Most players will agree that Heists are the biggest and most important feature of GTA Online currently. They're the most complex and challenging missions and have the biggest payouts. They have some unusual game mechanics implemented to mix things up compared to usual gameplay and offer players extra challenge on the Hard difficulty setting.
They're also unfortunately the scenes of much of the trolling and griefing in the game. Some players join heists just to mess with their team-mates. Some go to the effort of legitimately helping through all of the setup missions and much of the finale just to screw it all up for everyone in the last moment.
However, many such players don't go into the heist with the intention of ruining it all. Sometimes they're ticked off by the allocation of the heist's payout, which they think is unfair.
So it's time to whip out our calculators and heisting knowledge in order to put the fairness debates about the payment percentages to rest once and for all. If you want to host a heist, but don't know how to treat your team mates fairly, or if you suspect you've been "cheated" by the host of a heist, look no further.
This is the definitive guide to distributing the cuts of the payout. The guide has been adapted from and is based on the work of Steam user and GTA Online player Old Billy Riley, so props to him for putting all this together. You can check out the original guide here.
Each heist in GTA Online comes with a set-up fee that the host has to pay upfront and is never refunded. If the team fails, if someone quits, then the host basically loses that cash. Each heist is preceded by a few setup missions that need to be completed before the finale can be initiated. These setup missions have small payouts for the team members, but the host receives no reward for their completion.
The percentage allocation should be done with this in mind, seeing as the host only gets anything out of the finale, while the members are rewarded for the set-ups. The idea is to allocate cash in such a way that in the end everyone gets a fair share out of the whole heist, not just the finale.
Usually, this will leave a small extra amount of cash which can then be distributed in whatever which way the host likes. Either give it to a member who displayed exceptional performance during the missions, distribute it among everyone or keep it for your self.
The guide will assume that the finale and all the setup missions for each heist are played on the same difficulty. Technically, player may change the difficulty in between missions, however putting together accurate calculations for each and every possible permutation is way too much work.
Now, if you'd rather just see a basic rundown of how to distribute funds without reading through all the explanations, the below table provides the fair numbers for each heist, based on the payouts of the Normal difficulty setting. The numbers do change in some cases based on difficulty, and if you're interested in the run-down of how these numbers were calculated, feel free to keep on reading.
| Cut | The Fleeca Job | Prison Break | The Humaine Labs Raid | Series A Funding | The Pacific Standard Job |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Host | 60% | 40% | 45% | 45% | 45% |
| Crew | 40% | 15% | 15% | 15% | 15% |
| Bonus | 0% | 15% | 10% | 10% | 10% |
First of all, let's get some etiquette out of the way: If you've been in on the heist since the start, you've been getting payouts from the setup missions, therefore the host deserves a higher cut. If you've only joined in on the finale, then you haven't contributed nearly as much as the others, especially the host, therefore the host, again, deserves a higher cut.
We'll start with the shortest and easiest heist first and work our way up.
| % Cut | Easy | Normal | Hard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Host | 35+20.1+7.7 = 65% | 40+10+7.6= 60% | 40+8+7.6 = 55% |
| Crew | 35% | 40% | 40% |
| Excess | 0% | 0% | 5% |
| % Cut | Easy | Normal | Hard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Host | 15+20+15.2 = 50% | 15+10+15.2 = 40% | 15+8+15.2 = 40% |
| Crew | 15% | 15% | 15% |
| Excess | 5% | 15% | 15% |
| % Cut | Easy | Normal | Hard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Host | 15+20+19 = 55% | 15+10+19 = 45% | 15+8+19 = 40% |
| Crew | 15% | 15% | 15% |
| Excess | 0% | 10% | 15% |
Things are a bit more complex when it comes to the game's biggest and toughest heist. This is as hard as GTA Online ever can get, nothing so far has managed to eclipse it in terms of difficulty. An added problem here is that in the finale, the bounty is carried out in duffle bags by the heist members. Thing is, if anyone carrying a bag takes damage, they lose some of the cash.
As such, it is pretty difficult to get the full payout from the heist. There exists the Kuruma-method, wherein the nearby apartment can be used to acquire one of the member's armored vehicles with which it is possible to get almost all of the cash out, however not every player is familiar with this.
A good tactic here is to have one player carry the whole take, lowering the chances of taking damage. Of course, the other members have to protect the carrier with everything they have.
Old Billy Riley has drafted up three success tiers to account for all situations.
| % Cut | Easy | Normal | Hard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Host | 15+20+19 = 55% | 15+10+19 = 45% | 15+8+19 = 40% |
| Crew | 15% | 15% | 15% |
| Excess | 0% | 10% | 15% |
| % Cut | Easy (100% — $500K) | Easy (70% — $350K) | Normal (Bad — $600K) | Normal (Avg — $700K) | Normal (Good — $800K) | Hard (70% — $875K | Hard (100% — $1,250K) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Host | 15+20+10.5 = 45% | 10+28.6+14.9 = 55% | 15+16.7+17.4 = 50% | 15+14.3+14.9 = 45% | 15+12.5+13.1 = 40% | 15+11.4+14.9 = 40% | 20+8+10.5 = 40% |
| Crew | 15% | 10% | 15% | 15% | 15% | 15% | 20% |
| Excess | 10% | 15% | 5% | 10% | 15% | 15% | 0% |
More important than anything in heists is proper etiquette towards your team mates. The host is putting up a lot that could be lost for this heist, so you should never bitch about getting what you feel is a low cut if it conforms with this guide.
Messing up an otherwise solid heist run on purpose is about as bad as hacking when looking at the online-asshole scale in GTA Online. These heists take time, skill and effort to complete. They're as much an investment as a way of gaining cash in-game.
Currently the heists are the best ways of acquiring money in GTA Online, rivaled only by well organised VIP runs — however those turn into grind-fests pretty quick.
When you have a regular heist group set up, obviously this guide isn't the way to go — you can discuss and agree among yourselves. However if you end up heisting with randoms — which isn't as bad as many would like you to think — you should make sure the numbers check out.
Then again, if you'd rather not go to the considerable effort of working through a heist, or would rather just play them for the fun of it without worrying about the payout, Rockstar has you covered with their Shark Card system.
How do you usually distribute funds in GTA Online when you host a heist? Do you follow the guidelines written above, or do you have a different method?
