How to Make Money in GTA 5 Story Mode

Grand Theft Auto 5 came out all the way back in 2013 — by the end of this year, it will be a decade old! Despite its age, plenty of players are still enjoying the absolutely incredible single-player campaign. If you’re one of these players, chances are that you’re looking to make some money. But what are the best ways to make it rich in Los Santos? We’ll be covering the best tips on how to make money in GTA 5’s story mode!

7 Best Ways to Make Money in GTA 5, Ranked From Good to Best

Without any further delays, let’s hop right into this article for the best GTA 5 story mode money-making tips!

7/7

Raid Armored Trucks

The first way to make money in GTAs story mode is to raid the armored trucks that spawn around the map. If you played GTA Online back in the early days, you may remember these armored trucks that would spawn randomly as you played. Rockstar had to remove them due to the fact that players kept finding ways to exploit them to earn lots of money easily. They may be gone from the online mode, but they are still in single-player!

You’ll know an armored car when you see one, as a small blue dot will appear on your mini-map. Go to it, and you should see a gray and green armored car being driven around by an NPC. Once you’ve found it, shoot and kill the driver (and the passenger riding with him, if you can). After the truck comes to a complete stop, go to the very back of the car and blow it open using a sticky bomb or some other explosive.

The explosion will cause the back doors to swing open, allowing you to collect your prize! Each armored car will generally hold $3,000 to $8,000 in total. This may be a pretty small amount of money on its own, but do it often enough and you’ll quickly gain a great amount of money. Normally, I focus on doing other money-making activities, and just take advantage of the quick cash grab when one of these pop up randomly.

6/7

Do Hao Street Races

Up next on this ranking, we have street races! Street races are one of the most enjoyable side activities you can do in GTA 5. You unlock them by completing the Strangers & Freaks mission “Shift Work” as Franklin. After you finish this mission, map icons will appear at night that mark the location of a street race. You can then go to these locations as Franklin to launch a race.

There are several different street races that players can do in the single-player mode, and they are all great fun. You will earn money for completing the races in first place. Rewards for some of the first street races are pretty small, but some of the later races you unlock earn you a decent amount of cash. The highest-paying race will give out $6,750 if you win!

Just keep in mind that there is a fee you need to pay before starting the race. The race that pays out the most will cost you $1,500 to start, meaning you’ll only make $5,250 (assuming you win). While you have a chance to make more money with the armored cars, I prefer to grind street races, as there is no RNG involved with your earnings and you can consistently earn a decent amount of money. If you lose the race, just reload a previous save file and you’ll be good to start it again.

5/7

Attack the Weed Farm

Next up on this list, we have an activity I’ve noticed not many people are aware that you can do. I am talking about the weed farm that you can attack as Trevor for a chance at earning some money! This weed farm is called Braddock Farm, and it is located in Blaine County. In the past, you could repeat this event an unlimited amount of times to earn a lot of money, but that’s since been updated by Rockstar. Still, it is a great way to earn some easy cash the first time you do it.

In order to raid the location, visit it while playing as Trevor Phillips. Once you get there, kill any and all of the guards that you find. Once everyone is dead, look for a briefcase that will spawn somewhere on the property. Inside this briefcase will be a good amount of cash — about $44,000 according to the GTA Wiki. This is a lot more than some of the previously mentioned money-making strategies!

This method would be a lot better if the event was still repeatable. But sadly, we’ll just have to accept that we can only do it once per playthrough. Regardless if you can grind it or not, it’s still a lot of money if you are just starting out in the game. I recommend doing it as soon as you unlock Trevor as a playable character in the game. It’s a good amount of money for buying weapons and such.

4/7

Purchase Businesses

Businesses in the online mode of GTA 5 are without a doubt some of the best pieces of late-game content for players. They give us ways to make large sums of money fast — much more than we ever could by robbing stores or committing petty crimes. The businesses in the story mode are no different, and they’re a great way to make money in GTA offline! They may not have as much content as the ones in the online mode, but they do pay you much more money.

There are many, many different businesses scattered throughout the map in GTA 5’s story mode. In fact, there is a total of sixteen that can be purchased or unlocked by playing the campaign. These businesses vary greatly in what they offer players and how they can make money. For example, there is a towing company that can be acquired by Franklin. You can start up a mission to tow cars with it, and for each car you tow, you will make a total of $500!

There are many businesses that can earn you money without you so much as lifting a finger. The theaters that can be bought by Michael are a great example. I own the Ten Cent Theater and make over $250,000 every single week! It’s all deposited into my account automatically, with no effort needed on my part. You may occasionally get a call from the manager about a problem that needs your help to fix, but that is pretty rare.

Overall, businesses are a really great way to make money in single-player. Just keep in mind that some of them can get very expensive, sometimes costing tens of millions of dollars! So how do you get that kind of money….?

3/7

Complete Story Heists

Taking third place in our guide on how to get money in GTA 5‘s story mode, it’s completing the story heists! Throughout the campaign of GTA 5, players will need to complete several high-stakes robberies throughout a variety of locations around the map. You’ll rob everything from jewelry stores to small-town banks, and everything in between!

In order to make the most bang for your buck with each of these heists, you will need to choose the right crew members for the job. You can choose different gunners, getaway drivers, etc. Not all of them are made equal, however. Some are better at what they do and may reward you with more money, but will take a bigger piece of the cut when the heist is finished.

If you want to know who the best crew members are to hire for your robberies, take a look at the GTA Wiki here. Completing a heist while selecting the right crew member can make you some very, very good money. By the end of the game, you can have tens of millions of dollars in your bank account! This allows you to purchase several properties and some of the best cars in the game.

2/7

Invest in Stocks

Up next on this list, we have invested in stocks. Investing in the stock market is a really cool feature that was added to GTA 5. And it was one of my favorite things to mess around with when the game was first released. Investing in stocks allows players to get a chance at earning back some money from their investments, which is a great way to make some money without doing long and tedious missions.

The best thing about the stock market system in Grand Theft Auto 5 is the fact that doing certain missions and activities in the game world will affect the price of stocks. For example, when doing certain missions that involve going up against the mercenary company Merryweather, their stocks will often drop after you complete the mission. Click here to read a great guide I found from the website GTA Boom. This guide provides info on what stocks are affected by what missions.

You may be wondering why I included investing in stocks higher up on the list than completing the heists. Surely robbing tens of millions of dollars worth of gold in the game’s final heist is a better way to make money than investing in stocks right? Right…? Well, that all depends on one thing — whether or not you completed all of the Lester assassination missions before you beat the game.

1/7

Complete Lester Assassination Missions

Speaking of which, now it’s time for us to talk about the number one best way to make money in GTA 5’s story mode — Lester’s assassination missions! This method does involve investing in stocks like with the last method, but this time around, you’ll be influencing the stock market in a much more significant way. After you complete the campaign mission “Fame or Shame,” you’ll unlock the first of these missions. Lester will call you and hire you to assassinate a specific person.

After you complete one of the missions, you’ll earn a nice paycheck from Lester. But that is not why we are doing these missions. See, after you kill a target, the stock market will be affected. Certain missions will affect the stock prices of certain companies after you complete the mission. Some will drop in value significantly, while others will rise up. This is where you can really make some great money.

This guide posted here on the GTA Wiki tells you the best stocks for you to invest in before and after completing a mission, allowing you to earn large amounts of money fast. But if you want to really make huge amounts of money, I recommend not doing these missions until after you complete the game. While you have to do the first one to progress the story, all the others are considered side missions and can be done whenever you want to.

The reason why you should wait until beating the game is that, by that point, you will have tens of millions of dollars to invest your cash in. If you play your cards right, you could end up with literally billions of dollars for each of your characters! This allows you to buy literally anything you want in the game, effectively setting you up for life.

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We hope that this guide for how to make money in GTA 5‘s story mode was helpful! What are some of your favorite ways to earn cash in GTA 5? Be sure to let us know down in the comments section, and subscribe to our weekly newsletter for more regular content.

Happy gaming!

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