A knife's price in CS2 comes down to four factors: demand for the specific model and finish, whether it is StatTrak, the float range (which wears exist at all) and the rarity of the finish variant, such as Doppler gems. That is why two similar knives can differ in price several times over: a Flip Knife starts at a couple of hundred dollars, while a Karambit | Doppler Black Pearl costs around $8,350. Rarity alone does not guarantee a high price, because the skin market follows the same supply and demand rules as any other marketplace.
Compare the Flip Knife | Slaughter and the Flip Knife | Fade. Both share the same rarity, yet in Minimal Wear the Fade costs about $360 and the Slaughter about $240: Fade is more popular, and the gap between demand and supply pushes its price up. Since October 2025 knives can also be obtained by crafting them from five Covert skins, but demand still sets the final price. The full list of models with prices is in our guide to all CS2 knives; below we look at the other factors behind CS2 knife prices.
StatTrak counter
For most weapons the rule is simple: StatTrak versions cost more. The rarity ratio for knives is about the same, with one StatTrak item for every ten regular ones. On knives, though, the counter's effect on price is far less predictable. A StatTrak Flip Knife | Slaughter in Factory New costs about $420 versus around $270 for the regular one, yet a Factory New Karambit | Doppler Phase 4 sells for about $1,250 either way, and the StatTrak Ruby is even slightly cheaper than the regular version.
It comes down to how the counter looks. On a gun, a small screen with a number fits naturally. On knives, the developers placed the digits directly on the body, and many collectors feel this spoils the look of the item.
Float value
A skin's price also depends on its float range. For most items it runs from zero to values close to one, so all five wears are possible. Some finishes, however, have a range so narrow that they exist only in Factory New and Minimal Wear. The Karambit | Doppler has a float of 0 to 0.08, and Minimal Wear copies are rarer, so they sometimes cost more: Phase 2 in Minimal Wear goes for about $2,000 versus roughly $1,800 in Factory New. For more on how float sets the wear, see our CS2 skin wear guide.
Rare finish
Finally, how much a knife costs in CS2 depends on the rarity of its finish, and here too things are not straightforward. The Doppler series has several rare variants, the gems: Sapphire, Ruby and Black Pearl. Black Pearl is the rarest, and on the Karambit it is currently the most expensive at around $8,350, followed by Ruby at about $7,350 and Sapphire at about $4,850. Price is driven by taste as well as rarity, though: for a long time the bright blue Sapphire outpriced Black Pearl on several knives because many players simply like it more, while on the Karambit today the order is different. The regular phases of the same knife start at about $1,250. How Doppler differs from Fade is covered in our Fade vs Doppler comparison.
So predicting a knife's price from its formal characteristics alone is tricky: player preferences and swings in demand have a noticeable effect. Before you sell or buy a knife, make sure the price is right. LIS-SKINS makes that easy: you can compare the prices of different variants of a skin, pick the right one and buy it for less than on the Steam Market. The record-setters are collected in our list of the most expensive knives in CS2. All prices in this article are approximate and change daily.
