5 Best Businesses to Own in GTA Online

GTA Online features businesses that players can purchase and manage to generate income, unlock special missions, and expand their criminal activity. You buy a property that becomes your business hub, and from that base, you run operations that generate revenue over time or through missions.

After the money fronts update, the game now features 25 different businesses. Some businesses require active participation, while others produce passive income as you play. In this article, we'll explore the top 5 businesses that you must own to help you earn money faster in GTA Online.

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1. Acid Lab

The Acid Lab is easily one of the best sources of passive income in GTA Online. It's extremely beginner-friendly since you get the Brickade 6x6 vehicle for free just by completing the First Dose missions. After completing these missions, you'll need to pay $750,000 to Mutt at The Freakshop to convert the Brickade 6x6 into a fully operational Acid Lab.

You can generate over $100,000 per hour if you run the business optimally. For every $96,000 spent on supplies with upgrades, the Acid Lab produces over $330,000 in products, resulting in a profit of nearly $240,000. You can purchase supplies directly from Mutt for $60,000 to completely fill the supply bar, either by talking to him inside the lab or calling him on your phone.

The business operates from a mobile lab housed in the Brickade 6x6, which you can call from the interaction menu anytime. The Acid Lab comes equipped with a Maibatsu Manchez Scout C motorcycle for deliveries, which can be customized at The Freakshop Vehicle Workshop. The most important upgrade is the Equipment upgrade, which increases efficiency and product value, but you'll need to complete at least 10 Fooligan Jobs to unlock it before purchasing it for $237,500.

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2. Nightclubs

The Nightclub is considered the best passive source of income in the game because it's easy to operate and makes loads of money for you. However, the Nightclub on its own isn't super impressive. It's good, but not super meta, and there are other alternatives that can generate more money. The Nightclub with max popularity can generate $50,000 per in-game day from the safe alone, which translates to roughly $100,000 per hour in real time.

The Nightclub has two main sources of income: the safe and the underground warehouse. To keep the safe generating maximum income, you need to maintain your Nightclub's popularity bar at 100%. You can maintain full popularity by changing your resident DJ for $10,000, which gives you an instant 10% popularity boost. With the Staff upgrade, your popularity drops by 5% every in-game day, so when it hits 90%, you can change the DJ and get back to max popularity.

The underground warehouse is the main source of passive income and requires you to own other businesses first. You need to hire technicians and assign them to businesses like the Bunker, Cargo & Shipments, and MC businesses through the Warehouse Management tab on your Nightclub computer. Once assigned, these technicians passively accumulate goods in your warehouse that you can sell later for significant profit.

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3. Darnell Bros. Garment Factory

The Darnell Bros. Garment Factory costs $2,350,000 and can be purchased from the Maze Bank Foreclosures website. This one-time fee includes all necessary upgrades, such as a 10-car garage, a Terrorbyte parking space with exclusive upgrades, an MKII weapon upgrades section, snacks, and a safe for passive income. The factory is located on Popular Street in La Mesa, Los Santos, and was previously owned by Lester Crest as a front for heist operations.

The Garment Factory unlocks a series of mini-heists called the FIB Files, similar to Auto Shop robberies or Salvage Yard robberies. There are four FIB Files missions, each with three planning missions and a finale, with payouts ranging between $150,000 and $158,000. Each mission has three challenges, and completing all three during the finale rewards you with an additional $50,000. One mission is marked as "high priority" each week, paying roughly double the standard payout, sometimes exceeding $300,000 per run.

You can launch missions from the computer terminal inside the factory or remotely via the new Darnell Inc. app on your in-game phone. There's a cooldown of around 5 minutes between missions, so you can grind them back to back.

4. Car Wash

The Hands On Car Wash costs $1,000,000 and can be purchased from the Maze Bank Foreclosures website. This property serves as the entry point for the Money Fronts system and acts as the heart of your money laundering operation. You need to purchase the Car Wash first before you can unlock the other two Money Fronts businesses: Smoke on the Water and Higgins Helitours.

The Car Wash generates passive income every in-game day, and it brings in more money if you own other criminal enterprises. When you check the safe to collect your earnings, you can see a checklist of every potential GTA Online business that can contribute to your money laundering scheme, and with all 23 boxes checked, you'll pull in $30,000 daily. The safe has a maximum capacity of $100,000 and generates revenue every 48 minutes as long as the Heat level stays below 100%.

The Car Wash boosts your Counterfeit Cash Factory income by 35% if you own one. You can also complete money laundering missions from the laptop inside the Car Wash or by calling Raf directly from your phone, which pays around $35,000 on average and has no cooldown. Mr. Faber Work missions can also be started from the laptop, typically paying around $20,000, with an additional $10,000 bonus if you complete the bonus objectives.

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5. Kosatka

The Kosatka costs $2,200,000 and can be purchased from Warstock Cache & Carry. This submarine serves as your mobile base of operations for the Cayo Perico Heist, which was the first heist in GTA Online that could be completed entirely solo from start to finish. You can make $1.2 million on average in less than an hour once you know the optimal route.

The fastest approach is using the Kosatka as your approach vehicle and the Drainage Tunnel as your infiltration point. You should always pay $5,000 for suppressors since the quickest way to complete the heist is in stealth. You can make around $900,000 to potentially even $1.9 million per heist, depending on the primary target and secondary loot you collect.

To play the heist on hard mode and increase your take, you need to restart the heist within 48 minutes of completing it. The heist requires you to scope out the island each time, but you can skip the return trip by climbing to the top of the communications tower and jumping off to your death, which instantly brings you back to the plane. The escape is simple: exit through the front gate, run around the right side of the mansion down the cliff, and swim away from the island until the screen fades to black.

Final Words

These five businesses offer the best balance between investment cost and earning potential in GTA Online. The Acid Lab and Nightclub provide reliable passive income that accumulates while you play. The Kosatka gives you access to the highest-paying solo heist in the game. The Car Wash and Garment Factory adds variety with its mission-based income and business management mechanics.

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