The most profitable knife trade-ups in CS2 are a strategy that lets you land an expensive item while spending as little as possible. This process, known as an upgrade (Trade-Up), is based on combining ten skins of the same quality to get one random item of a higher tier. The key is picking the right “ingredients.”
In CS2, the trade-up contract is right in your inventory: open Inventory → pick Trade Up Contract / “Контракт обмена” → add the skins you need → confirm. The classic trade-up used to be “10 skins → 1 skin, one rarity higher,” and that’s still true for normal weapon upgrades. But knives and gloves follow a different rule: you need 5 “reds” (Covert) skins. It’s important to know the final item is random from the collection’s possible outcomes, but the wear (Factory New, Minimal Wear, etc.) will be averaged based on the skins you put in.
For a craft to be truly profitable, you need to look at three key factors:
The ideal setup is when your input cost is way lower than the average value of the outcomes — especially if the collection has several insanely expensive items.
In 2026, there isn’t one forever “best craft,” because the market moves — and after the 2025 update, prices for reds and golds got shaken up hard. But there are a few directions players usually go when they want to pull a knife with a decent chance at profit.
Below are 3 examples you can use as a template, since prices are always changing and you should always check the current numbers on marketplaces:
After these examples, the main thing is not blindly copying names, but understanding the logic: you pick a collection where the gold pool is expensive, and you build your input so you don’t kill the price with bad wear.
The most common newbie fail is grabbing the first “reds” they see, then wondering why the knife comes out in a state that’s honestly painful to even inspect. Better to keep it calm and stick to a few rules.
You must use Covert skins, and it’s usually best to use the cheapest reds in the collection you’re targeting, with low wear. After the 2025 update, a lot of “unloved” reds (SMGs, some FAMAS skins, etc.) got popular simply because people don’t mind burning them in a contract.
In practice, it’s simple: if you want a more predictable result, don’t mix extra collections and don’t shove in skins with wildly different wear.
Crafting is always a risk. The most common problem is that a player looks at one expensive knife and ignores the other outcomes — then acts surprised when they end up in the red.
The main risk tip is simple: set a craft budget in advance and don’t go past it. Contracts aren’t “mandatory,” and they’re definitely not something you should use to deal with tilt.
Even if the theory of “how to craft a knife for profit” sounds simple, in reality you need constant market tracking, calculations, and a real tolerance for risk. It’s often easier — and sometimes more profitable — to use specialised sites with cases and upgrade (Trade-Up) features.
These platforms often have handy craft calculators that show the exact expected value, and the whole process takes just a couple of clicks.
On top of that, on these sites you can often pull the knife you want from a case or get it through a guaranteed upgrade, which saves you from painful math and the uncertainty of doing it all yourself on Steam.
