leaves you, the XP-to-level converter shows the exact distance.
The shapes are where the numbers get serious:
| Climb | Card sets | At $0.345 a set |
|---|---|---|
| 0 → 100 (ring to hexagons) | 550 | $189.75 |
| 100 → 200 (to shields) | 1,550 | $534.75 |
| 200 → 300 (to books) | 2,550 | $879.75 |
| 300 → 400 (to chevrons) | 3,550 | $1,224.75 |
| 400 → 500 (to circle) | 4,550 | $1,569.75 |
Each hundred costs 1,000 sets more than the one before, and brings ten colour changes on the way. The full price table by level covers every common target, in TF2 keys and gems as well as dollars. For your own numbers, the calculator shows what it takes to reach the next colour from the level you're at now.
See it change
The profile simulator shows these steps landing as you drag a level slider, up to level 200, next to the showcase slots and friend-list space that arrive with them. It draws the badge in our own colours and shapes rather than Steam's, so read it for when your badge changes, not for what it will look like.
The timing is the useful part. Every colour change also brings a new showcase slot, until the slots stop at 20 at level 200. What Steam levels actually unlock has the rest of the list.
No shop sells the level badge itself. The colour follows your level, and your level follows the card sets you craft, 100 XP at a time. Find the step you want in the tables above, then price the sets from your level to the next colour.
Colour codes, shape file names and the 6,100 ceiling come from Steam's community stylesheet (shared_global.css), checked 20 October 2026. Valve changes these files without notice, so treat this as a dated picture. Card-set counts use the same XP curve as our calculator. Prices are our card and PayPal rate in October 2026.
Frequently asked questions
What colour is Steam level 50?
Roughly blue: a ring in #4e8ddb. It stays that colour from 50 to 59 and turns purple (#7652c9) at 60.
When does the Steam level badge change shape?
At level 100, when the ring becomes a hexagon, and at every multiple of 100 after that: shields at 200, books at 300, and on through 61 designs. The colour still changes every 10 levels in between.
What is the highest Steam level badge?
The crown, at level 6,100. It's the last design in Steam's stylesheet. The record holder was last reported at about level 6,022, which is still the snowflake.
Can you pick your Steam badge colour?
No. Steam assigns the badge from your level number, one colour per ten-level band, so the only way to change it is to change your level. The avatar frames sold in the Points Shop are a different thing: they go around your picture. Everything you can change yourself is in the guide to customising a Steam profile.