A Trade-Up Contract in CS2 lets you exchange 10 skins of the same rarity for one skin of a higher rarity. For example, combining 10 Mil-Spec (blue) skins will yield one Restricted (purple) skin. All 10 input skins must be of the same grade (rarity), and the resulting skin will belong to one of the collections used in the trade-up.
The output skin is randomly selected from the collections of the input skins. When you submit 10 skins, the game randomly picks one of the collections represented among those skins, with each skin contributing a 10% chance toward its own collection. Once the collection is selected, one of its eligible skins of the next rarity is chosen at random.
The float value of the output skin is simply the average of the 10 input floats mapped to the float range of the selected outcome skin.
Not all trade-ups are profitable, and many can lose you money if you're not careful. The SkinSearch Tradeup Calculator can help you see the profitability of any tradeup.
One of the best ways to make trade-ups more affordable—and sometimes more profitable—is by using Filler Skins. These are cheap skins that don't ruin your desired odds and often have very low float values, which help control the average float of the trade-up.
Souvenir skins can't be used in trade-ups, and StatTrak outputs only happen if all 10 inputs are StatTrak—mixing just one non-StatTrak will result in a non-StatTrak skin.