Where is it actually cheapest to buy CS2 skins?

For every item we took the lowest listed price on 16 international markets and noted which one was cheapest. If two markets had the exact same price, they split the win.

CSFloat leads, but it is the cheapest for fewer than one item in four. cs.money is close behind. After the top two the field gets crowded fast, and ten different markets each take at least 4%. So if you always buy from the same site, you are probably overpaying on a good share of what you buy.

Split by price, the picture changes. Under $10, cs.money is the market to beat. Above $10, CSFloat takes over, and the more expensive the item, the harder it wins. Above $1,000 it had the lowest price more often than every other market combined.

This one was not close. In every price range, Steam had the lowest price for somewhere between 1% and 3.3% of items. Put the other way around, a typical item listed on Steam cost 45.6% more there than on the cheapest market.

Part of the reason is that Steam takes a 15% cut from every sale, so sellers list higher to make up for it. The other part is that Steam Wallet money cannot be withdrawn, so a dollar on Steam is worth less than a real dollar to most traders.

That second point is also the one good reason to buy on Steam. If you already have Wallet money from selling cases or drops, spending it there can make more sense than letting it sit.

A few popular items, so you can see what this looks like in practice. These prices have moved since, so open any item for its live price on every market.

Look at the runner-up prices above. On the AK-47 Redline the gap is six cents. On a $2,000 Butterfly Fade it is sixty-two cents. Across all items over $1, the cheapest market beat the second cheapest by only 2 to 3% in a typical case.

That matters, because some markets add a buyer fee or a deposit fee at checkout, and a 2% lead disappears quickly once a fee is added. So find the two or three cheapest listings, then compare the final price at checkout, not the number on the listing. Each market's fees are on our marketplace pages.

Between them, CSFloat, cs.money, Skinport and DMarket had the lowest price for 65.3% of items. Checking those four gets you most of the way. If you only ever check one, this is how much more you would typically pay than at the cheapest market:

Sticking to CSFloat costs you about 5% on a typical item. Sticking to Steam costs you closer to half again. Or skip the tab switching: every item page on Skinstrack shows the price on every market at once.

We ran the numbers again with Buff.163, YouPin898, Ecosteam and Skinswap CN included. Together they took 34% of the cheapest prices, and three of them landed in the top five. CSFloat still came first.

We keep them out of the main ranking on purpose. Most of them are hard to use from outside China, and the extra steps can eat the saving. If you already have an account and a way to pay, they are worth a look, especially between $10 and $1,000.