CS2 Trade-Up Guide

CS2 Float Values Explained: Wear Tiers, Trade-Up Math, and Why 0.07 Matters

What are CS2 float values?

Every CS2 skin in existence has a float value — a 32-bit floating point number between 0.00 (perfect) and 1.00 (destroyed). Float is set when the skin is generated (from a case, a contract output, or a drop) and is permanent. You cannot change a skin's float; you can only inspect it and sell it.

Float values are uniformly distributed within a skin's wear range. If an AK-47 Redline has a min-float of 0.10 and a max-float of 0.70, any value in that range is equally likely on a freshly generated Redline.

How does float map to wear tier?

The wear-tier mapping is fixed across all CS2 skins:

Two skins with floats of 0.0699 and 0.0701 are visually almost identical — but the first is Factory New and the second is Minimal Wear, and FN typically sells for 1.5–3× the MW price. These boundary points are where price cliffs live.

How is float calculated for a CS2 trade-up output?

The Valve formula is:

output_float = (avg_input_float × (output_max − output_min)) + output_min

Where:

• avg_input_float = the arithmetic mean of your 10 inputs' float values.
• output_min / output_max = the chosen output skin's wear range (varies per skin).

Critically, avg_input_float is treated as a normalized 0–1 value, not the raw float. The normalization is implicit: you multiply by the output's range. That means a low average input float pushes the output toward its skin-specific minimum, and a high average pushes toward the skin-specific maximum.

Worked example: AK-47 Redline trade-up output

Suppose you assemble 10 Mil-Spec inputs from the Train Collection with floats averaging 0.05. The output rolls AK-47 Redline (Restricted), which has a min-float of 0.10 and a max-float of 0.70:

output_float = (0.05 × (0.70 − 0.10)) + 0.10
             = (0.05 × 0.60) + 0.10
             = 0.03 + 0.10
             = 0.13

0.13 is Minimal Wear (the MW range is 0.07–0.15). If your average input float had been 0.084, the math gives 0.1504 — Field-Tested. The same trade-up, with a float average shift of 0.034, produces a skin that sells for roughly half. This is why float targeting matters more than skin selection.

How do I check the float of a CS2 skin before buying?

Three main options:

• CSFloat browser extension: Adds inline float values to every Steam Market listing.
• CSFloat / Skinport listings: Display float values natively.
• CS2 in-game inspect: Right-click a skin, choose Inspect, and read the wear value.

For trade-up input shopping, the browser extension is by far the fastest. A profitable contract usually requires inputs at a specific float (e.g. "below 0.10") and you cannot tell from the Steam listing thumbnail alone.

The four float boundary numbers every CS2 trader should memorize

• 0.07 — Factory New / Minimal Wear boundary. The biggest single-skin price cliff in CS2.
• 0.15 — Minimal Wear / Field-Tested boundary. Critical for trade-up output skins because most outputs roll into FT.
• 0.38 — Field-Tested / Well-Worn boundary. WW listings are often 2–4× cheaper than FT.
• 0.45 — Well-Worn / Battle-Scarred boundary. Matters most for high-tier knives and gloves.

If your trade-up output float lands within 0.01 of one of these boundaries, you are sitting on a float-edge contract — see our post on CS2 trade-up edge cases.

Frequently Asked Questions