This paper illustrates a direct connection between quantum steering and non-trivial preparation contextuality. In two party–two measurement per party–two outcomes per measurement ( 2 - 2 - 2 ) Bell scenario, any argument of Bell nonlocality is a proof of trivial preparation contextuality; however, the converse may not hold. If one of the parties (say, Alice) performs the measurements of more than two dichotomic observables, then it is possible to find a set of non-trivial functional relations between Alice’s observables. We argue that the existence of a suitable set of such non-trivial relations between Alice’s observables may warrant the unsteerability of quantum states at the end of another spatially separated party (say, Bob). Interestingly, such constraints can be read as non-trivial preparation non-contextuality assumptions in an ontological model. We further demonstrate two types of Bell inequalities that can be converted into linear steering inequalities using the aforementioned non-trivial conditions on Alice’s observables. Such steering inequalities can also be considered as non-trivial preparation noncontextual inequalities. Since the local bound of the family of Bell expression gets reduced under the additional non-trivial conditions, it provides a test of quantum steering and nonlocality from the same family of Bell expressions depending upon its violation of the non-trivial preparation non-contextual or the local bound, thereby establishing a direct connection between quantum steering and non-trivial preparation contextuality. Graphical abstract