GTA 5 Heists: Every Story Heist, Approach and Payout

GTA 5’s story mode has six heists: The Jewel Store Job, The Merryweather Heist, Blitz Play, The Paleto Score, The Bureau Raid and The Big Score. Most are planned on a board, most let you pick an approach and hire a crew, and almost all are prepared with setup missions. Only four of them put money in your pocket, and one of those, The Big Score, dwarfs everything else in the game: up to $41,664,000 per protagonist.

The six heists at a glance

Heist	Target	Approaches	What you earn
The Jewel Store Job	Vangelico jewellery store, Rockford Hills	Loud or Smart	Just under $5 million gross at best, split with Lester and the crew
The Merryweather Heist	A Merryweather device at the Port of Los Santos	Freighter or Offshore	Nothing: the device has to be returned
Blitz Play	An armoured Securicar carrying bonds	One plan	Nothing: the bonds go to the FIB
The Paleto Score	Blaine County Savings Bank, Paleto Bay	One plan, plus a hired gunman	About $8 million stolen, most of it kept by the FIB
The Bureau Raid	FIB headquarters, Downtown	Fire Crew (covert) or Roof Entry	$331,985 in total, and Michael turns down his share
The Big Score	Gold bullion in the Union Depository	Subtle or Obvious	$201.6 million, up to $41,664,000 each

Lester takes his standard 12% cut before the crew and the protagonists are paid.

Approaches and setup missions

The approach you choose on the planning board decides which setup missions you play.

Heist	Approach	Setup missions
The Jewel Store Job	Loud	Carbine Rifles
The Jewel Store Job	Smart	Bugstars Equipment, BZ Gas Grenades
The Merryweather Heist	Freighter	Minisub
The Merryweather Heist	Offshore	Minisub, Cargobob (stolen from Fort Zancudo)
Blitz Play	Single plan	Masks, Boiler Suits, Trash Truck, Tow Truck
The Paleto Score	Single plan	Paleto Score Setup, Military Hardware
The Bureau Raid	Fire Crew	Fire Truck, plus parking a getaway vehicle
The Bureau Raid	Roof Entry	None
The Big Score	Subtle	Stingers, then three Gauntlets stolen and modified
The Big Score	Obvious	Driller, Sidetracked, plus parking a getaway vehicle

For where each of these sits in the story, see our complete GTA 5 missions list.

The crew

Heist crew are hired, not recruited, and each takes a fixed percentage of the take. Cheap crew members can drop loot, crash or get killed, which costs you part of the take. Anyone who survives a successful heist gains skill for the next one without raising their price.

Role	Crew member	Cut
Driver	Eddie Toh	14%
Driver	Karim Denz	8%
Driver	Taliana Martinez	5%
Gunman	Gustavo Mota	14%
Gunman	Packie McReary	12%
Gunman	Chef	12%
Gunman	Karl Abolaji	8%
Gunman	Norm Richards	7%
Gunman	Hugh Welsh	7%
Gunman	Daryl Johns	6%
Hacker	Paige Harris	15%
Hacker	Christian Feltz	10%
Hacker	Rickie Lukens	4%

Four of them are unlocked, not available from the start. Taliana Martinez joins if you get her to hospital after a crash on the freeway east of Paleto Bay, a random event available after the mission Mr. Philips. Packie McReary joins if you save him at a drug store robbery near Franklin’s first house, after Pulling Favors. Rickie Lukens calls Michael after Friend Request, and Chef offers his services to Trevor after Blitz Play.

Getting the most out of each heist

The Jewel Store Job. The Smart approach with Karim Denz driving, Packie McReary as gunman and Rickie Lukens hacking gives the best result: GTA Wiki’s best case nets Michael $1,223,073 and Franklin $293,539. Smash all twenty display cases.

The Paleto Score. The haul is fixed at around $8 million, but Agent Sanchez of the FIB walks off with most of it, leaving each protagonist roughly $425,000 to $463,000. The gunman you hire is the only crew choice.

The Bureau Raid. The take never changes, so pick the cheapest crew that survives. Roof Entry is slightly more profitable because nobody dies.

The Big Score. This is the one that matters. With the Obvious approach, Taliana Martinez flies the first helicopter, Karim Denz drives the train as second driver, and Daryl Johns plus Norm Richards or Hugh Welsh handle the guns. That is a 26% crew cut, and each protagonist ends up with $41,664,000. Put an inexperienced Karim in the first helicopter and it crashes, taking half the gold with it. The Subtle approach needs a hacker and a $300,000 bribe, so the best it can do is $35,563,000 each. Everything you earn here is the starting capital for Lester’s stock market trades, covered in our guide to making money in story mode. The gold sits in the Union Depository, which you can find on our 3D map.

Heists in GTA Online

GTA Online’s heists are a separate line-up, played with other players or, for the most recent ones, solo. As of September 2026 they are:

Heist	Released	Players
The Fleeca Job, The Prison Break, The Humane Labs Raid, Series A Funding, The Pacific Standard Job	March 10, 2015 (Heists update)	2 for The Fleeca Job, 4 for the others
The Doomsday Heist (three acts)	December 12, 2017	2 to 4
The Diamond Casino Heist	December 12, 2019	2 to 4
The Cayo Perico Heist	December 15, 2020	1 to 4
The Cluckin’ Bell Farm Raid	March 7, 2024	1 to 4
The Kortz Center Heist	July 14, 2026	1 to 4

The Diamond Casino Heist needs an Arcade, The Cayo Perico Heist needs the Kosatka submarine, and The Kortz Center Heist needs a Mansion with the new Art Studio added. For the solo favourite, read our Cayo Perico Heist guide.