Best Solo Money Making in GTA Online (2026)

Quick Facts

How We Calculated These Rates

Any guide promising one true GTA$/hour figure is selling you something. There is no universal number: a practiced grinder beats every rate on this page and a casual run trails it. So instead of pretending otherwise, we publish rates with the assumptions on the table:

• One player, no crew, no second account.

• Supplies bought, not stolen. It is the honest default, and it exposes the methods that quietly lose money.

• No 2X or 3X event week. Bonuses rotate every Thursday and multiply on top of everything here.

• Fully upgraded wherever a method has upgrades.

• Cooldowns counted into the rate wherever the cooldown, not the mission, is what gates repetition.

• Repeat-run rates by default, with the once-a-week first-run bonus shown separately.

Read every figure below through that lens and it will hold up. Read it as a promise of what you will earn on your first sloppy attempt and it won't, and no guide's numbers would.

The Weekly Bonus That Changed Solo Grinding in 2026

July 2026's update quietly reordered the whole money meta. Thirteen activities now pay a boosted reward when the host has not yet completed that finale in the current weekly period, with rewards reduced on repeat completions before the Thursday reset.

The word host matters. A solo player is always their own host, so you bank the boosted payout on your first completion of each activity, every single week, guaranteed. No coordinating, no arguing over who launches.

Here's the catch nobody else has noticed: of those 13 boosted activities, only four are solo-playable:

• Cluckin' Bell Farm Raid (1.5x)

• KnoWay Out, A Clean Break (1.86x)

• The Titan Job (1.5x)

• The Data Leaks, Dre's finale (1.222x)

The other nine, the five Original Heists, the Diamond Casino Heist and all three Doomsday acts, need at least one more player. July's economy pass mostly rewarded group play; these four jobs are the solo player's entire share of it. The multiplier also varies by activity (1.5x for the Original Heists, Cluckin' Bell and the Titan Job; 1.86x for the Casino Heist and KnoWay Out; 1.222x for Doomsday and Dre), so ignore any guide quoting one flat weekly multiplier.

Two absences worth knowing: Cayo Perico is not on the list at all, and the Kortz Center Heist runs its own separate mechanic, a 4.0x premium on your first primary-target sale after the weekly reset.

Two Free Solo Money Makers (Yes, Really Free)

Every competing list opens with methods that assume millions already banked. These two need no property, no setup fee, and both carry the weekly bonus above.

Cluckin' Bell Farm Raid. Six missions run in order, GTA$ 400,000 standard, GTA$ 600,000 on your first completion of the week. Setup cost: GTA$ 0. No property required. If you ever do bring a friend, associates get a flat payment rather than a cut of yours. Expect roughly a one-hour cooldown on the whole raid before you can restart it. Total run time is not reliably documented, so we won't invent an hourly rate; the per-run payout alone makes it the best zero-capital job in the game.

KnoWay Out (A Clean Break). GTA$ 245,000 on Normal or GTA$ 367,500 on Hard, rising to GTA$ 455,700 and GTA$ 683,550 on your first run of the week. Rockstar's own line: owning a Prix Luxury property is not required, just visit the payphone in Little Seoul to get started. After the first playthrough it replays from a payphone in Alta. It moves fast too: one tested solo Hard finale with all four Elite requirements finished in 8 minutes 49 seconds, though that is an optimised run, not a typical first attempt.

Run both on a fresh weekly and that is over GTA$ 1,200,000 on Hard from a starting balance of zero.

Best Active Solo Methods, Ranked

Unless a row says otherwise, figures are net, repeat-run and solo, with supplies bought, no event week, fully upgraded.

1. The Data Leaks (Dre): the solo ceiling. A replay is the whole contract, not just the closing mission: after the cooldown (48 minutes by most reports, a full hour by others) you rerun all three Leak strands (two investigations and a finale each) before Don't F*** With Dre pays the GTA$ 900,000. No source times that full loop solo, so we don't print an hourly rate for it, and the per-cycle take is still the biggest single payday a solo player can repeat. You need an Agency (from GTA$ 2,010,000) and one Security Contract completed to unlock it; our Agency setup guide covers the purchase and our full Dr. Dre Contract walkthrough covers the missions, while Security Contracts are the Agency's repeatable solo money lane between Dre runs.

2. Auto Shop contracts. All eight contracts are fully soloable. Seven of the eight pay GTA$ 170,000-185,000 minus the 10% cut to KDJ and Sessanta, so GTA$ 153,000-166,500 net, in about 30 minutes once familiar; that 30-minute figure and the 48-minute contract cooldown are both single-source, so treat the rate as provisional the same way as the Titan's. Each contract has a 48-minute cooldown but three sit on the board at once, so rotating keeps you at roughly GTA$ 306,000-333,000 per hour. The eighth, the Union Depository Contract, deserves a myth correction: the claim that it needs two players is wrong. It solos fine, and its payout is fixed by crew size (GTA$ 300,000 / 325,000 / 350,000 / 375,000 for 1-4 players), so a solo player banks the one-player figure: GTA$ 300,000 before the cut, GTA$ 270,000 net, still the best contract on the board. Full property breakdown in our Auto Shop guide.

3. The Titan Job. GTA$ 500,000 on Normal, GTA$ 750,000 on Hard, and it carries the 1.5x weekly bonus, so a first Hard clear of the week pays GTA$ 1,125,000. Now the part every other guide skips: the roughly one-hour cooldown starts after the 50-65 minute optimised run (70-90 while learning), so the honest cycle is 110-125 minutes, which puts Normal at about GTA$ 240,000-275,000 per hour. That timing is single-source, so treat the rate as provisional; the payouts are solid, and the once-a-week Hard bonus is the real reason to own this one. It runs from the McKenzie Field Hangar (GTA$ 1,475,000), which is not the Air Freight hangar business discussed later.

4. Cayo Perico (solo). Fourth in the table, and it has its own section below because "is Cayo still worth it" deserves a straight answer.

5. Kortz Center Heist. Rockstar built this for 1-4 players and it delivers solo: three tested solo runs banked GTA$ 651,000, GTA$ 684,500 (GTA$ 584,500 after the GTA$ 100,000 planning fee) and GTA$ 1,809,000 all-in, with finales of 14:37 to 16:14 and a complete first run at 75-100 minutes. We publish per-run takes rather than an hourly rate because the repeat cycle time is not sourced and the cooldown is disputed. Two caveats: the buy-in is enormous (an Art Studio at GTA$ 4,700,000 hosted from a Mansion, cheapest GTA$ 11,500,000, so GTA$ 16,200,000 all-in), and if a Buyer's Request rolls the Crisp Gallery, which needs two players, the Elite Challenge is off the table solo that run. Start with everything you need to know about the Kortz Center Heist and use the finale walkthrough on the day.

6. Salvage Yard robberies. All five robbery lines are fully soloable, grossing roughly GTA$ 240,000-410,000 each depending on the featured vehicle, and dismantling a vehicle nets exactly 80% of its maximum sell value. The structural limit is the cap: three robberies per week, so this is a weekly income floor, not a grind loop. Duration sources genuinely disagree (40-60 minutes versus around two hours per robbery), which is another reason we won't print an hourly rate for it.

Also fully solo, outside the table. Several more earners are genuinely solo but don't fit an honest hourly ranking:

• Vehicle Cargo (Import/Export) is fully solo, but here's the trap: you export one car per sale no matter how full the warehouse is, because delivery count scales with associates, not stock. A top-range car nets about GTA$ 80,000 after the GTA$ 20,000 fee, and the binding constraint is a 20-50 minute cooldown after each export, so treat it as per-car pocket money between other loops, not a grind.

• CEO Special Cargo is fully solo end to end. A full 111-crate large-warehouse sale is worth GTA$ 2,220,000 for about GTA$ 666,000 in buy costs, but check what you are signing up for: the delivery roll is random, and a land roll of 30 crates or more fields three Brickade trucks with up to 15 drop-offs in 30 minutes, all of which you drive yourself. An air or sea roll is a single vehicle whatever the stock. Two honest catches beyond that: it is the most active business on this page (a full warehouse is roughly 37 three-crate buy missions, carried one crate at a time solo), and you can only sell 20%, 50% or 100% of stock, so the sell-small trick that protects MC businesses does not map across cleanly.

• Payphone Hits pay GTA$ 15,000 plus a GTA$ 30,000 bonus for the prescribed method, on a 10-minute cooldown, which makes them the natural filler while Dre's cooldown runs. One caveat: two of the hits require a second player, so a solo player simply won't see those.

Bail Office bounties, Agency Security Contracts, Dispatch Work, Stash Houses and Time Trials are also fully solo; none of them has a defensible tested hourly figure, so they stay unranked here.

Is Cayo Perico Still Worth It in 2026?

Short answer: yes for the buy-in, no as the top solo rate, and any guide still quoting pre-nerf numbers is out of date.

The honest post-nerf math: your primary target ranges from Sinsimito Tequila at GTA$ 400,000 (which repeats hit 80% of the time in the same week) up to the Pink Diamond at GTA$ 910,000 (a 2% roll on same-week repeats). Take off 12% in fees (Pavel's 2% plus the Madrazo fence's 10%) and the GTA$ 100,000 setup fee on repeat runs, then spread it over the 144-minute solo finale cooldown that actually gates the loop, and the primary target alone works out to roughly GTA$ 105,000 per hour on a Tequila run and GTA$ 292,000 per hour on a Pink Diamond. The event-only Panther Statue pays more again in the weeks it appears, but it is not part of the repeatable rotation. Whatever secondary loot you carry out is on top of those figures. (Unlike the Titan Job, the cooldown is the right denominator here: it runs while you do the next set of preps.) On secondaries, solo runs carry a real ceiling: gold sits behind a door that needs a second player, though paintings are still takeable solo when they spawn in the office. Prioritise cocaine as your solo secondary.

Why it stays on the list anyway: the Kosatka (from GTA$ 2,200,000) is one of the most useful properties in the game, and the heist remains the most relaxed big score you can run alone. Our Cayo Perico speed and max-payout guide and Kosatka submarine guide cover both halves.

Semi-Passive Businesses for Solo Players

First, the correction almost every "passive income" article needs: no business earns while you are logged out. Bunker supplies only get consumed while you are online, and Nightclub popularity income only accrues while you are in the session. These are accrual earners that build while you actively do something else, like running Dre on cooldown.

Net accrual per hour, fully upgraded, far sale, supplies bought:

What the table can't show:

• Solo sell rules decide everything. Sell small and often to stay inside one vehicle for the MC businesses, and note that MC sell missions get 45 minutes on the clock when launched solo instead of 30, a genuinely useful buffer almost nobody publishes. The Cocaine Lockup is the clear MC pick. The Bunker is solo-sellable only up to GTA$ 175,000 of fully upgraded stock (GTA$ 125,000 un-upgraded); past that, one sale variant is flatly impossible alone.

• The Nightclub is the best solo seller, not the best rate: the full warehouse takes about 66.7 hours to fill and nets GTA$ 1,831,500 (after Tony's 10% cut, capped at GTA$ 100,000), roughly GTA$ 27,500 per hour, but even that full sale is always one vehicle, which no other big-batch business can say. It must be the right vehicle though: the Speedo Custom covers 1-89 crates, the Mule Custom 90-179 and the Pounder Custom 180 and up, and without a big enough truck the sale will not start at all. The safe adds up to GTA$ 50,000 per in-game day (48 real minutes) at full popularity while you are in session, holding GTA$ 250,000. Details in our Nightclub guide.

• The Acid Lab jumps from ~GTA$ 35,800/hr to ~GTA$ 83,800/hr if you steal supplies free, the one business where stealing clearly wins, and a custom product name adds 5% (about GTA$ 352,000 per batch). It unlocks through the First Dose missions, and our Acid Lab guide covers the rest.

• A named upgrade path: the Money Fronts properties boost other businesses. Hands On Car Wash adds 35% to Counterfeit Cash, Smoke on the Water adds 35% to the Weed Farm, and Higgins Helitours adds 10% to Air Freight. The rates above assume you do not own them, so treat these as a later multiplier, not baseline.

One flag for Air Freight owners: its sell missions are a random roll and some variants need a second player (one needs a gunner on three turrets), so treat the Air Freight hangar business as solo-with-a-caveat.

Compare buy-ins and prerequisites side by side on our businesses hub, and if pure hands-off income is what you actually want, our completely passive income guide ranks that lane in depth.

Starting From Nothing: The Zero-Capital Roadmap

If your balance is near zero, the real answer is above: Cluckin' Bell and KnoWay Out cost nothing and pay heist money. Around them, stack these:

• Taxi Work is the classic zero-cost starter: no property, no fee, drive fares whenever you like. Our Taxi Work guide covers how it works.

• Daily Objectives: three per day pay GTA$ 30,000 plus RP, and the old rank requirement is gone, so this is open from day one. Honesty note on the 7 and 28 day streak bonuses: many objectives require other players, so a solo player is unlikely to keep the streak alive. Take the daily GTA$ 30,000, don't plan around the streaks.

• Weekly Challenge: one objective, GTA$ 100,000, resets Thursday. Our weekly checklist tracks it alongside everything else worth clearing each week.

• Junk Energy Skydives: up to GTA$ 5,000 per jump, ten per day, plus GTA$ 50,000 for completing all ten, with the bike and gear provided free.

• The daily collectible drip: two buried stashes at GTA$ 25,000 each and the daily Shipwreck at GTA$ 25,000 (double in a 2X week), plus two Cayo treasure chests at GTA$ 25,000 each once you own a Kosatka. Ten daily hidden caches exist too, but sources disagree on their per-cache value, so we won't quote one.

• Contact missions pay more the slower you go, the opposite of what most guides claim: 15+ minutes pays 100% of the reward, 10-12 minutes pays 80%, 6-8 minutes 60%, and finishing under 2 minutes pays just 12.5%. The base maximum scales with your rank, from about GTA$ 18,300 up to about GTA$ 22,860, and Hard pays 50% more on top. Queue one up, take your time, get paid in full.

• Simeon's Export Requests: 15% of the car's value capped at GTA$ 20,000, one car per list, needing only rank 9 and no property.

• VIP Work, once you have GTA$ 50,000 banked (or an office): Headhunter and Sightseer are true solo jobs paying GTA$ 20,000 base, with Headhunter climbing to around GTA$ 30,000 depending on targets and time, and Sightseer to around GTA$ 25,000 depending on how long you take. Note the entry bar; a genuinely broke player cannot register.

Exotic Exports pays GTA$ 20,000 per car with a GTA$ 100,000 bonus for all ten in a day, but it requires an Auto Shop, so file it under "after your first property", not here.

What Not to Grind

The trust half of a money guide is what it tells you to skip.

• The podium vehicle sells for GTA$ 0. The Lucky Wheel's free daily spin is worth taking (flat 5% podium chance), but the car is a garage piece, not income, and the casino's other games are negative expectation. Play for fun, never for profit.

• The Gun Van is a shop, not an earner. It only ever saves you money on weapons.

• LS Tags pay RP and unlocks, zero cash.

• Business Battles and Freemode Events are not solo content, despite appearing on several "solo" lists: they need at least three unaffiliated players in the session to trigger, so a lone player in a private session never even sees one. The same honesty applies to Adversary Modes and the LS Car Meet's Street, Pursuit and Sprint races.

• The group-only wall, precisely mapped: the Diamond Casino Heist's preps are solo but the finale needs 2-4 players. Doomsday needs 2-4 for setups and finales both; only the freemode Preparations are solo. The five Original Heists wall you at the first setup, not the finale door: Fleeca needs two players and the other four need four, setups included.

• Un-upgraded MC businesses on bought supplies are a trap, and Document Forgery is the worst of them. By our own business figures, a fully bought batch with no upgrades runs at a loss for Document Forgery, the Meth Lab and Counterfeit Cash, and barely breaks even for the Weed Farm. That is exactly why "supplies bought" belongs in the assumptions: upgrade first, or steal supplies, before you grind any of them.

Event Weeks: When Every Number Here Goes Up

Every figure in this guide is a baseline. Rockstar rotates 2X and 3X bonuses every Thursday, and those multiply on top of everything above, which can vault a mid-table method past Dre for seven days. We deliberately don't print this week's list here, because it would be stale within days: check the current rotation on our weekly updates page before you commit an evening to a grind.

FAQ

What is the fastest way to make money solo in GTA Online in 2026?

The Data Leaks, Dr. Dre's Contract: GTA$ 900,000 per replay, rising to GTA$ 1,099,800 on your first completion each week. A replay is the full contract (all three Leak strands, then the finale) and it only unlocks after a cooldown (48 minutes by most reports, up to an hour by others) from your last completion, so treat it as the biggest repeatable payday rather than a fixed hourly rate.

What is the best money method with no money at all?

The Cluckin' Bell Farm Raid: GTA$ 400,000 standard and GTA$ 600,000 on your first completion of the week, with no property and no setup fee. Pair it with KnoWay Out from the Little Seoul payphone for up to GTA$ 683,550 more on a first Hard clear.

Is Cayo Perico still worth doing solo?

Yes, but as a relaxed earner, not the meta. Post-nerf, the primary target alone works out to roughly GTA$ 105,000-292,000 per hour once the 144-minute cooldown and 12% fees are counted, with the secondary loot you carry out on top. Gold needs a second player, so run cocaine as your secondary.

Is the Agency still worth buying?

Yes, more than anything else at its price. From GTA$ 2,010,000 it unlocks the biggest repeatable solo payday in the game, GTA$ 900,000 per Dre contract replay, Payphone Hits fill its cooldown gaps, and Dre's finale also carries a weekly first-completion bonus.

What is the best passive business for a solo player?

Strictly speaking none are passive: nothing accrues while you are logged out. Of the accrual businesses, the Cocaine Lockup has the best rate at GTA$ 67,500 per hour and the Nightclub is the best solo seller, since even its full GTA$ 1,831,500 sale is always one vehicle.

How much can you make solo per hour?

Under this guide's assumptions (no event week, supplies bought, cooldowns counted): GTA$ 900,000 per Dre contract replay at the top, GTA$ 240,000-333,000 from Auto Shop contracts or the Titan Job, and GTA$ 22,500-67,500 per business layered on top through accrual. Skilled grinders beat these numbers; casual sessions trail them.

Should I grind one activity repeatedly?

No. Cooldowns gate every top method, the weekly system now reduces rewards when the host repeats the same activity before Thursday, and the first-of-the-week bonuses reward spreading across Cluckin' Bell, KnoWay Out, the Titan Job and Dre. Rotate methods and run a business accrual underneath.