CS2 Knife Types Ranked: All 20 Models by Price (2026)

Short answer: CS2 has 20 knife models, and every single one of them shares the exact same 0.26% case drop odds. The price gap between a $37 Navaja and a $10,000+ Butterfly Knife has nothing to do with rarity or drop rate, it comes entirely from the model itself, the finish applied to it, and demand. Navaja, Shadow Daggers, and Gut Knife sit at the cheap end, often under $60 even in decent condition. Karambit and Butterfly Knife command the highest base prices of any model, frequently $300-400+ even in a plain Vanilla finish before any skin is applied.

Why identical drop odds still produce wildly different prices

Answer: every knife slot in every case rolls the same 0.26% chance, but which of the 20 models you actually get is randomized separately, and the market prices each model completely independently based on demand, not on how it dropped.

This trips a lot of people up. A Karambit and a Navaja Knife are equally likely to drop from the same case, roughly 1 in 385 openings for the knife slot overall, then split evenly-ish across whichever models are in that case’s specific pool. But a Karambit’s blade shape and animation have been popular since 2013, and popularity plus a limited base supply is what drives its price, not any mechanical advantage over a Navaja. See our most expensive CS2 knives and skins roundup for how far that demand premium can stack once you add a rare pattern on top of an already-expensive model.

All 20 knife models and when they were added

Answer: knives shipped in five waves since 2013, and which wave a model came from has no bearing on its current price, some of the oldest models are also the cheapest.

That’s 20 models total. A model’s release date correlates loosely with supply, older models have had more time to circulate, but demand and blade aesthetics do far more to set price than age alone.

The cheapest knife models to actually buy

Answer: Navaja Knife, Shadow Daggers, and Gut Knife consistently sit at the bottom of the price range, with budget finishes on any of the three sometimes trading in the same $37-55 window.

If a knife itself is the goal and the specific model doesn’t matter to you, buying one of these three directly on a marketplace beats opening cases in every scenario, the identical 0.26% odds mean cases give you no edge, and you’d need to spend far more than $37-55 in cases on average to land a knife slot at all. Budget finishes like Rust Coat, Scorched, Safari Mesh, and Forest DDPAT are what keep these models affordable, the same base knife in a sought-after finish still costs meaningfully more. For contrast, the cheapest weapon skins in the game run well under $1, a fraction of even a budget knife’s $37 floor, see our cheapest CS2 skins roundup for why that gap between the two categories is structural rather than a matter of finish popularity. We’ve written up the specific cheapest picks and the exact prices in more depth in our cheapest CS2 knife guide, including whether the five-Covert trade-up route into a random knife is actually worth it compared to buying direct.

The most expensive base models

Answer: Karambit and Butterfly Knife carry the highest floor price of any model, often $300-400+ even in a plain Vanilla finish with no skin applied at all.

That’s before pattern, float, or StatTrak stack on top. A Butterfly or Karambit with a genuinely rare pattern, like the Case Hardened seeds covered in our Case Hardened blue gem guide or the Doppler phases in our Doppler phases guide, is exactly how you end up in the five and six-figure range covered in our most expensive knives roundup. Karambit specifically has its own dedicated pattern breakdown, our Karambit Case Hardened blue gem guide covers the full ten-pattern tier list and how pattern #387 became CS2’s single most valuable item, ahead of every weapon skin on the site. If you’re trying to land a specific model rather than whatever a case gives you, a trade-up contract at least lets you gamble with input skins that retain resale value if it doesn’t hit.

FAQ

Where to go next

See our most expensive CS2 knives and skins roundup for where the record-setting patterns on these same models actually sold, our Karambit Case Hardened blue gem guide for the full pattern breakdown behind the priciest model on this list, our cheapest CS2 knife guide for the specific budget picks and how they compare to gambling for one, our cheapest CS2 skins roundup for the other end of the market entirely, and our trade-up contracts guide for the one legitimate way to gamble for a specific knife without opening cases blind.