Chat Commands

Counter-Strike’s beauty comes from the teamwork aspect of the game, where all five players must contribute something to the table in order to win a game. Communication becomes one of the most important factors in teamwork, which is why messages must be relayed to teammates throughout every Counter-Strike round. 

Since communication is so vital in a game of Counter-Strike, Valve has provided players with several methods of chatting, including text chat, voice chat, and even using radio messages to send quick and concise chat messages to the team. 

Each of the different chatting methods will have a list of console commands players can utilize to increase the quality of life with certain changes and customizations. In this article, we’ll go over how to chat in CSGO using some of the most useful chat commands you can use in the game. 

All Chat Commands In CSGO

In this section of the article, we are going to specifically talk about text chat commands that are useful for the text messaging feature in the game.

Chat commands are generally very helpful to help you send messages quickly, usually without having to type them out. Using console commands, you can set keybinds to send certain messages that you will probably say a few times per game. This could be used to communicate callouts and other team-related activities. 

Here is a list of the most useful CSGO chat commands you can use for text:

• say [Message]: The “say” command is used to make you send your desired message to all-chat, meaning your teammates and opponents. 
• say_team [Message]: The “say_team” command is used to make you send your desired message to your team chat only, so your opponents cannot see the message. 
• cl_mute_all_but_friends_and_party 0 / 1: This chat command is used to mute all incoming messages from players that are not in your party or in your friends list. Use the value “0” to disable the command, or use the value “1” to enable the command. 
• cl_mute_enemy_team 0 / 1: This chat command is used to mute all incoming messages from the enemy team, regardless of whether there are friends on the opposing team. Use the value “0” to disable the command, or use the value “1” to enable the command. 
• cl_sanitize_muted_players 0 / 1: This command will sanitize muted players, which means the game will hide their messages and also their Steam avatars so you don’t have to get annoyed by them further. 
• ui_party_msg_sound_enabled 0 / 1: This command will mute the sound notifications for messages sent when you are in a party lobby with your friends. sv_show_teammate_death_notification 0 / 1: This command is used to determine whether you will receive a chat notification when your teammate has died in the round. Use the value “0” to disable the command, or use the value “1” to enable the command. 

Binding The “say” Commands

As we’ve discussed earlier, you can use the “say” commands to automate the game to send full messages for you with one click of a button. You can bind the “say” command to a hotkey with your desired message, and everytime you hit the key, your message will be sent to your teammates or to the entire game chat.

Let’s go through an example for the global chat:

In this example, we want to bind the message “Good luck and have fun everyone!”, which is a message you would send every game. And, you want to bind this message to your “O” key.

In that case, you would type the command: bind o say “Good luck and have fun everyone!”

Now, everytime a match is about to start, you can press your “O” key to send that message. Keep in mind that you can press the key as many times as you want to repeatedly send the message. 

Now, let’s use an example for the team chat:

In this example, we want to send a message reading “I think we should save this round, we are low on money.” and have it bound to your “P” key. 

If you’re looking to follow the example above, use this command: bind p say_team “I think we should save this round, we are low on money.”

So, everytime you want your team to perform a low buy or an eco round, you can press your “P” key on your keyboard to send this message. The message will only be sent to your team chat so enemy players will not be able to read it. 

Using The Chat Wheel Feature

Aside from using chat commands to send repetitive messages. Valve has also implemented a chat wheel feature, which allows players to quickly send messages without having to open text chat and type out their message. 

The chat wheel command feature will allow you to send various types of short messages related to round scenarios. For example, you could send a chat wheel message that you heard noise, or that you spotted enemies. 

Players will have access to three chat wheels, each having up to 8 messages. This allows you to have 24 possible short messages throughout your three chat wheels. 

Since you have 3 chat wheels, you must bind each chat wheel to a specific hotkey, unless you only want to make use of 1 or 2 of them. This can be performed through the in-game settings menu.

You can also manually assign chat wheel messages on each chat wheel, allowing you to customize your messages the way you want. 

Some of the most useful chat wheel commands include:

• We should buy
• We should save
• Pep talk
• Ping site A
• Ping site B
• Heard noise
• Enemy spotted
• Ping bomb
• Area clear
• Sniper spotted

How To Activate Chat Wheel Commands

To use chat wheel commands, you don’t need to follow a complex procedure since everything can be set through your in-game settings. 

Here is how you can customize your chat wheel settings:

1. Launch Counter-Strike and go to your in-game settings. 
2. Next, go to the Keyboard / Mouse section of your settings page.
3. In the subcategories, select Keyboard and Mouse Settings.
4. Scroll down until you see Chat Wheel Keys, then assign each of the chat wheels to a specific key. Normally, you don’t need all three.
5. You can also find your chat wheels and manually select which messages each of them can contain. 

All Voice Chat Commands In CSGO

Aside from text chat, we also have voice chat as a means of communication. Voice chat is highly preferred in competitive play since you can relay information without having to stop and type your message on your keyboard. 

Here are some useful CSGO chat commands for voice chat:

• voice_enable 0 / 1: This command is used to disable or enable voice chat entirely. When you don’t want to listen to angry Russians screaming in the voice chat, you can use the “0” value to disable voice chat, and turn it back on with the value “1”.
• voice_scale 0 – 1: This command is used to adjust the volume of incoming voice chat audio. You can change the scale between 0 to 1, meaning you can use decimal values. For example, 0.5 would be 50%, and so on. 
• voice_mute [Player ID]: This command is used to mute the voice chat of a specific player in the game. However, you must obtain their player ID for the command to work properly. 
• voice_unmute [Player ID]; This is a follow-up command to the previous one, as this command will unmute the voice chat of a player that you have muted previously. 
• voice_reset_mutelist: This is a useful command if you have muted several players in the past, as it will unmute every player you have muted in your lifetime. Since it unmutes everyone, you do not need their player IDs.
• voice_modenable 0 / 1: This command is used to mute all voice systems in Counter-Strike with the value “0”, but you can turn everything back on with the value “1”.

Binding The “voice_enable” Command

Binds increase the quality of life for players as it allows them to perform several actions with one press of a button. The voice chat toggle bind is one of the most-used binds in the game, especially for solo queue players. 

Since the voice_enable command is used to mute and unmute the voice comms for players on your team, it can come in very handy during clutch situations. Nothing is worse than trying to clutch a round while your teammates are backseating your every move, which is where the voice chat toggle bind comes in handy.

For the sake of this example, we will use the “N” button as our key of choice. 

To set up a voice toggle bind, you can use the following command: bind n toggle voice_enable 0 1.

Now that the bind is set up, you can take half a second to press your “N” key to mute all voice comms if you are the last person alive. Once the round has ended, you can press the key again to turn voice chat back on. 

All Radio Chat Commands In CSGO

The last set of chat commands are retarded to the radio chat. Basically, players can issue radio messages that will immediately send a short message to their teammates. The neat part is, your player agent will be the one relaying the radio message. However, you can only send these messages if you are alive. 

There are four primary categories of radio commands available in the game. You can type each radio command into the console, and your player agent will start relaying the message as long as you are still alive.

The four categories are:

• General Radio Chats
• Directional Radio Chats
• Report Radio Chats
• Flavor Radio Chats

Let’s go through each of the available categories:

General Radio Chats

General radio chats are useful for various situations in the game. They are a mixture of basic callouts that are generally used in most Counter-Strike situations, so they are very handy to have at most times:

• coverme: This radio command is used to ask your teammates to provide some cover for you.
• takepoint: This radio command is used to ask your teammates to take control of a certain area or point of the map.
• holdpos: This radio command is used to tell your teammates to hold their position, expecting the enemy team to push. 
• regroup: This radio command is used to inform your team that you want everyone to regroup and go together. 
• followme: This radio command is used to tell your teammates to follow you as you take the lead. 
• takingfire: This radio command is used to inform our teammates that enemy players are shooting in your direction. 

Directional Radio Chats

Directional radio commands are more towards commanding your team to do certain things around the map. They are a great way to communicate if you are looking to act as the team’s leader if they don’t know what they’re doing:

• go: This simple radio command is used to tell your teammates to go. Your player agent will make sure to yell and throw a few extra words to get the team riled up. 
• fallback: This radio command will tell your team to go back and potentially regroup to try something else.
• takepos: This radio command will tell your team to take positions, meaning you want them to find good positions before taking further action.
• sticktog: This radio command will tell the team to stick together and move as a unit. This is effective so teammates can trade each other. 
• stormfront: This radio command will tell the team to start attacking a certain area as a unit. 

Report Radio Chats

In a round of Counter-Strike, there are a lot of things going on, and a lot of things to report. Reporting situations are crucial to ensuring your teammates are all on the same page. Here are some report radio chats you should know:

• enemyspot: This radio command informs your team that you have spotted an enemy player around the area.
• needbackup: This radio command reports to your team that you are in dangerous territory and need the help from your teammates. 
• sectorclear: This radio command reports to your team that the area you are in is clear, signaling it is safe to go there. 
• inposition: This radio command will inform your team that you are at your desired position, and have claimed it successfully. 
• getout: This radio command will command your team to get out of the area if you think it’s time to pull the plug. 
• roger: This radio command will inform your team that you agree or understand a callout or statement your teammate made.
• negative: This radio command will inform your team that you disagree with a callout or statement your teammate made.

Flavor Radio Chats

Flavor radio chats are generally used to keep the team motivated, and is a good way to make sure everyone is involved and doing well. It never hurts to share some good words with the team to make them feel good:

• cheer: This radio command will make your player agent randomly say motivational statements and celebrations to lift the spirits. 
• compliment: This radio command will make your player agent randomly say complimentary statements to your teammates. 
• thanks: This radio command will make your player agent say thank you in various ways, depending on which side you’re on. 

That being said, it could be a good idea to set up bind commands for your favorite radio messages so you can use them repeatedly in any situation. 

If you feel like your teammates are excessively using their radio messages, you can type in the command “ignorerad” to mute all incoming radio messages.