Top 9 Best Ways To Make Money In GTA 5 Online

If you’re a new player looking for the best ways to make money in GTA 5 Online, you’re in for a lot. GTA Online can be challenging for beginners, especially if you’re unaware of where to start. You’ll run into higher-level players, and trying to survive at that point might be more than you bargained for.

As I took my first steps into the chaotic world of Los Santos, the sheer magnitude of possibilities overwhelmed me. Little did I know that mastering the art of making money would be my ticket to thriving in this thrilling online adventure.

Making money is essential in GTA as it allows you to buy better vehicles and weapons. It also makes the online experience that much more enjoyable. With that being said, let’s look at some of the best ways to make money in GTA 5 Online.

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Key Takeaways

Making money in GTA V Online is always enjoyable, as many profitable activities and missions exist. One method could be faster than the other but might be less enjoyable. Therefore, here are our picks for the best ways:

1. Doing Jobs:
   • Structured activities for income.
   • Varied missions and races are available.
   • Can be started solo or with friends.
2. Selling Cars:
   • Quick, easy, and efficient.
   • Cooldown of 48 minutes.
   • Shop prices vary for stolen cars.
3. Contact Missions:
   • Story-driven missions with characters.
   • The payout increases with rank.
   • Well-written missions for enjoyment.
4. Heists:
   • High-risk, high-reward missions.
   • Require character rank and an apartment.
   • Satisfying and enjoyable with a team.
5. VIP Missions:
   • Versatile VIP/CEO work.
   • Enjoyable solo or in a group.
   • Require setup missions and contracts.
6. Become A Crime CEO:
   • Purchase executive office for CEO status.
   • Unlock VIP missions, adversary modes, and more.
   • Involves stealing and selling cargo.
7. Create Active Businesses:
   • Special Cargo, VIP contracts, Auto Shop, Vehicle Cargo, Air Freight Cargo.
   • Require setup missions and investments.
   • Generate superb ROI with effort.

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Best Ways To Make Money In GTA 5 Online

As I reflect on my early days in Los Santos, I wish someone had told me these essential tips. Engaging in free-mode scavenger hunts and exploring collectible missions were my initial steps toward accumulating wealth. It’s advice I wish I had received when I was just starting.

Here’s the situation: You’ve been watching people enjoy GTA Online for years. Maybe your favorite streamer just picked it up, you bought the game on sale, or you randomly remembered it’s in your library. Whatever the case is, you want to get into GTA Online.

Before you go on to do any of the below, here are some quick tips for beginners to make money as soon as they start in GTA Online.

• Complete the free-mode scavenger hunts.
• Complete other collectible missions like the Movie Props and Signal Jammers collectible missions
• There are double and triple RP/money modes each week. You want to do this for a bit before you start making real money.
• Once you get enough money from doing jobs, start your first heist.

Doing Jobs

We reckon you’ve already played through the campaign for GTA 5 at some point in your life. It’s a rite of passage for every gamer at this point. The beauty of GTA is that it can be played via following missions or just as a sandbox. The same rule of thumb applies to online.

However, if you’re focusing on the best ways to make money in GTA 5 Online, doing jobs is better than wandering around. Jobs are just activities hosted in lobbies. They give you more of a structure to follow. You can join or start jobs through the in-game phone.

Jobs include missions, races, deathmatches, heists, and more. This is one of the more consistent ways to make money in GTA Online.

It turns out that they’re also pretty fun. This is an excellent place to start for a new player with no idea where to go.

The best thing is that jobs don’t require any start-up fee. Most of them can be done solo, but as with everything else in GTA, it’s always more fun with friends.

Pros and Cons

Selling Cars

Since we’re focusing more on the beginner side, this is an excellent place to start. Selling cars is quick, easy, and efficient. As I scanned the streets of Los Santos for the next car to sell, the thrill of quick gains became addictive. It’s not just about the money; it’s about finding that perfect ride that could turn my fortunes around. Of course, there is a slight caveat.

This system has a cooldown, meaning you can sell a car every 48 minutes. That’s a bit annoying, but keeping an eye on the clock makes this an easy and profitable way to generate income. You can learn more about how to sell cars in GTA 5 guide.

Some shops usually buy stolen cars for about 10% of the retail price. Some cars sell for a premium over others. Keep an eye out for what’s hot and worth getting your hands on to sell. Fortunately, we have a complete guide just for your needs that details on best cars to steal and keep in GTA V.

Pros and Cons

Contact Missions

The main missions in GTA Online are referred to in-game as “Contact Missions.” The game includes several characters from the main story, and they’ll contact you for jobs. You’ll encounter familiar faces such as Lamar, Ron Jakowski, Trevor Philips, Martin Madrazo, and more. Accepting a contact mission from a familiar face, I felt the weight of responsibility and the promise of substantial rewards.

When I initially started, contact missions were few and far between. The number of these missions increases with your rank. Of course, the higher-ranked missions are more complex, and they take longer to complete as well. Fortunately, the money and RP payout are worth the trouble.

These missions won’t pay as much as other stuff, such as heists or payphone hits, but the missions are very well-written. For that reason alone, this is one of the best ways to make money in GTA 5 online if you’re new to the game.

Pros and Cons

Heists

Heists are arguably one of my favorite and the most enjoyable parts of the GTA Online world. Pulling off heists is one of the best ways to make money in GTA 5 online. These dangerous missions are very high-risk, but they are rewarded accordingly.

Meanwhile, the heists also come with two major requirements. Firstly, players might want to increase their character rank to 12 to be eligible to start the heist missions. Secondly, players must own a good apartment for team planning for the heist. Once you meet those requirements, Lester will call the player and explain how to set up your first big job.

We have a complete guide on the best apartments in GTA Online to help you start your heist missions.

You can participate in heists at any level, but hosting yourself requires you to complete the prerequisites we just mentioned. Heists can be notoriously tricky, but the payout is usually worth it.

Heists can be satisfying and highly enjoyable if you have an experienced team or a group of friends with good communication.

Moreover, these missions will consume a good chunk of your playtime in GTA Online. Get used to how they work and learn the systems.

Pros and Cons

VIP Missions

VIP Missions have been around for a long time, since 2015. When they were first introduced, these missions rivaled the payout possibilities of heists. This is also known as organization VIP/CEO work.

These missions include Asset Recovery, Executive Deathmatch, Hostile Takeover, and more. As more content updates are released for GTA Online, you get access to more VIP Missions.

VIP MIssions are a testament to the versatility of GTA Online. These missions are incredibly enjoyable, whether you’re doing them solo or with a group of friends. Additionally, these don’t immediately generate revenue, as some contracts require set-up missions.

However, I should remind you that the payout, both in terms of money and enjoyability, makes them worth it for any GTA Online player.

Pros and Cons

Payphone Hits

The information might be overwhelming if you’re reading this as a complete beginner. So, bear with me on this one. Payphone hits are a relatively new inclusion in GTA Online. These are a series of missions featured in the game as part of The Contract update.

Payphone hits are Free Mode jobs and can be done in any session. Two jobs are only available to either Organizations or Motorcycle Clubs. You’ll need two or more members in the session for these two missions.

However, before you go out assassinating people for Franklin, there are some things you need to do. To get started, players first need to own an agency. Moreover, they will also need to complete the first three contract missions to get started further.

Agencies are purchasable properties in GTA Online. They unlock more missions, give you a car garage, and much more. You can also access Security Contracts via the Agency. To access payphone hits, you need to complete three security contracts.

It turns out that the payphone hits pay pretty well. They are quite enjoyable to do and are a great addition to the game. Considering the fun factor and payout, this is one of the best ways of making money in GTA 5 Online.

Whether you are starting in GTA Online or have played for a while now, this is important to remember. This is something that even older players forget from time to time. It’s not necessarily a method of making money but more so a tip that will save you a lot of frustration.

GTA Online can be a lawless battleground in lobbies with randoms. Get into the habit of depositing most of what you make directly into your bank. Some players can be brutal, and holding too much money on your character will result in an unwanted disaster.

This has happened to me, but Imagine finishing a high-paying job and getting capped down by a random player in the session. A good amount of GTA players have been in that situation; make sure you’re not one of them.

Pros and Cons

Become A Crime CEO

The beauty of GTA Online is hidden behind its roleplay elements. You can be anything you want when it comes to GTA Online. GTA RP is why servers such as NoPixel are so popular among streamers.

You can become a CEO if you purchase an executive office from the Dynasty 8 Executive website. This website is accessible from the in-game phone. Of course, the office itself is expensive, and I suggest you start grinding in other departments to get to this point.

However, once you can afford it, it’s the obvious thing to do. Starting your crime organization is a great way to climb up the ladder in GTA Online and become a CEO to unlock VIP missions, Adversary modes, and new characters.

With the Further Adventures in Finance and Felony update, this is taken to the next level. You can hire associates, steal illegal goods, and sell that cargo through various channels. Trading services are unlockable, and you can even purchase a warehouse.

Once you become a CEO, you unlock some of the best ways to make money in GTA 5 online in 2022. You can steal goods, store them in a warehouse, then sell all of them for a significant payday. Furthermore, players can import exotic cars from their CEO terminal.

There’s a lot more to the story here. We recommend you research what becoming a crime CEO in GTA entails. As great as it would be to explain it in detail, that would require a separate guide of its own.

Pros and Cons

Create Active Businesses

Within GTA Online, once you start raking in some real money, you can work on creating active businesses. These usually involve a lot of effort and a considerable initial investment. However, the ROI on these is usually superb. However, I did end up investing a lot of time into running these businesses.

Active businesses include:

Special Cargo
Agency VIP Contract
Auto Shop
Vehicle Cargo
Air Freight Cargo

All of these businesses require a decent amount of setup. You’ll have to do various missions before you can unlock some of them. Do your research, whichever one you fancy, and dive right into it. It’s usually a matter of buying a warehouse/office and becoming an organization member.

Pros and Cons

Passive Businesses Are Great Too

Another great way of making money in GTA Online is to set up passive businesses. Getting rich in GTA isn’t that far off from how it works in real life, even if one required me to move less often from my chair. You can create various passive businesses within the game to generate hourly revenue.

The game explains most of these quite well, a few good examples are Nightclubs, Gunrunning, Motorcycle clubs, and Security Contracts. Explore these for easy passive income deposited directly into your safe every 48 minutes or one day (in-game).

Pros and Cons

Which Would I Pick?

That wraps it up for the best ways to make money in GTA 5 Online in 2022. I have spent nearly countless hours with the game and it’s utterly fascinating how long this game has been around. In my opinion, it doesn’t seem like it’s going anywhere until GTA 6 comes out.

I do understand there are more ways to generate income in GTA Online. However, in my opinion, Heist may be some of the most rewarding gameplay experiences. Not only the gameplay mechanics are polished to perfection, but they have so many moving pieces that kept me engaged throughout.

Once you bring in some real cash, the game opens up with more significant missions, higher stakes, and even bigger rewards. No wonder this game is so addictive.

Similar Read: Best Nightclub Location in GTA V.