GE Improvements: Beyond Max Cash

If you can’t see the video above, click here! The Grand Exchange (GE) has been a fundamental part of Old School’s economy for well over a decade. Whether you're stocking up on supplies before a boss trip, selling off your loot, or flipping items for profit, the GE is where it's at for all major trading functions throughout Gielinor. However, over time, one limitation has become apparent: the maximum number of coins a single offer can trade is still set to 2,147,483,647. Today, we’d like to discuss a change we’re working on that would allow the GE to support trades beyond that limit, as well as a few general improvements we’re keen to explore in the future, too.

If you can’t see the image above, click here!

The current max cash limit stems from the system's original design many years ago. For most items, this isn't an issue; however, for a few extremely rare items (such as the elusive 3rd Age Pickaxe), they exceed this value. When item prices exceed 2,147,483,647 coins, players need to organise their trades outside the GE to make this magic happen. Typically, this includes:

• •Manual in-person trading with Platinum Tokens..
• •Coordinating trades through third-party websites or Discord servers.

While these methods work, they do have the following drawbacks:

• •Removes the protection and convenience that the system naturally provides.
• •Increases the risk of scams.
• •Complicates price discovery for other players.

Although only a handful of items are affected today, this situation tends to recur whenever new high-end content is released. For these items, prices often start well above the max cash limit before gradually settling as supply increases. By enabling the GE to support offers beyond max cash, we hope to ensure these items can be traded safely and conveniently from day one.

Thus, we’d like to update the GE so that offers can support values beyond 2,147,483,647 coins. To note:

• •All items stacks, including coins, will still be capped at 2.147b.
• •Instead, the GE itself would support higher-value trades using both Coins and Platinum tokens, where required.
• •This means the system would be effectively capped at about 2.149 trillion GP with combined currency holdings (2.147b Coins + 2.147b Platinum), which should cover even the most ambitious bank values - at least for the foreseeable!
• •Existing trade restrictions, such as buy limits, will remain unchanged.
• •GE tax still applies, meaning these high-value trades will continue to contribute to the game’s gold sinks, helping keep our game's economy nice and healthy long term.
• •Note: Tax will still be capped at a maximum of 5 million coins per item, as standard.

We recognise that some players may still prefer to trade high-value items outside the GE to avoid tax. However, we believe many players would still value having the option to use the GE for its many benefits...

We hope that bringing these trades back into the GE will provide the following:

• •A safer experience - players won't have to rely on potential scam in-person trades or go through any potentially dodgy external websites.
• •Better price transparency - trades conducted through the GE would provide clearer signals about the true value of rare items.
• •Greater gold sinking - keeping the game and economy nice and healthy by applying the GE tax to these trades.
• •Future-proofing - items from new content could be sold immediately at a player's convenience.

You may be thinking: "I thought 2.147 billion was the biggest number Old School could handle?"

Mod Morty That limit comes from a lot of our older systems using 32-bit integers, where 2,147,483,647 is the maximum value. Click here to continue

Mod Morty Item stacks, including Coins and Platinum Tokens, will continue to use that limit, which is why you still won't be able to carry more than 2.147b of either currency in a single stack. Click here to continue

Mod Morty To make higher-value GE trades possible, we haven't changed the game's stack limits. Click here to continue

Mod Morty Instead, we've updated the engine, RuneScript, and supporting services to better handle larger values and treat Platinum Tokens as a supported currency within the GE itself. Click here to continue

Mod Morty This was made possible by adding support for 64-bit numbers within our game systems. While we're not increasing stack sizes, 64-bit values allow us to safely calculate transactions beyond the old 2.147b limit. Click here to continue

Mod Morty As a result, the GE can now represent very large trades by using a combination of Coins and Platinum tokens. Click here to continue

Mod Morty Any value above the traditional 2.147b coins limit can be automatically handled across both currencies, allowing high-value items to be traded safely through the GE while keeping existing stack limits unchanged. Click the dialogue box to continue through the text.

Mod Lenny Those of you who play RuneScape as well might be aware that they enabled higher value exchanges some time ago, too, and that in doing so, they let the players simply hold more coins in their currency pouches. Click here to continue

Mod Lenny We're leaning on a lot of the same technology and methods that RuneScape used here. Click here to continue

Mod Lenny However, without a currency pouch in-game, we wanted to keep it more grounded in what's already familiar - your stacks of coins and platinum. Click here to continue

Mod Lenny In theory, the tech behind this all would let us go all the way up to the realms of 9 quintillion, but between a stack of coins and platinum, players would have no way of possessing values that high... Click here to continue

Mod Lenny If, somewhere down the line, we wanted to add a denomination higher than platinum, though, that's something we'd be able to handle, too! Click the dialogue box to continue through the text.

Alongside this change, we’re also exploring several improvements to the GE experience itself. These ideas are still early and may evolve, but areas we’re looking at include:

• •More responsive guide prices, so they better reflect current market conditions day-to-day.
• •Improved item search, including better name matching and category filters.
• •Clearer buy-limit indicators, showing when an offer has reached its buy-limit and when that will reset.
• •Better price discovery tools, helping players understand the price required to buy or sell an item more easily.

We hope these changes will help players complete trades with more ease and less guesswork. Assuming this sits well with you all, our goal is to release this change sometime between late Summer and Autumn 2026, with further GE improvements following later. As always, let us know your thoughts and feedback on this one! We'll be listening.