The price you see on the Steam Market is not the price you get. Every CS2 sale carries two fees, and they are calculated in a way that confuses a lot of sellers. This guide shows exactly how much Valve keeps, what you can do with the money, and when selling somewhere else makes more sense.
How the Steam Market fee is calculated
Two fees apply to every Counter-Strike 2 item sold on the Steam Community Market:
- Steam transaction fee: 5%, charged by Steam on every Community Market sale.
- Game fee: 10%, set by the game's publisher. For CS2 that publisher is also Valve.
Both are calculated on the amount the seller receives and added on top. So the buyer pays the seller's amount × 1.15. That is why "15% fee" and "the seller gets 87%" are both true: 1 ÷ 1.15 = 0.87.
When you list an item, Steam shows two boxes: what you receive and what the buyer pays. Type either one and Steam fills in the other.
Steam Market fee table
What the seller receives at common sale prices. Figures are rounded to the cent.
| Buyer pays | Seller receives | Total fees |
|---|---|---|
| $0.03 | $0.01 | $0.02 |
| $1.00 | $0.87 | $0.13 |
| $5.00 | $4.35 | $0.65 |
| $10.00 | $8.70 | $1.30 |
| $50.00 | $43.48 | $6.52 |
| $100.00 | $86.96 | $13.04 |
| $1,000.00 | $869.57 | $130.43 |
Each fee has a minimum of 1 cent, which is why the cheapest possible listing is 3 cents: 1 cent for you and 1 cent for each fee. On very cheap items the minimums make the fee much bigger than 15% in percentage terms.
Break-even when flipping skins
If you buy an item to resell it on Steam, you need to sell it for at least 15% more than you paid just to get your money back:
Break-even sale price = purchase price × 1.15
Buy a skin for $20.00 and you have to sell it for $23.00 to break even. Prices also have to hold up while you wait, because items bought on the Steam Market cannot be traded for 7 days. Flipping on Steam only works when you expect a move bigger than the fee, which is rarer than most flipping videos suggest.
Trade-ups have the same problem in a different shape: the outputs have to beat the cost of the inputs after fees. Our TradeUpLab guide covers how to check that before you commit ten skins.
Limits, holds and trade protection
- Wallet limit: a Steam Wallet cannot hold more than 2,000 dollars, or the equivalent in your currency. You cannot list an item if the sale would take you over that limit.
- Maximum listing price: 1,800 dollars per item. Anything worth more is sold through third-party markets.
- Market purchase hold: items bought on the Steam Market cannot be traded for 7 days.
- Trade protection: since July 2025, CS2 items you receive in a trade are Trade Protected for 7 days. You can play with them, but you cannot trade or list them, and the trade can be reversed from your trade history during that window. It was introduced to fight scams and account theft.
- Steam Guard: unless the Steam Guard Mobile Authenticator has been active on your account for at least 7 days, trades and Market listings can be held for up to 15 days. Turning it on is the single best thing you can do for account security anyway.
What you can do with Steam Wallet money
Everything you earn on the Steam Market goes to your Steam Wallet. You can spend it on games, other items and Steam purchases. You cannot withdraw it to a bank account or card.
This is why the same skin usually sells for less on third-party marketplaces than on Steam. Steam money is locked inside Steam, while third-party markets pay out in cash, crypto or other methods. If you want real money for your items, compare the third-party price with the Steam price minus 15%, not with the headline Steam price.
When third-party markets make more sense
Third-party marketplaces usually charge sellers less than Steam's 15%, and they can pay out to the outside world. In exchange you take on counterparty risk: the site holds your item or your money for a while, and its rules, fees and payout times are set by the site, not by Valve.
Before you use one, check:
- The seller fee and any withdrawal fee, added together.
- How it handles trade protection, including who carries the risk if a trade is reversed.
- Payout methods, limits and how long withdrawals take.
- Recent user reports and how long the site has been operating.
- That it never asks for your Steam password or a login on a lookalike page. Fake login pages are the most common skin scam.
Our CS2 skin trading sites guide compares marketplaces on fees, payouts and safety. If you are wondering what the top end of the market looks like, see the most expensive CS skins ever sold.