NOTE: English is not my first language and i apologise if there is any grammar mistakes.

Just like in real life, money is very important in GTA online. As 90% of in game features requires the use of money. And i'm guessing that you don't want to pay a single cent for shark cards or get a mod menu and risk getting banned (most menus removed stealth money anyways) In this guide I am going to show you the most optimal way to earn a stable income in GTA online.

NOTE: [ul]It is pretty time consuming for a player to be get from a rank 1 fresh account to making millions a day (not as easy as youtubers say), especially solo, but it is worth the grind as at that point you could pretty much buy what you want.[/ul]

Luckily, it is 2024, a very good time for a new player to join as they added plenty of ways to make money (unlike early 2013 before heists where u could only rob stores and do contact missions)

So you have just created your GTA online character and they took their first step in Los Santos, with basically no money, no reputation and no status in the city. Which in your first few days of playing, your job is to get on your foot and earn some money, this is also the most time consuming part. (don't worry, this would only get easier and easier as you get more income).

This should be your first big purchase in GTA online, with this you can store 10 vehicles, have a spawn point and you can start to host heists for some money.


Apartment heists are the first major update of GTA online, which became the best way to make money at that time. How it works is you need to do 5 setups (2 for fleeca) and a heist finale, which is your heist team's payday. You'll need at least 3 other players (or 1 other for fleeca) in order to start the heist. Which if you don't have friends it can take a very long time to gather 4 players. Besides fleeca (plenty of people would join as it an easy way for some quick cash). Finale total cut is also increased in the recent update.

You can do heist setups in any order (besides some which might be locked behind another setup mission) but it is recommended to do them top to bottom.

You, as the host needs to pay a fee to start the heist (varies on different heists) and does not get paid during setup missions (but your crew does) so give yourself a bigger cut in the finale. It is recommended to do 70,30 for fleeca, and 40,20,20,20 for other heists.

1. Fleeca Job: where you rob a small bank with one other player, Difficulty 1/5
   
2. The Prison Break; where you break out a prisoner currently held in and help him escape the country, Difficulty 3/5
   
3. Humane Labs: where you break into a lab to steal data. Difficulty 2/5
   
4. Series A: where you steal drugs from different parties in Los Santos for Trevor and sell it at the end. Difficulty 3/5
   
5. Pacific Standard: Where you rob the 2nd biggest bank in Los Santos and escape. Difficulty 4/5

Elite Challanges are a series a of conditions you have to complete for some extra money, which are mostly pretty difficult, as a combination of apartment location, skill and some luck is involved. they mostly consists of a time limit, a damage condition and nobody fails and quick restarts the heist. However, this is not worth is to complete it as the extra money is pretty minimal and rushing a heist could cause you to die and fail.

To achieve it, simply play through all setups and heists (split into 2 teams for fleeca heist) until the end of pacific standard finale to earn $1,000,000 each. This can only be done once per account

One of the most difficult challenges in the game. You and your team have to play through all 5 heists, in hard and without dying once (if someone leaves or an objective is destroyed it doesn't count) until the end of pacific standard to earn a whopping $10,000,000 each. Only can be done once per account.

- VIP work, you'll need at least 50,000 to register as a VIP (, which grants you abilities to spawn vehicles, hire other people and etc. But the main thing is for VIP work, mostly headhunter, where you kill 5 targets. or sightseer, where u pick up 3 packages across the map. You get around 21,000 to 24,000 depending on how quickly you finish it.

- Contact Missions, The very first money making method when gta online is released, You could earn around 10k or so depending on mission and the time it takes (the longer you take the more money you get, up to a cap of around 15k)



DON'T BUY WHAT YOU CAN'T AFFORD!
Most important tip when you are in this stage is to only spend money only when it is really necessary to, such as an armoured kuruma that can help you in all your heists, but not some 3 million dollar supercar. this is what the majority of people do so they became broke.

So, you've got some money and is starting to get on your feet. Here is your next steps:


Your next step should be an office. this let's you register as a CEO (basically permanent VIP), and have access to the exclusive VIP computer in your office, Which lets you purchase the below businesses.

They let you buy and source 1,2 or 3 crates which you'll have to bring them all back to the warehouse, it could be all in 1 vehicle or it could be seperate drops, where you have to make 3 seperate runs if you are playing alone and it can be annoying especially if you do not have a quick vehicle.

Warehouses comes in small (16 crates), Medium (42 crates) and Large (111 crates), but it is recommended to start with the small warehouses if mostly playing solo and doing small sales (9 crates), and upgrade to large warehouse as medium warehouses are kinda meh. You'll never need more then 2 warehouse so you can hop between them during cooldowns.

It is very time and money consuming to fill up a full 111 crate warehouse, so it is not the best business unless you have plenty of money and time.

They let you source cars, which you'll modify them and sell them later. The La Mesa warehouse is the best location. Costing only 1.35 million and is close to the highway for easy access. The only bad thing about that location is that its the vagos hangout area, which would shoot up your car if you shoot.

Cars come in 3 values. Low, mid and top range. And a good way to guarantee top range cars is to fill up your warehouse with around 12 top and mid range cars, and when you get a top range car, sell it immediately. This should make you get top range cars 100% of the time. It is also not worth it to do collections as most of them are low, mid range cars, plus it can be very time consuming as both the color and car need to be the same.

You'll also unlock special vehicle missions, when you source and sell enough cars. Which unlocks the trade prices of those vehicles.

This is one of the best businesses for solo players due to its easy missions and good pay.

At this stage, after getting some cash you have plenty of pathways and businesses you can choose, such as:


Clubhouses: A MC business let's you buy MC businesses, Register as an MC president which lets you spawn bikes without any cool down and start MC jobs (which are pretty bad)

Below are the all MC businesses, listed on the value of each full stock from low to high.

1. Document Forgery
   
2. Weed
   
3. Counterfeit Cash (Free if criminal enterprise bundle is bought)
   
4. Meth
   
5. Cocaine

I recommend you guys to invest in the cocaine lab (and its upgrades) first, then work your way down.

it is recommended to buy the businesses in sandy shores, as it is cheaper then the ones in the city. And when selling in Los Santos, the drops are much closer to each other and if you get griefed. You have plenty of cover to hide from.

How MC business works is you'll initially have to do a setup mission to start it up, then your business would start to generate stock without you doing anything, untill the business is full or when you run out of supplies, which you could either steal or buy a full badge for 75k. ALWAYS BUY SUPPLIES! especially if you have multiple businesses as it can be tedious to do 5 missions everytime to fill up its supplies bar.

You could also upgrade MC businesses, Staff upgrade (increases production speed), Equipment upgrade (increases product value) and Security upgrade (reduce chance of being raided) for maximum income, it is recommended to get staff and equipment upgrade as soon as you can, security is kinda ♥♥♥♥ as you still get raided anyways.


Basically works the same as an MC business but you produce guns instead of drugs, it has the same upgrades but has a larger capacity of stock, therefore taking longer to fill up. You also unlock the option to research for paint jobs, vehicle mods and weapon mods in the gunrunning dlc. Which can cost a lot and should be ignored at this stage.


A MC business but on wheels, you can get it for a bit over a million on warstock cash and carry, or 750k after you finish all dax missions. You could get the same upgrades and works the same way for the above businesses. However, you could temporary speed up production once per in game day.

Those businesses are one of the best ways to earn money, regardless of which stage of the game you are in. they can net you a lot of money and you don't have to do any work besides buying supplies and doing the sell mission and the end. However, it is pretty bad for solo players as for a full business it is always 3 vehicles (really slow ones too),, besides acid lab where it is always one bike.

A set of 3 new heists added the end of 2017, the first heists that can be played with either 2,3 or 4 players. With 2 players being more difficult but you have less people to split the money, and etc.

You will first need to purchase a facility in maze bank foreclosures, the best ones being the one near the city, such as the wind farm ones, and the ones near sandy shores airfield. (land act is not recommended due to its high price and difficult pathway, despite closest to the city.)

just like the original heists, you'll need to finish setup missions then do the finale. But for doomsday, you'll have to do a pre setup in freemode before the actual setup, or you could pay and skip it (which is not recommended as those missions are pretty easy, and you can die in it even if you are doing criminal mastermind).

Act 1, The Data Breaches: You storm a IAA facility and defend it from attacking merryweather mercenaries, (Difficulty 3/5)

Act 2, The Bogdam Problem: You raid a submarine. (Difficulty 3/5)

Act 3, The Doomsday Scenario: You raid a missile silo (Difficulty 5/5)

The doomsday heist has the most difficult setup missions and finale (act 3) in the game, so it is recommended to stack up on snacks and armour, and have a higher level for more max health.

Just like the original heists, you can complete loyalty, criminal mastermind and elite challanges to earn extra money.

The diamond casino is a heist that is about robbing the diamond casino which is newly built at the time of this update. It has very different mechanics to normal heists.

You'll need an arcade to start the heist, which is unlocked after meeting Lester in the park.

There are 4 main loots in the game: Cash (The worst one: lowest value, middle weight), artwork (high value, easy to take especially 2 players), Gold (high value, but heavy so you can't sprint), and diamonds (same weight as cash, limited time only, highest value).

For maximum money, it is recommended to do either the stealth or big con approach, and hire the best hacker. This gives you the most time in the vault (around 3 mins and 25 seconds) to grab as much loot as possible.


The first heist that rock star made which can be done with only 1 player. It could also also be done with more then 1 player, which you can have more loot but you have to split your payday.

You'll need a submarine (i forgot the name) on warstock to start the heist

unfortunately the cayo perico heist has been nerved in terms of cooldown and difficulty, so it is not a viable money making method now.


Guides of heists will be out soon.

A business that let's you source crates like the CEO crate warehouse and store aircraft. It is recommended to buy the ones in fort zancudo. As it has less player traffic, access to military base without a wanted level and free lazer jets for missions. However it is not the best the best buisnesses, as you can only source 1 crate at a time unless you have 3 other players in your organisation/MC. however, it is improved slightly as u can pay for someone to source the crates for you and if you do source crates, you can choose the mission type of land, sea or air (land being the easiest one)


After purchasing the autoshop, You get access the mini heists with 2 setup missions, they pay around 100k-180k depending on contract, or 280k for the union depository job (the only one worth playing). You can also repair customers car if you got the car lifter upgrade (can be bought twice) for some extra money, then it could be delivered by staff (if you bought them) or yourself to customers for money.


Agencies offer the players 3 types of contract, security, liquidize assets. They pay almost the same as a VIP. But the main income is from Dr DRE contract that is unlocked after you finish 1 security contract. Which is 1m after completion.


The newest addition to the game. You steal 3 different valued cars (100-300k) per week for yusuf involving setup missions, a scopeout and a finale. And you could either deliver to yusuf for the full price if you didn't crash, or scrap for parts for slightly less money but you skip the driving.

The final business that you are buy, as it links to all your existing businesses. If you buy it early in the game it is a big waste of money as you can't really do anything with it and you cannot refund it.


one of the most costly businesses (which at the end stage it is not that much money) prepare to dump around 3-4m for a fully upgraded nightclub with max storage.

It works the same as MC businesses, where you generate passive income doing nothing as long as you're businesses are running.

Following 7 Types of Goods are associated to following businesses:

Cargo and shipments corresponds to Hangar or Special Cargo Warehouse.

Sporting Goods corresponds to Gunrunning Bunker.

South American imports corresponds to Cocaine Lockup.

Pharmaceutical research corresponds to Meth lab.

Cash creation corresponds to Counterfeit Cash Factory.

Organic produce corresponds to Weed Farm

Printing and copying corresponds to Document Forgery Office.


Overall, the nightclub is one of the best businesses, but it takes very long to set up to its maximum income, It is good for solo as well, as it is always in 1 delivery vehicle, which can be the speedo custom, mule custom or pounder custom depending on how big your sale is. It can be customised when you own them, or else you'll get them stock.

If you have reached this point, you'll be making millions with all those businesses and activities, but always remember to use your money wisely! and you need money to run those businesses.

Thank you for reading, I know it is long but it covered all most all aspects of the game.

Feel free to like and share if you found it helpful.