How CS2 money works
Every player starts a half with $800 and can hold at most $16,000. After a round you earn money for the result, for kills and for objectives. A round win pays $3,250 to each player on the winning team in the usual case, and a lost round pays a loss bonus that grows with every loss in a row, from $1,400 up to $3,400. Because of the loss bonus, a team that loses several rounds in a row can often afford a full buy again, which is why a short eco is such a common call in pro matches.
Full buy, force buy or eco
A full buy means a rifle, armor with helmet and grenades for the whole team. A force buy is spending what you have on cheaper weapons when a full buy is out of reach, to keep pressure on the opponent. An eco is saving: you buy little or nothing so the next round can be a full buy. The calculator uses simple lines of about $4,500 per Terrorist and $5,000 per Counter-Terrorist for a full buy, which covers a rifle, armor and basic utility. Your team may need more or less, so use the result as a starting point and talk it over in voice chat. Learn more terms in the glossary.
Why teams eco together
The most common mistake in casual games is a half-buy where some players buy rifles and others have nothing. If one player saves, everyone should save, so the next round can be a full buy with enough utility. The money bonus for a plant, a defuse or an elimination can change your numbers by a few hundred dollars, so keep a margin.
Check the numbers
The values come from the in-game economy rules as we know them at the time of writing and Valve can change them in updates. Watch pro matches on our live CS2 streams page to see how the best teams handle the economy, and see which teams to follow on CS2 teams.