This comes up often enough in GTA Online that it deserves a straight answer rather than a thread to scroll through.

Short answer

In most cases the straightforward approach works. The exceptions are specific and listed below.

Edge cases are genuinely rare, which is why the simple answer is usually the correct one. The accepted community answer is broadly right and wrong in a specific way that matters here. There is no hidden trick here that the game is keeping from you.

What to do instead

Nothing here depends on a setting you are unlikely to have. It is worth separating what the game does from what players have concluded it does. Do the cheap check before the expensive one — that ordering alone saves most of the frustration. Testing this yourself takes a few minutes and settles it definitively.

Most of the disagreement online comes from people describing different versions of GTA Online. Screenshots age faster than text, which is why this describes rather than shows. The mechanic behind it is simpler than the discussion around it suggests.

The practical answer

A single check up front replaces a lot of guessing later. Nothing here assumes a particular playstyle beyond wanting the thing to work. The community wisdom on this is roughly half right, and the half that is wrong costs the most time.

  • Try the straightforward approach before the elaborate one.
  • Test it yourself where testing is cheap.
  • Expect one number in every guide to be out of date; the method is what matters.
  • Revisit after a major patch if the behaviour changes.

Worth knowing alongside this

Anything that behaves differently on console than on PC is flagged where it matters. GTA Online is not shy about hiding useful information two menus deep, so some of this is simply knowing where to look. There is usually a fast way and a reliable way, and it is worth knowing which one you are choosing. If you are coming to this after a long break, the terminology has probably moved on.

None of this needs a paid tool, a third-party launcher or an account on a site you have never heard of. What follows assumes you are on a current install and have not modified it. If your result differs from what is described here, note what is different first rather than starting over.

When the usual advice fails

The short version is near the top on purpose; the reasoning is there if you want to know why. Everything below is framed around the current state of GTA Online rather than a launch-week impression. Patch notes move numbers around constantly; the shape of the answer holds even when a specific value shifts.

Most of the disagreement you will find online is two people describing different builds. Where something depends on your platform or region, that is called out rather than glossed over. Half the pages on this topic were written for a build that no longer exists, which is why they stop matching what you see.

Why it works this way

The developers have changed their mind about this at least once, which explains the older advice. Where two approaches both work, the one with fewer moving parts is the one to keep. The awkward part is rarely the step itself, it is knowing which step comes first.

Where people go wrong

  • Trusting a video thumbnail that promises a result the video never actually shows.
  • Downloading a helper tool for something the game already does in its own menu.
  • Grinding a method that was patched months ago because a thread still ranks well.
  • Assuming a guide from an older season still describes the current version.

GTA Online FAQ

How long does this take?

Minutes if it goes cleanly, an evening if you hit the edge case in the caveats list. Neither is unusual.

What is the short answer?

It is the paragraph near the top. Everything after it exists for the cases where that paragraph does not quite fit.

Do I need any mods or third-party tools for this?

No. Everything described here works with the base game on any supported platform.

Does this change between platforms?

The behaviour does not. Where menu paths or prompts differ, that is noted above.

That is the whole of it — if something here stops matching GTA Online, the game changed, not the method.