GTA Online Kosatka: Cost, Upgrades and Which Are Worth It

The Kosatka costs $2,200,000 from Warstock Cache & Carry and up to $9,085,000 fully loaded. The base sub alone can run the Cayo Perico Heist — no module is required. The one upgrade that changes your routine is the $1,815,000 Sparrow; Sonar and Guided Missiles are $3.1 million of combat hardware the heist never touches.

The Kosatka is not really a vehicle purchase, it is the entry fee to the Cayo Perico Heist. Rockstar’s own heist directs you to buy one from Warstock Cache & Carry as a base of operations, and there is no alternative route in. So the real question is not “is the sub good” but “which of the five upgrades do I actually need before I can start earning”.

One sourcing note. Rockstar does not publish a price list for Warstock vehicles or their modules. Every figure below comes from the community-run GTA Wiki, checked on September 23, 2026. Its individual module prices add up exactly to the $9,085,000 maximum the same page states, which is a useful internal check on the numbers.

Kosatka price and every upgrade cost

The flag is free when you buy, and $25,000 to change later. Sixty-three flags and sixteen colour schemes are available; the default Red and Black costs nothing, and switching back to it later costs the same $75,000 as any other change.

There is also a running cost: owning a Kosatka incurs a daily fee of $150 for staff and utility charges, billed per in-game day while you are online. As property fees go it is at the cheap end — a Facility, the Doomsday Heist base, charges $500 a day plus a $50 garage mechanic fee.

GTA V Money - PC (Enhanced)GTA$ for PC (Enhanced) — the base Kosatka alone is $2,200,000 before any module.From $15.90View offer

What you actually need to run Cayo Perico

The base $2,200,000 sub. That is it. The heist planning screen is inside the Kosatka as standard, and every Intel and Prep mission can be started from it without a single module fitted.

This matters because the first run is the one that pays for the sub. On your very first playthrough the target is the Madrazo Files at $1,100,000, the $100,000 set-up fee is waived, and neither Pavel’s 2% cut nor the Cartel’s 10% fencing fee is deducted — the details are in our breakdown of Cayo Perico payouts. Add secondary loot and two or three runs covers the base purchase.

Buy the sub, run the heist, then buy modules out of the proceeds. Fitting $6.9 million of upgrades before your first run is the single most common way to make this purchase feel bad.

The Sparrow is the upgrade worth $1,815,000

The Sparrow is a small armed helicopter stored on a lift in the Kosatka’s moon pool, which raises it through a hatch in the top of the hull. Two things make it the standout module.

First, it spawns with the sub. The Kosatka can be summoned to a coastline and fast-travelled between set locations from the helm, and the Sparrow comes with it — so you are not calling a Pegasus vehicle or driving to an airfield between prep missions. Cayo Perico prep is a series of errands across the map, and the Sparrow is what turns those from drives into short flights.

Second, the fast travel it pairs with gets much cheaper once you have run the heist. Using the helm to fast travel costs $10,000 per trip, dropping to $2,000 after you complete the Cayo Perico Heist as leader. One caveat from the wiki: the autopilot lets the Kosatka sit submerged to avoid threats, but that limits access to the Sparrow.

The Kraken Avisa at $1,545,000 is the same idea underwater — a personal submersible stored in the moon pool. It is a much narrower use case, and its bay cannot be used for a second Stromberg or Toreador.

Sonar and Guided Missiles: $3.1 million of things the heist does not use

These two are the expensive ones and the easiest to skip if you are here to make money.

Sonar Station, $1,200,000. A non-interactive station that reveals enemy submarines and hidden caches on the HUD map while you are piloting. Only the owner benefits, and it cannot be used from inside the interior. If you do not hunt underwater caches, it does nothing.

Guided Missiles, $1,900,000. Two seats let any player take remote control of a cruise missile, steering it from a nose camera with a 4,000-metre range. It is genuinely powerful in free-roam PvP, and on PC the wiki notes the turning radius is far tighter with mouse and keyboard than on controller. It also has real limits: a one-minute cooldown per missile, a 225 km/h top speed that struggles against fast aircraft, the missiles can be shot down mid-flight, and they detonate on contact with water — so they cannot hit a submerged target.

Neither appears anywhere in the heist. The sub already carries torpedoes and a periscope missile launcher as standard, so you are not defenceless without them.

The Weapon Workshop: cheap, but only if you use Mk II weapons

At $350,000 the Weapon Workshop is the cheapest module by a wide margin — a fifth of the price of the next one up. It replaces the brig’s cell with a bench and wall mount, letting the owner customise Mk II weapons and resupply specialised ammunition on board.

The reason it earns a place is location. Mk II customisation otherwise means a Mobile Operations Centre or an Avenger workshop, and the Kosatka is where you already are between prep missions. If you use Mk II weapons, it is the cheapest quality-of-life buy on the list. If you do not, it does nothing for you — this is the one module whose value depends entirely on your loadout rather than on the heist.

Is the Kosatka worth it in 2026?

On the arithmetic, yes, and it is not close. $2,200,000 buys access to a heist whose first run pays $1,100,000 with no fees, and whose realistic repeatable ceiling is a Pink Diamond at $910,000 gross before the 12% in fees. Nothing else in the game gates that much income behind that small a purchase.

Three caveats worth knowing before you spend:

• Solo runs cannot reach the gold. The compound’s storage rooms need two players entering two keycards simultaneously. This limits what a solo player can carry regardless of how much you spend on the sub.
• There is a cooldown. 144 real minutes solo, 48 as a group, measured from finishing the previous finale.
• There is a $150 daily fee. Trivial against heist income, and it is charged per in-game day while you are online rather than accruing while you are away.

If you want to compare it against the businesses rather than the heists, our numbers on Vehicle Cargo payouts cover the closest alternative for a solo player.

What order to buy the modules in

1. Base Kosatka, $2,200,000. Run the heist first.
2. Sparrow, $1,815,000. The one that saves real time on prep, every run, forever. This is the only module we would call a general recommendation.
3. Weapon Workshop, $350,000 — only if you use Mk II weapons. Cheapest module on the list, and worthless if you do not.
4. Kraken Avisa, $1,545,000 — only if you want the underwater submersible.
5. Guided Missiles and Sonar, $3,100,000 together — free-roam toys. Buy them because you want them, not because the heist needs them.

Two numbers are worth keeping separate, because guides tend to merge them:

Stopping at Base + Sparrow leaves $5,070,000 unspent against a fully loaded sub. For scale, that is about 5.6 times the $910,000 gross value of a Pink Diamond primary target, or roughly 6.3 runs once the 12% in fees comes off. And if money is tight, stopping at $2,200,000 costs you nothing but convenience.

GTA Online money services

The Kosatka is $2,200,000 before modules and $9,085,000 with all of them. These are the platforms we run GTA Online money on.

GTA V Money - PC (Enhanced)GTA$ for PC (Enhanced), against the $2,200,000 base price of the Kosatka.From $15.90View offer GTA V Money - PS5GTA$ for PS5, against the $9,085,000 cost of a fully upgraded Kosatka.From $79.90View offer GTA V Money - Xbox Series X/SGTA$ for Xbox Series X/S, for the modules bought after the first heist run.From $79.90View offer

Frequently asked questions

How much does the Kosatka cost in GTA Online?

$2,200,000 for the base submarine from Warstock Cache & Carry, rising to $9,085,000 with every module and a non-default colour scheme fitted.

Do I need the Kosatka for Cayo Perico?

Yes. The heist directs you to buy one as your base of operations, and the planning screen is inside it. There is no other way to start the heist.

Which Kosatka upgrades are worth buying?

None are required — the base sub runs the heist. The Sparrow at $1,815,000 is the one that changes your routine, and the Weapon Workshop at $350,000 is worth it only if you use Mk II weapons. The Sonar Station and Guided Missiles are not used by the heist at all.

Is the Sparrow worth $1,815,000?

For anyone running Cayo Perico repeatedly, it is the module with the clearest payback: it stores on the sub, comes with it when you summon or fast travel, and prep missions are spread across the map. It cannot be reached while the Kosatka is submerged on autopilot.

Does the Kosatka cost anything to keep?

Yes — $150 in staff and utility fees, charged per in-game day while you are online. For comparison, a Facility costs $500 a day plus a $50 garage mechanic fee.

How much is Kosatka fast travel?

$10,000 per trip, or $2,000 once you have completed the Cayo Perico Heist as the leader.

Can I buy the Kosatka upgrades later?

Yes. Modules are bought through Warstock and can be added after the initial purchase, which is why running the heist first and paying for upgrades out of the proceeds works.

Sources and update history

• GTA Wiki, Kosatka — the $2,200,000 base price and $9,085,000 maximum, every module price, the $75,000 colour and $25,000 flag change costs, the $150 daily fee, the $10,000 and $2,000 fast-travel costs, the moon pool and Sparrow lift description, the Weapon Workshop replacing the brig cell, the Sonar Station and Guided Missile behaviour including the 4,000-metre range, one-minute cooldown, 225 km/h top speed and water detonation, and the Avisa bay restriction. Checked September 23, 2026
• GTA Wiki, Facilities — the Facility daily fee of $500 plus a $50 Garage Mechanic fee, used only for the running-cost comparison. Checked September 23, 2026
• GTA Wiki, The Cayo Perico Heist — Rockstar directing players to buy a Kosatka as a base of operations, the first-playthrough fee and fencing waiver, the $100,000 set-up fee on later runs, and the two-player keycard restriction on the compound storage rooms. Checked September 23, 2026
• Our own Cayo Perico payouts guide for the target values, the 12% in fees and the cooldown figures quoted here

A note on the price figures: the five module prices listed on the GTA Wiki total $6,810,000, which with the $2,200,000 base comes to $9,010,000, and adding the $75,000 colour change reaches exactly the $9,085,000 maximum the same page states. That the parts reconcile with the stated total is why we are confident in the breakdown, but these remain community-documented numbers — Rockstar does not publish them.

Update history: Published September 23, 2026. Facts last checked September 23, 2026 against the sources above.