All 20 CS2 knives, ranked by what the market pays for the shape

How this ranking works

The rank is the shape premium: the lowest ask for a worn Safari Mesh copy of each knife, read on 9 September 2026. Safari Mesh exists on all 20 types, carries no pattern or phase premium, and trades in volume, so its worn price is the cleanest measure of what buyers pay for a silhouette and its animations before any finish enters the picture.

Two things this ranking is not. It is not a "best knife" opinion — see the CS2 knife tier list for that argument. And it is not a guide to the most expensive items, which are phase and pattern outliers on three shapes; those live in the most expensive CS2 knife file. Prices below are bands. Anything narrower would be pretending.

The index

"Not read" means we did not pull that finish on this check-date and will not guess it. The per-wear floor reads behind every band are listed in the site's facts file and re-checked monthly.

Tier one: Butterfly, Karambit, M9 Bayonet

Three shapes carry a floor above $250 before any finish is applied, and they are the same three that carried it before the crash. The Butterfly Knife tops the index at $408–428 for a worn Safari Mesh — the flip-open animation is the most-copied in the game and the market prices it accordingly. Its Fade sits at $2,100–2,250 in Factory New; the full breakdown, including which of its five cases guarantees the shape in a trade-up, is in the Butterfly Knife file.

The Karambit is second at $365–380 and is the type with the widest finish ladder: from that floor to a Fade at $1,750–1,850, a Crimson Web that jumps from $590 in Field-Tested to $6,400+ in Factory New, Ruby and Sapphire phases in the $4,400–13,000 band, and the pattern-387 Case Hardened that has drawn seven-figure offers without a verified sale. The Karambit file walks the whole ladder with dates.

The M9 Bayonet is third at $259–276 and is the cheapest of the three to own in a top finish: its Fade and Doppler both sit around $885–1,030, roughly half a Karambit Fade. It is also the knife everyone quotes for the crash, because its Fade went from about $2,450 the night before the update to a $709 low two days later. See the M9 Bayonet file.

The mid-shelf: Talon, Stiletto, Bayonet, Skeleton, Flip

Five shapes sit between $100 and $190 at the floor. The Talon Knife ($176–190) is the standout — a Horizon-era karambit-alike whose worn floor is nearly twice the Stiletto's ($112–121) from the same case pool, which tells you how much the community rates the Talon's heft over the Stiletto's flick.

The Bayonet ($107–117) is the original Arms Deal knife and the one whose Fade is cheapest among the 2013 five at $330–385; its long, plain profile is either classic or boring depending on who you ask, and the Bayonet file takes a side. The Skeleton Knife ($106–114) is the only Shattered Web shape with a three-figure floor, priced on its finger-ring spin. The Flip Knife ($102–108) rounds out the shelf as the cheapest way into an Arms Deal silhouette with a proper Fade; details in the Flip Knife file.

The value shapes: Nomad, Classic, Falchion, Huntsman, Ursus, Bowie

Six shapes cost $42–66 at the floor and most of them are better knives than that number suggests. The Nomad ($61–66) is the best-regarded of the Shattered Web four. The Classic Knife ($56–68) is the CS 1.6 homage from the CS20 Case, with only 13 finishes and no Fade — its top end is Case Hardened and Crimson Web rather than Doppler.

The Falchion ($49–56) and Huntsman ($46–58) both drop from their own 2014–15 cases and from the shared Spectrum / Riptide / Dreams & Nightmares pool, which is why their supply is deep and their floors low; their Fades sit at $185–250. Both have files: Falchion and Huntsman. The Ursus ($45–50) and Bowie ($42–50) are large, slow-animated blades that the market has never loved; if you want a big knife cheaply, this is where it lives.

The floor: Gut, Paracord, Survival, Kukri, Shadow Daggers, Navaja

Six shapes cost $34–43 in worn Safari Mesh on 9 September 2026, and any of them is a real ★ knife with the same drop rarity as a Karambit. The Gut Knife ($40–43) is the cheapest of the five 2013 originals and the only floor shape with an Arms Deal finish ladder — a Gut Doppler is $110–130. The Gut Knife file explains why that is the best-value Doppler in the game.

The Kukri ($35–41) is the newest knife — Kilowatt Case, February 2024 — and already trades at the floor because supply from two active cases is plentiful. The Paracord and Survival ($36–40) are the plain Shattered Web pair; the Shadow Daggers ($35–41) are the dual-wield oddity with the highest daily sales count of any knife on third-party trackers; and the Navaja ($34–37) is the bottom of the index, mostly because its inspect animation is the least loved in the game. If you are choosing purely on price, the cheapest CS2 knives page does the per-wear maths.

What the October 2025 trade-up update did to every band

On 22 October 2025 Valve let five Covert skins be traded up into a knife or glove from the input case's rare pool, and the whole index repriced in about 48 hours. Every all-time low we can find on a common Karambit, M9, Butterfly, Bayonet, Flip, Falchion, Huntsman or Gut finish is dated 24 October 2025. The peaks, by contrast, cluster on 5–6 May 2025.

The dispersion matters more than the headline. Measured peak-to-trough: Karambit Fade $5,540 → $1,150 (−79%), M9 Fade $2,850 → $709 (−75%), Butterfly Fade $5,630 → $1,400 (−75%), Karambit Tiger Tooth $2,160 → $527 (−76%). Recovery since has been partial: those four sat at $1,790, $890, $2,173 and $838 on 9 September 2026 — up 26–59% from the low, still 61–69% below the peak. The full receipts, the May 2026 second leg and what it means for buying now are in how the trade-up update changed CS2 knife prices.

Which case drops which knife

Knife supply is decided by case pools, and the community item data makes the pools exact. The five 2013 shapes — Bayonet, Flip, Gut, Karambit, M9 — share one pool across sixteen cases from the original Weapon Case to Gamma 2. The Huntsman, Butterfly, Falchion, Shadow Daggers and Bowie each debuted in their own case and were then bundled together into Spectrum, Spectrum 2, Operation Riptide and Dreams & Nightmares, so those four cases roll a one-in-five shape before they roll a finish.

The Horizon four (Navaja, Stiletto, Talon, Ursus) come from Horizon, Danger Zone, Prisma and Prisma 2; the Shattered Web four (Nomad, Paracord, Skeleton, Survival) from Shattered Web, Fracture and Fever; the Classic only from CS20; the Kukri from Kilowatt and Gallery. Disclosed odds put a knife or glove at 0.26% per case (about one in 385), which is why every shape above is cheaper to buy than to open — and why this site does not review cases or link opening sites.

Re-check cadence and what moves a band

Bands on this page are re-read monthly and after any Valve change that touches knife supply, and the check-date at the top is the only date that matters. Three things move a band between reads. Trade-up output is the steady one: five Covert skins become a knife every day, the least-wanted shape in each pool absorbs the surplus, and that is why the floor shapes drifted from about $55 in May to $35 in September 2026 while the headline Fades held.

Case releases are the lumpy one. A new case that adds a shape to an active pool, or revives an old pool, resets the supply line for every knife in it — the Kukri reaching the floor within eighteen months of its 2024 release is the recent example. The collector end moves on its own calendar: a Crimson Web or a blue-gem seed reprices on one sale, not on volume. When a band here disagrees with what you can see live, the live number wins and the band is stale; tell the desk and it will be re-read.

Where to buy a CS2 knife

Buy on a marketplace, not from a case. Skinport charges sellers 8% (6% above €1,000) and buyers nothing; CSFloat charges sellers 2% with a 0.5–2.5% withdrawal fee; DMarket runs around 2% standard and up to about 10% on illiquid items; Steam's own market takes 15% and locks the proceeds to your wallet. Since the July 2025 Trade Protection change, trades are reversible for seven days and P2P markets credit sellers about eight days after delivery — budget for that if you are cycling a knife.

Links here go to established marketplaces only: SkinBaron, DMarket, white.market and Skinport for cash listings; Tradeit, SkinSwap, Swap.gg and CS.TRADE if you would rather trade skins in; Lis-Skins and CSFloat for float-and-pattern shopping. Some of these are affiliate links and may pay us a commission at no cost to you; that never changes a band or a rank, and none of them is a case-opening site.