The best agents in CS2 depend on what matters most to you: how hard the model is to hit, the price, or the look. By head hitbox size, the Professionals lead on the T side and the FBI on the CT side; good-looking budget agents like the Enforcer cost about $5, and the most expensive agent in the game, Sir Bloody Miami Darryl, costs around $70. Below we go through agents by each of these criteria, with current LIS-SKINS prices.
Picking by taste alone gets nowhere: there are several dozen agents, and every player has a favorite. So we rated them by three clear criteria:
The smallest head hitbox in each faction. The more compact and darker the model, the harder it is for an opponent to land a headshot.
A low price with a good look.
The most expensive agents on the market.
Best Hitboxes on the T Side
The Professionals have the best hitboxes among terrorists and among all agents in the game. According to community measurements, their head hitbox is 16.75% smaller than that of the SAS, the largest one by this metric. These measurements date from CS:GO, after Operation Shattered Web (2019); the agent models carried over to CS2, but Valve has never published an official comparison, so treat the numbers as a guide. We covered how agent skins affect gameplay in a separate article.
In the game lore, the Professionals are an American crew of bank robbers. They look like 1920s and 1930s gangsters from the Al Capone era.
You meet the Professionals on Vertigo, where they try to blow up a skyscraper under construction.
Some of their voice lines are funny. Shoot a teammate while playing as them and you hear: "Hey! Are you stupid?"
The best-known agents of this faction:
Sir Bloody Darryl (the agent comes in 6 variants).
Best Hitboxes on the CT Side
This faction is second only to the Professionals in hitbox size overall, which makes it the clear leader among counter-terrorists. It is the FBI.
By the same measurements, the FBI head hitbox is 10.32% smaller than that of the SAS.
The look of the FBI agents is based on the Hostage Rescue Team and SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics).
The FBI faces the Professionals on Vertigo, trying to stop them from destroying the unfinished skyscraper. It also plays the CT side on Nuke, where it defends a nuclear power plant.
Look closely at the FBI agents and you will see "HRTF" on their headsets. It is a nod to the head-related transfer function sound positioning system, which was added back in CS:GO.
From these agents we would single out:
Special Agent Ava. In our view the best-designed female agent model; she costs about $15.
Michael Syfers, with his baseball cap worn backwards.
Affordable T Agents (Part 1)
Let us start with the Ground Rebel. He belongs to the Elite Crew and arrived with Operation Shattered Web.
According to his backstory, the Ground Rebel wears a keffiyeh and sunglasses because he is used to hiding from prying eyes and staying unnoticed. He wears a yellow-orange shirt with rolled-up sleeves and gray jeans.
The agent has grown noticeably more expensive over the years: today the Ground Rebel on LIS-SKINS costs about $9.
Another interesting T agent is Arno The Overgrown, who first appeared in Operation Riptide and belongs to the Guerrilla Warfare faction.
Arno is a stony, Schwarzenegger-like face on top of a pile of muscle. That fits his story: before joining the guerrillas he was a heavyweight boxing champion, fell into disgrace and went to live in a cave.
Arno The Overgrown currently costs about $13.
Affordable T Agents (Part 2)
The story of the next agent, the Enforcer of the Phoenix faction (Operation Shattered Web), is as short as it gets. He is a killer to the core who takes only the jobs that interest him and cannot stand people who waste his time. He lives by the line attributed to Benjamin Franklin: "Time is money."
The Enforcer's look is worth a closer view, and not only because of the balaclava hiding his face. He clearly likes eagles: there is one on his T-shirt, and his belt buckle is eagle-shaped. On his back you can spot a fire print and the words "Rise up".
He is the cheapest agent in this list: the Enforcer costs about $5 on LIS-SKINS.
Affordable CT Agents (Part 1)
The Aspirant belongs to the Gendarmerie Nationale and first appeared in Operation Riptide. He looks like riot police in full gear: a helmet with a visor and protection on his arms and legs.
The Aspirant currently costs about $9 on LIS-SKINS.
The next agent, Officer Jacques Beltram, has a real-life prototype. In 2018, Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame offered to take the place of a hostage held by a terrorist. The terrorist agreed and later killed him. Beltrame was honored posthumously, and his act is commemorated in Counter-Strike.
Officer Jacques Beltram is currently valued at about $15.
Affordable CT Agents (Part 2)
Another budget option is 'Blueberries' Buckshot from NSWC SEAL, introduced in Operation Shattered Web. He is easy to recognize by the helmet with binoculars attached to it.
What sets Buckshot apart from the other SEALs is his passion for firearms, which earned him the nickname "the Gun Sommelier." He has tried every gun he could get his hands on. His colleagues respect his opinion on weapons but avoid starting that conversation without a reason, because he is hard to stop once he gets going.
Blueberries Buckshot costs about $10. For more options by different criteria, see our CS2 agent tier list.
The Most Expensive Agents
The most expensive agent in CS2 right now is Sir Bloody Miami Darryl of the Professionals, at around $70 on LIS-SKINS. His story is covered in detail in our article on the most expensive agent.
Next comes Getaway Sally, the red-haired gangster from the same Professionals. She costs about $65.
On the CT side, the priciest agents today are Primeiro Tenente of the Brazilian 1st Battalion (about $70) and D Squadron Officer of the NZSAS (about $65). Next is Cmdr. Davida 'Goggles' Fernandez of the SEAL Frogman: Fernandez costs about $40.
Another notable CT agent from the same faction is Cmdr. Frank 'Wet Sox' Baroud. Frank Baroud costs about $35. More popular models are collected in our top 10 CS2 agent skins.
When choosing an agent, weigh all three criteria together. The compact, dark models of the Professionals and the FBI give a small edge in visibility, budget agents at $5 to $15 let you change your look for the price of one inexpensive skin, and the Darryl variants or Primeiro Tenente are closer to collector pieces. Agents are tradable items, so you can buy any of them on LIS-SKINS and pick it in your CS2 loadout for the T or CT side. An overview of every faction is in our guide to types of agents in CS2.
Prices for agents move with demand, so the figures above are approximate: check the current price on each agent page before buying. For example, most of the budget agents in this list cost one to four dollars in 2023 and now sell for $5 to $15, while the Darryl variants have stayed at the top of the agent market throughout.
