Can you trade up to a knife in CS2?
Short answer: Yes. Since the CS2 update of October 23, 2025 you can put 5 Covert skins into a trade up contract and receive a knife or a pair of gloves from the case collection of one of your inputs. Before that update, knives could not be obtained by trade up at all.
The rules in one place
- Inputs: 5 Covert skins from weapon case collections (map/operation collections have no knife pool).
- Pool: every knife and glove of the input’s case; each input gives its case a 20% share.
- Odds: 1 ÷ pool size per item – 43 cases supported, pools from 13 to 65 items.
- StatTrak™: 5 StatTrak™ reds → StatTrak™ knife; gloves are excluded.
- Float: normalised average of the inputs mapped onto the knife’s range.
Which knives can you get?
Only what the case drops: Kukri/Nomad/Skeleton/Paracord/Survival from the newer cases, Karambit/M9/Butterfly/Bayonet and classics from the older ones, gloves from Clutch, Fracture, Recoil, Revolution, Snakebite and the Glove Case. Every type has its own page, e.g. Karambit, Butterfly Knife, Kukri Knife.
Is it worth it?
Rarely on average – most pools are full of cheap finishes, so the expected value is 20–50% below the cost of the reds. It is a gamble with known odds, not an investment. Run the numbers first.
Related questions
Can you trade up to gloves in CS2?
Yes, with 5 normal (non-StatTrak™) Covert skins from a case that contains gloves.
Can you trade up a knife into a better knife?
No. Knives and gloves cannot be used as trade up inputs.
What is the cheapest way to get a knife by trade up?
Five of the cheapest Covert of a case, usually Battle-Scarred – see the cheapest knife trade up page for today’s prices.