The Bunker: the complete business guide

The Bunker has been a pillar of GTA Online money-making since Gunrunning arrived in 2017, and it still earns its place in 2026: a full upgraded stock sells for around GTA$1,050,000 and climbs toward GTA$1.5 million with high-demand bonuses in busier sessions. It is also the classic trap for new owners, because unupgraded it is genuinely bad, and sold at the wrong stock level it strands solo players with convoys they cannot finish.

This guide is the version that works: the right purchase, the two non-negotiable upgrades, the supply loop, solo-safe selling and what the research track is actually for. Figures are checked against current tracked values as of early August 2026.

Step 1: buy the right bunker

• Buy from Maze Bank Foreclosures. Chumash and Farmhouse are the classic picks for sitting close to the action; Paleto Forest is cheap and costs you the difference in driving forever
• The bunker location changes your commute, not your income, so buy for geography and nothing else

Step 2: the two non-negotiable upgrades

• Equipment upgrade, GTA$1,155,000, and staff upgrade, GTA$598,500, both from the laptop
• Do not judge the Bunker before these are in: unupgraded production is slow enough to make the whole business feel broken, because it is
• Upgraded, the stock and research speeds roughly double, and every number in this guide assumes you have them

Step 3: set the staff and the supply loop

• Assign staff to manufacturing for money; put them on research only when you are actively chasing an unlock, or fast-track research with cash and never think about it again
• Buy supplies for GTA$75,000 a full bar rather than stealing them, the time maths is not close
• If you own an Arcade, the Master Control Terminal resupplies the Bunker remotely, which turns the whole loop into a menu visit

Step 4: sell solo-safe

• The golden solo rule: sell early and often. A part-filled bunker keeps the delivery to a single vehicle, and a full one can spawn a multi-vehicle convoy on a timer that one player cannot beat
• Full stock is worth around GTA$1,050,000 upgraded, rising toward GTA$1.5 million with high-demand bonuses when more players share the session
• Watch the weekly events: Bunker sell bonuses of 1.5x and 2x come around regularly, and a saved full stock on a bonus week is one of the best paydays in the passive game

Step 5: use the research track once

• Research unlocks the Gunrunning arsenal: weapon liveries, the explosive rounds tier, and vehicle upgrades for the update hardware
• Fast-tracking with cash is expensive but honest about what your time is worth; grinding it via staff is free and slow
• Once the unlocks you care about are done, set staff fully to manufacturing and never split them again

The reference layer

Where the Bunker really sits in 2026: it is the strongest of the classic passive producers and the natural second layer after the Acid Lab, with one warning attached. Its sell missions are the most crew-hungry in the business game at full stock, so the solo version of this business is deliberately selling smaller and more often, trading peak payout for guaranteed completion. It also matters beyond its own income: the Bunker feeds Sporting Goods into the Nightclub warehouse, which is reason enough to own one even if you rarely sell from it directly.

Where it fits

Acid Lab first for the floor, Bunker second for scale and the Nightclub feed, Nightclub third to stack it all passively, heists for the spikes. The full business programme and the heists comparison live on the online desk at sixcentral.co.uk/online, on the site and in the SixCentral app.

Buy near the city, upgrade before judging, buy your supplies, sell before full. Six wars worth of guns leave that hillside every week, and now yours will actually get paid for.

Which bunker to buy, and why most people buy wrong

There are eleven bunkers and the interiors are identical. What differs is the drive to your sell destinations and the drive to resupply, and those two things dominate the time you spend on this business.

• Paleto Bay is the cheapest and it is in the far north. Every Los Santos sale is a long haul. Buy it only if the money is genuinely tight, and trade up later.
• Route 68 is the popular pick and deserves it. Central to Blaine County, reasonable run into the city, and it sits near the middle of the resupply mission spread.
• Chumash is the closest to Los Santos and the most convenient for city sales. It costs accordingly.
• Farmhouse is the most expensive and buys you nothing an upgrade would not.

Rockstar lets you trade a bunker for another and credits the value of your current one, so the cheap first purchase is not wasted money if you move later.

Research versus manufacturing

Your staff can be assigned to manufacturing, to research, or split between the two. This choice is worth more than most people realise.

Manufacturing produces stock you sell. Research unlocks permanent items: weapon Mk II upgrades, weapon attachments, and performance parts for weaponised vehicles. Research is slow and produces no income, but it is the only way to unlock the Mk II system through the bunker route.

The sensible pattern is research first, manufacturing forever after. Put staff fully on research until you have the unlocks you care about, accepting that the bunker earns nothing during that period, then switch to full manufacturing and never touch it again. Splitting staff halves both and satisfies neither.

You can also skip a research project you do not want by paying a fee to fast-track it, which is worth doing if the queue lands on something useless.

The upgrades, in buying order

• Equipment Upgrade first. It increases both production speed and the value of your stock. Nothing else comes close on return.
• Staff Upgrade second. More staff, faster production, higher value again.
• Security Upgrade last, and only if you are bothered by raids. It reduces the chance of your bunker being attacked while you are offline, which is an annoyance rather than a real cost.

Running both of the first two takes the bunker from a mediocre earner to around GTA$1,050,000 for a full sale, and toward GTA$1.5 million when high-demand bonuses land. Without them, the numbers are not worth your time.

Supplies: buy, do not steal

A full resupply mission takes roughly ten minutes and gives you a fraction of a full bar. Buying supplies costs money but takes seconds.

Run the numbers on your own time and buying wins comfortably for anyone who has another business to be getting on with. The bunker is a background earner. Every minute you spend stealing crates is a minute you are not running an Auto Shop contract that pays more.

The exception is a brand new player with no other income. If you have nothing better to do with the ten minutes, steal.

Selling without losing the load

This is where bunker money is actually made or lost.

• Los Santos sales pay more than Blaine County sales. They are also longer and more exposed.
• The number of delivery vehicles scales with how much stock you are carrying. A completely full bunker sold solo can hand you multiple vehicles and a timer that assumes a crew.
• So sell before you are completely full if you are alone. Selling at a lower stock level to guarantee a single vehicle is worth far more than the extra stock you left behind.
• Sell in an invite only or friends only session wherever the mission allows it. There is no bonus for public risk on a bunker sale.
• If you must sell in public, fit Imani Tech to the delivery vehicle where the mission gives you a personal vehicle option.

The MOC, and why the bunker is worth owning even if you never sell

The Mobile Operations Centre is bought and stored through the bunker, and its Weapon Workshop is one of only a handful of places that converts weapons to Mk II. If you do not own a Kosatka, an Avenger or an Acid Lab Brickade, the bunker is your route into Mk II ammunition.

The MOC also carries a vehicle workshop for weaponised vehicles, which nothing else does. For a lot of players that is the real reason the bunker stays bought long after they have stopped running sales.