GTA Online: What to Buy First (Property Priority Guide)
GTA Online what to buy first: a property priority guide for new players covering the Kosatka, Acid Lab, Agency, and Nightclub in the order that compounds income fastest.
Figuring out GTA Online what to buy first is the single most important decision a new player makes, because the wrong purchase order means slower money and wasted hours. The right property priority compounds: each business you buy funds the next one faster, and a few specific properties turn into reliable income machines. This guide lays out the recommended purchase order, the Kosatka, the Acid Lab, the Agency, and the Nightclub, and explains why that sequence matters.
Why purchase order matters
The reason property priority matters in GTA Online is compounding. Your first big earner pays for your second, your second shortens the grind to your third, and so on. Buy a flashy supercar or an oversized property too early and you stall, because that money is locked away in something that does not generate income. The four properties below were chosen because they combine a high payout per session, low or no ongoing cost, and strong solo friendliness. Start by browsing the full GTA Online hub if you want to see how these businesses fit into the wider catalog.
Buy first: the Kosatka and the Cayo Perico Heist
Your first major purchase should be the Kosatka submarine, bought from Warstock Cache and Carry for GTA$2,200,000. The base submarine is all you need: optional add-ons like the Sparrow helicopter and guided missiles push the price up to roughly GTA$9 million, but none of those are required to start earning.
The Kosatka unlocks the Cayo Perico Heist, the best solo money method in the game. You can scope the island, gather the gear, and run the whole heist alone with no random teammates and no split of the take. A solo run pays roughly GTA$1 million to over GTA$2.3 million after the fence cut and setup costs, depending on the primary target and which secondary loot you grab. One or two clean runs pay back the submarine entirely, which is why it sits at the top of the priority list.
Buy second: the Acid Lab
The Acid Lab is the cheapest high-value business to unlock, which makes it the natural second purchase. You do not buy it from a website. Instead, you complete the six First Dose missions given by Dax in the Los Santos Drug Wars storyline, then pay Mutt a GTA$750,000 fee to install the lab equipment inside the Brickade 6x6 truck. That fee is waived entirely if you subscribe to GTA+.
Once it is running, the Acid Lab produces stock passively while you do other things, and you sell it in short missions using the Manchez Scout C motorbike or the Brickade itself. After unlocking it, complete ten Fooligan Jobs and pay GTA$250,000 for the equipment upgrade, which speeds up production and pushes a full sale up by about 40 percent, paying for itself quickly. A full upgraded Acid Lab sells for GTA$335,200 per cycle (up from roughly GTA$237,500 unupgraded), all from a business that costs a fraction of the buildings above.
Buy third: the Agency
The Agency comes next, available from the Dynasty 8 Executive site starting at GTA$2,010,000 for the cheapest Little Seoul location. Every Agency earns exactly the same income, so there is no reason to overspend on a pricier address here.
The Agency's value comes from layered income. First, complete the Dr. Dre Contract storyline, which pays GTA$1,000,000 on completion and is one of the best-paced jobs in the game. After that, you unlock Security Contracts, repeatable missions split across three difficulty tiers: Professional pays roughly GTA$31,000 to GTA$42,000, Specialist roughly GTA$44,000 to GTA$56,000, and Specialist+ roughly GTA$60,000 to GTA$70,000. Each contract you finish also adds a small permanent amount to your daily safe income, which builds up to a GTA$20,000 per-day cap, and the Agency wall safe itself holds up to GTA$250,000 before you collect. The Agency turns into a stack of small reliable paydays that you collect on your own schedule.
Buy fourth: the Nightclub
The Nightclub is the capstone purchase and the reason it comes last. The cheapest club runs a little over GTA$1,000,000 to buy, but the real value sits in the core upgrades (equipment, staff, and security) that push a full setup into the millions. You want to fund those upgrades from the businesses above, not from scratch.
A properly upgraded Nightclub does two things. The wall safe fills with popularity-based income up to GTA$50,000 per in-game day, capped at GTA$250,000 before you collect. The basement warehouse quietly accrues product from your other businesses through assigned technicians, building a large stockpile with no resupply runs. Once you own the Acid Lab, the Agency, and a few other operations, the Nightclub links them into a single passive income engine that earns while you grind other things. For more ways to get around once the money is flowing, check our GTA Online cheats page.
The recommended order at a glance
Here is the priority list in plain terms:
- Kosatka (GTA$2.2M): unlocks the Cayo Perico Heist, the best solo earner. Buy first.
- Acid Lab (GTA$750K setup, free with GTA+): cheapest passive business. Buy second.
- Agency (from GTA$2M): Dr. Dre payout plus repeatable Security Contracts. Buy third.
- Nightclub (from ~GTA$1M plus upgrades): the passive income capstone that links everything. Buy last.
Follow that sequence and each purchase shortens the grind to the next, which is the whole point of property priority. Skip the supercars until your businesses are paying for them.
