cs2.sh vs SteamApis: Which CS2 Price API Fits?

Short answer: SteamApis (steamapis.com) and cs2.sh (cs2.sh) split along Steam-wide breadth vs CS2 depth. SteamApis is a general Steam data platform — profiles, inventories, app data, and Steam Market prices across the whole Steam catalog (235k+ apps, 834k+ items) — with third-party skin marketplaces as a paid add-on. Its pricing is modular EUR: a free 500-request tier, Steam history from €4.99/mo, third-party market data from €49.99/mo, request quotas metered per billing cycle, plus sales-history and WebSocket add-ons. cs2.sh is CS2-skin-specific and deep: ~5-minute refresh, intraday OHLC candles (5m/30m/1h/1d), archive to 2023 with Steam median sale history to 2013, real sale-volume liquidity buckets, full-depth Steam orderbooks, per-source variant pricing, and 6 marketplaces in one USD schema at $75/$200 with unlimited requests. The sharpest data gap is third-party history depth: SteamApis caps third-party market history at 30 days; cs2.sh reaches 3+ years via archive. Both have a free way to test — cs2.sh's 2-day developer key and SteamApis's free 500-request tier.

If you are weighing several options, see the full roundup, Best CS2 Skin Price APIs in 2026, or the sibling comparisons: cs2.sh vs SteamWebAPI, cs2.sh vs Pricempire, cs2.sh vs CSGOSKINS.GG, and CS2 Price API vs Scraping the Steam Market.

At a glance: cs2.sh vs SteamApis#

Where SteamApis is genuinely strong#

SteamApis's edge is Steam-wide breadth, not CS2 depth:

• Whole-Steam data, not just skins. Profiles, inventories, app data, player counts, achievements, and Steam Market prices across the entire Steam catalog (235k+ apps, 834k+ items). If you need Steam data beyond CS2 prices, SteamApis covers it; cs2.sh does not.
• Granular metered entry. A free 500-request tier, request quotas from €9.99/mo (100K) up to €1,799.99/mo (40M), and Steam history from €4.99/mo. You pay for exactly the scope you use. (As of June 2026; confirm at steamapis.com/pricing.)
• Full Steam Market history tier. The €29.99/mo Full History tier covers Steam's complete price backlog.
• Buy orders, a sales-history add-on, and live WebSocket offer feeds (€49.99/mo and €39.99/mo respectively) for projects that need them.
• Steam inventory valuation and profile tooling out of the box.

For a Steam-wide data project — inventory valuation, profile and app data, or multi-game Steam Market lookups — SteamApis is the better choice.

Where the two products diverge#

1. Scope: Steam-wide platform vs CS2 depth#

SteamApis is a general Steam data platform; CS2 skin pricing is one focus among many games and the full Steam app catalog. Its third-party skin coverage is a paid add-on layered on top of Steam Market data. cs2.sh is CS2-skin-specific and built for depth on the six highest-volume CS2 marketplaces — high-frequency ask/bid, OHLC, multi-year archives, sale volume, liquidity, variants, and full Steam orderbooks.

2. Third-party history depth#

SteamApis caps third-party market history at 30 days (the 3rd Party + 30 Days tier, €64.99/mo); the tiers below it are current-only and 15-day. cs2.sh reaches 3+ years on third-party marketplaces via archive, with archive price, total_supply, and hourly_volume since 2023. History cannot be backfilled, so a 30-day third-party window is a hard ceiling on any long-range analysis built on SteamApis third-party data.

3. Granularity: OHLC vs daily#

cs2.sh serves continuous intraday OHLC candles at 5m / 30m / 1h / 1d, each carrying open/high/low/close plus volume per bucket. SteamApis's documented Steam history is daily-grained and tiered by depth (30d / 180d / Full History); its third-party and variant granularity is not documented, and no intraday OHLC is stated. cs2.sh is the only API in this comparison that publishes intraday OHLC.

4. Modular stacking vs all-in access#

SteamApis bills three modular dimensions — Steam history depth, third-party access, and request quota — plus add-ons (Sales €49.99/mo, WebSocket €39.99/mo), all in EUR and metered per request with per-request overage. Meaningful CS2 coverage stacks several: Full Steam history (€29.99) + third-party with 30-day history (€64.99) + sales (€49.99) + a real request tier climbs past €200/mo before WebSocket. cs2.sh sells two all-in plans: Developer ($75/mo) and Scale ($200/mo, everything), one bill, unlimited requests on both. Narrow Steam-only scope favors SteamApis; broad CS2 scope favors a single all-in plan.

5. Currency and FX risk#

SteamApis prices in EUR; USD customers carry FX risk on every invoice. cs2.sh bills and returns prices in USD.

6. Data types SteamApis does not document#

Per its public docs, SteamApis does not offer named liquidity buckets or estimated sale time, structured Doppler/Gamma Doppler/Case Hardened variant pricing or variant history, BUFF float-range price bands, or full-depth Steam orderbook history (it does expose buy orders). cs2.sh exposes all of these. A liquidity bucket plus estimated_sale_time tell you whether a position can be exited and roughly how long it takes — computed from real daily sale volume and traded value over rolling 30- and 90-day windows, recomputed daily, as absolute buckets rather than a relative percentile. For valuation, risk, or trading tools, these are the fields that determine what you can build.

Data model and marketplace coverage#

cs2.sh returns both sides of the book and both kinds of price: per source it returns ask (lowest listing) and, where buy orders exist, bid (highest buy order) plus volumes; daily CSFloat completed-sale price/volume since 2022; native Steam median sale price/volume; and OHLC candles at 5m/30m/1h/1d preserving open/high/low/close, volume, and sample count. For liquid items, high-frequency ask/bid sampled at 5m–1h is the most accurate current-price signal; the sale archives carry long-term and illiquid-item analysis. SteamApis returns Steam Market prices and stats across all Steam apps, with buy orders, a sales-history add-on, and per-item histograms; its third-party skin pricing is an add-on layered on top.

The two cover different marketplaces. Both include Buff163 and Skinport. cs2.sh adds Youpin, CSFloat, and C5Game — the other high-volume CS2 venues — within one USD schema keyed by market_hash_name. SteamApis's documented third-party set adds DMarket, Skinbid, OPMarket, and Casino 500 instead, without Youpin or CSFloat. cs2.sh stores over 20 billion price events (~4 TB), each a unique time × market_hash_name × source point.

Variants, liquidity, and special data#

• Variants. cs2.sh prices Doppler phases, Gamma Doppler phases, and Case Hardened tiers individually per source via a structured variants object, scored for liquidity independently from the base item, and serves variant price history (OHLC for each variant). It is the only API here with full structured variant pricing and the only one with variant price history; SteamApis does not document per-variant pricing.
• Liquidity. cs2.sh returns a named bucket per exact market_hash_name and per variant (extremely_illiquid to extremely_liquid) from real daily sale volume and traded value over rolling 30- and 90-day windows, plus estimated_sale_time. SteamApis publishes no comparable named-bucket signal.
• Float data. cs2.sh returns BUFF float-range and fade-range price bands — what a given float window costs. SteamApis does not document float-range price data.

API ergonomics and limits#

cs2.sh uses Authorization: Bearer <key>, requires Accept-Encoding: gzip on every /v1 request, returns JSON keyed by market_hash_name, and accepts up to 100 items per POST. Every plan includes all 6 marketplaces, unlimited requests, and 10 requests/second per user (~864k calls/day by rate alone). SteamApis authenticates via an x-api-key header (legacy api_key query param still supported) and meters a request quota per billing cycle, with per-request overage once the quota is exhausted. cs2.sh meters a per-second rate; SteamApis meters a monthly request budget plus overage.

Pricing and plans (as of June 2026)#

cs2.sh prices in USD; SteamApis prices in EUR.

Comprehensive SteamApis CS2 coverage means stacking history, third-party, sales, and a request tier in EUR; cs2.sh's one Scale plan ($200/mo, USD) covers prices, OHLC history, archive, liquidity, BUFF float data, and Steam orderbooks at unlimited requests. See the full cs2.sh pricing.

Who should pick which#

• Pick SteamApis if you need Steam-wide data — profiles, inventories, app data, player counts, or Steam Market prices across many games — or want cheap, granular metered access to Steam history and a handful of third-party markets. It fits inventory valuers, Steam profile and app tooling, and breadth-first projects that can work with 30-day third-party history and EUR billing.
• Pick cs2.sh if you need CS2 depth: ~5-minute refresh, intraday OHLC and multi-year archive history with documented depth, real sale-volume liquidity buckets and estimated sale time, full-depth Steam orderbooks, per-source variant pricing with variant history, and a single USD schema with unlimited requests. It fits trading analytics, charting, alerting, valuation, and arbitrage — anything where 30-day third-party history or a daily-only series corrupts the result, or where you need to know whether a position can be sold and how long that takes.

FAQ#

Is SteamApis free? SteamApis has a free tier of 500 requests per billing cycle with latest-only data, then €0.0005 per request in overage; paid request tiers start at €9.99/mo. cs2.sh offers a free 2-day developer key for testing. (Pricing as of June 2026.)

Does SteamApis have OHLC or intraday history? No documented OHLC. SteamApis's Steam history is daily-grained and tiered by depth (30 days, 180 days, or Full History), and its third-party and variant granularity is not documented. cs2.sh serves intraday OHLC candles at 5m / 30m / 1h / 1d via /v1/prices/history, recorded since December 24, 2025, with archive price/supply/volume back to 2023. cs2.sh is the only API in this comparison publishing intraday OHLC.

How far back does SteamApis history go? For Steam, up to the Full History tier (€29.99/mo). For third-party markets, 30 days maximum (the 3rd Party + 30 Days tier, €64.99/mo). cs2.sh documents depth per endpoint: third-party marketplaces reach 3+ years via archive, archive price/supply/volume go back to 2023, and Steam median sale history is daily since 2013 (hourly since May 2026).

Does SteamApis cover Buff163 and Youpin? Buff163, yes — within its third-party add-on (Buff163, DMarket, Skinport, Skinbid, OPMarket, Casino 500). Youpin and CSFloat are not in its documented third-party set. cs2.sh covers Buff163, Youpin, and CSFloat within its 6-marketplace USD schema.

Is SteamApis cheaper than cs2.sh? For narrow or Steam-only scope, yes — SteamApis has a free 500-request tier and request tiers from €9.99/mo. But its pricing is modular per dimension, so full CS2 coverage (Full Steam history + third-party with history + sales + a real request tier) stacks past €200/mo in EUR. cs2.sh's $200/mo Scale plan covers everything in one USD plan with unlimited requests, and cs2.sh offers a free 2-day developer key. (Pricing as of June 2026.)

Does SteamApis provide liquidity buckets or estimated sale time? No. SteamApis does not publish named liquidity buckets or an estimated sale time. cs2.sh's /v1/liquidity/items returns a named bucket (from extremely_illiquid to extremely_liquid) plus estimated_sale_time for every item and variant, computed from real daily sale volume and recomputed daily, not a relative percentile.

Best SteamApis alternative for CS2 historical data? cs2.sh is a strong SteamApis alternative when CS2 historical data is the priority. It documents history depth per endpoint: third-party marketplaces to 3+ years via archive, archive price/supply/volume since 2023, Steam median sale history daily since 2013 (hourly since May 2026), and continuous intraday OHLC candles. SteamApis caps third-party history at 30 days and documents no intraday OHLC.

Is there a free way to try cs2.sh? Yes. cs2.sh offers a free 2-day developer key — sign up at cs2.sh or ask in Discord. It is a time-limited trial, not a perpetual free tier.

Final recommendation#

Choose SteamApis for Steam-wide data — profiles, inventories, app data, and Steam Market prices across many games — or cheap metered access to Steam history and a few third-party markets where 30-day third-party history and EUR billing are acceptable. Choose cs2.sh when CS2 depth drives the project: ~5-minute refresh, intraday OHLC, multi-year third-party archive, liquidity, orderbooks, per-source variants, and a single USD schema with unlimited requests. The two can coexist — SteamApis for whole-Steam data, cs2.sh for the CS2 pricing and analytics layer.

Start with cs2.sh · Get a free 2-day developer key · Read the docs · See the live demo

Sources#

• cs2.sh docs — https://cs2.sh/docs
• cs2.sh data coverage — https://cs2.sh/docs/data-coverage
• cs2.sh pricing — https://cs2.sh/docs/pricing
• cs2.sh prices/history endpoint — https://cs2.sh/docs/api-reference/prices-history
• cs2.sh liquidity/items endpoint — https://cs2.sh/docs/api-reference/liquidity-items
• cs2.sh archive/steam endpoint — https://cs2.sh/docs/api-reference/archive-steam
• cs2.sh LLM corpus — https://cs2.sh/llms-full.txt
• SteamApis — https://steamapis.com
• SteamApis pricing — https://steamapis.com/pricing
• SteamApis documentation — https://docs.steamapis.com

Verified June 15, 2026.

Disclosure#

Published by cs2.sh. Pricing as of June 2026; verify on each vendor's site.