The Title Update 1.73 payout reductions on this page are Likely, not Confirmed. They were compiled by GTA Series Videos from community data-mining, after being surfaced by PLTytus on GTA Forums. Rockstar published the weekly bonus system but never published the cuts. Under our labelling criteria that makes these figures Likely — a source with a verified track record on this beat — not Confirmed.
Moves to Confirmed on: Rockstar patch notes or a Newswire statement.
Last updated 18 July 2026 · Current patch: Title Update 1.73 · Weekly reset: Thursday
The short answer
Almost every new player buys a fast car first. This guide exists to talk you out of it. Buy something that earns.
The order that works in 2026:
- A cheap garage and something to drive. Don’t overspend.
- The Acid Lab — $750,000. Free to install if you have GTA+.
- The Acid Lab equipment upgrade — $250,000. Not optional. It adds $97,600 to every sale you’ll ever make.
- Weapons and armour good enough to survive a delivery.
- Everything else. Now you can afford it, because something is earning while you shop.
Why the Acid Lab first
It’s the cheapest business in GTA Online that reliably earns for a player with no crew and no bank, and it’s the only one nobody can steal from.
| Unupgraded | Upgraded | Upgraded + named | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full batch | $237,600 | $335,200 | $351,840 |
| Fill time | 6 hours | 4 hours | 4 hours |
Getting it costs time before it costs money. You complete the six First Dose missions starting with Ron at Liquor Ace in Sandy Shores, unlock the Freakshop, steal the Brickade 6×6 during Off the Rails, recover the lab equipment, then pay Mutt $750,000.
Budget $1,000,000 total. The upgrade needs 10 Fooligan Jobs completed first, and those have a 48-minute cooldown between runs, so it takes a few sessions rather than a few minutes.
Why this matters more than it did last month
Title Update 1.73 landed on 14 July and cut base payouts across more than twenty heists, by 10% to 40% depending on the job. Business income wasn’t touched at all.
For a new player that’s the whole argument. The high-end heists everyone talks about got worse. The cheap business you can actually afford didn’t.
How the game pays now
1.73 added a weekly completion bonus. The first time you finish a given heist in a week, it pays a multiplier. Run the same one again before Thursday’s reset and it drops back to base.
The bonus applies to each job separately, so five different finales means five bonuses. The practical rule: variety pays, repetition doesn’t. That’s the opposite of nearly every guide and video still online, because nearly all of them were written before this month.
What not to buy first
- Supercars. They don’t earn. They’re the reward, not the plan.
- A Nightclub. Genuinely excellent, wrong order. The property alone is over $1,000,000 before the upgrades it needs, and it only pays properly once you own the businesses that feed it.
- Anything a 2021 video recommends. The economy has been rewritten several times since, most recently this month.
What you can’t buy yet, and shouldn’t worry about
The Kortz Center Heist is the big new content, and its first weekly run carries a x4 multiplier worth up to $1,925,000 on the primary target alone. You will see it everywhere.
You need a Mansion and an Art Studio to run it. The cheapest mansion is $11,500,000 and the Art Studio is $4,700,000, so that’s $16,200,000 minimum. It’s a long-term goal, not a plan. Ignore it for now.
Staying alive long enough to get paid
- Sell in invite-only sessions. This removes the risk almost entirely.
- Sell full batches. Solo players get one delivery bike either way, so a full sale is the same work as a half one.
- Get the Missile Lock-On Jammer when you can afford it. 1.73 made it available at Agency mod shops across a long vehicle list, and it’s the direct counter to being hunted from the air.
- Use the daily production boost at the chemical table inside your lab.
What comes next
Once the Acid Lab is running and upgraded, start on heists. Setup mission rewards went up in 1.73, and Fleeca setups now pay triple, which makes the grind toward a finale better than it’s ever been for a new player.
From there, work the weekly rotation: one run each of Fleeca, Prison Break, Humane Labs, Series A and Pacific Standard pays more across a week than farming any single one of them.
Sources: Rockstar Support, GTAV Title Update 1.73 notes. Acid Lab figures corroborated across GTA Boss, Sportskeeda and Console Pulse (citing GTA Wiki). Heist payout tables compiled by GTA Series Videos via gta.guide.
PlayTheory has no affiliate or sponsor relationship in this article.
Related guides
- GTA Online Acid Lab Guide 2026
- GTA Online Best Money Method 2026
- GTA Online Solo Money Guide 2026
- GTA Online Returning Player Guide 2026
- GTA Online Money hub
Image: Rockstar Games, official press kit.