How do CS2 trade bans work exactly?

I’m trying to trade with a friend but it keeps giving us a trade ban error. Neither of us are VAC banned, so we’re confused. Could this be related to item restrictions or recent password changes?

That usually happens after changing security settings or not confirming trade requests fast enough.

You might be hitting a cooldown period that Steam imposes for security reasons. If either of you recently changed your password, enabled Steam Guard, or made trades from a new device, you could be under temporary restriction. I’d recommend checking https://dmarket.com/cs2-wiki/ where they break down Steam’s trading rules in clear detail. It helped me figure out that there's a 7-day hold in place after certain actions, even if you’re not banned. Also make sure your inventory is public and that both accounts have confirmed trades via the mobile authenticator. Sometimes the error doesn’t specify the exact cause, which is frustrating, but the details are buried in Steam policy.