CDKeys is Now Loaded: India Review (2026), and the GBP Billing Catch

Updated July 2026 with current Indian retail prices.

Short version, because it is the question you arrived with: CDKeys is legit, its keys work, and it now trades as Loaded after a September 2025 rebrand, so if you landed on a site with a different name you did not get phished. The longer version is the one your money cares about. It is a gray market store, not a publisher authorized one, and the billing fine print quietly eats a chunk of every discount it shows an Indian card.

This review answers both, with the billing fine print that matters specifically to Indian cards. For the whole store landscape in one place, our keys guide for India holds the map.

CDKeys to Loaded: what actually changed

In September 2025, cdkeys.com became loaded.com. Same Dubai operation, same accounts, same order history, same prices, old links redirect. The corporate paperwork moved too, and it is worth knowing who you are actually buying from: the old CDKeys entity was Omnyex E-Commerce DMCC, while Loaded’s live terms name the platform operator as This Game Technologies FZCO, and for buyers outside the US, India included, the selling counterparty is GameRow FZCO of Dubai. The company’s stated reasons: the phrase CD key is a relic, and the brand kept colliding with the generic term. Coverage at the time ranged from confused to mocking, and plenty of customers initially assumed the site had been hijacked. It had not.

What did not change is the model, and the model is the point. Loaded is a first party gray market retailer: it bulk buys keys and codes where they are cheap, mostly cheaper regions, and resells them on its own account. You buy from Loaded, not from a stranger, which is why its key quality has always been more consistent than open marketplaces. The tradeoff is that publishers do not authorize any of it, the wider PC gaming community files it alongside G2A and Kinguin as an unauthorized gray market seller, and Steam keys bought here fall outside Steam’s refund system, a detail the checkout does not advertise. One clause worth reading if you are the careful type: Loaded’s terms have started defining third party Marketplace Sellers, but explicitly with respect to the USA only. In India you are still buying from Loaded’s own licensee, so the first party framing holds here.

The legitimacy spectrum: where this store sits

Every key site question comes down to one axis: who are you actually buying from. Publisher authorized stores sell keys the publisher gave them. First party gray stores buy keys cheap in other regions and resell them on their own account. Marketplaces let anyone sell to you with the platform as referee. All three models are legal to buy from in India, the difference is what happens when a key goes wrong.

Trustpilot figures are approximate, checked July 13, 2026, they move daily. Full store by store safety picture in our game keys guide for India.

The Loaded card: what you are actually getting

FIRST PARTY GRAY MARKET

Loaded (formerly CDKeys)

Model: First party gray retailer, regional arbitrage sourcing Seller of record: GameRow FZCO, Dubai, for buyers outside the US Trustpilot: About 4.8 from roughly 223,000 reviews, legacy CDKeys profile India payments: No UPI, no INR settlement, billed in GBP, intl card or PayPal Best for India: Game Pass codes that activate on Indian accounts, delisted games, promo priced global keys Refunds: 7 days, key unrevealed only

INR display, GBP billing Visit Loaded →

Keys from the store itself4.8 across 223k reviewsGBP billing catch

The India catch: rupee prices, GBP billing

Loaded shows Indian visitors rupee prices, and its own FAQ states the part that matters: you will be billed in GBP regardless of the display currency. For an Indian card that means the bank’s forex conversion, typically 2 to 3.5 percent markup, plus 18 percent GST charged on that markup fee, and the card must have international transactions enabled. No UPI exists here at all. Net effect: add roughly 3 to 5 percent to every price you see before comparing it to Steam India.

The counterweight is that Loaded sells India region products explicitly, the product name carries the region in brackets, and its Game Pass Ultimate India codes are the standout: often cheaper than Microsoft’s own Indian pricing, region correct by name, and exactly the kind of code the grandfathering crowd in our Game Pass India guide should read about before redeeming anything. The buying rule is mechanical: match the bracket to your account region, India or Global, never US or EU for an Indian account.

Where Loaded actually wins for Indian buyers

Loaded’s rupee prices make this trap harder to see, so run the numbers deliberately. Its discounts are struck against US and EU list prices, while Steam India already prices low for this market: Elden Ring is ₹3,599 here against 59.99 dollars in the US. A 47 percent badge off a Western price therefore lands close to Steam India’s own number, and once you add the 3 to 5 percent that GBP billing costs an Indian card, the thin discounts go negative. That is precisely why this store earns its keep on the things Steam India cannot sell you at all, and loses on the things it can.

Loaded’s real lanes for India, from documented community purchases: Game Pass and Xbox India codes below Microsoft pricing, delisted games that no longer exist on Steam, one Indian buyer picked up PES here after Konami pulled it, and big promo moments where global keys undercut even Indian regional prices, Monster Hunter World at around ₹2,000 being the community’s favorite example. Outside those lanes, Steam India usually ties or wins once the GBP billing overhead lands.

How to buy on Loaded without surprises

• Read the bracket in the product name, India, Global, US or EU, and match it to your account region exactly
• Add 3 to 5 percent to the display price mentally, forex markup plus GST on the fee is real money on a GBP charge
• Pay with PayPal where possible, it survived the store’s documented payment gateway wobbles better than cards and adds a dispute channel
• Reveal the key only when ready to redeem, the 7 day refund window dies the moment the code is displayed
• Steam keys bought here sit outside Steam’s own refund policy, buy games you are sure about

How we reviewed this

This review draws on Loaded’s own FAQ and refund policies, the rebrand announcements and coverage from September 2025, the carried over Trustpilot record, and Indian buyer reports across community threads, including the skeptical ones. The gray market sourcing description reflects the broad community and industry consensus on how the store operates, which its own marketing neither confirms in detail nor disputes.

Some links on this page may earn us a commission at no extra cost to you. We would earn more if we told you to buy everything here, the verdict says otherwise.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is CDKeys legit?

Yes. It is a real store that sells you keys from its own stock rather than brokering strangers, its Trustpilot sits around 4.8 across roughly 223,000 reviews, and Indian buyers have used it for years without systemic problems. It is gray market rather than publisher authorized, which affects your recourse if something goes wrong, not whether the key works.

Is CDKeys the same as Loaded?

Yes. CDKeys rebranded to Loaded in September 2025, same Dubai based operation, same accounts and order history, and old cdkeys.com links redirect to loaded.com. It was a planned rename, not a takeover, though the initial rollout confused enough customers that phishing fears trended for a week. The current terms name This Game Technologies FZCO as the platform operator, with GameRow FZCO as your seller of record in India.

Is Loaded legit for buyers in India?

Yes, with gray market caveats. You buy from the store itself rather than third party sellers, its Trustpilot sits around 4.8 across 223,000 reviews, and Indian buyers have used it for years. Publishers do not authorize its keys though, and Steam’s refund policy does not cover keys bought here.

Does Loaded accept UPI or bill in rupees?

Neither. Prices display in rupees but billing happens in GBP, which triggers your bank’s forex markup, typically 2 to 3.5 percent, plus 18 percent GST on that fee, and requires international transactions enabled on the card. PayPal works and is the safer option. Budget roughly 3 to 5 percent above the displayed price.

Are Game Pass codes from Loaded safe for Indian accounts?

The India bracket ones, yes, that is the store’s best product for Indian buyers. The product name carries the region, so buy the India edition for an Indian Microsoft account. One warning from our Game Pass guide: if you hold an old grandfathered cheap subscription, redeeming any code risks that legacy price.

Where does Loaded get its keys so cheap?

Regional arbitrage, by broad consensus: buying keys and boxed codes in cheaper markets in bulk and reselling globally. That is why it is classed as gray market rather than authorized. It also means quality is consistent, the store curates its own stock, unlike marketplaces where each seller is a lottery.

What is Loaded’s refund policy?

Seven calendar days, and only if the key has not been revealed or redeemed. That is the tightest window among the big three stores we review, Eneba and Fanatical both give 14 days. Once you click reveal, the purchase is final except for provably faulty keys.

Is Loaded cheaper than Steam India?

Usually not on ordinary Steam games, Indian regional pricing plus the GBP billing overhead sees to that. It wins on Game Pass codes that activate on Indian accounts, delisted titles you cannot buy officially anymore, and periodic promos where a global key genuinely undercuts the Indian price. Compare after adding the forex overhead, not before.

Did keys from CDKeys ever get revoked?

Occasionally, as with every gray market store, and the documented pattern is that Loaded replaced them. The risk is real but low precisely because the store sources its own stock. The bigger everyday annoyances in the review record are payment gateway failures and support chats that close early, not dead keys.

Written by Harsh Talreja · Review methodology