Method7 min read
Your first million in GTA VI: the method to get there without mistakes
On November 19, 2026, everyone starts from zero in Leonida. Rockstar has not yet published any price or any earning, but it has already shown how money flows: store robberies, cars to resell, hunting, races. Here is the method to turn what we know into a game plan, and the tool that does the math for you.
Before calculating
What Rockstar has already shown about money
No number is published, but the videos and interviews already say a lot about the ways to make a living in Leonida.
Let’s start with what is certain. As of October 27, 2026, Rockstar has published neither the price of a car, nor the reward of a mission, nor the income of a business. Any site that gives you amounts for GTA VI is making them up or copying them from GTA V. On Leonidakit, every number displayed carries its status, its source and its date: you can check on the What’s confirmed page.
What is shown, on the other hand, is precise. In his big IGN interview, Rob Nelson, of Rockstar North, explains that you can rob almost every store in the game, that the phone has a vehicle scanner and that a “Focus” mode flags nearby officers. Talking to Famitsu, he speaks of shops and salons, gang hangouts, witnesses and alarms. An Extended Look shows a car theft, a robbery, a getaway and the arrival in Raul Bautista’s crew.
Activity
Robbing a store
Alone or as a pair, the better-guarded targets, the loot to resell: what Rockstar has shown, without an amount.
The page
Activity
Stealing a car
Three methods shown, the tools to get hold of, alarms and trackers, resale to the fence.
The page
Activity
Hunting
Mount Kalaga, more than 170 species according to Game Informer, and hunting that pays according to Rob Nelson.
The page
What nobody knows yet: whether Jason and Lucia share one account or two, what an arrest costs, and the amount of a fine. These three rules change a whole plan. The calculator is waiting for them; as long as they aren’t published, it asks you for your assumption and tells you so clearly. Death, for its part, has its rule: according to Rob Nelson, all the cash you carry is lost, not the money in the bank.
Five steps
The first-million method
A simple method, which you can follow with a notebook or with the calculator. The idea: decide before you spend.
Set the goal and your play time
A million is a number; what counts is the number of sessions you need to get there. Write down how long you play per session and how many sessions per week. It’s the basis for everything else.
Note what each activity brings in per hour
From release, note for each robbery, race or resale what you earned and how many minutes it took you. A big slow haul can bring in less than a quick small job. The calculator compares your activities per hour of play, that’s its “My activities” tool.
Buy what pays first
A business or a work tool pays for itself; an outfit doesn’t. Sort your wishes into two columns: what makes money and what only costs money. The first million is built with the first column.
Build your business plan, mission by mission
Write your goal, add the missions and activities in the order you plan to do them, and see where you’ll be stuck for lack of money. Plan a backup for each blockage: that’s exactly what “My business plan” does.
Reread the plan every week
Rockstar will publish numbers, you’ll record others while playing. Every time an earning or a price changes, the plan recalculates. Keep it in your trackers: it follows you from one session to the next, and from one language to another.
Step by step
The calculator, tool by tool
Nine tools, one rule: you enter your numbers, it does the math and answers you in one sentence, then in detail.
“My goal” tells you in how many sessions you reach an amount. “My purchases” and “What should I buy first?” rank a wish list according to your budget and your time. “Is it worth it?” answers the question you ask in front of every business: how long it takes to pay for itself, and whether it beats playing without. “My activities” compares your ways of making money per hour of play. “Which purchase should I pick?” decides between two pages. And “My business plan” puts all of that together, mission after mission.
“Step by step” mode asks one question at a time, with helpers such as “I don’t know how much I earn”. Expert mode opens up all the options, the charts and the “What ifs”. What you save stays in your browser, with no account or cookie, and shows up in your progress trackers.
The calculator’s examples are fictional as long as Rockstar has published nothing, and the page says so. The day a price or an earning is published with its source, it appears as a reference, with its status and date, in the calculator, in the pages and in the answers of Léo, the site’s assistant. To understand how to read a number on Leonidakit, the Tutorial explains the statuses.
Early game
The early-game traps
- Spending the first haul on outfits. Stores like Stock 305 and salons like Sara’s Unisex Salon are part of the scenery Rockstar has shown, but none of that brings in money. Style waits for the million.
- Mistaking the Ultimate Edition for money. The sixteen Ultimate items are vehicles, weapons, outfits and accesses discovered along the story, not starting capital. See the editions.
- Forgetting the police. Rob Nelson describes a “Busted” screen at every arrest and a “Focus” mode to spot patrols. What an arrest costs is not published: plan for the worst in your plan, you’ll adjust.
- Copying GTA V’s numbers. In GTA V, businesses paid out a regular profit and the story heists paid according to the prep choices. That’s a series benchmark, not a GTA VI rule. The site always presents them as such.
- Playing without taking notes. The first million is a matter of pace: without your own records, there’s no way to know whether you’re moving forward. Two columns are enough: what it brought in, how long it took.
Almost every store in the game can be robbed, and the game is designed to be replayed.
Launch day
What November 19 changes
On release day, the numbers arrive. Here is how the site and the calculator receive them, and what you can record yourself.
Official YouTube (Google) player, loaded only after your click: YouTube may then set its own cookies. Legal and privacy
As soon as an earning, a price or an income is published by Rockstar, recorded in game or reported by two matching outlets, it enters the site’s data with its status, its source and its date. The Make money, Best business and In-game prices pages then fill up on their own, and the calculator offers these numbers as references.
What you can do on your side: note the start-up cost and reward of each mission, the real duration of each activity, and what you lose when you get arrested. Those are exactly the boxes of the business plan. If you want to share a record, the Contact page is made for that: every sourced record helps all players.
Questions
Questions people ask about the first million
How long does it take to make a million in GTA VI?
Has Rockstar published prices or earnings for GTA VI?
Do Jason and Lucia have a shared account?
Which activity pays the most in GTA VI?
Is the calculator free?
The blog
Read next
Strategy
Which business should you pick early in GTA VI?
Which business should you buy first in GTA 6? The businesses Rockstar has shown, the payback rule and Leonidakit’s “Is it worth it?” tool.
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Activities
Robberies, car theft, hunting: the activities that pay in GTA VI
The GTA 6 activities Rockstar has shown: robbing a store, stealing and selling a car, hunting, racing. What pays and what doesn’t, with sources.
Read the article
The site
Leonidakit’s tools for playing GTA VI: calculator, map, progress, Léo
Leonidakit, the GTA 6 companion site: calculator, map of Leonida, vehicle and weapon pages, trackers, Léo, companion mode. Free, in six languages.
Read the article
Verify
The sources of this article
Every fact in the article points to a page you can open. The status says where the information comes from: Rockstar, a media outlet, or an identification by players.
- Seen in mediaInven Global: Rob Nelson’s full interview with IGN
“Focus” mode, the “Busted” screen, a vehicle scanner on the phone, robberies in almost every store, a game designed to be replayed.
- Seen in mediaIGN: GTA 6, The Big Interview (full interview with Rob Nelson, Rockstar North, during a 30-minute demo)
Rob Nelson details the money that drives the story, the car scanner (value at the Pay ’n’ Spray or from a fence, registration cost), robbery targets, the personal vehicle and two missions from the Extended Look.
- Seen in mediaFamitsu: interview with Rob Nelson (Rockstar North) after the demo
Safehouses that change with the chapters, three vehicle slots at the start, garages to buy, Ammu-Nation locker, Pay ’n’ Spray and fences, heists, salons and stores, haircuts at home.
- Seen in mediaPC Gamer: the Famitsu interview, translated
The translation of Rob Nelson’s answers to Famitsu, taken from GamesRadar+.
- OfficialRockstar Newswire: Grand Theft Auto VI, An Extended Look
A presentation captured in-game on PlayStation 5, first on Netflix and then on YouTube.
- Seen in mediaGame Informer: the activities glimpsed in the Extended Look
Night races, motorcycles, stock car and rally, base jumping, TV, a strip club where you spend money.
- Seen in mediaGame Informer: over 170 animal species in GTA VI
Over 170 species; some rare, discoverable or legendary ones can be tracked.
- OfficialRockstar Support: Grand Theft Auto VI, platforms, editions and versions
The two editions, the sixteen Ultimate Edition items, the upgrade, the disc-free box, preloading at midnight on November 12, the bonuses before November 20 and the region rules.
- Community identificationProperties in GTA V
In GTA V, businesses for sale are marked on the map, some reserved for one character; most pay out a profit every seven in-game days, and the management sometimes calls the owner for help.
- Community identificationGTA 5 Heists Guide (Story Mode)
The five heists in GTA V’s story mode; the choices made during preparation change what they pay.
- Seen in mediaTrois Couleurs: the GTA VI demo presented by Rob Nelson
Text, illustrations and illustration clip: Leonidakit. Screenshots and artworks are official Rockstar Games images, credited on Media and credits.