Float value in CS2 is a number between 0.00 and 1.00 — officially called "Paint Wear" — that determines exactly how scratched, faded, or worn a skin looks, and it has an outsized effect on what that skin is worth. Whether you're inspecting a knife before buying, listing an account, or just trying to understand why two "Field-Tested" AK-47s carry wildly different price tags, float value is the single most important cosmetic stat you need to know.
What Is Float Value in CS2?
When a skin is generated as a drop or unboxed from a case, the game seeds it with a float value — a decimal between 0.00000000 and 1.00000000. This number is permanently baked into the item at creation and can never be changed. It controls how heavily the paint-wear texture is applied over the weapon model: the closer the float is to 0.00, the less wear is shown; the closer it is to 1.00, the more beaten-up the skin appears.
In the CS2 client you can inspect any skin and the float value shows up in the item details. Third-party tools surface the full eight-decimal precision, which matters enormously at the extremes. For everyday trading the number is usually rounded, but collectors care about every digit.
Float value is sometimes called the "Paint Wear" value in Valve's own data, but "float" is the universal community term. Understanding it is foundational to understanding the CS2 skin ecosystem and why identical-looking skins can trade for very different amounts.
The Five CS2 Wear Levels Explained
Float values are bucketed into five named wear tiers. The tier name is what you see on a market listing, but the actual float determines where within that tier a skin sits — and that sub-position matters for price.
| Wear Tier | Float Range | What It Looks Like |
|---|---|---|
| Factory New (FN) | 0.00 – 0.07 | Near-pristine, vibrant paint with minimal or no visible scratching |
| Minimal Wear (MW) | 0.07 – 0.15 | Very light scuffs, colours largely intact, barely distinguishable from FN on some patterns |
| Field-Tested (FT) | 0.15 – 0.38 | Visible wear, paint fading in high-contact areas; the most common tier in the economy |
| Well-Worn (WW) | 0.38 – 0.45 | Heavy scratching, significant colour loss, often close to Battle-Scarred visually |
| Battle-Scarred (BS) | 0.45 – 1.00 | Heavily degraded paint, large scratches and bare metal visible across most of the skin |
The tier label is what casual players see; the raw float is what traders watch. A Field-Tested skin at 0.151 looks almost identical to Minimal Wear, while one at 0.379 sits at the ugly end of the range — yet both are listed under the same "Field-Tested" tag.
Why Low Float Skins Cost More
The market prices wear along a curve, not a step. All else equal, a lower float means cleaner paint, and cleaner paint commands a higher price. The premium is especially steep inside the Factory New tier: the difference between a 0.001 float AK-47 and a 0.069 float copy can be significant, even though both are labelled Factory New.
The extreme low end — floats below 0.01, sometimes called "low float" — carries a collector premium that goes well beyond visual appearance. These items are genuinely rare because the distribution of float values across drops is not perfectly uniform, and sub-0.01 floats are statistically infrequent on many skins. Some communities even celebrate sub-0.001 floats as trophies.
Counterintuitively, the highest possible floats in Battle-Scarred can also carry a premium. A skin sitting near 0.999 is a max-float or near-max-float item, and those command their own collector interest — you pay a premium for the statistical rarity of hitting the extreme end of the range. The middle of the float spectrum — the "average" Field-Tested 0.25 — is where value is lowest relative to condition.
If you want to calculate how float contributes to an account's overall value, the CS2 value calculator can give you a market estimate for inventories including high-value skins.
How Finish Type Changes Float Sensitivity
Float value is not equally important across all skin types. The finish category determines how aggressively wear affects the visual result.
Solid colour and gradient finishes are relatively forgiving. These paints apply uniformly, so a Field-Tested copy may look nearly identical to a Factory New one to the naked eye. Float matters for pricing, but visual degradation is subtle.
Anodized and multicolour finishes are moderately sensitive — the metallic sheen begins to dull at higher floats, but the patterns hold reasonably well through the lower wear tiers.
Patina and spray finishes fade heavily with float. A high-float patina skin can look dramatically different from a low-float copy of the same skin, with large areas of bare metal or stark fading visible even in first-person.
For CS2 knife skins especially, float sensitivity varies dramatically. Doppler finishes are highly float-sensitive in price but not radically different visually; buyers pay for cleanliness because they intend to resell. A finish like Tiger Tooth shows wear only modestly — its float-price premium is flatter.
Float Caps: Not Every Skin Can Be Factory New
Each skin is assigned a minimum and maximum possible float at creation time, and those bounds are often narrower than the full 0.00–1.00 spectrum. A skin with a minimum float of 0.06 cannot be Factory New; the lowest tier it can achieve is Minimal Wear. Similarly, a skin with a maximum float of 0.44 will never drop as Battle-Scarred.
This has real market consequences. If a popular skin has a minimum float above 0.07, there are no Factory New versions in existence — the "best" copies are the lowest Minimal Wear floats, and they command FN-level premiums or higher simply because of scarcity. Always check a skin's float cap before assuming the condition tier you want is actually obtainable.
Float Value and Account Value
When an account changes hands, the inventory comes with it — and float value feeds directly into how much that inventory is worth. A CS2 account holding a knife with a 0.008 float is meaningfully more valuable than the same account with a 0.065 float version, even though both are technically Factory New. For buyers evaluating high-value accounts, checking the raw float on every significant knife or rare skin is a standard step in due diligence.
If you're trying to understand what a CS2 account is actually worth given its skin inventory, our guide on how much a CS2 account is worth walks through all the valuation factors beyond just float.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good float value in CS2?
"Good" depends on your goal. For visual quality, any float below 0.07 (Factory New) is excellent, and below 0.01 is exceptional. For value-buying, a Minimal Wear skin at 0.075 — barely above the FN threshold — often gives near-identical looks at a significant discount. If you're investing or collecting, prioritise the lowest available float within your budget on high-demand skins. For casual play, anything Field-Tested under 0.20 looks clean in-game where camera distance hides a lot of wear detail.
Do lower floats always cost more?
Almost always within the same tier, but not always across tiers. A mid-float Factory New (say 0.05) usually costs more than a low-float Minimal Wear (say 0.075) because the tier label drives market pricing and most buyers don't filter by raw float. However, in the specialist trading community — particularly for knives and rare skins — sub-0.01 floats break the tier premium entirely and trade at collector prices. Max-float Battle-Scarred items are the notable exception where higher float means higher price.
Does float matter on knives?
Yes, more than on almost any other item category. Knives are the centrepiece of a CS2 inventory and their floats are scrutinised closely before any trade. On blade-heavy finishes like Fade, Marble Fade, and Slaughter, visible wear is immediately noticeable in kill animations. On Doppler variants, buyers seek the cleanest possible float because resale value holds better for low floats. A knife at 0.003 versus 0.065 can differ substantially on the open market.
How do I check a skin's float value in CS2?
Inside the CS2 client, right-click any skin in your inventory, choose "Inspect in Game," and the item details panel shows the condition along with the float value. For skins you don't own, copy the inspect link and paste it into a third-party float checker — several free web tools accept inspect links and return the exact float. If you're evaluating an account before purchase, request inspect links for the high-value items and verify the floats independently before completing any transaction.
Ready to browse CS2 accounts with verified inventories? Visit our CS2 accounts marketplace to filter by rank and skin value, or use the CS2 value calculator to estimate what an account is worth before you buy. If you're a seller, see if you qualify to list on BuyAccount.