Buy the Acid Lab first: $750,000, solo, about $60,000 to $80,000 an hour. The Cayo Perico Heist pays more per run, but only while you are playing it. Below, every GTA Online business sorted into tiers, with what it really earns per hour, what it costs and how much work it takes.
Image: Rockstar Games
The best first buy and the best solo payday.
The best first purchase in 2026. It unlocks after the six First Dose missions for Dax, which also hand you the Brickade 6x6 for free; Mutt sets the lab up for $750,000, free for GTA+ members. The $250,000 equipment upgrade opens after 10 Fooligan Jobs, and a full resupply costs $60,000.
Still the best solo payday with no weekly cap, about one run every two and a half hours. Cut on 14 July 2026: the Pink Diamond fell from about $1.3M to $910K. It is a heist rather than a business, so nothing accrues while you are away.
Strong earners once you can afford them.
Contract work rather than stock. The Union Depository Contract pays about twice the other contracts and was left out of the July 2026 cuts.
The Dr. Dre contract is repeatable: about $900,000, a little more on the first run of the week since July 2026. Security contracts in between are steady rather than generous.
Three robberies are offered each week, each with a $20,000 setup fee, so the weekly offer is the limit rather than the hourly rate. The tow truck is $650,000 extra.
The Kortz Center Heist needs a Mansion ($11.5M to $12.8M) and its Art Studio ($4.7M); GTA+ members get $2M off the Mansion. The first painting sold each week pays about $2 million, repeats about $400,000.
Modest alone, useful as part of a stack.
The best passive earner, but only once you own the businesses that feed its warehouse: the Bunker and the MC businesses. Bought first, it does little.
Modest on its own, depending on upgrades. Its real job in 2026 is supplying the Nightclub warehouse.
The safe grows with every other business you own, and the Car Wash boosts Counterfeit Cash sales. Worth it for a player who already owns several businesses, not as a first buy. Smoke on the Water ($850K) and Higgins Helitours ($900K) complete the set.
It earns, slowly; something else earns faster for the same effort.
Bounty targets pay 50 per cent more since May 2026, but the entry price is high for what you bring back.
Cocaine is the best of them, which is a low bar. Owned mainly to feed the Nightclub warehouse; Smoke on the Water boosts Weed Farm sales.
Payouts that stopped keeping pace with the game.
Crate selling was a headline earner in 2016. The payouts have not kept up and the sell missions are the most punishing in a hostile lobby; Counterfeit Cash only makes sense alongside the Car Wash.
| Business | Realistic income | Entry cost | Tier |
|---|---|---|---|
Acid Lab | ~$60K to $80K an hour | $750K setup | S |
Kosatka (Cayo Perico Heist) | $400K to $910K per run | Kosatka from ~$2.2M | S |
Auto Shop | ~$300K per Union Depository run | ~$1.7M | A |
Agency | ~$900K per Dr. Dre finale | ~$2M | A |
Salvage Yard | $300K to $500K per robbery | $2.42M at Murrieta Heights | A |
Mansion and Art Studio | ~$2M on the first sale of the week | ~$16.2M in all | A |
Nightclub | ~$50K an hour, passive | Varies by location | B |
Bunker | ~$45K to $60K an hour | $1.165M to $2.375M | B |
Hands On Car Wash (Money Fronts) | Up to ~$30K per in-game day | $1M | B |
Bail Office | Targets up to ~$40K, Most Wanted ~$150K | $1.65M to $2.62M | C |
MC businesses (Cocaine, Meth, Weed) | Low on their own | Varies by location | C |
Special Cargo, Document Forgery, Counterfeit Cash | Not competitive | Varies | D |
These are orders of magnitude, not exact figures: every payout moves with your upgrades, the distance of the sell run, the number of players in the lobby and whatever Rockstar boosts that week. Rockstar itself publishes no income figures, only the weekly 2X and 3X multipliers.
Because a full stockpile and an hourly rate are different things. A Bunker or a Nightclub warehouse can hold goods worth a large sum, but it took hours of other businesses producing them to fill it. Quote that sale price as an hourly rate and a Bunker worth about $60,000 an hour looks like one worth a million. Lists that still open with the Bunker and the MC labs also describe the game of 2017: the Acid Lab arrived in 2022 and the Salvage Yard in 2023, and both beat most of what came before.
One active earner, one passive, and something feeding the passive one. In practice: the Acid Lab for hourly income, the Nightclub as the bank, and a Bunker supplying it while you play. Add the Kosatka when you can afford it and run Cayo Perico when you want a large sum rather than a steady one; the Car Wash comes last, when it has several businesses to multiply. Everything below tier B is optional.
Where each business is best placed is on our business locations page, the ROI simulator tells you what to buy next with the money you have, and the GTA Online money guide and heists page cover the active methods.
Figures follow Rockstar's title updates 1.71 and 1.73 and were checked between June and September 2026.