What is the CS2 Armory Pass?
The Armory is an in-game store Valve added to CS2 on 2 October 2024. You do not buy its items with money directly. You buy an Armory Pass, play the game, and earn Armory Credits as you earn XP. Then you spend those credits on items in the Armory.
The release notes put it in three steps: "Purchase and activate an Armory Pass to start earning Armory Credits," "Make progress toward credits whenever you earn XP with an active Armory Pass," and "Redeem credits for items in the Armory."
Valve's Armory page answers the basic questions in its FAQ:
- Armory Passes can be bought by accounts with Prime Status, in the game and on the web.
- "Items in the Armory are acquired exclusively with Armory Credits."
- Each pass includes 40 credits.
- "You can activate up to five Armory Passes at one time."
- Passes and credits cannot be traded or sold on the Steam Community Market.
- "The only way to earn Armory Credits is by earning XP with an active Armory Pass."
- Pass progress is constant, so an XP bonus or penalty does not change how fast you earn credits.
One detail on that page is out of date. The FAQ says the first credit is earned immediately. A later update on 7 November 2024 changed that: "Activating an Armory Pass no longer grants the first Armory Credit immediately. All 40 Armory Credits can be earned by playing and earning XP."
How much does the Armory Pass cost?
The price we found is $15.99 in US dollars. That figure comes from third-party guides, not from Valve. SkinSniper, The Spike and White.market all list $15.99, and two of them list €15.19 in euros.
Valve's own Armory page does not show a price on the web, and we found no Valve announcement that states it. The price appears in the game and at checkout. So treat $15.99 as a reported price, and check it before you buy. Other currencies have their own price.
At $15.99 for 40 credits, one credit costs about 40 cents. We use that figure in the math below.
What can you buy with Armory Credits?
Valve does not list credit costs on its web pages. The costs below are the ones that three guides agree on. They are not from Valve, and Valve can change them.
| Armory item | Credits (reported) | Pass money per item |
|---|---|---|
| Sticker | 1 | about $0.40 |
| Case | 2 | about $0.80 |
| Charm | 3 | about $1.20 |
| Weapon collection item | 4 | about $1.60 |
| Limited Edition Item | Sources disagree | Not worked out |
Sources: SkinSniper, The Spike, White.market. "Pass money per item" is our math at $15.99 for 40 credits.
What is on offer changes over time. Valve's release notes record the changes:
| Date | What changed in the Armory |
|---|---|
| 2 Oct 2024 | Launch: 3 weapon collections, 2 charm collections, 2 sticker collections, the Gallery Case, and the Heat Treated Desert Eagle |
| 15 Jan 2025 | Desert Eagle Heat Treated no longer available |
| 31 Mar 2025 | Fever Case added, plus a revamped Train collection and the XM1014 Solitude as a Limited Edition Item |
| 1 Oct 2025 | Added Missing Link Community Charms, Dr. Boom Charms, 2025 Community Stickers and Sugarface 2 Stickers. Removed the Gallery Case, Graphic Collection and Character Craft stickers |
| 21 Jan 2026 | AK-47 Aphrodite added as a Limited Edition Item |
| 8 Jul 2026 | Added the Spy Tech and Arabesque collections and two sticker collections. Removed Train 2025, Sport and Field, Sugarface 2 and Elemental Craft |
Sources: Valve release notes of 2 Oct 2024, 15 Jan 2025, 31 Mar 2025, 1 Oct 2025, 21 Jan 2026 and 8 Jul 2026.
We found no Valve note removing the Fever Case from the Armory as of 27 September 2026. The Armory screen in the game is the only full list of what is available today.
Is the Armory Pass worth it if you redeem cases?
Cases are the one Armory item we can value cleanly. You choose the exact case, it costs a fixed 2 credits, and it has a market price. Here is the math for a full pass spent on Fever Cases.
| Step | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Pass price | $15.99 | Third-party guides (see above) |
| Credits per pass | 40 | Valve Armory FAQ |
| Fever Cases per pass | 20 (at 2 credits each) | Third-party guides |
| Fever Case, lowest Steam Market listing | $0.88 | CSRated price snapshot, 27 September 2026 |
| What a seller keeps from a $0.88 Steam sale | $0.78 | Steam's 5% and 10% fees |
| 20 cases sold on Steam | about $15.60 in Steam Wallet funds | Our math |
| Fever Case, lowest cash listing | $0.58 | CSRated price snapshot, 27 September 2026 |
| 20 cases at the cash price | $11.60 before any selling fee | Our math |
The Steam fees come from the Community Market FAQ: a 5% Steam fee and a 10% game fee on each sale. The Steam fee calculator does the same sum for any price.
So on these prices, a pass of Fever Cases is close to break-even if you sell on Steam, and a clear loss if you want cash. Four more things push it further down:
- Steam Wallet money cannot be withdrawn. The same FAQ says Community Market funds stay in your Steam Wallet.
- You wait 7 days. Valve's launch notes say all items from the in-game store, "including the Armory," have a 7-day re-trade and re-market restriction.
- The lowest listing can move. Other sellers set that price, and it can drop during your 7-day wait.
- Your time. Credits come from XP. Valve does not say on its Armory page how much play one credit takes.
What if you open the cases instead?
Then the numbers get much worse. Each opening needs a key, which costs $2.49 in the game. Twenty keys cost $49.80.
On 27 September 2026 prices, our Case EV tool put the average value of one Fever Case opening at $1.39. Twenty openings would be worth about $27.90 on average. Add the pass and the keys, and you would spend about $65.79 to get items worth about $27.90 on average, before any selling fee.
That is the average over many players. Most people would get twenty cheap Mil-Spec and Restricted skins. You can see how twenty openings tend to go, for free, in the Fever Case simulator. If you open real cases, set a limit first. Our responsible gaming page explains how.
Can you work out the value of collections, charms and stickers?
Not honestly. When you redeem credits for a weapon collection, charm or sticker collection, you do not choose the exact item, and Valve's pages we checked do not publish the odds for what you get. Without odds, there is no expected value to calculate.
You can still see what the possible items trade for. Our collection pages list every skin with its price range, for example the Arabesque Collection, the Spy Tech Collection and the Overpass 2024 Collection. A price list shows what each item trades for, not how likely you are to get it, so it cannot tell you what a redemption is worth on average.
Limited Edition Items are the same story. The guides we checked disagree on how many credits they cost, so we do not work out a value.
So, is the CS2 Armory Pass worth it?
It depends on what you want from it.
- If you want money back: on 27 September 2026 prices, a pass spent on Fever Cases returned about $15.60 in Steam Wallet funds, a little under the reported $15.99 price. In cash, it returned much less. Case prices move, so run the math with today's price from the Fever Case page before you decide.
- If you want a specific Armory item that you will use, the pass is a way to get it, and value math matters less. Check first that the item is still in the Armory.
- If you plan to open what you redeem, expect to lose money on average. The keys cost far more than the pass.
The Armory can also change what it offers at any time, as the table above shows. Our guide on how case drop pool changes affect prices explains how those changes have moved case prices before, and the newest CS2 cases guide shows where the Armory cases fit.