Let’s be real. Rockstar didn’t make it easy. If you’re trying to figure out how to do heists in GTA 5 Online, you’ve probably already realized that the game does a pretty poor job of explaining the actual progression. You buy a high-end apartment, Lester calls you, and then? Total chaos. You're stuck in a lobby with a Level 12 who can't drive a Kuruma and a Level 400 who’s screaming in their mic because you didn’t use the "efficient" meta.
Heisting is the beating heart of the Los Santos economy. It’s the difference between grinding boring contact missions for peanuts and actually being able to afford that Oppressor Mk II or the latest supercar. But the barrier to entry is weirdly high. You need millions of GTA dollars just to start the good ones, and the game’s menu system is a labyrinth.
Honestly, the "right" way to heist has changed a dozen times since 2015. What worked back when the Pacific Standard Job was the gold standard is basically a waste of time now. You’ve gotta be smart about where you invest your initial cash. If you blow your first $1.5 million on a bunker instead of a Kosatka, you're going to be working twice as hard for half the payout.
The Barrier to Entry: Apartments, Facilities, and Submarines
To get started, you need a base of operations. This is where most people trip up.
If you want the OG heists—things like the Fleeca Job or the Prison Break—you need a High-End Apartment. Look for anything in the Del Perro Heights or Alta St complexes. They’re relatively cheap. Once you’re inside, head to the "H" on your map in the planning room. Lester Crest will give you a ring. These heists are nostalgic, sure, but they’re also a massive headache because they require exactly four players. If one person leaves? The whole thing shuts down. It’s brutal.
Then there’s the Doomsday Heist. For this, you need a Facility. These are those underground bunkers scattered around the map (not to be confused with the "Bunker" business). Doomsday is basically GTA’s version of a cinematic action movie. It’s hard. Like, "getting shot through a wall by an AI with perfect aim" hard. But it’s also one of the few ways to play with just two or three people if you don't have a full squad.
But if we’re talking about how to do heists in GTA 5 Online efficiently in 2026, there is only one king: The Cayo Perico Heist. You need the Kosatka Submarine, which you buy from Warstock Cache & Carry after meeting Miguel Madrazo at the Music Locker. It’s pricey. It’s also the only heist you can do entirely solo. No relying on randoms who don't know how to hack a fingerprint scanner.
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Why Everyone Screws Up the Prep Work
Prep is where heists are won or lost. Most players treat preps like a chore to be rushed. That's a mistake. In the Cayo Perico or Diamond Casino heists, your approach determines which prep missions are actually mandatory.
Take the Diamond Casino Heist, for example. You need an Arcade to run it. If you choose the "Silent & Sneaky" approach but forget to do the "Duggan Shipments" prep, the guards will have high-tier armor and helmets. You won't be able to headshot them. You’ll get caught. You’ll die. You’ll fail. Basically, you just wasted forty minutes of your life because you skipped a ten-minute prep mission.
And don't get me started on the getaway vehicles.
In the Diamond Casino run, people always pick the most expensive driver thinking they need a fast car. You don't. You need the cheapest driver. Why? Because you can just run across the street, jump into the sewer tunnel, or steal a civilian car and lose the cops in the subway. Every dollar you spend on a high-end "Expert" crew member is a dollar coming out of your final take. Be cheap. In GTA, being a penny-pincher is how you get rich.
The Secret Sauce of the Cayo Perico Meta
Since its release, Cayo Perico has been the gold standard for solo players. If you want to know how to do heists in GTA 5 Online without needing friends, this is your bread and butter.
First, the scope-out. Don't waste time looking at everything on El Rubio's island. Find the primary target, check the gold in the compound, and look at the drainage pipe behind the mansion. That drainage pipe is the only entry point that matters. If you have the cutting torch, you can slip in through the water, kill a few guards, grab the files or the diamond, and swim away into the sunset.
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Rockstar nerfed the payout frequency recently. You can't just spam it every hour anymore. There’s a cooldown now—about three in-game days (144 minutes) if you’re solo. If you play with a team, the cooldown is shorter. This was a direct move to stop people from becoming "too" rich too fast, but even with the nerfs, it’s still the most profitable thing you can do per hour of gameplay.
Navigating the Four-Player Nightmare
The original 2015 heists are a different beast entirely.
- The Fleeca Job: A two-man tutorial. Easy.
- The Prison Break: A nightmare of coordination. One person flies a plane, one flies a chopper, one's a guard, one's a prisoner. If the pilot crashes? Start over.
- The Humane Labs Raid: Lots of EMP usage and night vision.
- The Series A Funding: Basically a glorified contact mission.
- The Pacific Standard Job: The big one. You're robbing a bank in the middle of the city.
The problem with these is the "All In Order" and "Criminal Mastermind" challenges. If you play through all of these with the same team without anyone dying, Rockstar hands you a $10 million bonus. It sounds great on paper. In reality, it is a test of friendship that usually ends in people blocking each other on Discord.
If you're serious about the OG heists, you need a dedicated crew. Do not try to do these with random players from the matchmaking pool. You will spend four hours in the lobby and ten minutes in the mission before someone quits because they blew up the getaway bikes.
The Diamond Casino: A Masterclass in Complexity
If Cayo is for the solo player, the Diamond Casino is for the duo. You buy the Arcade, you set up the board, and you choose one of three ways: Silent & Sneaky, The Big Con, or Aggressive.
The Big Con is the fan favorite. You dress up as Gruppe Sechs security, drive right into the vault, walk out with the loot, and change into fireman outfits to disappear. It’s clean. It’s fast. But it requires the most "intel." You have to scope out the security tunnel and the waste disposal.
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The biggest tip for the Casino heist? Always go for the artwork. Gold is heavy and slows you down. Cash takes forever to grab and isn't worth much. Diamonds are rare and seasonal. But Art? You can slice those paintings out of the frames in seconds. A two-man team can easily clear the entire vault if it's full of paintings.
Essential Gear You Actually Need
Stop buying clothes and start buying utility. If you want to survive heists, you need three things:
- Heavy Combat Outfit: In the original heists, this outfit (bought at any clothing store) actually makes you take less damage. You move slower, but you're a tank.
- Bulletproof Helmet: Does exactly what it says. Saves you from that one random AI headshot.
- Armored Kuruma: This car is a cheat code for setup missions. You can sit inside and shoot out, but the AI can barely hit you. It makes the "Setup" phase of the Prison Break or Pacific Standard trivial.
Actionable Steps to Start Earning Now
If you are sitting on a fresh account with zero dollars, here is your roadmap.
First, do the "First Dose" and "Last Dose" missions. They give you a free Acid Lab, which is a great passive business. Use that money to buy the Kosatka.
Once you have the sub, learn the Cayo Perico drainage pipe entry. Run it solo. Use the "Longfin" approach or the "Kosatka" approach. Don't bother with the velum or the halo jump; they're too loud and too slow.
Next, find one reliable partner. Just one. You don't need three. With one partner, you can alternate between Cayo Perico and the Diamond Casino Heist to bypass the cooldown timers. While Cayo is on cooldown, you’re prepping the Casino. While the Casino is on cooldown, you’re back at the sub.
This "loop" is how the top players make $2 million to $4 million in a single evening. Forget the high-end apartments for anything other than a place to change your clothes. The real money in GTA Online is under the sea or under an arcade.
Keep your snacks menu open (the Interaction Menu is your best friend). Learn to spam the "Eat Snack" button while aiming or in cover so you don't have to watch the eating animation. It sounds like a small thing, but in a heist, that half-second of animation is usually when the Noose teams take you down. Get your gear, find your sub, and stop waiting for Lester to call you—go to him.