CS2 sensitivity changes your game more than every other setting combined, and it is the one setting you cannot usefully copy from anybody else. A different mouse, a different mousepad and a different hand produce a different result from identical numbers.
Three numbers people keep confusing
DPI belongs to the mouse and describes how many signals it sends per inch of movement. You change it in the mouse software or with a button on the shell.
In game sensitivity is the multiplier the game applies to that signal. It defaults to 1.25 and the permitted range runs from effectively zero up to eight.
eDPI is the two multiplied together. Eight hundred DPI at 1.0 sensitivity is identical to four hundred DPI at 2.0 as far as the game is concerned.
Which is why comparing raw sensitivity values is meaningless. Somebody playing at 0.8 can be turning faster than somebody at 2.0 if their mouse is set four times higher.
The measurement that beats any config
Rather than hunting for the correct number, measure what your hand is actually doing.
- Lay a ruler along your mousepad and set the mouse at the start of it.
- Turn your character exactly one full rotation without lifting the mouse.
- Measure the distance travelled. That is your centimetres per 360.
- Write it down along with the DPI and sensitivity that produced it.
- Compare it against the range most competitive players occupy, roughly thirty to fifty centimetres.
That figure is the only one that transfers between people, because it describes arm movement rather than equipment. If yours comes in under twenty centimetres you are aiming with your wrist and losing accuracy at range, which is the single most common problem among players who cannot climb.
Picking a starting point
| Style | Distance per full turn | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| fast, lots of close range fights | 25 to 32 cm | quick turns, weaker long range precision |
| general purpose | 32 to 42 cm | the common choice, compromises in both directions |
| patient, holding angles | 42 to 55 cm | precision at the cost of turning behind you |
| sniper rifle as the main weapon | above 45 cm | stability while scoped |
Choose one row and stay in it for two weeks. Jumping between values every evening is the most efficient way to learn none of them.
CS2 sensitivity while scoped
A separate setting, and the one people trip over most, because its name suggests something other than what it does. When you scope in, the game applies its own multiplier. It defaults to one, with a range from 0.01 to 3.
A value of one does not mean the movement on screen is identical to hip fire. The field of view narrows, so the same hand movement sweeps a different angle, which is where the feeling that the mouse suddenly accelerates comes from. The practical approach: leave it at one until it genuinely bothers you. If you consistently overshoot with a sniper rifle, drop toward 0.8 and test it against bots rather than in a match.
Now the part no config includes.
The setting nobody writes about
The game carries a separate scale for the vertical axis, defaulting to one, with a range from zero to two. At one, up and down are as sensitive as left and right. Below one the vertical axis slows down, which some players find helps with recoil control, since a spray pulls the crosshair up while you pull it down.
It is not a shortcut to accuracy and it is not for everybody. It is worth knowing it exists, because plenty of people fight their recoil without realising the axes can be separated at all.
A value of zero locks vertical movement entirely, so if somebody’s mouse has mysteriously stopped looking up or down, this line pasted from a config is usually the culprit.
Two more lines to delete.
Two commands that do nothing
Both still circulate widely and both are dead.
The raw input command does not exist in CS2. It is a menu option now, and the config line does nothing at all.
A separate scoped multiplier ending in “mouse” does not exist either, despite appearing in guides. Only the base one works.
We checked both against the game’s own variable dump. It is the same mechanism that leaves other people’s configs full of lines from the previous game, covered in more detail in our guide to the CS2 autoexec.
Windows breaks more than the game does
Before hunting for a perfect number, check that the operating system is not rewriting the signal on the way through.
The pointer speed slider has eleven positions. Only the sixth, the middle one, passes the signal through untouched. Every other position rescales movement and destroys repeatability.
Second, enhanced pointer precision, which is acceleration. With it on, the same hand movement produces a different turn depending on how quickly you make it, which is the exact opposite of what you want.
Third, mouse software with its own acceleration or smoothing. Open it once and turn off anything that sounds like assistance.
Frame rate changes how sensitivity feels
Before concluding your mouse is too slow or too fast, rule out the thing that impersonates a sensitivity problem.
With an unstable frame rate, the same hand movement produces different results on screen because the image cannot keep up. It reads as a mouse that drags in one moment and skates in the next, so people start changing sensitivity instead of looking for the cause.
You can tell them apart easily. Sensitivity behaves the same everywhere. Frame drops happen in specific places on the map or through smoke.
What to do about it, and which settings genuinely add frames, is in our guide to increasing FPS in CS2. Stabilise the picture first, then tune the mouse.
Grip is the other half of the equation
The same centimetres per turn produces very different results depending on what moves the mouse.
Wrist aiming gives you a few centimetres of travel and excellent precision on small corrections. Arm aiming gives you a dozen or more, slower but far steadier across long sweeps.
Most people use both alternately, which is the crux: a sensitivity tuned for the wrist kills arm movement and the reverse is equally true. Extreme values only work for players who genuinely commit to one.
If you are unsure which you are, look at your mousepad after an hour. Wear concentrated in a small patch means wrist. Wear spread across half the surface means arm.
Changing mouse without losing your aim
New hardware is where most people quietly ruin their settings, because they carry over the numbers instead of the movement.
A different mouse at a different DPI with the same in game value gives a different turn speed. Rather than copying the figures, measure centimetres per turn again and adjust the sensitivity until you land on the number you had before.
A change of mousepad works the same way, more subtly. The hand travels differently across a different surface, and after a few days most people want a few centimetres more or less than they did.
Which is the argument for keeping your figure written down alongside the settings in your config file. It is the one value you will not reconstruct from memory.
Testing whether a change helped
Any new sensitivity feels good at first, because novelty forces concentration. That wears off in a few days and only then does the truth appear.
A reasonable test is twenty minutes of deathmatch and one question afterwards: were you overshooting the target more often, or undershooting it. Overshooting means too fast, undershooting means too slow.
The second test concerns turning around. If you need two mouse lifts to face behind you, you have gone too far the other way and will pay for it every time somebody flanks.
Both want an empty server with bots, since in a match you are also measuring somebody else’s play. The commands for that are in our walkthrough of the CS2 practice server config.
Frequently asked questions about CS2 sensitivity
What DPI should I use?
Usually 400 or 800. The product of DPI and sensitivity is what matters, so DPI alone decides nothing beyond how finely the mouse measures movement.
What eDPI should I aim for?
Most players sit between 400 and 1600. Rather than targeting a number, measure your centimetres per full turn.
How many centimetres per 360 is right?
Typically thirty to fifty. Below twenty you are aiming with your wrist, above sixty you lose the ability to turn behind you.
Should I change the scoped multiplier?
The default of one is a fine starting point. Change it only if you consistently overshoot while scoped.
Why does my mouse feel different after a Windows change?
Because outside the middle slider position the system rescales the signal. Set the sixth of eleven positions and disable enhanced pointer precision.
Can vertical sensitivity be set separately?
Yes, the game has a vertical axis scale ranging from zero to two. Zero locks vertical movement completely.
How long does adapting to a new sensitivity take?
Around two weeks of regular play. Changing it again before that means starting from zero.
Last updated: September 2026
Defaults and ranges come from the game’s own variable dump, checked in September 2026. The distances quoted per style are observations from published player settings rather than a rule, so treat them as a starting point for your own measurement.
