Is Cayo Perico Still the Best Way to Make Money in GTA Online in 2024?

As a hardcore GTA fan and avid Cayo Perico grinder myself, this is a question I get asked constantly by my fellow players – is grinding Cayo still worth it in 2024?

My definitive answer is yes, the Cayo Perico heist is still hands down the best solo money making method right now. Despite some minor nerfs, no other activity can match its earning potential with such effortless replayability.

But how much does Cayo Perico actually pay out and does it beat out other new money-makers GTA Online has added? Let‘s break it down.

Cayo Perico Heist Solo Payouts

The Cayo Perico heist takes place on Juan Strickler, aka El Rubio’s heavily guarded island compound. Our job is to infiltrate the island and steal one of a variety of primary targets along with lucrative secondary loot to fence on the black market.

The payout depends firstly on the primary target:

As you can see having the panther statue guarantees the highest payout. But primary target alone doesn’t determine how much we walk away with.

Based on crowd-sourced data from GTA Forums, secondary targets can boost our take by an additional $400k to $900k depending on what spawns:

• Single cocaine brick: $220k
• Full cocaine stash (2 stacks): $440k
• Full weed stash (3 stacks): $660k
• Full gold stash (4 stacks): $900k

When you combine all these factors, the maximum possible solo payout is:

$2.58 million (Panther statue + 4 gold stacks on hard mode)

The most common payout tends to be around $1.5 million (Pink Diamond + full cocaine) which is still excellent for a ~12 minute finale.

To summarize Cayo’s epic earning potential:

This beats out any other money making method in terms of sheer profitability. But how often can we grind Cayo and what is the hourly rate?

Cayo Perico Heist Replay Cooldown

GTA Online imposes a cooldown of 2 hours and 30 minutes between finishing one Cayo Perico finale and launching the next.

This means the maximum number of times we can replay Cayo in one real-life day is about 5 to 7 runs. That translates to a potential daily income between $7.5 million to $18 million!

Based on an average run taking around 60 minutes including scope out mission and finale, grinding Cayo works out to an incredible hourly wage between $750k to $1.8M.

To reach such payouts reliably though, you need to optimize routes, target spawns, and develop elite hacking skills.

Is Cayo Perico More Profitable Than Other Heists?

The other major heists in GTA Online include classics like Pacific Standard or Fleeca Job from older updates. There’s also the Diamond Casino Heist added in the Diamond Casino update and the Doomsday Heist from the Doomsday update.

Here’s how Cayo Perico compares to the payout of other popular heists, not counting bonuses or elite challenges:

As you can see, Cayo Perico vastly outpaces all other heists in terms of both total payout and hourly income rate. It’s in a league of its own right now.

What Makes Cayo So Profitable Compared to Other Heists?

There’s a few reasons why Cayo Perico blows other heists out of the water, especially for solo players:

Soloability – Requires no coordination with randoms, full control of approach and strategy

Scope Out Mission – Gives perfect intel on target locations, entry points, and tools needed

In and out – Finale takes just 10-15 minutes with an optimized stealth run

Replayability – Fast scope out mission and reasonable cooldown time between runs

Thanks to these factors, Cayo offers effortless set-up into a lucrative finale that can be ground out repeatedly in record time without relying on unreliable teammates.

Can Any Other Money Makers in GTA Online Beat Cayo Perico?

Ever since Cayo released, the GTA community has been searching for faster, more efficient methods to grind cash. Two newer ways of earning that have become popular are payphone hits and the auto shop contracts:

Payphone Hits

• Unlocked after you buy the agency property
• Assassination missions paying $15k-$85k
• Very fast jobs taking only 5 to 10 minutes
• No cooldown between hits, can grind endlessly

Auto Shop Contracts

• Need purchased auto shop front business
• Robberies & thefts paying $140k to $180k
• Jobs take around 15-20 minutes on average
• Little prep time, launch contracts rapidly

On paper, payphone hits and auto shop contracts seem lucrative with their quick payouts. But do they really beat Cayo Perico for earning potential over time? Let’s crunch some numbers.

Based on testing and monitoring by dedicated grinders (shout out GTAMissions crew), here’s a realistic appraisal of hourly rates:

So while payphone hits provide nice little boosts between Cayo cooldowns, neither alternative comes close to the earning power of everyone’s favorite island heist.

It’s not even a comparison! No other activity allows solo players or duos to reliably net over $1 million an hour like Cayo Perico in its current state. That is why it will remain the undisputed money meta for the foreseeable future.

Verdict: Cayo Perico Is Still King for Making Money Fast

To conclude, I have crunched the numbers and analyzed all factors extensively as a dedicated GTA fan. In my expert opinion:

Nothing beats grinding Cayo Perico heist if your goal is to get rich fast in GTA Online.

It offers solo players or duos up to $2.5 million per finale at an incredible effective hourly wage between $750k and $1.8M.

Thanks to its unique prep mechanics and reasonable cooldown timers, grinding Cayo back-to-back works out vastly more profitable than any other money making method in GTA Online as of 2023.

So if you‘re looking to stack GTA dollars quickly, save time darting around Los Santos doing odd jobs. Just launch that scope out mission and start cracking codes for El Rubio’s island vault!

Let me know if you have any other questions in the comments! I may post more in-depth Cayo Perico guides soon so subscribe for more GTA tips and news.