A Storage Unit is a paid container for holding items beyond CS2's base 1,000-item inventory cap. Valve added it back in CS:GO with a November 22, 2019 update, and the core mechanic hasn't changed much since. One unit costs the equivalent of $1.99, holds up to 1,000 items (not every type), and can only be bought inside the game — it can't be traded, gifted, or resold, including through LIS-SKINS. Below: what fits in a Storage Unit, what it costs, how to buy one, and which restrictions are worth knowing beforehand.
How Many Items a CS2 Storage Unit Holds
One Storage Unit holds up to 1,000 items — the same size as the entire base CS2 inventory. But that's not any 1,000 items: default weapons without a skin, agents, gloves, music kits, service medals, and Pick'Em trophies can't be moved into a Storage Unit at all and stay in the main inventory. Ordinary skins, knives, stickers, capsules, and most other supported items go into a unit with no such restriction, up to the 1,000-item cap.
How Much a CS2 Storage Unit Costs
One Storage Unit costs the equivalent of $1.99 in your account's regional currency — a one-time purchase, not a subscription. Once bought, a unit is permanently bound to the account: it can't be sold, traded, or gifted, and it won't turn up on any secondary market — not Steam, not LIS-SKINS — because the item itself simply isn't transferable. So overbuying a unit and reselling it to recoup the cost isn't an option — it's worth sizing up your inventory's actual value first and buying only as much extra space as you need.
How to Buy a CS2 Storage Unit
A Storage Unit is sold only through CS2's in-game Store, separate from the Steam Community Market and any third-party site. The steps: launch CS2, open the Store tab from the main menu, find Storage Unit, and pay through whatever payment method is linked to your Steam account. Once bought, the unit shows up in your inventory right away as its own container — items move in and out through a context menu with multi-select, with no cap on how many transfers you can make. Because it's an official in-client purchase rather than a deal with a stranger, buying one carries no more scam risk than any other Store purchase — inventories are far more often hit by phishing and fake trade offers than by anything related to Storage Units.
Because the whole mechanic lives inside the game client, LIS-SKINS doesn't sell and can't sell the Storage Unit itself — what you can do here is buy the skins that are worth sorting into units once your inventory grows.
What to Know Before Relying on a Storage Unit
Not every item can be stored. Default weapons without a skin, agents, gloves, music kits, service medals, and Pick'Em trophies stay in the main inventory only. Everything else supported — skins, knives, stickers, capsules — goes in up to the 1,000-item cap.
Items inside are temporarily off-limits for everything else. While an item sits in a Storage Unit, it can't be used, equipped, traded, listed on a marketplace, or renamed — and it drops out of your visible inventory list until it comes back out.
Trade Protection blocks fresh trades from going in. An item you just received in a trade can't be moved into a Storage Unit until its 7-day Trade Protection window closes — until then it can't be modified at all.
The unit itself can't change hands. A Storage Unit can't be sold, gifted, or traded — unlike ordinary skins, which are easiest to sell without delay on LIS-SKINS if it's time to free up space rather than store it.
The numbers people usually look up, at a glance:
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Price per unit | equivalent of $1.99 |
| Capacity per unit | up to 1,000 supported items |
| Base inventory without units | 1,000 items |
If an inventory has ballooned with skins nobody's touched in years, before buying another unit it's worth running some through a trade-up contract or selling outright, rather than just stockpiling further.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is a Storage Unit worth buying if my inventory isn't full yet?
Not necessarily — a unit only pays off once the 1,000-item base is full or close to it. If most of what's sitting there is liquid skins you're willing to part with, it's usually more worthwhile to check where to sell them first and decide what's worth keeping.
Can I put any item into a Storage Unit?
No. Default weapons without a skin, agents, gloves, music kits, service medals, and Pick'Em trophies can't be moved into a Storage Unit. Skins, knives, stickers, and capsules go in without that restriction.
Can I move an item into a Storage Unit right after a trade?
Not if it's still under Trade Protection — that hold lasts 7 days from the trade and blocks any changes, including moving the item into storage. Once the window closes, the restriction lifts automatically.
Can I sell or gift my Storage Unit to another player?
No — a Storage Unit is permanently bound to the account that bought it, and it never appears on the Steam Community Market, LIS-SKINS, or any other marketplace. The only way to get one is to buy a new one through the CS2 Store.
How many Storage Units can I buy on one account?
Steam Support's own page doesn't state an exact maximum — buy only as many units as your inventory actually needs. Each one adds up to 1,000 more slots for supported items, so a couple of units cover the vast majority of players with room to spare.
