Whether you’re a beginner investor or looking to optimize your portfolio after completing the game’s main missions, these methods will help you navigate GTA 5’s stock market and make smart trades. We’ll cover:

• Lester’s Assassination Missions and how to time your investments around them
• Story affected stocks
• High Frequency Trading on the LCN exchange
• Exploiting the insurance stock market after rampages
• Finding the most volatile LCN stock for consistent gains
• Understanding company rivalries to predict stock movements
• Listening to the radio for insider stock tips
• Manipulating stock prices through targeted destruction
• Optimizing trading by advancing time efficiently

Lester Assassination Missions

The “Lester Assassination Missions” method of investing in GTA 5’s stock market is probably the most fool-proof method to make money in in the game, and lots of it too.

Basically, it boils down buying and sell specific stocks before and after you complete the assassination missions for Lester (which are a big part of the single player story line).

Story Affected Stocks

LifeInvader and Richards Majestic

You should not invest in LifeInvader or Richards Majestic. LifeInvader will decrease in value after Friend Request, and Richards Majestic decreases at a later point in the game. The key issue with these two is that they never regain their original values.

Vangelico

Vangelico will decrease in value after The Jewel Store Job and increase after Minor Turbulence, for about a 40% return if you buy at its low and sell at its high.

FlyUS

FlyUS will decrease in value by about 50% after Legal Trouble and increase to its original value after Meltdown, for a 100% return if you buy at its low and sell at its high.

Cluckin’ Bell

Cluckin’ Bell will decrease in value after Paleto Score and Gruppe Sachs will decrease in value after The Big Score (subtle version). These two, along with Augury Insurance and Merryweather (which do not decrease in value during the game), will increase for high returns based on your ending decision.

Cluckin’ Bell will increase to its original value if you go with The Third Way (Deathwish) ending choice, for about a 65% return if you buy at its low and sell at its high. Gruppe Sachs will also increase to its original value, for about a 30% – 35% return if you buy at its low and sell at its high. Augury Insurance will double in value, for a 100% return.

However, if you pick The Third Way, Merryweather will decrease in value by over 50% and never return to its original value. To make money by investing in Merryweather, you should choose The Time’s Come. It will increase in value for about a 250% return.

High Frequency Stock Trading

This only works for LCN stocks and do make it worthwhile you need A LOT of money. For this reason it is good to do after you’ve finished all of Lester’s assassination missions, for example. You should also know that the prices of the LCN stocks will refresh every 45 seconds while you’re doing this.

1. Look for the stock that has the lowest price (meaning you can buy more of it).
2. Buy it (the maximum amount) and then immediately save your game. Don’t muck around when doing this (you will have 45 seconds or less).
3. Once saved then check the stock by pretending to purchase more. Provided you stay on the “purchase more stock page” the price will constantly refresh for you.
4. If the stock price goes up, then save your game and repeat the steps above. If the stock price goes down then reload your initial save game and try again.

This can be a little annoying (having to wait through a lot of saving screens) but it can also be worthwhile provided you are investing a lot of money to begin with. The incremental changes won’t be massive (maybe a few cents per price change) but they add up if you have loads of money riding on it…

Insurance Company Stock Tip

Head out on a mission of destruction and then immediately put some money into AugeryInsurance stock (AUG). When you destroyed lots of cars by damaging them, it should have caused the stock price to go down. Then after a while (and given you’ve stopped destroying things) the stock should shoot right back up!

LCN Stock Trading

When you’re playing GTA V there will always be one particular stock on the LCN market that fluctuates within a set range (well pretty much a set range).

If you can find that stock and know it’s range, then it’s just a matter of continuously trading it to make money! When it goes down into the bottom of the trading range, buy it. Then when it goes up to the top, sell it!

Note that the stock in question for your game will not be one affected by the Assassination Missions (ie Debonaire Cigarettes, Redwood or GoldCoast).

Best Stocks to Buy & Sell

This table is useful because what is good for one company (i.e. its stock price will increase) will often be bad for its competitor (its stock price will decrease). So, if certain events happen in the game that might be good or bad for specific companies, you have a better idea of what stocks you should buy.

List of Stock Tickers for all BAWSAQ Stocks

• Alpha Mail
• Ammu-Nation (AMU)
• Bank of Liberty
• Badger Wireless (BADR)
• Bean Machine (BEAN)
• Biglogs (BIGL)
• Binco (BNCO)
• Bleeter (BLE)
• Burger Shot (BSHT)
• Candy Box (CABOX)
• Canyon Entertainment (CANE)
• Cluckin’ Bell (CUBEL)
• CNT (CNTU)
• eCola (ECLA)
• Eris (ERIS)
• Eugenics Incorporated (UGEN)
• Eyefind.info (EYEF)
• Fleeca (FLEE)
• Fruit Computers (FRUC)
• Genic (GNIC)
• Globe Oil (GLBOIL)
• Gruppe Sechs
• Heat
• Liberty Tree (LIBT)
• Limit
• Logger Beer (LOGR)
• Liberty Sports Network (LSNW)
• MeTV (METV)
• Nx-Jn (NXJN)
• Pißwasser
• RON Oil (RONO)
• Shark Credit Card (SHRK)
• Schmidt & Priss
• Sprunk (SPUK)
• Tinkle Telecom (TIKL)
• Weazel Networks (WZNT)
• Whiz Wireless (WHIZ)
• WIWANG (WIW)
• Xero (XGAS)

eCola Stock

Our eCola stock market guide has its own page here. By following the steps you can earn a ton of money early on in single player mode.

List of Stock Tickers for all LCN Stocks

• ARK – AnimalArk
• AUG – AuguryInsurance
• BAN – CoolBeans
• BEN – BeanMachine
• BGR – BurgerShot
• BIL – Bilkington
• BOL – BankOfLiberty
• BOM – BobMulét
• BUL – Bullhead
• CLK – CluckinBell
• DEB – Debonaire
• DOP – DollarPills
• ECL – eCola
• EMU – AirEmu
• FLC – Fleeca
• FUS – FlyUS
• GAS – GastroBand
• GCD – GoldCoast
• GOP – GoPostal
• GRU – GruppeSechs
• HAF – Hammerstein&Faust
• HKJ – Hijak
• KRP – Krapea
• LFI – Lifeinvader
• LOG – Logger
• MAX – MaxRenda
• MAZ – MazeBank
• MER – Merryweather
• MOR – MorsMutualInsurance
• POP – PostOP
• PRO – ProLaps
• RAI – Raine
• RIM – RichardsMajestic
• RLS – RadioLosSantos
• RWC – Redwood
• SSS – Slaughter,Slaughter&Slaughter
• TBO – TacoBomb
• UNI – VanillaUnicorn
• UPA – Up-n-Atom
• VAG – Vangelico
• WFM – WorldwideFM

Radio Stock Tips

If you listen often to talk back radio stations then you’re more likely to hear about stock tips. If you do happen to hear something, load up on the stock being discussed to profit!

Stock Market – Buy Cheap and Sell High

Here’s a way to score some cheap stock and then also increase its value.

This tactic hinges on the company rivalry/competitor system, and is centered around the Los Santos International Airport. If you check out our chart above, you’ll note that AirEMU and FlyUS are rival airline companies, and this can be used to earn big time. Before starting this, make sure to save your game so you have a restore point with all your money in case something goes wrong.

To start out, you need to purchase all the AirEMU stock that you can. After that, start destroying FlyUS planes at the airport. There should be plenty, and the large liveries on the sides of the planes will let you know what airline they belong to. By destroying the planes, you can steadily decrease FlyUS’ market value, thus increasing AirEMU.

By piloting FlyUS planes and crashing them, you can decrease their value by a greater magnitude, but this is pretty time-consuming. After you have destroyed a bunch of planes, commit suicide or go to sleep at one of your properties, but do not save the game. Check the stock market a few times, and keep killing yourself/sleeping until the profit percentage increases. I can go as high as 10%, but if it stops increasing after a while just get your winnings and sell as high as you can.

Tinkle Stock Tip

Ideally this is best done later in the game when you have serious cash to invest…

1. First get all your characters to invest in Tinkle (TNK) on the BAWSAQ.
2. Then head to Hitch Lift 1 using Michael as your character and you’ll see a guy to pick up.
3. You need to take him to the Airport and along the way he’ll tell you about a particular stock that is going to increase in value.
4. $Profit$

Trading Days and Advancing Time

Each trading day on the stock market begins at 8am (except weekends), so if you are advancing time, then make sure you check it at 8am each day. Advancing time via sleeping will put your forward 8 hours.

And if you want to advance time more quickly/efficiently, you don’t have to actually save. Instead just go head into the save screen when at a bed and then exit. This is enough to advance time.

In this article, we’ve ranked the top five best ways to make money in GTA Online and link directly to our own guides that further detail exactly how you should do them.

The ranking below goes from best to worst. However, the “worst” in this case doesn’t mean it won’t make you good money, it just means that it might be a little more complex, difficult or inefficient when compared to the higher ranked methods.

The Cayo Perico Heist

The Cayo Perico Heist is the best way to make money in GTA Online, period.

The Cayo Perico Heist has been GTA Online’s most profitable yet solo-friendly heist since it was released in December 2020. What makes this heist the best is the ease and quickness of its setup missions, as well as the finale.

Following our fixed route, you can complete the heist in under 7 minutes! Not only can you complete it very quickly though, but you can also earn the Elite Challenge completion within that same time to earn extra rewards.

You can earn up to $4 million with four players or $2.6 million as a solo player. Those numbers are in the upper spectrum of the possible payout, assuming you get the Panther Statue as your primary target.

Realistically, you can earn up to $1.5-$1.6 million as a solo player every run, which is incredible considering the short amount of time that it takes to complete the heist. 

Guide: Cayo Perico Heist Guides

The Diamond Casino Heist

It has been several years since the release of the Diamond Casino Heist, yet it still stands strong in terms of payout and ease of completion. The only downside to the Diamond Casino Heist is that the setup and prep missions that can take a while to do, depending on how skilled you are. But, you can complete them fairly quickly once you get the hang of it, especially if you own a fast vehicle like an Oppressor Mark II.

Completing the Diamond Casino Heist can be very profitable as you have the potential to earn up to $10 million minimum, and that is on Normal mode. You can earn up to $11 million on Hard mode. When you take that into consideration, the setup and the prep missions don’t seem too bad!

Guide: Diamond Casino Heist Guides

Hangar

The inclusion of Hangar businesses in this list may surprise many players, as the Smuggling business wasn’t even considered in the top ten best money-making methods for a very long time. However, the Hangar business received a complete overhaul with the release of the San Andreas Mercenaries DLC, making it one of the most profitable businesses, thanks to all the payout buffs it has received.

The best part is that it can be completed solo as part of the San Andreas Mercenaries DLC, and that you can sell your product using a single vehicle.

It is also a good idea to purchase the Hangar in general, as purchasing it allows you to store your air vehicles and assign your warehouse technician to the business through your Nightclub, in order to accrue goods passively for the Nightclub business (not for the hangar warehouse).

Guide: Hangar Business Guide

Agency Security Contracts

The Agency is a new property added with the release of the Contracts DLC. It unlocks many doors for new and veteran players to make money. However, it is especially good for newer players, who can quickly access the Agency property. You’ll need to purchase the Agency to start doing the Dr. Dre missions and VIP contracts, which is what we will be focusing on.

You can earn over $1 million for completing all the VIP contract missions. The Contract DLC also features Payphone hits, which is another great way of making money while you wait for your passive businesses to make money or cooldowns.

Payphone hits don’t take much time and can be completed within 8-10 minutes. If you complete the bonus requirement of the mission, you can earn $70k extra on top of the base $15k. So in total, you can earn $85k per Payphone hit completion.

Guide: Contract DLC & Payphone Hits Guide

Nightclub Business

At number five is the Nightclub business. The Nightclub business is one of the most complex businesses to set up, but we still think it is worth the effort: it is the best passive money-making businesses in GTA Online.

The reason it is number five on this list is that it is not beginner friendly and requires a massive initial investment to set up properly. But, you can earn millions passively while you work on other businesses in-game.

This is great if you have other, non-passive sources of income that require you to actively play them, such as the Cayo Perico heist or the Agency missions. You can complete those missions while the Nightclub accrues the materials for you passively, which is worth millions of dollars once ready for you to sell.

Guide: Nightclub Business Guide

If you’re starting out in GTA Online, check out our other money guides to save money and prioritize purchasing the Kosatka submarine. You cannot perform the Cayo Perico heist unless you purchase the Kosatka submarine. Once you’ve purchased the Kosatka, you can work your way towards earning millions and starting some of the other other businesses on this list.

That wraps up our top five best money-making methods for GTA Online in 2023.

Maximum Potential Payouts & Vault Contents

Original Method

Tips and Prerequisites

If you want to really cash-in, wait until the end of the game (when you’ve completed the campaign and the “The Big Score” and should have lots of money) to do the assassination missions. This will let you invest the most money and also realize the most profits… Each character will have between $40 and $100 MILLION!

You also need to cycle through each of your characters before each mission so that you can invest all their money in the relevant stock. And, before you start a mission, make sure you quick save, just in case you make a mistake.

One final thing – if you need to advance some days in order for the stock price to move as desired, go to a safehouse and fall asleep. This will pass the time enough for your investments to spike. Then sell them!

The List of Stocks

Invest in the stock listed below before each assassination mission and follow any other notes. It’s that easy!

Assassination Mission Investing 2.0

Some dedicated fans (thanks Brent, for sending this in) have found ways to squeeze even more cash out of the above method.

The concept of this particular method relies on using Bilkington (BIL) to boost your maximum investments. The key is to make the company tank at a particular point in the game.

Preparing the Stock Decrease

Progress as usual and complete everything you can up until the Hotel Assassination mission, and make sure you have completed the preparations for Blitz Play. Then, you need to complete the Hotel Assassination and afterwards, do Blitz Play.

When you start the Blitz Play mission, make sure you are currently controlling Michael. This should be the default, but it is key. Play up until the point where Michael drops the envelope to Devin Weston and then immediately switch to Franklin.

At this point Franklin will still be sitting in the getaway car, so you can drive straight to Devin to complete the first recovery mission. Then you need to switch over the Trevor and complete the second recovery mission. When finished, before you proceed you have to sell all of your Betta Pharmaceuticals stock – but do not buy Bilkington yet.

Wait for the Stock Decrease

Continue playing the game as usual from here – Michael will run a mission for Solomon Richards and Madrazo, meet up with Trevor, take Franklin to Michael’s house for the hijacking mission and more, all up until the Paleto Bay Heist mission is reached. You can just play normally through all these missions.

Invest

At this point, Bilkington stock will be at the minimum it can be. If you were successful, all three of the protagonists – Franklin, Trevor, and Michael – will have an extra $400,000 to be used for investments, and if you use that to buy up the now-dirt cheap Bilkington stock, the final payout from all of the investment assassinations at the end of the game will be boosted by $16,000,000!

Frequently Asked Questions

One of the businesses that no one thought would become profitable in GTA Online is the smuggling business, commonly referred to as the “Hangar Business.” After the San Andreas Mercenaries DLC update, Hangars have become a great way of earning money thanks to various buffs they received.

A Hangar business is your gateway to sourcing and selling a variety of high-value goods across San Andreas. In this guide, we’ll walk you through every step of the process, from purchasing your own Hangar to maximizing your profits with savvy sourcing and selling strategies.

We’ll cover the ins and outs of sourcing missions, the most profitable product types, and how to navigate the challenges of selling your goods in both solo and public lobbies.

You’ll also get practical tips and tricks to streamline your operations, from efficiently destroying containers to locating hidden drop-off points in the heart of Los Santos. Plus, we’ll introduce you to Rooster, a new character who can help you passively fill up your Hangar, and also explore the potential of the High Demand Bonus for those willing to take on the risks of selling in a populated lobby.

Buy A Hangar

To begin, you need to purchase a Hangar. A Hangar should be a priority for every GTA Online player regardless of their business activities, as it is the only way to store your aircraft.

You can purchase two different Hangars at Los Santos International Airport (LSIA) and three at Fort Zancudo.

However maximizing profit from the businesses is key to making them a worthwhile pursuit, and there’s a lot of data the game doesn’t tell you upfront. It’s possible that your way of managing your businesses needs a whole lot of streamlining and optimization but you don’t even know it and profits might improve significantly as a result.

A useful chart put together by Reddit user Echobox419 (reproduced below) has reiterated that the Cocaine Lockup is the most profitable business, however some further intricacies of the business mechanic has been revealed as well. Much like in the case of our Vehicle Durability Guide, some of the underlying systems here aren’t apparent to the player.

Before we jump into the hard data, an interesting observation to remember is that the three Biker businesses centered around drugs produce at a misaligned ratio, meaning that a full bar of production doesn’t equal a round number of sellable units. This is why having one completed bar won’t allow you to sell any product with the Cocaine Lockup, for example.

The fractions add up to a whole number at 5 bars in each case, however in between there is always some excess product created, and that excess is wasted whenever you shut down a business. Keep in mind that these numbers come from MC businesses with fully upgraded Equipment and Staff attributes, so un-upgraded businesses may yield varied results.

Cocaine Lockup

Another thing to consider before immediately picking the Cocaine Lockup is your playstyle. Unlike in the case of CEO work, delivering more crates – or product, in this case – won’t give you a bonus on profit. You’ll get the same percentage payout regardless of how many units of product you deliver. If you’re playing solo, dealing with more delivery vehicles can be a pain and you might end up losing a whole lot more than you gain.

Since Cocaine doesn’t produce any sellable units with the first bar, and the second bar sells for less than Meth, Weed and Counterfeit Cash while selling for the equivalent of Documents, it might not be the best choice. It becomes the best paying business from three bars and up, which is also when delivering solo becomes tricky.

A different spreadsheet also exists which has somewhat different numbers, but reaches the same conclusions in terms of which business is the most profitable, leaving Cocaine at the top of the food chain. This other chart comes from Reddit user jc9289 and can be found by clicking here. The main advantage jc9289’s chart has over the one above is that it includes the exact time required to break even with your businesses, and the statistics can be important for solo players.

Counterfeit Cash

After Cocaine, Counterfeit Cash is the second most lucrative business, selling at pretty decent rates even with few bars. As a solo player, a good technique is to deliver fewer units more frequently to keep a high success rate. Delivering a larger haul alone is possible, but it requires skill and above all else, time. In the long run, multiple short deliveries will be quicker than fewer big hauls.

Supplying Your Businesses

You should also balance how you’ll supply your businesses. You might initially think that in the pursuit of more money, stealing the supplies is the best course of action as opposed to buying them, as this will lead to greater profit, however the best hybrid money making method relies on using businesses as a semi-passive source of income alongside Import/Export work.

The key here is that export missions yield greater profits than a business powered by stolen supplies. This means if you save time by buying supplies, and spend the extra time on export missions, you’ll end up with more profit than if you spend extra time on stealing supplies for your business. Of course, this mainly applies to solo players.

Playing With Friends

Things change significantly when playing with friends. Since buying supplies will only allow you to partially fill your bars, a good technique here is to buy as much as you can and then steal the rest for maximum yield. Then, go off and do other activities (Import/Export missions are also more profitable and quicker when done in a group) while the goods get cooked, and then you sell everything off in one go for a huge payout.

Cocaine Is King

The chart created by Echobox419 does all the math for us, and shows that a full set of Cocaine product sells for the best amount both in the case of stolen and bought supplies, though Counterfeit Cash with stolen supplies beats Cocaine with bought supplies. The absolute maximum profit you can make is GTA$ 112,000 with zero investment and GTA$ 93,000 with bought supplies. Cocaine is also the fastest producing business, with one bar of supplies being produced in just 24 minutes, and the whole batch completing in 2 hours. The other businesses take around half an hour for a single batch, and those extra minutes add up in the long run.

Ignore Document Forgery

The Document Forgery business is by far the least profitable, so much so that doing a local region sale with bought supplies leaves you with a net loss instead of any kind of profit. It would be wise to ignore that type of business altogether, even if you decide to take the route of operating multiple businesses.

Mixing It Up

On the topic of multiple businesses, it’s an option that might seem most appealing to players who plain and simple dislike Import/Export missions to the point of not wanting to play them at all. Generally speaking, Import/Export missions are more risky, since they require you to be in a public lobby opening you to PVP. However, if you lag yourself into your own public lobby, the game will scale up NPC resistance to make things hard on you.

Product Delivery missions, and even Supply Stealing missions, are fairly simple on the other hand. They can be done in private lobbies and the game doesn’t hike the difficulty in these cases, so if you’re running solo and find Import/Export to not be your cup of tea, running multiple businesses is a great way to make some nice cash in GTA Online.

Biker Businesses and Gunrunning?

With the popular theory that the upcoming gunrunning update may be linked to Bikers prevalent amongst players, some have suggested that it’s possible the new DLC will add to, or change, the business mechanic currently in the game. We can easily see further business types added to the game, and one change we’d suggest would be making Document Forgery not as utterly pointless as it is right now.

Regardless, this chart is a nice piece of insight into the inner workings of GTA Online. As time passes, players will likely test out and discover other similar, hidden aspects of the game to better understand the systems and mechanics that govern its world. If you’re hot on Bikers content, we have a few guides that can help you maximize your gains.

Don’t make the common mistake of dismissing businesses just because they’re not as profitable as CEO work – they’re a key element to performing the most effective money making method, and with this guide, you’ll know how to adapt them to your particular style of play.

Frequently Asked Questions

Play through the story missions until you reach “Friend Request,” the first mission Lester gives to Michael, where you go after Jay Norris, the founder of Lifeinvader. Before you start this mission, build up enough money to buy shares of eCola.

This will take a while, so determine how much time you’re willing to spend and how great a profit you want to earn, in order to decide the number of shares to buy.

To earn money, you can complete races as Franklin and rob armored trucks as Michael. Two armored trucks you definitely want to target are the ones in Little Seoul near the Burger Shot and at the Ammu-Nation parking lot in Paleto Bay. At these locations, the men with the suitcase will already be outside of the truck.

Once you’ve bought as many shares of eCola as you want, continue playing.

When you switch to Trevor, you’ll have another chance. He starts with $100,000, so use that to purchase additional shares of eCola, which should be priced at $4-6 dollars per share.

Continue to play the game and keep an eye on eCola’s price. When it crosses $125 per share, you’ll be able to sell yours for a large profit! If you have any stock tips of your own please comment below.

Frequently Asked Questions

But owning a hot nightspot is about more than just keeping the drinks flowing and the music pumping. You’ll need to master the business side of things to truly succeed. From hiring the right staff to optimizing your warehouse operations, there’s a lot to juggle.

Don’t worry though – we’ve got you covered with this guide to running a top-tier nightclub in GTA Online. We’ll walk you through everything step-by-step, including:

• Purchasing the perfect nightclub location
• Setting up your warehouse to generate passive income
• Keeping your club packed and popularity high
• Maximizing profits with smart management decisions

Whether you’re a GTA Online veteran or a fresh-faced newcomer, this guide will help you build a nightlife empire to be reckoned with.

Purchasing and Setting Up Your Nightclub

Nightclubs can be purchased in the foreclosures section of the Maze-Bank website. Access it via the “Internet” icon on your in-game cellphone. There’ll you find a total of 10 different nightclub locations in urban Los Santos, with prices ranging from GTA$ 1,080,000 to GTA$ 1,700,000.

We suggest you choose the location most handy and convenient for you. There will also be several different styles and other cosmetic features of your nightclub that you may wish to splurge on – all completely optional.

Once you’ve bought your nightclub and watched the opening cut-scene you’ll need to open the computer in your main office (on the top floor behind the “VIP” door) and then complete 3 objective missions to actually open your nightclub: (1) pick up three staff members who will be located around Los Santos and indicated on your map; (2) steal a Festival bus from the desert and bring it back to your nightclub; and (3) pick up your DJ from Los Santos International Airport.

The available DJs are Solomun, Tale Of Us and The Black Madonna.

Once all that is done you just need to make a few final decisions (such as entrance fees and restricted access areas) and your club will be open for business.

Nightclub Versus Warehouse

Your nightclub, as an independent business, has no effect on how the joined warehouse functions. The two are entirely separate, so if you don’t particularly care about the nightclub, you can just not interact with it while still reaping the benefits of the consolidated warehouse. Both provide passive income, however.

The Nightclub Business

Your nightclub doesn’t just contain your warehouse and three levels of garage space, but is an independent business on its own.

While you’ll see through this guide that it is far from the most profitable one, it does come with several fun gameplay perks to keeping your nightclub running. You might best be served to think of them as less of a method to make money, instead viewing them as a way to entertain yourself.

Utility Fees

First of all, nightclubs have periodical utility fees, clocking in at GTA$ 1750 every 48 minutes. While not high, this can add up and the best way to compensate is via keeping nightclub income high. When you have well running businesses this isn’t an issue in any regard, so it only really matters early on.

Nightclub Popularity

Your nightclub has a popularity meter. This stat depletes steadily over time – at a rate of 5% per in-game day/48 minutes real-time, and can be increased by doing nightclub side missions, which are pretty short and easy for the most part. Popularity can also be increased by swapping DJs, with every GTA$ 10,000 spent on marketing being worth 10% popularity – therefore “buying” 100% popularity would cost GTA$ 100,000, provided you have the Staff upgrade.

Nightclub Passive Income

A nightclub at full popularity generates GTA$ 10,000 of passive income every 48 minutes. This more than covers utilities, and again, even though it doesn’t seem much, does add up over time. Keeping popularity high by doing the side missions doesn’t take too much effort and gives you a solid income base. The table below illustrates how much your popularity affects your passive icome:

Alternate Popularity Boost

An alternate way of boosting your popularity is by destroying the advertising vans of other players who are doing nightclub missions to increase their own popularity. We wouldn’t recommend this however as it yields much less popularity than actually doing the missions yourself.

Nightclub Upgrades

You can upgrade your nightclub with staff, security and equipment.

• Security Upgrade – GTA$ 695,000
• Staff Upgrade – GTA$ 475,000
• Equipment Upgrade – GTA$ 1,425,000

Staff upgrades reduce the rate of popularity decay while security functions much like in any other business – it decreases the probability of your business getting raided. For nightclubs, a raid will result in popularity loss. Finally, equipment upgrades will allow your technicians to produce supplies more quickly (more on that below).

In a more minor feature, popularity loss will also disable the more expensive items on the drink menu.

Interior Decoration

While you can customize the interior of your club, this doesn’t affect stats or popularity. As you earn more money through it and complete Business Battles activities, Tony’s desk will be updated with little trophies commemorating your progress. These too are purely cosmetic.

Business Battles

Business Battles are a new freemode activity that will occur periodically in your game lobby. You need to beat the other players and secure a shipment that will be dropped to a random location on the map.

An additional way to gain income from the nightclub is by setting an entrance fee. This only affects other players entering the nightclub, not NPCs, so it isn’t a guaranteed source of income, but know it’s there can help. You can also set guest permissions for the various rooms and facilities of your nightclub.

Business Consolidation

The business consolidation feature of the nightclub warehouse is where things become more lucrative, and a whole lot more complicated as well.

Not only does the nightclub warehouse allow for the convenience of managing your businesses from one place, but it also changes how you go about it. This is a massive structural shift compared to how GTA Online has worked for the past few years and is the biggest mechanical change brought about by this DLC.

Storing Supplies

Currently, the nightclub warehouse can store supplies for all other business types present in GTA Online except for vehicle cargo (Import/Export). The warehouse isn’t just a combined tally of your other warehouses, but is independent of them – this is important for sales and income calculation.

The basement space that comes with your nightclub can store up to 72 crates out of the gate, and you can purchase 4 additional floors with the same capacity for a maximum of 360 crates. Plus the free Vapid Speedo Custom that you get when purchasing a club can also hold up to 119 crates at any one time.

Technicians

You can hire a maximum of 5 technicians who then automatically generate supplies for any given product.

This takes a lot of time, varying based on the product selected. The warehouse comes with one technician and the rest need to be bought separately, with each costing more than the first.

The exact costs are as follows:

1. Technician – Free
2. Technician – GTA$ 141,000
3. Technician – GTA$ 184,500
4. Technician – GTA$ 240,500
5. Technician – GTA$ 312,000

The total cost of buying all 4 additional technicians is GTA$ 878,000.

Making Money

However, seeing as your previous/”normal” warehouses are considered separate, you can also conduct businesses as usual, like you have until now, vastly increasing your ability to earn profit.

It also enables you to turn your businesses into a source of passive income, as with technicians filling up your warehouse all you are left with having to actually do is sell.

Note that the nightclub warehouse doesn’t automatically unlock the other business types on its own – you can only accrue supplies for businesses you have acquired otherwise.

Gay Tony

Tony takes a 10% cut of all sales on product acquired through technicians (his fee for laundering the money), but even then you can still be left with an impressive passive income coming from the nightclub. Technicians sourcing supplies don’t cost anything and all they need to operate is for you to have an active business in the relevant category.

The Numbers

If you play your cards right, you can make up to GTA$ 60,000 and hour with basically zero effort. We also recommend that you upgrade your warehouse further with additional storage, this will lead to maximum profit.

Here is a rundown of the various business types supported and how the products stack up if you maximise the quantity produced (and therefore the payout) of each.

Printing & Copying (Bikers Document Forgery)

• Total production time: 15 hours
• Value: $60,000 (60 units x $1,000)
• Earnings per hour: $4,000/hour

Organic Produce (Bikers Marijuana Farm)

• Total production time 26.66 hours
• Value: $120,000 (80 units x $1,500)
• Earnings per hour: $4,500/hour

Cash Creation (Bikers Counterfeiting)

• Total production time: 20 hours
• Value: $140,000 (40 units x $3,500)
• Earnings per hour: $7,000/hour

Sporting Goods (Gunrunning Weapons Manufacturing)

• Total production time: 66.66 hours
• Value: $500,000 (100 units x $5,000)
• Earnings per hour: $7,500/hour

Pharmaceutical Research (Bikers Meth Production Lab)

• Total production time: 20 hours
• Value: $170,000 (20 units x $8,500)
• Earnings per hour: $8,500/hour

Cargo and Shipments (Smuggler’s Run Smuggled Cargo)

• Total production time: 58.33 hours
• Value: $500,000 (50 units x $10,000)
• Earnings per hour: $8,570/hour

South American Imports (Bikers Cocaine Warehouse)

• Total production time: 20 hours
• Value: $200,000 (10 units x $20,000)
• Earnings per hour: $10,000/hour

The above numbers also reflect production time after the equipment upgrades have been purchased, which increase technician efficiency.

Another way to speed up these production times is by completing Business Battle activities that net you free product which is added to the nightclub warehouse. These automatically occur every 15 minutes (real time) in public lobbies.

You sell your goods by accessing the computer in your nightclub office.

Special Orders

Occasionally, you will get special orders. These work similarly to special cargo in Further Adventures In Finance And Felony, however the bonus is much smaller – only 5%.

This means completing special orders only really makes sense on high-value product, which you should be focusing on anyway. On special orders, Tony’s 10% is cut from the default amount, not the amount with the bonus applied, meaning you also have a higher profit margin.

Further After Hours Updates

It is possible that vehicle product will be added to the nightclub warehouse later on and additional features will be made available. It has been confirmed that new resident DJs will become available throughout the upcoming weeks, so it can be assumed that other content is also along the way.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is GTA Online Career Builder?

Career Builder essentially allows players to choose from different criminal career paths. You also get GTA$4 million to spend on buying the properties, vehicles, and weapons for your selected career path.

Unfortunately, you must spend a minimum amount of that money before you can actually start playing – you need to spend at least GTA$3 million of the GTA$4 million that you’re given. This means you must spend all your money until you’re just under the GTA$1 million mark.

Another important thing to note is that the Career Builder can only be experienced once. You cannot repeat it even if you create a new character, and you certainly won’t receive the GTA$4 million cash bonus again! Career Builder is solely available to players who own the newest version of GTA Online on the new consoles – the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X|S.

Career Paths

Returning players should already be familiar with these career paths, but here’s a quick rundown of what each path offers for new players in terms of progress. GTA Online career paths are as follows:

Executive

If you choose the Executive route, you will get an office and a warehouse to store your special cargo and vehicle cargo. You will buy and sell the cargo as the CEO of the company. While it may sound like a very beneficial career path, it is not lucrative for new players. We will discuss what career path to choose below.

Nightclub Owner

The Nightclub is the worst option here in terms of making money. The main goal of this guide is to help you choose the best career path for earning money quickly in GTA Online as a beginner. The issue here is that the Nightclub does not work if you do not own other businesses, such as the Gunrunning and Biker businesses. If you have other businesses, you can then hire Technicians to control your businesses to keep up with the supply requirements for the Nightclub business to operate passively.

While the Nightclub does offer GTA$10,000 every in-game day, provided you’ve kept its popularity high enough, the issue is that this popularity decreases organically over time. So, you must do missions to keep your Nightclub’s popularity high, which makes it a terrible option here.

Biker

In the Biker career path, you become the president of a biker gang involved in several illicit businesses including selling drugs, meth labs, and counterfeiting money. The Biker business is good, but not as good as the Gunrunner career path.

Gunrunner

Gunrunning is one of the most profitable businesses. As a Gunrunner, you manufacture and sell weapons. You can either buy them for GTA$75,000 or steal them to source the required materials.

Best Choices

We understand that choosing a career path can be very confusing. So below, we’ve listed the best choices to ensure you are on your way to making the most money in GTA Online possible, in only a few hours. We’ve prepared a step-by-step guide on how you can make the most of the Career Builder feature and optimize your beginning, in order to get the Kosatka submarine as early as possible.

Yes, getting the Kosatka submarine is our end goal. Once you’ve purchased the Kosatka, you will be rolling in money. The Kosatka is part of the Cayo Perico heist update. The Cayo Perico heist is the fastest and the most profitable heist in GTA Online as of now. Previously, it was the Diamond Casino Heist.

So, you’ve got GTA$4 million to begin with at the start of your new character creation. Here’s how you should spend it in order to have around GTA$1 million by the time you load into the world of GTA Online. The Kosatka costs GTA$2.2 million. So once you load into the game, your goal is to earn an additional GTA$1.2 million to reach that $2.2 million mark.

Here’s our cheat sheet to the best career path for solo players:

• Career: Gunrunner
• Bunker: Chumash Bunker ($1,650,000)
• Upgrade: Bunker Upgrade Pack D ($1,214,500)
• Vehicle: Vapid Bobcat XL ($23,000)
• Weapons: Vom Feuer Special Carbine ($14,750), Vom Feuer Marksman Rifle ($15,750), Hawk & Little Mini SMG ($8,900), and Hawk & Little Homing Launcher ($75,000)

We’ve chosen the Chumash Bunker due to its location. It is the most cost-effective Bunker for its location, which is one of the best in the game as it is near all the key locations where you will be delivering your weapons as part of your Gunrunning business.

Bunker Upgrade Pack D is the most useful one as it provides you with upgraded staff members, better security, and personal quarters. Better security means fewer raids.

For the vehicle, our first choice, without a doubt, is the Armored Kuruma. However, we’re ultimately trying to maximize our money to buy the Kosatka submarine and the Armored Kuruma costs $698,250. That will set you back a lot.

The Armored Kuruma is useful when you are doing missions that include PvE situations, as enemies in GTA Online are notorious for their highly accurate aim, and being inside the Armored Kuruma provides a lot of protection. This is especially when you have your mini-SMG to drive with.

So, if you are confident and have patience, feel free to go with the Armored Kuruma. But, we advise against it. You can always buy it after you start making money from the Cayo Perico heist. And trust us, it won’t take long. So, you should buy the cheapest vehicle for now, which is the Vapid Bobcat XL.

Finally, we recommend the mini-SMG, marksman rifle, and the special carbine for your weapons. You can also buy the homing launcher to make up for the rest of your required expenditure and get just below the GTA$1 million mark (remember, you need to be under GTA$1 million to be able to enter GTA Online). Now, you should be left with GTA$998,100.

Once you’re all set, you can go to the summary page and start your career. Go through the tutorial phase, and once you reach free roam, you need to do a couple of things to earn significant cash.

Making Money Early

There are plenty of methods you can use to earn money in GTA Online and we’ve got a plethora of guides on how to do so.

However, many of these guides do not provide a lot of cash in a very short amount of time – some are more long-term investments, and some are just heaps of fun. So, if you start doing them right now, it will take forever for you to earn the GTA$2.2 million you need for the Kosatka submarine.

Instead, what we are going to do, is some in-game hunts. If you are a brand new character these hunts will be available for you. Sadly, if you are a returning character and have done them already, you won’t be able to complete them a second time.

Los Santos Slasher Hunt

The first hunt you need to complete is the Los Santos Slasher Hunt. In this, you need to hunt down a serial killer and eliminate him to obtain a Navy Revolver. You can follow five different clues to reach the killer. The fifth clue is always in a random location.

Each clue you find rewards you with GTA$5,000, for a total of GTA$25,000 for finding all five clues. Once you get the Navy Revolver, you need to get 50 headshots with it as a challenge. Upon the completion of the challenge, you will get an additional GTA$200,000.

We highly recommend checking out our complete and in-depth guide on completing this hunt, with all the clue locations.

Double-Action Revolver

The next hunt is for the Double-Action Revolver. You can find this exclusive revolver by completing a small treasure hunt. You find clues around the map, but the clues only start appearing once you receive a special message on your phone while in free-roam.

The locations are random. You can check out this guide on finding the revolver. Once you get the revolver, you need to complete its associated challenge – 50 headshots once again. Upon getting the headshots, you will be rewarded with GTA$250,000.

Stone Hatchet

Finally, there is another weapon you can get by completing five bounties for Maude. She will email you a picture and a general location of the bounty. You can either kill or bring back alive the target. If you bring them back alive, you get an additional GTA$5,000 bonus for each bounty. You must first visit Maude at least once for her to email you.

Once you’ve completed the five bounties, Maude will send you the location of the Stone Hatchet. You can go to the designated area and pick it up. You will earn GTA$250,000 for getting 25 kills with it.

Once again, we have a guide that you can follow along with in order to get the Stone Hatchet in GTA Online.

Upon completion of the above three hunts, you would have earned a total of GTA$700,000. This is on top of the remaining GTA$998,100 from your original GTA$4 million.

Now, having around GTA$1,698,100, you need an additional GTA$501,900 to buy the Kosatka. We suggest you complete some VIP work and Contact missions to earn the remaining amount. You can also complete the Flight School at the airport to earn approximately GTA$220,000. The amount can vary slightly.

Cayo Perico Heist

Once you’ve amassed over $2.2 million, head over to the greyed-out ‘H’ icon on the map, representing the Cayo Perico Heist. The ‘H’ will also have a tropical tree icon on it.

When you reach the location, you will get a message from Miguel Madrazo, Martin Madrazo’s son.

Make your way to the Music Locker by the Diamond Casino. You do not need a penthouse for this. You can pay the receptionist approximately GTA$150 to go inside.

When you’re inside, a cutscene will start and you will meet Miguel Madrazo. Miguel Madrazo is sitting at the bottom floor where the dance floor is. You will find him on the couch in the VIP area.

Once the cutscene ends, go to Warstock Cache & Carry from your phone and purchase the Kosatka submarine to start the Cayo Perico Heist. You see the ‘renovate’ option since we’ve already bought the submarine.

We have a complete collection of guides for starting the Cayo Perico Heist, the prep missions, scope out locations, and even FAQs.

Once you’ve got the Cayo Perico Heist set up, you can earn millions in no time!

Frequently Asked Questions