How to Change CS2's Language

Route 1: the per-game Language tab

This is the one you want in almost every case. It changes Counter-Strike 2 and nothing else, so your store, library and friends list stay in whatever language you normally use. Valve documents it like this:

1. Open your Steam Library.
2. Right-click Counter-Strike 2 and select Properties.
3. Go to the Language tab.
4. Select the language you want from the drop-down.

Steam's note on this step is worth reading twice: if the game supports the language you picked, files for that language may need to be downloaded before you can play. So if CS2 immediately queues a small update after you change this, that is expected, not a bug.

Route 2: the Steam client language

The Steam language setting decides what the Steam application itself displays and what language games are presented in. If you want everything in one language, change this instead of fiddling per-game:

1. Click Steam in the top-left menu bar.
2. Open Settings (Preferences on macOS).
3. Go to the Interface tab.
4. Pick your language, click OK, and restart Steam when prompted.

Valve adds one troubleshooting line here that solves most "my language keeps reverting" complaints: if you are having problems enabling a language, make sure your desired language is selected in bothlocations — the client setting and the game's own Language tab.

Route 3: the -language launch option

CS2 runs on Source 2, and the Valve Developer Community's list of Source 2 command-line options documents -language <language>as "interface language customization". You add it the same way as any other launch option:

1. Right-click Counter-Strike 2 in your Library and select Properties.
2. On the General tab, find the Launch Options box.
3. Type -language english (or another code from the table below), separating it from any other options with a space.
4. Close the Properties window and launch the game.

Two honest caveats. First, Valve's own Steam Support article on launch options is a GoldSrc/Source 1 document and does not list -language at all, so treat the launch option as the fallback rather than the first thing you reach for. Second, it takes a language code, not the name shown in the Steam dropdown — -language brazilian, not -language portuguese-brazil. Our CS2 launch options reference covers the rest of the flags worth setting.

The language codes CS2 accepts

CS2 ships a gameinfo.gi file that declares a SupportedLanguagesblock. It lists 29 languages, using Steam's API language codes rather than display names. These are the codes that trip people up, because the code and the language name do not match:

The remaining codes are the obvious ones: bulgarian, czech, danish, dutch, english, finnish, french, german, greek, hungarian, indonesian, italian, japanese, norwegian, polish, romanian, russian, swedish, thai, turkish, ukrainian and vietnamese.

Anything outside that list will not do anything useful, because there is no localization file for it. Arabic and Malay, for instance, are full Steam platform languages but are not in CS2's supported list.

What actually changes — and what doesn't

The headline limitation is audio. Valve's Steam store listing for CS2 lists all 29 languages, then marks exactly one of them — English — as having full audio support. Everything else is text only.

• Changes: menus, settings, the buy menu, HUD strings, item and collection names, tooltips, subtitles and the loading-screen text.
• Does not change: spoken radio commands, character voice lines and announcer audio. Those stay in English regardless of what you pick.
• Also does not change: map callout names as other players type them. Team chat stamps a location onto your message from the map's place names, and those get translated with everything else — so a Russian-client teammate and an English-client teammate will see different words for the same room.

Under the hood this is a single flat text file. CS2 keeps its strings in game/csgo/pak01_dir/resource/csgo_<language>.txt, and the file opens with a "Language"key naming itself. When Valve ships a release note reading "localization code and text changes", that file is what changed.

Why people change CS2's language on purpose

• Matching guides and configs. Almost every CS2 guide, console reference and video is written against the English UI. If you are following along with a settings guide or a console command list, running the game in English removes a translation step.
• A shared machine. The per-game Language tab exists precisely so one account can keep Steam in its own language and still run one game in another.
• Verifying an item name. Skin, sticker and collection names are localized, so the same item reads differently depending on the client. Switching to English is the quickest way to confirm what you are actually looking at against our skin database.
• Bad or missing translation. Localization lags behind new content, so a brand-new case or Armory item can show an untranslated string in a non-English client until the next update.

If it still will not switch

1. Check both settings. Steam client Interface language and the game's Language tab. This is Valve's own first suggestion.
2. Let the download finish. Switching can queue language files. If CS2 is mid-update the old strings will persist.
3. Remove conflicting launch options. If you have -language set and then change the Language tab, the launch option is the one you will notice. Clear the launch option and retest.
4. Confirm the language is offered. Steam's advice is to check the game's store page for the languages it lists. If it is not on CS2's list of 29, no setting will produce it.
5. Restart the game, not just the menu. Language is read at startup.

None of this touches performance or your config. If you are here because something else about CS2 is behaving oddly, the FPS optimization guide and video settings guide are the better starting points.