The Most Expensive CS2 Knife Skins

The most expensive CS2 knife you can put a market price on is the Karambit | Crimson Web in Factory New: $19,267.64 on SkinsMonkey on October 20, 2026. The most valuable single knife is a one-off. A Factory New Karambit | Case Hardened with pattern #387, the best-known Blue Gem, drew a reported private offer of 1.2 million euros in late 2021, and its owner turned it down. That copy has never sold in public, so no knife has a confirmed seven-figure sale.

This post is about what makes a knife cost that much: the model, Factory New on finishes that almost never come that clean, Doppler gems, fade percentage and Case Hardened patterns, plus the record deals that were actually reported. For the other end of the market, see our cheapest CS2 knives; for the knives we would carry ourselves, see the best CS2 knives. The three lists do not overlap.

Every price below comes from the SkinsMonkey WIKI, where each knife skin has its own page with a price for every wear, and every knife on this page can be traded with our bots on SkinsMonkey.

Top 12 by Factory New Price: Karambits and Doppler Gems Run the Board

How we ranked them: the SkinsMonkey WIKI price for a Factory New, non-StatTrak copy of each knife skin, checked on October 20, 2026. It is the price of a standard copy. Float within the wear, the pattern seed and a rare fade can push one specific knife far above it, and we cover those below. StatTrak versions are left out. Several of these knives had no Factory New copy in stock on SkinsMonkey that day, which tells you how rare they are.

The rest of the top 12 follows the same logic. Nine of the twelve knives are Doppler or Gamma Doppler gems. The other three are plain finishes from 2013 that only get here in Factory New: Crimson Web, Karambit | Night and Gut Knife | Scorched. The Gut Knife is the clearest case. A Field-Tested copy was $66.09 on October 20, 2026; Factory New was $11,773.94, with none in stock. Model matters too: the M9 Bayonet | Doppler Black Pearl costs a little over half of the Karambit version, and the Butterfly Knife | Doppler Ruby sits fourth, ahead of every M9 Bayonet and Karambit Ruby.

The M9 Bayonet | Doppler Ruby, Karambit | Doppler Ruby, Butterfly Knife | Gamma Doppler Emerald, Karambit | Gamma Doppler Emerald and M9 Bayonet | Gamma Doppler Emerald are all within about $1,600 of each other. At that level a small price move can change the order, so check the live column before you plan a trade around it.

Model Before Finish: Why Karambit, Butterfly and M9 Cost More

ALL CS2 KNIVES + KNIFE ANIMATIONS (including rare inspect)SkinsMonkey on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

In the video above we go through every CS2 knife with its animations, including the rare inspects. Animations are a big part of why the Karambit, Butterfly Knife and M9 Bayonet hold every spot in our top 12 except one. Put the same finish on different models and the gap is easy to see. With Doppler Ruby in Factory New on October 20, 2026, the Butterfly was $14,613.58, the M9 Bayonet $10,566.40 and the Karambit $10,476.19, while the Talon Knife | Doppler Ruby was $3,875.51 and the Skeleton Knife | Doppler Ruby $2,969.75.

The same red gem costs almost five times as much on a Butterfly as on a Skeleton Knife. If you want a gem phase and the finish matters more to you than the model, the smaller knives are where your budget goes furthest.

Factory New on 2013 Finishes: the 0.06 to 0.07 Window

A skin counts as Factory New below 0.07 float. Finishes such as Doppler, Fade and Case Hardened start at 0.00, so a clean copy is normal for them. Crimson Web, Night, Scorched and Forest DDPAT start at 0.06 and run to 0.80, which leaves a sliver at the top of the range for Factory New. That sliver is the whole story behind three of our top 12. The Karambit Crimson Web across all five wears, on October 20:

Karambit | Crimson Web	SkinsMonkey price, Oct 20	In stock, Oct 20
Battle-Scarred	$778.72	2
Well-Worn	$872.57	0
Field-Tested	$854.77	4
Minimal Wear	$1,423.84	3
Factory New	$19,267.64	0

Four wears sit within about $650 of each other, then the price multiplies by more than thirteen. The same jump shows up on the other old finishes. The M9 Bayonet | Forest DDPAT was $408.86 in Minimal Wear and $6,837.98 in Factory New, almost 17 times more, and the Karambit | Night went from $866.80 to $10,256.75. If you are new to float values, our CS2 wear levels guide explains the full scale.

Doppler Phases and Gems: Ruby, Sapphire, Black Pearl and Emerald

Doppler arrived on knives with the Chroma Case in January 2015. Every Doppler knife rolls one of four regular phases or one of three gems: Ruby (red), Sapphire (blue) and Black Pearl (dark blue and purple). Gamma Doppler followed in 2016 with its own four phases and one gem, Emerald (green). Both finishes only come in Factory New and Minimal Wear, so wear barely moves the price: a Butterfly Knife Doppler Ruby was $14,613.58 in Factory New and $14,332.98 in Minimal Wear on October 20, 2026.

The phase is what you pay for. On the same Butterfly Knife in Factory New, Doppler Phase 2 was $5,741.14, Sapphire $8,814.77, Ruby $14,613.58 and Black Pearl $16,984.70. On the Karambit, Gamma Doppler Emerald cost more than three times Gamma Doppler Phase 2: $9,813.87 against $3,077.29.

The Steam Community Market lists every phase under the same name, so a Ruby and a Phase 3 share one listing title. On SkinsMonkey each phase and gem has its own WIKI page and price. Check the phase on the item itself before you accept any trade for a Doppler.

Fade Percentage and Fire and Ice: Pattern Premiums Our Price Does Not Show

Two knives with the same name and wear can still trade far apart. On a Karambit | Fade the fade percentage runs from about 80% to 100%. It is set by the pattern seed when the knife is unboxed and cannot be changed later. A higher percentage means more pink and yellow and less purple at the tip, and copies close to 100% trade above the standard price. Our WIKI price is for a standard copy: $2,262.04 in Factory New on October 20, 2026, and $2,830.43 for the Butterfly Knife | Fade.

Marble Fade works the same way. The Butterfly Knife | Marble Fade was $1,826.54 in Factory New, and patterns that show only red and blue, which players call Fire and Ice, sell for more than that. If a trade offer looks generous for a Fade or Marble Fade, check the pattern before anything else.

Case Hardened Blue Gems: When the Pattern Is Worth More Than the Knife

Every Case Hardened knife gets a pattern seed between 0 and 999 when it is unboxed, and the seed decides how much of the blade is blue, gold or purple. Most copies are a mix. The few that are almost fully blue on the playside are the Blue Gems, and they are priced one by one, by seed and float, not by wear.

For scale: a standard Karambit | Case Hardened ran from $925.41 in Battle-Scarred to $2,281.12 in Factory New on October 20, 2026. A Blue Gem copy of the same knife starts where that price ends. Seed #387 on the Karambit is the best known, and our Karambit Blue Gem guide covers the other top seeds.

Reported Record Sales: Six Figures Yes, a Confirmed $1M Knife No

Headlines about “$1M knives” mostly describe valuations and declined offers. These are the deals that were reported, with the year:

• 2021, an offer that was turned down. The owner of the Factory New Karambit | Case Hardened #387 received a private offer of 1.2 million euros, paid in Bitcoin through a middleman, and declined it. The knife has not sold publicly since.
• 2023, a reported private sale of $169,000. A Field-Tested Blue Gem Karambit Case Hardened was unboxed by a player with fewer than 40 hours in the game and reportedly sold to a collector for $169,000.
• June 2024, the largest reported skin deal. A StatTrak Factory New AK-47 | Case Hardened with pattern #661 and four Titan (Holo) stickers was reported sold in a private deal for over $1 million. The buyer stayed anonymous. No knife has a reported deal of that size.

So the honest answer to “has a CS2 knife sold for $1 million” is no, not that anyone has confirmed. The Factory New #387 Karambit would probably be the first, if its owner ever sells.

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Getting a Five-Figure Knife Without Opening Cases

Valve’s published odds put any knife or gloves at 0.26% per case, about one case in 385, as our CS2 case odds guide explains. The chance of a specific gem, a Factory New Crimson Web or a Blue Gem is a small fraction of that. For a knife in this price range, trading for the exact copy is the only realistic route. Before you accept an offer:

• Read the exact float as well as the wear name. On Crimson Web, Night, Scorched and Forest DDPAT, Factory New is a 0.06 to 0.07 window and the price reflects it.
• Check the phase on any Doppler. A Ruby and a Phase 2 can share a market name and differ by thousands of dollars.
• Check the pattern seed on Fade, Marble Fade and Case Hardened. Our prices are for a standard copy, so a rare pattern sits above them.
• Know what you already own. Our CS2 Inventory Value Checker prices any public inventory by name and wear. It does not add pattern or fade premiums.

When you find the copy you want, you can trade your own skins toward it on SkinsMonkey, where trades with our bots go through instantly. Next in this series are the cheapest CS2 knives and the best CS2 knives; for rifles, gloves and everything else, see our list of the most expensive CS2 skins.

AC

Bottom line

If you want a gem, buy it on a smaller knife; if you want the model, take a regular phase.

The same Doppler Ruby cost $2,969.75 on a Skeleton Knife and $14,613.58 on a Butterfly Knife on October 20, 2026, so the gem comes far cheaper on a smaller model. If the Butterfly is the knife you are after, Phase 2 was $5,741.14 in Factory New that day, about a third of the Black Pearl price.

On Crimson Web, Night, Scorched and Forest DDPAT, Factory New is a 0.06 to 0.07 float window, so Minimal Wear is the sensible buy: a Karambit Crimson Web was $1,423.84 in Minimal Wear against $19,267.64 in Factory New on the same day. On Fade, Marble Fade and Case Hardened our prices cover a standard copy, which means a high fade, a Fire and Ice pattern or a Blue Gem seed is priced on its own. Check float, phase and seed on the exact item before you accept an offer.

Compare knife pricesEvery knife and Doppler phase, live prices on SkinsMonkey

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