Best binds for CS:GO to optimize gameplay

CS:GO is one of the most straightforward shooter games on the market. Though the economic aspect increases the game’s learning curve, there are a ton of mechanics you can master to start climbing up the ranks rapidly.

Tricks like bunny hopping and customized bindings should be the next item on your list once you’re done mastering the ins and outs of all the maps in CS:GO. The best binds for CS:GO won’t necessarily improve your aim or anything, but they will help you become more efficient in everything you do around the map.

You can customize each following bind with a hotkey that’s best for you, and your setup will slowly become a part of your muscle memory. Most binds take advantage of the extra buttons that can be found on gaming mice. Using these buttons decrease the overall reliance you have on your keyboard for queuing in-game actions, freeing up some much-needed space for your left hand. 

A less cluttered keyboard will help you concentrate more on your movements and keep your hands stable most of the time since your keys will just be a fingertip away. You’ll need to copy the commands on our list either to the in-game console or to your config file, with the latter being the more permanent way of implementing them.

We’ll highlight where you need to insert your desired keybind into the following commands and leave a recommended keybind that we prefer using. Remove the double exclamation mark next to where you should be entering your hotkey and simply enter the key that works best for you. The rule of thumb is utilizing the macro keys on your gaming mouse and keyboard alongside the nearest keys to the “W-A-S-D” lineup.

Here are the best binds for CS:GO you can start using your today to optimize your gameplay.

Mouse wheel jump bind

The mouse wheel jump bind is the bread and butter of bunny hoppers. Bunny hopping requires players to perform back-to-back jumps with the minimum delay between each hop, making the space bar a clunky option. 

Setting your mouse wheel up and down to jumping will make timing your jumps even easier. You can check out our guide for bunny hopping if this is the first time you hear about it.

• bind mwheelup +jump;bind mwheeldown +jump

Jump-throw bind

Trick grenades are an essential part of playing CS:GO on a competitive level. You’ll want your grenades doing the most amount of work without risking your life, and the best way to do that is by utilizing the grenade spots of each map. There should be a video up on YouTube covering all the corners of the entire map list.

Though jump throws look straight forward, timing the end of your jump with your trigger finger can be quite challenging. More often than not, you’ll be missing your first dozen grenades and some more when you’re feeling rusty. The best way to make sure you throw each grenade in the best possible way is by setting yourself a jump-throw bind.

You’ll need to take out your grenade before using this command since you’ll just shoot while jumping otherwise.

While this binding is the furthest thing away from cheating, some tournament organizers may not want the players to take advantage of automatization. Don’t forget the check the rule book of any tournament or elite league you’re looking to participate in to make sure you don’t get banned for a rule violation.

• alias “+jumpthrow” “+jump;-attack”; alias “-jumpthrow” “-jump”; bind !!INSERT YOUR HOTKEY HERE!! “+jumpthrow”
  • Recommended keybind: Left Alt

Quick switch bind

Sniping is one of the coolest things in the entirety of CS:GO. The feeling you get when you perfectly land an AWP shot to an enemy that made the mistake of peeking is priceless and something any gamer will tell their friends the next day. If you’ve been tuning in to pro matches, you may have noticed some pro players taking out their knife after shooting once with their sniper rifles. It does look cool, but there’s also an underlying mechanic there.

Switching to the knife instantly after a sniper shot allows players to avoid returning to the scope mode after reloading, which wastes quite a bit of time. If you don’t do this trick, your sniper rifle will return to its scoped state once it reloads.

Switching to your knife also increases your movement speed, and it can come in handy if you also get tagged in the process. If you get shot while you have your gun equipped in CS:GO, your movement speed will reduce accordingly to the weapon you’re holding, the knife, as the lightest weapon, will help you preserve most of your momentum.

• bind !!INSERT YOUR HOTKEY HERE!! “use weapon_knife;slot1”
  • Recommended keybind: Q

Grenade binds

If you want to switch between the grenades you bought at the beginning of the round, you’ll need to press your grenade key multiple times until you get whichever you need to your hand. This is less than ideal and wastes quite a bit of time. It can also get you killed, in addition to causing you to throw wrong grenades in intense situations.

Binding each type of grenade to a dedicated key should help you overcome this issue, and you should get even more efficient in time as you get used to the separate binding of your grenades.

• bind !!INSERT YOUR HOTKEY HERE!! use weapon_flashbang
• bind !!INSERT YOUR HOTKEY HERE!! use weapon_smokegrenade
• bind !!INSERT YOUR HOTKEY HERE!! use weapon_molotov; use weapon_incgrenade
• bind !!INSERT YOUR HOTKEY HERE!! use weapon_hegrenade
  • Recommended keybinds: mouse buttons that are around your mouse and keyboard keys close to your movement hotkeys.

Mute voice chat bind

Every fallen teammate suddenly turns into the richest source of information, that’s just a fact of life. Though the information they provide may help you bring home the round, sometimes focusing at 100-percent can be better than listening to your whole team.

CS:GO lets players mute their teammates, but the initial way of doing it takes a lot of time. You would need to open the scoreboard and mute your teammates one by one, losing at least 30 seconds in the process.

The following bind will let you turn off voice chat entirely from the settings with a keypress, meaning you won’t need to mute everyone individually. You can press it again to enable voice chat once the round ends.

• bind !!INSERT YOUR HOTKEY HERE!! Voice_enable
  • Recommended keybinds: K and J

Bomb drop bind

Being the bomb carrier is a huge responsibility in CS:GO. Overextending can cause you to get killed in enemy territory, and your team can get on your case for dropping the bomb in an unlikely place, turning the round into Mission Impossible.

If you don’t like the extra responsibility and drop the bomb at the beginning of the match, or just want to hand it over to a teammate before you start rushing down a bombsite, you’ll need to switch to the bomb in your inventory and press the drop key. That’s two individual key presses that can be optimized into a single click.

This bind will let you drop the bomb with a single click by automatically switching to it and dropping.

• bind !!INSERT YOUR HOTKEY HERE!! “use weapon_knife; use weapon_c4; drop; slot1”
  • Recommended keybinds: B

Clear decals bind

A single round of CS:GO can turn into the longest two minutes of your life at times. In most action-packed situations, the map walls can end up being covered in bullet holes, blood marks, and graffiti. Though each makes CS:GO the game it is, they can also make it harder to spot enemies.

Most professional players use the following bind to clear the map of its dirt and wear-down to start the next round in the freshest way possible. This command returns the map into its original stage, like how it was when you first loaded into the match.

• bind !!INSERT YOUR HOTKEY HERE!! “r_cleardecals”
  • Recommended keybind: N

Binding the decal bind to your shift key can let you clear the map once you start walking, which is one of the clear indicators of you’re turning on the clutch mode.

• bind shift “+speed; r_cleardecals”

Switch hands bind

Some players prefer holding the gun with their left hands in CS:GO. While some do this because they’re actually lefties in real life, others may do it just to look cool. This switcheroo between the two hands becomes quite helpful while peeking different corners, though.

If you’re peeking a corner toward your screen’s right, having the gun on your opposite hand will let you have more screen space to detect enemies.

Following binding allows you to switch hands constantly throughout a game, turning the mechanic into an advantage.

• bind !!INSERT YOUR HOTKEY HERE!! “toggle cl_righthand 0 1”
  • Recommended keybinds: L and Y.

Radar zoom

Constantly zooming in and out of your map will be helpful under different circumstances in a CS:GO round. You’ll want your map fully zoomed out at the beginning of a round to identify where your enemies are, while you’ll need it zoomed in while taking over a site to make sure you can notice anyone hiding with a single mistake they make.

These keybinds will help you adjust the zoom level of your map throughout a match.

• bind !!INSERT YOUR HOTKEY HERE!! “incrementvar cl_radar_scale 0.25 1.0 0.05”
• bind !!INSERT YOUR HOTKEY HERE!! “incrementvar cl_radar_scale 0.25 1.0 -0.05”
  • Recommended keybinds: The “+” and “-” minus buttons on the keypad.