CS2 arbitrage means buying a skin on one marketplace and selling the same skin on another for more. It works because skins are identical everywhere, but every marketplace has its own buyers, sellers, fees and payout rules, so prices never quite line up.
It sounds like free money, and that is why most people lose at it. The gap you see on a price table is not the profit you keep. This guide shows how to tell the difference.
A worked example
Say a skin is listed for $45.00 on one marketplace and $52.00 on another, where the seller's fee is 5%, and taking money out costs 2%.
- You sell for $52.00 and the fee takes $2.60, which leaves $49.40.
- Withdrawing costs 2% of that, $0.99, which leaves $48.41.
- You paid $45.00, so the profit is $3.41, or 7.6%. The gap looked like 15.6%.
That is if it sells at $52.00. If someone lists at $50.00 while your skin waits out a trade hold, the profit falls to $1.55. At $48.00 it is a $0.31 loss.
Most big gaps are not real
We checked our own prices table on 30 October 2026, for the 2,395 easy-to-sell items worth at least $1 that are listed on five or more marketplaces. The typical gap between the highest and the lowest listing was 43%. If that were real, nobody would do anything else.
It is not real because the highest listing is only what someone is asking, not what anyone pays. Look out for these:
- Asking prices that have sat unsold for weeks. Compare with what the item actually sold for, and with its highest buy order.
- Balance you cannot withdraw at full value. A high price on a site that pays out at a discount is not a high price.
- A quiet marketplace, where one seller sets the price and nobody buys.
- Special items. A low float, a rare pattern, a Doppler phase or valuable stickers can explain a price that looks wrong.
How to find gaps worth trading
- Start with liquid items. The prices table sorts the easiest to sell first and has a liquidity filter.
- Compare the cheapest listing with the highest buy order elsewhere, not with the highest listing. A buy order is money someone has committed. The table shows the best buy order on DMarket and Market.CSGO beside each item.
- Work out what you keep after the selling fee and the withdrawal, then knock off a few percent for prices moving during the hold.
- Only then look at the size of the gap. A 6% gap on a skin that sells daily beats 40% on one that sells twice a month.
Arbitrage and flipping are different trades
Arbitrage moves a skin between marketplaces. Flipping buys and sells on the same one, usually buying with a buy order and selling near the lowest offer. Flipping has no second marketplace, no withdrawal and often less waiting, so it is the easier place to start. Many traders do both.
Automating it
By hand you can follow a handful of items. To scan more, the price API gives you every item's cheapest offer on 22 marketplaces in one request, and the buy orders API gives you the exit side. When you have picked your trades, the robots for DMarket and market.csgo.com keep your orders and offers first in line, inside your limits.
The risks
Prices can fall while you hold a skin, a trade hold can stop you from selling when you want to, and fees can change. No arbitrage is risk free, and nothing here is financial advice. Start with small amounts, and write down every trade so you know whether you are really making money.