How we measure

Our ground rules

• Game data first. Wherever possible, values come from the game’s own data files and scripts rather than from guesswork or copied claims.
• Estimates are labelled. When a number is an estimate, it says so, for example with a ~ in front of it.
• Empty beats wrong. If a value is unclear or would be misleading, the field stays empty.
• Names as in the game. Vehicles, weapons, characters, places and songs keep the names the game uses.

Where the data comes from

• Game files and scripts for names, classes, physics (seats, mass, gears, drivetrain), weapon stats and map coordinates.
• gtacars.net – measured top speeds and lap times, handling data, prices and release dates for GTA V and GTA Online vehicles.
• GTA Wiki (gta.fandom.com) – the earlier hand-entered facts, map photos and radio tracklists; images always link to their source.
• Rockstar Games – Newswire posts, trailers and official pages, the only source for GTA VI until the game is out.

Facts and figures are merged by a repeatable script: measured and official values win, physics and prices follow the majority of sources, and every disagreement is logged. Descriptions are written by us, never copied. When sources disagree and we cannot resolve it, the field stays empty.

Vehicles: top speed and stats

Two speeds can appear on a vehicle page. Top speed is a real in-game measurement: the vehicle is fully upgraded and driven flat out on a straight, following the method popularised by Broughy1322; it comes from the public catalogue gtacars.net and is shown in km/h and mph. Top speed (game estimate) is the maximum speed the game’s own vehicle data assigns, shown with a ~ because the speed you reach depends on the road, slopes, upgrades and driving.

Lap times use the same fully upgraded setup around the standard test track and are the better guide for races, because they combine acceleration, grip and braking. Rankings such as “fastest vehicles” only include vehicles with a measured value.

The four bars – speed, acceleration, braking and traction – are the stat values Rockstar publishes for GTA V and GTA Online vehicles, on a scale of 0 to 100. For the older games they are in-game stats compared with other vehicles of the same kind in the same game (land with land, boats with boats, aircraft with aircraft).

Because the comparison stays inside one game, a 90 in San Andreas and a 90 in GTA V do not mean the same speed.

Weapons

Damage, range and magazine size come from the game’s weapon data. Some files store values that do not translate into a meaningful figure: rate of fire in the older games is a raw internal value, not rounds per minute, so we only show rate of fire for GTA V.

A weapon’s price is the regular shop price. Discounts, such as the reduced prices from Little Jacob in GTA IV, are not listed as the price.

Prices and money

• All amounts are in in-game dollars.
• The price is what you pay in the game’s shops or in-game websites. For many GTA V vehicles this is the GTA Online price, and the description names the website that sells it, such as Legendary Motorsport.
• A vehicle’s in-game value (what it is worth, not what it costs) is shown as a separate field.
• Income from businesses and properties is always shown together with its period, for example per day or per week.

Maps and locations

Marker positions come from the games’ own scripts wherever possible: car generators, pickups and mission triggers from main.scm in GTA III, Vice City and San Andreas, and from decompiled game scripts in GTA IV and GTA V. Collectible coordinates come from community-made saved maps, and real-world landmarks from the gtadb.org project.

The map backgrounds come from these sources:

• GTA IV, GTA V and GTA VI: map tiles by gtadb.org contributors, licensed under CC BY 4.0
• GTA VI: the Yanis fan map (v17), cropped to remove its legend and credits
• San Andreas: the map by Ian Albert
• GTA III: GTA3Map by jeanropke
• Vice City: the in-game radar map

The source is also credited on the map itself. Photos of map locations link to the page they come from, most often the GTA Wiki on Fandom.

Radio tracklists

Each station page lists the host, the genre and every song with artist, title and year. Some games have had songs removed or added in later editions, so your version may differ slightly. If you notice a song that is missing or should not be there, let us know.

Cheats

Cheat codes are listed per platform – PC, PlayStation and Xbox – together with step-by-step instructions for entering them on each. We mark cheats that disable achievements or trophies and point out when saving with cheats active can cause problems.

How translations work

English is the base language of the database. Descriptions, notes and other texts are translated into German, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese field by field, while the names of vehicles, weapons, characters, stations and songs stay as they are in the game.

If a text has not been translated yet, the English version is shown in its place. News articles without a translation are shown in English and kept out of search results for that language.

Corrections

Found a mistake? Send it through the contact form with the topic “Wrong or missing data”. Tell us the game, the page and, if you can, where the correct value comes from: a screenshot, a video or the game files.

Reports are checked before anything changes. When we can confirm a correction, we update the entry.