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How long does a Deadlock invite take? Measured wait times

Most guides say a Deadlock invite takes "1 to 2 hours" or "up to 2 days". We measured it instead. Invite Frog, our frog that invites everyone who adds it, has sent 764 invites and timed each one: half arrive within 2 minutes, and 100% within 5 minutes. Here are the numbers, live, and what to do when an invite doesn't come.

The short answer

A Deadlock invite usually arrives in 2 minutes (the median of 764 measured invites).
9 in 10 arrive within 3.2 minutes. The slowest one we've seen took 3.8 minutes.
Of the invites we could follow to the end, 100% arrived.
If you're still waiting after hours, the invite most likely went wrong rather than being slow. See "Invite not showing up" below.

How we measure it

Invite Frog is a Steam account that invites everyone who adds it, around the clock. For each invite it records two moments: when it asks Valve to invite the player, and when Valve's invite shows up in their Steam chat. The wait is the time in between.

The numbers on this page update by themselves as the frog sends invites. You can watch new invites arrive, with each wait on a chart, on the live invite page.

How long invites take, invite by invite

How long each of the 764 invites took, from the frog sending it to Valve's invite arriving:

Under 1 minute 18%
1 to 2 minutes 33%
2 to 3 minutes 34%
3 to 4 minutes 15%
4 to 5 minutes 0%

Of the invites sent more than 6 hours ago that we could follow to the end, 527 of 527 arrived (100%). A few of those players got Deadlock from someone else's invite first, so their invite has no time above. People who removed the frog before their invite came aren't counted: we can't see what happened to theirs.

The latest invites, one by one. Each dot is one invite: when it arrived, and how many minutes it took.

Why other guides say hours

They weren't wrong when they were written. Deadlock invites used to be much slower: in 2024, when lots of players wanted in at once, an invite really could take hours or even days to arrive.

Today they arrive in minutes, but that can change again. If a big update or a wave of new players fills Valve's queue, waits can grow. That's why the numbers on this page are live: they show how long invites take right now, not how long they took once.

Invite not showing up

Look in the right place: the invite comes as a message in your Steam chat with the person who invited you. Accept it there, and Deadlock is added to your Steam library.
No message at all? Check your Steam library anyway. Valve sometimes adds Deadlock without sending the invite message: we've seen players start the game with no message ever showing up in our chat.
Is your Steam account limited? Valve doesn't give Deadlock to limited accounts: ones that haven't spent $5 on Steam. Buying a game or adding $5 to your Steam Wallet lifts it. Then ask for the invite again.
Already in your library? If your account already has access, no invite comes. Check your Steam library for Deadlock.
Waited over 15 minutes? Almost all invites arrive within 3.6 minutes, so something went wrong: check that the invite went to the right Steam account, then ask for it to be sent again.

Get an invite in minutes

1
Open the Invite Frog page and add Invite Frog on Steam (one click, or with its friend code).
2
It accepts you and sends the Deadlock invite on its own.
3
Valve's invite arrives in your chat with it, usually within 2 minutes. Accept it, and Deadlock is in your library.

It's free: no trades, payments or logins. On Discord, /deadlock-invite from the Invite Frog app shows the same.

Get a Deadlock invite How to mod Deadlock