How to Make Money in GTA IV: Every Cash Method Explained
How to make money in GTA IV: Stevie's car list, police-computer bounties, the Fixer's assassinations, vigilante work, store cash and mission rewards.
Learning how to make money in GTA IV is mostly about side work, because Niko Bellic's bank balance climbs slowly through the story. There is no stock market to game in GTA IV's single-player, so the real GTA IV money comes from repeatable jobs: Stevie's car-theft texts, police-computer bounties, the Fixer's contracts, and the cash you scoop off dead targets. Here is every method that actually pays, with the real locations and numbers.
Stevie's car list: the steadiest GTA IV money
The single best repeatable earner is Stevie's Car Thefts, often searched as the Stevie car list. After you complete Brucie Kibbutz's race mission "No. 1" and Derrick McReary's "Smackdown," Brucie connects you to his friend Stevie, who runs a garage called S&M Auto Sales in Chase Point, Bohan.
Stevie then texts you, one car at a time, asking you to track down and deliver 30 specific vehicles scattered across Liberty City and Alderney. Each text includes a photo of the exact spot the car is parked, so the search radius is usually less than a block. Key points:
- Condition matters. Stevie pays far more for a clean, undamaged car. Drive carefully, because every dent shaves dollars off the payout.
- The high-end cars are the prize. Sports cars pay the most: a clean Infernus is worth about $33,000, and the top earners on the list, the Super GT and Turismo, pay roughly $36,300 each in perfect condition.
- It keeps paying. Once you have delivered all 30 requested vehicles, S&M Auto Sales stays open. You can drive in any car you steal and sell it for cash on the spot, turning the garage into a permanent income source.
This is the method most players lean on, and it pairs naturally with the wider GTA IV game hub for context on Niko's storyline.
The Fixer's assassinations: contract payouts
A second reliable earner is The Fixer's Assassinations, a set of paid hits from an anonymous contact known only as the Fixer. They unlock after you finish Phil Bell's mission "Truck Hustle," and you start each one by visiting a payphone at the corner of Odhner Avenue and Traeger Road in Alderney (on the edge of Port Tudor and Acter).
There are 9 assassination missions in total, each with a fixed reward:
- Water Hazard pays $3,000
- Dead End pays $6,500
- Migration Control pays $3,000
- Derelict Target pays $4,000
- Bailing Out for Good pays $3,000
- Hook, Line and Sinker pays $3,000
- R.U.B. Down pays $4,000
- Industrial Action pays $7,500 (with a $10,000 bonus for a clean job)
- Taken Out pays $3,000
Clearing all nine is also a 100% completion requirement and unlocks the Assassin's Greed achievement, so the Fixer's work doubles as progress toward finishing the game.
Most Wanted bounties from the police computer
The Police Computer hides one of the better-paying loops in GTA IV money hunting. Get into any law-enforcement vehicle, come to a complete stop, and access the computer, then open the Most Wanted list.
The list shows 10 wanted criminals per region, for 30 targets across Broker-Dukes-Bohan, Algonquin, and Alderney. Important detail: the game does not hand you a fixed cash reward when a target dies. Instead, each Most Wanted target drops a large wad of cash when killed, far more than a normal pedestrian, and you collect it off the body. Track the target on your map, take them out, and grab the money. Clearing all 30 unlocks the Manhunt achievement.
Vigilante (Current Crimes) side work
The same Police Computer runs the Vigilante strand, listed as "View Current Crimes." These unlock after Roman's mission "Crime and Punishment," and they come in three flavors: a gang to wipe out, a stolen vehicle to chase down, or a lone criminal fleeing on foot.
Be realistic about the payoff here. Vigilante work gives no guaranteed cash reward: your only income is whatever weapons and money the criminals drop. Gangs usually leave weapons rather than money, but a single fleeing criminal almost always drops a wad of cash. Completing 20 levels earns the Cleaned the Mean Streets achievement, so treat vigilante runs as a steady trickle plus completion progress rather than a fast payday.
Robbing stores and grabbing register cash
GTA IV stripped down the old store-robbery mechanic. You no longer point a gun at a shopkeeper to make them empty the till. Instead, you walk up to a store's cash register and open the tray to grab whatever is inside. There are roughly 15 robbable stores around Liberty City.
The downside is the payout. Register cash tops out at only a couple hundred dollars, and sometimes there is next to nothing in the drawer. Robbing a store also triggers a one-star wanted level (instantly at some shops with alarms, after about 10 seconds at others), so it is a low-value, high-hassle method best used opportunistically rather than as a core strategy. If you want to grab cash codes or shortcuts instead, check the GTA IV cheats page.
Mission rewards and why there is no stock market
Main-story missions do pay out, but the rewards are modest and rarely the reason you are short on cash. Niko's campaign is structured so that money is tight for most of the game, which is exactly why the side methods above matter.
One thing to be clear about: GTA IV's story mode has no working stock market. The in-game BAWSAQ exchange exists only as background flavor in Weazel News reports and radio chatter; you cannot trade on it. The playable, profit-flipping stock market (LCN and BAWSAQ) was a GTA V feature, not a GTA IV one. So if you came here hoping to invest your way to millions, the answer is to grind Stevie's cars and the Fixer's hits instead. For more of the city, browse the GTA IV screenshots.
