cs2.sh vs Official BUFF API for CS2 Market Data

Use BUFF's official API to operate a BUFF account, create and manage orders, purchase or list items, or retrieve BUFF's current native marketplace records. Use cs2.sh for continuously recorded BUFF OHLC, more than three years of archive data, historical float and fade ranges, per-variant history, and liquidity estimates without a Chinese BUFF account.

BUFF's official API is broader than a price endpoint#

BUFF's official developer documentation covers data queries and marketplace operations. The Developer API can return the current lowest sell listing for roughly 20,000 items in one request, refreshed every 5 or 10 minutes depending on whether stickers are included. Its range endpoint returns current float-range and fade-range prices, listing counts, and BUFF's liquidity percentage.

The same API family also manages buy orders, sell listings, purchases, inventory, account balances, Steam accounts, and shop status. Enterprise adds the current highest buy order, detailed sell listings, and higher allowances. cs2.sh does not replace those trading and account functions.

Current differences#

These are endpoint-specific limits, not one account-wide monthly allowance. BUFF documents 500 requests per 24 hours for each Developer aggregate data endpoint, 5,000 requests per 24 hours for each Enterprise aggregate data endpoint, and 3 requests per second for detailed sell listings. The Developer range endpoint and Enterprise detailed-listing endpoint each limit new item queries to 200 distinct items per day. One aggregate current-price request can return the whole listed catalog, so its daily allowance is not equivalent to 500 item lookups.

Use BUFF for listings and marketplace actions#

BUFF's API should own the BUFF-facing part of an application. It exposes BUFF's native current records and the account operations needed to purchase, list, reprice, cancel, inspect inventory, or manage orders. Detailed active listings include asset and seller information that is not part of the documented public cs2.sh API.

Add cs2.sh for BUFF history and range analysis#

cs2.sh supplies the data that a current marketplace API cannot recreate later: bid and ask OHLC, hourly and daily archives from 2023, historical float and fade ranges, per-variant price series, and liquidity estimates derived from real price and completed-sale history. A BUFF trading tool can use the official API to display and act on the exact listing, then use cs2.sh to show how that item's price, range, phase, and liquidity compare with prior observations.

The APIs are complementary: BUFF supplies live listings, buy orders, and trading actions, while cs2.sh retains prices, ranges, and completed-sale history.

What cs2.sh returns for BUFF#

BUFF arrives as one source among six, with both order counts populated:

"buff": {
  "updated_at": "2026-07-26T18:50:53Z",
  "collected_at": "2026-07-26T18:53:10.67Z",
  "ask": 109.72,
  "ask_volume": 463,
  "bid": 106.17,
  "bid_volume": 41
}

BUFF is also the only marketplace where cs2.sh exposes prices segmented by float band. GET /v1/market/buff/latest splits each item into base, float, fade, and float_fade buckets:

{
  "bucket_id": "float:0.15:0.18",
  "bucket_type": "float",
  "float": { "min": 0.15, "max": 0.18 },
  "ask": 218.55,
  "avg_ask": 231.47,
  "bid": 203.78,
  "ask_volume": 219,
  "bid_volume": 10
}

bucket_id is stable across the latest snapshot and POST /v1/market/buff/history, so the same band can be tracked over time. Range history begins May 19, 2026 and updates every 10 minutes, while BUFF variant prices refresh about every 3-5 minutes.

Disclosure: this comparison is published by cs2.sh. BUFF endpoint coverage, refresh rates, and limits were checked against its official documentation on August 5, 2026; price and account eligibility reflect current BUFF access requirements shown on cs2.sh.