Glock-18 Guide for Counter-Strike 2
Damage, burst mode, the pistol round, and what $200 buys.
The Glock-18 is the T side's default pistol. Every T starts the pistol round with one, and it costs $200 to buy back. It does 30 damage a bullet, so an opponent without armour dies to four chest hits or one headshot out to about 14 metres, and it holds 20 rounds - more than any other starting pistol.
The trade-off is armour. At 47% armour penetration, a chest hit does about 14 damage through kevlar, so an armoured opponent takes eight chest hits - more than a second of shooting at 400 rounds a minute. Burst mode fires three rounds at 1,200 RPM but drops the accurate range from 20 to 7.4 metres. This page goes through the numbers, the recoil, when to buy it, and the skins and cases.
September 2026
Weapon stats checked against CS2 build 1.41.7.6.
Glock-18 at a Glance
The full stat sheet, straight from the game.
Every number below comes from the game build of 18 March 2026. Two of them define the Glock-18: a 20-round magazine and 47% armour penetration. No other starting pistol carries as many rounds, and none gets less through kevlar. That is the whole gun: plenty of bullets, each of them weak against armour.
Damage and money
| Price | $200 |
| Kill reward | $300 |
| Side | T only |
| Base damage | 30 |
| Armour penetration | 47% |
| Headshot multiplier | 4x |
| Damage lost at 500 units | 15% |
| Wall penetration | 100% |
| One-tap range, helmet | None (56.4 damage) |
| One-tap range, no helmet | 561 u (about 14 m) |
Handling and ammo
| Rate of fire | 400 RPM (burst 1,200 RPM) |
| Magazine | 20 |
| Reserve | 60 (80 total) |
| Reload | 2.27 s (mag in at 0.93 s) |
| Deploy | 1.10 s |
| Mobility | 240 (knife is 250) |
| Tagging power | 50% |
| Accurate range, standing | 20.1 m (burst 7.4 m) |
| Running inaccuracy | 17.6 (burst 33.6) |
| Recoil | No set pattern |
| Console command | give weapon_glock |
The weak spot is what happens when the other side buys armour. Eight chest hits at 400 rounds a minute is 1.05 seconds of uninterrupted shooting, and that is before anyone shoots back. Against unarmoured opponents the same gun needs four hits, 0.45 seconds, and one headshot kills out to 14 metres. Burst mode does not fix the armour problem - it just puts three of those weak bullets out in about a tenth of a second.
Glock-18 Damage & Armour
What one bullet does, and how many it takes.
Everything here assumes a full-health player at close range. Armour means kevlar on the body and a helmet on the head. The general rules behind these numbers are on the weapons hub.
Damage per bullet
| Hitbox | No armour | Armour | Bullets to kill, no armour | Bullets to kill, armour |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Head | 120 | 56.4 | 1 | 2 |
| Chest and arms | 30 | 14.1 | 4 | 8 |
| Stomach | 37.5 | 17.6 | 3 | 6 |
| Legs | 22.5 | 22.5 | 5 | 5 |
Armour doubles the work. Four chest hits become eight, three stomach hits become six, and a headshot stops killing outright - 56.4 damage means two are needed. Legs are the one place kevlar changes nothing, and five leg hits kill.
Where the Glock-18 drops off
The Glock-18 loses 15% of its damage for every 500 units of distance. The bullet counts above hold this far:
| Shot | Works up to |
|---|---|
| Head, helmet - 2 bullets | 3,750 u (about 95 m) |
| Stomach through armour - 6 bullets | 1,743 u (about 44 m) |
| Head, no helmet - 1 bullet | 561 u (about 14 m) |
| Chest, no armour - 4 bullets | 561 u (about 14 m) |
| Stomach, no armour - 3 bullets | 337 u (about 9 m) |
| Chest through armour - 8 bullets | 337 u (about 9 m) |
| Legs - 5 bullets | 337 u (about 9 m) |
Past each of those distances the count goes up by one. Damage is multiplied by 0.85 for every 500 units of distance, and it drops smoothly in between. Nine chest hits through armour kill out to 1,082 units, about 27 metres.
What this means in a fight
Against a player with no armour the Glock-18 is a fast gun: four chest hits in 0.45 seconds, or one headshot. Against kevlar it needs eight, 1.05 seconds, and a magazine holds 20 - so one armoured opponent costs almost half of it. On the pistol round, where nobody has a helmet, the head is the whole game: one bullet out to 14 metres.
Glock-18 Recoil & Accuracy
Why there is no spray to learn, and what burst mode actually does.
The Glock-18 has no set recoil pattern. Every shot after the first lands somewhere in a widening cone rather than along a path you can learn, which is why there is no spray viewer on this page. What you control instead is how fast you click and whether you are standing still.
Standing still
Accurate range is 20.1 metres, the second best of any pistol after the Desert Eagle's 24.6. Tapping at that range works; rapid tapping at up to 400 rounds a minute does not, because the cone opens with every shot.
On the move
Running inaccuracy is 17.6, the second lowest in the game after the Tec-9's 10.7 - and far better than any rifle. The Glock-18 is one of the few guns you can shoot while moving and still expect hits at close range. It also moves at 240, as fast as any gun except the knife.
Burst mode
The right mouse button switches to burst: three rounds at 1,200 RPM, one every 50 milliseconds. Accurate range drops from 20.1 to 7.4 metres and running inaccuracy from 17.6 to 33.6, so the burst is only worth using at very close range. Three bullets do 90 damage to an unarmoured chest and 42.3 through kevlar, so even a perfect burst does not kill on its own.
Stopping before you shoot
Even with low running inaccuracy, standing still is more accurate. Tapping the opposite movement key - counter-strafing - brings you to a stop faster than just letting go of the key.
When to Buy the Glock-18
The pistol round, the $200 buy-back, and when another pistol is better.
You start every pistol round with a Glock-18, so the real question is what to buy alongside it - and later in the half, whether to replace it.
The pistol round
With $800 to spend, the two common T buys are kevlar ($650) or grenades. Kevlar does not change what the Glock does to the other team - it changes what their pistols do to you: with armour, a CT's USP-S needs six chest hits instead of four. Against unarmoured CTs the Glock kills in four chest hits or one headshot out to 14 metres.
Buying it back
At $200 the Glock-18 is the cheapest gun in the game to replace. If you picked up another weapon and lost it, a Glock plus armour costs $850 - less than a MAC-10 alone.
Glock or another pistol on a force buy
Once the other team has armour, the Glock's 47% penetration is its problem. For $300 the P250 does 38 damage with 64% penetration - five chest hits through kevlar against the Glock's eight. For $500 the Tec-9 does 33 with 90.6% penetration, and the Five-SeveN is the CT equivalent. If you have $300 spare on a force buy round, spending it on a P250 changes more than any grenade.
Against an eco
Most pistols pay $300 a kill, the same as a rifle. The Glock is not a money gun the way an SMG or a shotgun is; it is what you use when there is nothing better to hold.
Glock-18 vs Other Pistols
What the Glock-18 does better, and what it gives up.
The Glock-18 wins on ammo and on price, and loses to everything else once armour is involved. The table below has all ten pistols side by side.
vs USP-S and P2000
The CT starting pistols, also $200. Both do 35 damage with 50.5% armour penetration: four chest hits without armour against the Glock's four, six with armour against the Glock's eight. The USP-S is silenced and accurate to 23.8 metres with the silencer on, but carries only 36 rounds; the P2000 has 65. The Glock's answer is volume - 20 rounds a magazine against 12 and 13. Details in the USP-S and P2000 guides.
vs P250
$300 and available to both sides. 38 damage with 64% armour penetration: five chest hits through kevlar against the Glock's eight, and a headshot kills an unhelmeted opponent out to about 50 metres against 14. It holds 13 rounds and is accurate to only 13.7 metres. Details in the P250 guide.
vs Tec-9
The T side's $500 pistol. 33 damage with 90.6% armour penetration - four chest hits through kevlar - and 500 rounds a minute from an 18-round magazine. Its running inaccuracy, 10.7, is the lowest in the game, where the Glock's 17.6 is second. Details in the Tec-9 guide.
vs Desert Eagle
$700 and the pistol that ends rounds: 53 damage with 93.2% armour penetration, and a helmeted headshot kills out to about 51 metres. It holds 7 rounds, fires once every 0.22 seconds and has the worst running inaccuracy of any pistol, 54.3. Details in the Desert Eagle guide.
Pistol Stats Table
All ten pistols side by side, with the Glock-18 already open.
This is the same table as on the weapons hub, but filtered down to pistols. The Glock-18 row is open with its damage per hitbox and full stats, and it is already ticked for comparison with the USP-S, P250 and Tec-9. Untick any of them, or tick the P2000, Five-SeveN, CZ75-Auto, Dual Berettas, Desert Eagle or R8 Revolver instead - up to four at a time.
Click a column header to sort. The Glock-18 row shows the pistol in single-shot mode, and the burst numbers are in its card under variants. The full table with all 36 weapons is on the weapons hub.
Click any weapon for damage per hitbox, full stats and variants.
| Weapon | Type | Price | Kill $ | Damage | Armour pen | RPM | Mag | Total ammo | HS kill vs helmet |
|---|
Comparing 0 of 4
Stats from the CS2 Weapon Spreadsheet, game build of 18 March 2026. Shotgun damage is per pellet. Headshot ranges are converted from game units at 39.4 units per metre. Zeus and knife values come from the game files rather than the sheet.
Glock-18 Skins & Cases
Glock-18 skins by market listings and price, and where they come from.
Three ways to look at Glock-18 skins. Most listed are the ones with the most offers across the markets I track, in other words the ones currently offered most often. Most expensive are the skins that stay expensive even in their cheapest wear. Cheapest are the ones that stay cheap even in their best wear. Prices update every 15 minutes, and the range on each card runs from the cheapest variant to the most expensive one, wear and StatTrak included.
Block-18
$0.33 - $3.85
View prices →
Winterized
$0.07 - $1.28
View prices →
Umbral Rabbit
$0.30 - $3.12
View prices →
Shinobu
$3.57 - $34.50
View prices →
Ocean Topo
$0.05 - $9.20
View prices →
Vogue
$3.07 - $19.48
View prices →
Clear Polymer
$0.24 - $5.10
View prices →
High Beam
$0.11 - $2.30
View prices →
Fade
$1,155.48 - $1,610.21
View prices →
Synth Leaf
$248.87 - $335.47
View prices →
Twilight Galaxy
$185.98 - $370.83
View prices →
Ghost Protocol
$119.32 - $1,958.10
View prices →
Wasteland Rebel
$80.13 - $105.46
View prices →
Dragon Tattoo
$68.57 - $225.75
View prices →
Franklin
$68.54 - $515.19
View prices →
Gamma Doppler
$59.37 - $79.48
View prices →
Death Rattle
$0.06 - $0.15
View prices →
Teal Graf
$0.14 - $0.94
View prices →
Coral Bloom
$0.15 - $1.08
View prices →Winterized
$0.07 - $1.28
View prices →
Oxide Blaze
$0.16 - $2.10
View prices →High Beam
$0.11 - $2.30
View prices →
Glockingbird
$0.51 - $2.69
View prices →Umbral Rabbit
$0.30 - $3.12
View prices →All of them, with a price for every wear, are on the Glock-18 skins page.
Cases with Glock-18 skins
Every case that can drop a Glock-18 skin, newest first. The number under each case is how many Glock-18 skins it holds.
Fever Case2025 · 1 skin
Gallery Case2024 · 1 skin
Kilowatt Case2024 · 1 skin
Revolution Case2023 · 1 skin
Recoil Case2022 · 1 skin
Operation Riptide Case2021 · 1 skin
Snakebite Case2021 · 1 skin
Operation Broken Fang Case2020 · 1 skin
Fracture Case2020 · 1 skin
Prisma 2 Case2020 · 1 skin
CS20 Case2019 · 1 skin
Danger Zone Case2018 · 1 skin
Horizon Case2018 · 1 skin
Clutch Case2018 · 1 skin
Spectrum 2 Case2017 · 1 skin
Glove Case2016 · 1 skin
Gamma 2 Case2016 · 1 skin
Gamma Case2016 · 1 skin
Operation Wildfire Case2016 · 1 skin
Shadow Case2015 · 1 skin
Falchion Case2015 · 1 skin
Chroma Case2015 · 1 skin
Operation Vanguard Weapon Case2014 · 1 skin
eSports 2014 Summer Case2014 · 1 skin
Operation Breakout Weapon Case2014 · 1 skin
CS:GO Weapon Case 32014 · 1 skin
CS:GO Weapon Case2013 · 1 skinGlock-18 skins that never came from a case
Some Glock-18 skins come from map collections, operations, or the Armory instead of cases. Collections marked "souvenir" also come in souvenir packages from Majors.
The 2018 Inferno Collection1 skin · souvenir
The 2018 Nuke Collection1 skin · souvenir
The 2021 Mirage Collection1 skin · souvenir
The 2021 Train Collection1 skin
The 2021 Vertigo Collection1 skin · souvenir
The Achroma Collection1 skin
The Alpha Collection1 skin
The Anubis Collection1 skin · souvenir
The Arabesque Collection1 skin
The Ascent Collection1 skin
The Assault Collection1 skin
The Bank Collection1 skin
The Boreal Collection1 skin
The Cache Collection1 skin · souvenir
The Chop Shop Collection1 skin
The Dead Hand Collection1 skin
The Dust Collection1 skin
The Genesis Collection1 skin
The Havoc Collection1 skin
The Italy Collection1 skin · souvenir
The Mirage Collection1 skin · souvenir
The Overpass 2024 Collection1 skin · souvenir
The Overpass Collection1 skin · souvenir
The Radiant Collection1 skin
The Sport & Field Collection1 skin
The Spy Tech Collection1 skin
The St. Marc Collection1 skin
The Train 2025 Collection1 skin · souvenirBrowse all CS2 cases and all collections, or check what your own skins are worth with the Inventory Value Calculator.
Common Glock-18 Mistakes
Small habits that cost rounds, and what the numbers say instead.
Using burst mode at range
Burst drops the accurate range from 20.1 metres to 7.4 and doubles running inaccuracy. Three bullets do 90 damage to an unarmoured chest, so even a perfect burst does not kill. It is a close-range button, not a general-purpose one. More in Recoil & Accuracy.
Aiming at the body
One headshot kills an unhelmeted opponent out to 14 metres; the chest takes four hits without armour and eight with it. On the pistol round the head is the difference between winning a fight and running out of magazine.
Holding the trigger
There is no set pattern to control - every shot after the first lands in a widening cone. Rapid tapping at up to 400 rounds a minute opens the cone quickly and sends later shots wide.
Fighting armour with it
Eight chest hits through kevlar is 1.05 seconds of shooting and almost half the magazine. Once the CTs have armour, $300 for a P250 changes the fight more than anything else you can buy. More in When to Buy.
Reloading after every fight
Since the 18 March 2026 update, a reload throws away whatever is left in the magazine and takes a full one from your reserve. The Glock-18 has three spare magazines of 20, so a reload with ten rounds still in the gun throws away half a magazine. How this habit caught me out is in the AK-47 guide.
Forgetting how fast it moves
At 240 mobility and 17.6 running inaccuracy, the Glock-18 is one of the few guns that shoots reasonably while you move. That is an advantage on a pistol round rush - but stopping is still more accurate, and counter-strafing brings you to a stop faster than just letting go of the movement key.
More Pistols
The other nine pistols in CS2, starting with the CT side's starting pistol.
USP-S
A fan favorite from Counter-Strike: Source, the Silenced USP Pistol has a detachable silencer that gives shots less recoil while suppressing attention-getting noise.
Read the guide →
P250
A low-recoil firearm with a high rate of fire, the P250 is a relatively inexpensive choice against armored opponents.
Tec-9
An ideal pistol for the Terrorist on the move, the Tec-9 is lethal in close quarters and features a high magazine capacity.
Dual Berettas
Firing two large-mag Berettas at once will lower accuracy and increase load times. On the bright side, you'll get to fire two large-mag Berettas at once.
CZ75-Auto
A fully automatic variant of the CZ75, the CZ75-Auto is another inexpensive choice against armored opponents. But with very little ammo provided, strong trigger discipline is required.
Desert Eagle
As expensive as it is powerful, the Desert Eagle is an iconic pistol that is difficult to master but surprisingly accurate at long range.
