In this guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know to get started with Import/Export in GTA Online. From setting up your vehicle warehouse to sourcing and selling cars, we have tips and strategies to help you maximize your profits and minimize your risks.

Key features of the Import/Export update:

• Vehicle Warehouses: Purchase one of the available warehouses to store and modify stolen vehicles before reselling them.
• Source Vehicles: Steal a wide variety of high-end cars, from classic sports cars to modern supercars.
• Export Vehicles: Deliver the modified vehicles to buyers across Los Santos while evading rival players and law enforcement.
• Special Vehicles: Unlock powerful, custom-built vehicles with unique abilities to aid in your Import/Export operations.
• CEO Abilities: Utilize special CEO abilities, such as Ghost Organization and Off the Radar, to gain an edge.

Get Your Expectations (ROI) Right

The first and possibly most important thing you need to deal with in order to ensure that your experience with Import/Export doesn’t end with a controller-shaped hole in your display is setting expectations. We went through the same thing with Further Adventures In Finance and Felony earlier this year, where players went out and bought the most expensive executive office, and expected to turn a profit with crates before the next bathroom break.

It takes years, sometimes decades to make a return on investment for businesses in real life – in GTA, it takes about 5-6 hours of gameplay, unless you buy the most expensive version of everything. That is hardly unreasonable, but players expected to make mad stacks with the first delivery, for whatever incomprehensible reason. Naturally, the fact that they didn’t was the cause of outrage.

Keep in mind that it will take you even longer to make a profit in Import/Export, but once the money comes in, it validates the effort. The starting investment here is higher, hence taking more time to make a return. However, there are a few tips and tricks to make the most of the new opportunities.

Bring Some Friends

Export missions especially benefit from having some friends along for the ride. Each member of your organization may sell a vehicle, allowing you to sell up to four rides concurrently, which a major bonus considering you’d have to wait out a timer in between each four were you playing solo.

And Bring A Cargobob

Another great tip for either imports or exports is to take a cargobob along with you. This will make it easier to get your car to the warehouse without taking too much damage, minimizing repair costs. When you get NPC aerial attackers, make sure to fly low and fast, as this is the best way to avoid further damage.

Unlock The Discounts

You should also keep in mind that while the special vehicles are all pretty expensive, you can shave off large amounts from their prices by completing each mission associated with the vehicles. In some cases, this discount hits even a million, which is no small amount. The mission for the amphibious technical is useful on its own, since it’s short but has a great payout, making it worth playing even once you already have the discount unlocked.

Make Car Collections

One very easy-to-miss detail that is crucial for squeezing as much cash out of Import/Export as possible is the car collections feature. These collections reward industrious players with a lot of bonus cash for assembling a specific shopping list of vehicles for a single customer, and selling them off in one go. Naturally, since sometimes low-cost rides make it into a collection, there is no need to session-hop when working on a collection.

In the end, it isn’t particularly hard to make decent amounts of money with the new mechanics introduced to GTA Online with Import/Export, you just need to know what you’re doing and go in with realistic expectations. You won’t make several million in one sitting, but if you’re patient, you’ll make a return on investment soon enough, and coupled with the passive income provided by biker businesses and additional cash from crate missions, if you manage your affairs well you won’t have many financial issues in the virtual world of Los Santos.

Have you been enjoying success with importing and exporting cars in GTA Online?

Frequently Asked Questions

This guide will provide an overview of the various VIP Work missions available, offering tips and strategies to help you maximize your earnings. We’ll also delve into the role of Bodyguards and the challenges they can participate in to prove their worth and earn extra cash.

VIP Work

VIP exclusive jobs may require your pockets to be at least a million bucks heavy to even be accessible, but they pay accordingly. VIP work offers a new alternative for GTA Online players looking to amass a fortune, but who are bored of grinding heists over and over.

However, the upper echelons of white-collar crime groups are in constant rivalry, muddying the waters around the reward system. VIP work features one of the more complicated payout methods in GTA Online – any $GTA Bodyguards win while in service go to their employer.

Starting a VIP job isn’t a guaranteed payout either – if another organisation completes the objective before you succeed, they’ll take the cash as well as the credit. But before you think of letting other organisations do the leg work and swiping the rewards at the last moment, keep in mind you’ll only get 70% of the goods this way.

VIP work adopts the wonderfully toothless philosophy applied to children’s competitions – if you participate, you win. This means that merely “contributing” to the job will net you 100 RP and 500 GTA$ for each minute you spend on the clock. This little bonus is one of the few kinds of cash that stays with the Bodyguard and isn’t billed to the VIP instead.

There are 6 distinct flavors of VIP work on the menu, each served in different locations, seasoned with various opponents and hindrances for your criminal pleasure. Discerning executives may peruse the following tips, broken down on a job-by-job basis. There are also a total of 17 VIP jobs that have been added over the course of Executives and Other Criminals, Further Adventures In Finance and Felony and Import/Export.

Piracy Prevention

Piracy Prevention – Hoist the sails, man the cannons and prepare to be boarded. Taking place on the magnificent yacht introduced in the update, this job involves one Organisation defending their floating status symbol from another. In this game mode, proximity mines are the defending team’s best friends. The VIP would also do well to call in a Buzzard to provide overwatch. Attackers will make use of the Ghost Organisation ability to ensure they’re not tracked as they fight their way to the upper deck.

Sightseer

Sightseer – In this mode, the VIP is declawed, but is the only one with the knowledge that will win you the job. While the VIP is busy hacking the Sightseer app and placing custom waypoints on the map for the bodyguards to follow, they will need constant protection. Getting in a vehicle is a good tactic here, but you’ll need to weigh speed and vulnerability when picking your ride.

Hostile Takeover

Hostile Takeover – While in other modes, it’s only rival organisations you need to worry about, this time the game itself is out to get you. Possessing the package means you’re telegraphing your location to every soul in the session, so hiding isn’t an option. You need several routes in case one is overrun, as well a multiple vehicles to provide security for your valuable cargo. You might think that NPCs are a pushover, but when you have to pay attention to so many attackers, every hostile is a failure waiting to happen.

Executive Search

Executive Search – If you’re taking on this job as a VIP, you’re putting your skin up for sale. As the million-dollar man, you’ll need to keep moving at all times, as staying in one place will mark you on the map. Even so, the general area you’re in will be shown. While your enemies arrive in force to cover more ground, hiding in plain sights is the best option. Acting like an NPC is the best cover. No one will assume that a GTA Online player actually follows traffic rules.

Asset Recovery

Asset Recovery – Yet another mode where the cops add to your troubles, Asset Recovery has you steal marked vehicles from the police. The best tactic is to get everyone into position before nicking the first ride, as the moment that happens, all members of your organisation will immediately become wanted. Stealing all the rides simultaneously will improve your chances of escape. When driving to the drop-off zone, look at the road and not the mini-map – the GPS may lead you astray.

Executive Deathmatch

Executive Deathmatch – This one is the most straight forward. Stay close, use your abilities, stock up on ammo, keep the VIP alive and kill anything that moves. Bodyguards may want to sacrifice themselves if it means saving the VIP – it’s his life that counts. This job pays all participants equally, allowing bodyguards to make a little extra alongside their regular pay.

BodyGuard Work

Continuing Rockstar’s series of gameplay tips and guides for the latest major DLC that GTA Online got, Executives and Other Criminals, we now focus on the Bodyguards.

White collar crime may be one of the most lucrative ways to spend time playing GTA Online, however it isn’t the only way to turn the dynamic VIP/Bodyguard system into your source of serious income.

VIP challenges are smaller events where Bodyguards compete with one another for fame and glory – and the paycheck of a VIP. These jobs are too dirty for an executive to get involved in, so it’s up to you to persevere.

These challenges are kicked off by the boss of a criminal organisation for the member bodyguards to try each other out, so to say. In order to gauge their protectors’ skills – maybe to spot the weak link – executives can spectate these matches. Strangely enough, when doing so in the Most Wanted challenge, the spectating VIP also needs to be… “dealt with” for the mode to be completed.

Competition in challenges will be tough, as only the winner walks away with the riches, but participating isn’t a complete waste, as the increased cash and RP rate bonus is still active for all bodyguards. Let’s cut to the chase, shall we?

Auto Buyout

We’ll be looking at Auto Buyout first. This challenge feels most faithful to the GTA name, since that’s exactly what you will be doing. To win this challenge, you’ll need to steal and deliver – in one piece – the most valuable total of vehicles to the set drop-off point in the allotted time.

The different regions of GTA V’s map have different kinds of vehicle spawn rates. It’s worth going for a longer trip to greener plains than to stack up cheap rides close by. Don’t go too far though – there are only a limited amount of slots and it doesn’t matter how expensive your bounty is if you can’t drop it off.

You should also keep an eye out for flashier rides en-route. If you come across something more valuable, feel free to leave you current ride behind. If you have a particularly valuable personal vehicle, you can deliver that too for a quick advantage – or just steal someone else’s. Don’t waste time trying to destroy or damage your opponent’s drop-offs though. This might seem like a sound tactic, but you’ll just be wasting time.

Most Wanted

Moving on to the next challenge, Most Wanted is what happens when the LSPD uncover your criminal organisation. Every bodyguard is hit with 5 wanted stars and it’s last man standing from there on.

Police in GTA V are more harrowing than they were in previous games, so you’ll need to be quick on your feet and wits to survive this one. You won’t be able to decrease your wanted level in any way while the challenge is on. You’ll also be automatically disqualified if you take to the skies or the underground.

Fight might serve you better than flight. If you get into a fortified position, chances are you can hold out longer than the others. If more than one of you weather the storm for longer than 10 minutes, all survivors will share the riches.

Due Diligence

Due Diligence, the next challenge on the list, is the most violent version of a scavenger hunt we’ve seen. The race is on to collect as many of the packages marked with a flare within the time limit. It’s pretty simple, whoever finishes with the most collected wins.

Make sure to keep the Trackify app open during this challenge, as it will guide you to the packages. If one package is un-collected for long, more flares will light up to help – but if you know someone else will get there first, don’t bother.

A large, heavy vehicle may not be the best choice for this challenge, as you’ll need to be nimble and quick. Your opponents will likely have the same idea, but this also means they will be vulnerable. What better way to win than to eliminate the competition, right?

Courier Service

In Courier Service, you bleed money. The mode revolves around a previous money drop which needs to reach its destination quickly. Other bodyguards and the LSPD are all eager to grab the green, so you’ll need to be quick – but also heavily armored.

Taking damage and flying all gradually decrease the value of the drop-off, which also happens to be the winner’s payout when the challenge is over – provided it is delivered. If not, it doesn’t count towards the pool.

Market Manipulation

While not a three-for-three like Auto Buyout was, Market Manipulation hits two of the words in GTA. When the challenge begins, every shop will be marked on the participating bodyguards’ maps. The task is to go out and rob together as much cash as possible.

This is a strategic challenge – you’ll need to balance routes, wanted levels, cash, speed, health and efficiency. In a hurry? Kill the cashier for a quicker but smaller payout. Are the cops on you, but far out? Rob a few more stores before they arrive. See an opponent? Get rid of their getaway ride and the blues will take care of them.

You’ll do well to opt for an armored but swift ride for this challenge, as you’ll lose quite a bit of your winnings whenever you bite the dust. Stores will also be locked up after being robbed, so there is no point in tailing your rivals.

Point to Point

Bringing up the rear end of the list is the simplest of the challenges, Point to Point. A run of the mill checkpoint race, the VIP in charge of the organisation picks a starting point, a destination and a few checkpoints in between.

The VIP might initiate the race before all the checkpoints are in place, so you’ll need to keep an eye on them en-route. You should also hop into the nearest thing with wheels as quickly as you can, as feet won’t do you much good here.

Like with any other race, the rule of thumb is that the GPS isn’t always right. Look at the road, not the mini-map and don’t be afraid to leave the trodden path if you have a better route. Inventive bodyguards often persevere.

While bodyguard challenges may not seem like the best way to grind cash on first glance, dominating these events will quickly fill your pockets and ensure employment by executives, which is a steady source of solid cash. If nothing else, this will help you collect the capital to become an executive yourself, opening up a wide variety of new challenging – and appropriately lucrative – jobs throughout the world of GTA Online.

Keep an eye out on further posts in this guide series, as well as any DLC announcements – leaks suggest there will be new VIP challenges coming to GTA Online in the coming weeks.

Frequently Asked Questions

The NPC opposition is negligible, and since you are alone, the mood-swings of other players’ internet won’t affect you due to the peer to peer server architecture, making a disconnect unlikely. Soloing (or running with a few associates) crates rivals heists in terms of profits in GTA Online right now, making the new content one of the best ways to stack up cash for those bigger purchases.

Thanks to some helpful members of the GTA community, we’ve been able to find out exactly how much you’ll earn by running heists and how to distribute the bounty if you are hosting. Now, once again with the help of the community, we can compare those figures to the exact amounts of cash you’ll earn while running special cargo crate jobs.

Finance and Felony added an all new black market mechanic to GTA Online, wherein as a CEO you must buy one or more warehouses of varying sizes, buy illicit goods, take them to your warehouse and eventually sell them off to the right buyer. There are a number of factors at work here, such as the size and number of warehouses you have, how many crates you move at once, how long they stay in your warehouse, how much of a given good you own, whether it is special cargo or not and much more.

With all of these factors, it might be tough figuring out which course of action is the most profitable. Add to this the possibility of getting your crates blown up by some jerk in a populated public lobby, and the whole affair seems pretty risky. While there can be no gain without risk, it is better not to put millions of GTA $ on the line – if you want risk, you can always try Premium Races.

Reddit users _Caith_Amach and Ovare have put together two massive charts showing how much you can earn with crates, broken down to time, number, size, amount and more in order to perfectly track and plan your crate delivery sessions.

Ovare’s chart builds on the original made by _Caith_Amach, but also includes data which relates to profits earned with multiple warehouses, allowing the user to bypass the cooldown timer that kicks in when you complete a crate mission. Luckily, these only put the “parent” warehouse on ice, so the others may still be used to initiate runs.

Now, as you can see (once you’ve gotten your grips with these charts. It might seem pretty daunting at first glance), when done right you can get a somewhat higher time-to-money ratio with crate delivery sessions than with heisting in GTA Online. Even so, the initial investment required to run CEO missions is enough to put many players off.

That hefty investment might have been implemented for a reason. When some of the assets required for this line of work were discounted in a weekly event, a number of GTA Online players reported the CEO population exploding, leaving no-one wanting to be an associate other than inexperienced new players who couldn’t afford the offices even at a discount.

Either way, these charts should help you plan ahead. Knowing your goals and what you want to buy helps, as well as learning a few other tips on earning money. Gaining cash in GTA Online might seem tough, but if you’re doing it smart, you’ll be rich in no time.

How lucrative do you find crate missions to be in GTA Online?

There has always been animosity… well, actually, there has always been seething hatred and disgust between the griefer and non-griefers among the GTA Online playerbase, but never has it been as pronounced as during the heyday of this update, which forced players to transport destructible cargo of great value in public sessions with passive mode off.

We’ll cover how to navigate those particularly risky missions, as well as all the other new content added to GTA Online with Further Adventures in Finance and Felony.

Becoming a VIP or CEO in GTA Online unlocks new content, missions and ways to make money in Los Santos. However, many players can be confused or uncertain about exactly how you register as these roles in GTA Online. That is exactly what this guide will cover.

FYI, once you’ve registered, check out our complete guides on the missions that both roles can do here: CEO mission guide and VIP mission guide.

How to Register as a CEO in GTA Online

1. Purchase an Executive Office

To become a CEO, you first need to buy an executive office. Executive offices start at GTA$1 million and can be purchased via the Dynasty 8 Executive website that you access using your in-game cell-phone.

2. Actually Register as a CEO

Once you’ve purchased an executive office, do the following steps:

1. Open the interaction menu in the game (press and hold the touchpad on consoles, or press ‘M’ on PC).
2. Select ‘SecuroServ’ from the menu.
3. Click on the “Register as a CEO” option.
4. Choose and confirm the name of your organization.

3. You’re Done!

Now you’re an official CEO and can start carrying out all the CEO-exclusive missions.

How to Register as a VIP in GTA Online

To register as a VIP you don’t need an executive office. In fact, all you need is GTA$50,000 in your bank account. Follow these steps:

1. Open the interaction menu in the game (press and hold the touchpad on consoles, or press ‘M’ on PC).
2. Select the ‘VIP’ option, although if you have an executive office you’ll only see the ‘SecuroServ’ option. Either way, click the option you have.
3. Register as a VIP and give your organization a name.

You’ll know that you did it correctly when an in-game confirmation message from SecuroServ arrives. Just note that you can act as a VIP for up to four hours at a time.

The update’s main draw is the new black market mechanic, wherein players can become the CEOs of their own criminal organisations and gain wealth by selling and buying illegal merchandise. This involves ferrying crates of contraband from your warehouses to drop-off points, during which you can be attacked by NPC enemies and other players.

Unfortunately, the “other players” part includes those pathetic juvenile Hydra griefers who simply blow you up because that’s the only way they can get off or something. Of course, there are ways to fight and avoid these bastards, but it may be hard to do while ferrying crates.

Some of the not too favorable public opinions about the DLC stem from unrealistic expectations and misinformation. We’ve tried to collect a few basic tips in a previous article to combat any inconvenience players might suffer, however some things have only recently come to light.

While the go-to method of playing in a safe haven away from the griefers is to fiddle with the internet until you land into a public lobby of your own, some players might find this to be too much of a hassle.

A frequently used tactic that we’ve been seeing in GTA Online is that players use Lester’s “off the radar” service. Yeah, like I said, “we’ve seen”. The issue here is that while this service hides the player’s blip and name from the map, the blip of the crates themselves, ergo the things that attract griefers like flies are attracted by dogshit, stay on the map.

That, plus even if it would work, the griefers could just drop change and have Lester reveal you just as easily. However, there is a simple, if expensive solution.

VIPs and CEOs have the special “hide organisation” ability, which is basically the same thing, except it hides all members of your corporation and your crates as well. Granted, this ability is significantly more pricey than Off the Radar is, but when you’re trafficking several thousand dollars worth of goods in a GTA Online lobby with griefers abound, it is more than worth the investment.

Have you had any luck running successful crate missions in griefer ridden GTA Online lobbies?