The 56 best GTA 5 mods

What are the best GTA 5 mods? There’s no need to trundle through mod databases for dodgy links and unclear mod descriptions as we’ve done the legwork for you, hunting down the most popular GTA 5 mods for your enjoyment.

After a decade as one of the best PC games, the Grand Theft Auto 5 mod scene is more than just a few cheats and trainers – it’s rife with incredible additions, useful tweaks, and big transformations. GTA 5 mods are guaranteed to keep you entertained during the long wait for the GTA 6 release date, but there’s almost too many to choose from. If you’re stuck on which ones to install, take your pick from our list of the best mods, scripts, and addons for Rockstar’s landmark sandbox game.

Here are the best GTA 5 mods:

Shootdodge

It doesn’t look like there’s going to be a new Max Payne any time soon, so if you want to relive the glory days of leaping directly into your enemies at full speed, mbahdokek’s Shootdodge: The Sequel mod is here to save the day. Based on Shootdodge’s original mod, mbahdokek has updated and expanded it with new features, including a bullet meter HUD element like in Max Payne, new sound effects, and support for the duel wield mod.

Scene Director

One of GTA 5’s most underrated features has to be Director Mode, Rockstar’s in-game video maker that lets you create your own movies. We’ve seen some impressive creations come out of this mode already, but if you’ve ever wondered how some of the biggest creators can do things you can’t, it might be because they’re using elsewhat’s Scene Director mod. This mod massively improves on Director Mode by giving you a new set of tools to create the scene you’re after. Couple this with the Updated Animations List mod by Nerax to give yourself a host of new effects to work with.

Real California Architecture

Add another layer of immersion to GTA 5 with the Real California Architecture mod by _Vlad_(Desmond98), bringing real life signs and logos to Los Santos. We all know Rockstar was definitely inspired by California when building Los Santos, so it’s no surprise that certain buildings and locations look like 1:1 recreations when you slap their original signage back on.

Cruise past your local FedEx office, take a walk through Griffith Park, and enjoy a trip to the Santa Monica pier Even the iconic Hollywood sign has been added to the game, giving you the perfect backdrop as you fly around the city in your helicopter.

John Cena

Your eyes aren’t deceiving you, while some say you can’t see him, we’ve managed to capture him perfectly in GTA 5. That’s right, you can play as the legendary John Cena, known best for his roles in F9 as the brother of Dominic Toretto, and as Peacemaker in The Suicide Squad. Sadly, there aren’t any voice likes for Mr. Cena, so you’re going to have to fill in the blanks when you’re punching up pedestrians on the sidewalk, something John would likely never do.

Cybertruck

Jealous about the Fortnite collaboration between Telsa and Epic Games? Well, now you can drive the Cybertruck around Los Santos. It’s all thanks to VVS797, the modder responsible for the Cybertruck mod in GTA 5. It’s not just the vehicle’s futuristic exterior that has been recreated, it’s also the interior, complete with the weird steering yoke that makes driving difficult.

White LED Streetlights

Lighting plays a large role in the way things are presented, and while it may easy to understand how this works in real life, it’s slightly more difficult to explain in a virtual space. GTA 5 modder Venkeyy has utilized High Dynamic Spot-Range Lights (HDSRL) technology to replace the stock streetlights in Los Santos with high-quality white LEDs. This drastically changes the look of GTA 5, especially at night when you’re cruising around the city in a shiny car. You’re going to need a powerful computer to run this mod, but the result is more than worth it, as it adds a layer of realism to the game.

Hair Pack

When it comes to Black representation, an area many developers seem to get wrong is hairstyles. Black people know that most of the time, players have access to cornrows, an afro, and the ‘Killmonger’. The Mega Hair Pack mod adds ten Black hairstyles to the multiplayer game, giving players considerably more options to customize their character. These hairstyles are exclusive to the male character preset in multiplayer, so you won’t be able to use them on Franklin in the story mode.

Single Player Heists

This is going to sound sad, but in our personal experience, we’ve found that the hardest part of heists is bringing together a squad of real-life mates to play GTA V. Luckily, there’s another way to play through these missions without having to rely on numerous people. Single Player Heists is still in beta right now, but there’s still so much content to get through, including 18 full heists. There are some bugs to deal with; however, it’s worth trying out if you want to experience the thrill of a heist on your own.

Online Vehicles in Single Player

If you don’t want to mess around in GTA Online, but do want to drive around in the fanciest cars, the Online Vehicles in Single Player mod is for you. This mod brings all the GTA Online mods of transportation and adds them to the regular single-player traffic, so you can hop in whatever you like a claim it for yourself – just don’t get caught doing it.

Realistic Guns Sounds

Are you a little underwhelmed by the gunplay in GTA 5? The Realistic Guns Sounds mod takes audio from Call of Duty Modern Warfare, Battlefield, and other military FPS games to add an extra kick to your favorite guns. These sound effects comprise weapon fire as well as reloads, shell casing, melee attacks, and even weapon handling, to create a more immersive experience that’s perfect for military heads. It even comes with improved muzzle flash textures for that final dash of authenticity.

Just Cause 2 Eject + Parachute Thrusters

GTA 5 is a giant sandbox full of ridiculous possibilities and plenty of mayhem, so it stands to reason that a Just Cause 2 mod would complement it perfectly. The Just Cause 2 Eject + Parachute Thrusters mod introduces Rico Rodriguez’s signature grappling hook and parachute, as well as the ability to eject out of your turbo-charged supercar at high speeds and take in the explosive havoc it wreaks in your wake.

Prison

The GTA 5 Prison Mod takes getting busted to a whole new level. Instead of the standard ‘game over’ screen, you’re shipped off to Bolingbroke Penitentiary State Prison, where an orange jumpsuit is waiting for you. You can bail yourself out at any time, or you can make a daring escape by starting a riot between the prisoners and guards as a distraction. Serving your sentence quietly would be far too dull.

Mayhem / Carmageddon

The Mayhem / Carmageddon mod delivers the chaotic vehicular combat from our favorite retro driving game, infecting the motorists of San Andreas with a serious case of road rage. With this mod enabled, you can expect copious explosions, cars flipping through the air, and a lot of public property damage in your near future. We also highly recommend pairing this mod with GTA5 cheats that grant invincibility to you and your vehicle – creator EnabledHD assures us that we “won’t last a minute without it.”

Mobile Radio

We love the GTA radio, so much so that it can be hard to tear ourselves away from the driver’s seat when our favorite song comes on. Thankfully, with the Mobile Radio mod enabled, you can take the tunes with you on the go. It’s a simple mod, but it does make all the difference.

GTA Vice Cry: Remastered – GTA Vice City

Vice Cry: Remastered brings Vice City into the modern era with a complete remaster of the Vice City map from Lunchxbles. Take this remaster mod a step further  Tommy Vercetti with a separate mod to take a step back into the neon dashed waterfront that captures 80s Florida so well.

Open All Interiors

GTA 5’s Los Santos may be huge, but there are still plenty of closed-off areas. Frequently you’ll see huge tourist attractions that look like they’d be explorable, only to walk up and find the doors permanently locked. The GTA Open All Interiors mod opens up many previously locked buildings just for a little added authenticity.

GTA 5 Redux

While GTA 5 Redux beautifully upgrades the streets of Los Santos with new weather, skies, and many lush 4K textures, this mod is more than just a visual overhaul. GTA 5 Redux also includes tweaks to vehicle handling, a reconfigured police system, and an improved weapon feel to make the gameplay feel more refined after all these years.

GTA V Remastered: Enhanced

While GTA V still looks great, it’s still a ten-year-old game. GTA V Remastered: Enhanced brings photorealistic textures and thousands of new props to Los Santos and its surrounding areas. There are different versions to pick from, depending on whether you’re looking to modify your single-player experience or create your own multiplayer server, so be sure to grab the right one.

Character Menu

If you’d rather keep your roleplaying experience confined to single-player, you can run around the world wreaking havoc as an NPC instead. Character Menu allows you to turn into any NPC in the game – even animals! There are over 500 to choose from, with 350 being further customizable.

World of Variety

The vanilla story world can get quite boring once you’ve spent a few hundred hours in it. World of Variety adds vehicles and assets from GTA Online into single-player GTA 5 to make the world look and feel more alive and varied. The Gangs of Los Santos and Lively Bahama Mamas mods are integrated too.

Crime and Police Rebalance & Enhancement

You’ve only got to accidentally clip a cyclist with your wing mirror in GTA 5, and suddenly the cops are chasing you down. No dialing 911, no getting away with a caution. It’s jail time for you, and you’ll be filled with bullets before the cuffs go on. Some would argue that this is a realistic depiction of US policing, but it isn’t fair gameplay.

The Crime and Police Rebalance & Enhancement mod adjusts the detection system – an NPC has to report your crime first, and you can prevent them from calling it in. Enemy firearm accuracy scales with speed, so in a car chase, they won’t be hitting you with pinpoint precision. Silencers are more effective too, allowing you to use stealth much more effectively. Your wanted level is also more logical; getting a single star won’t result in the entire LSPD hunting you down.

Native Trainer

Technically a cheat more than a mod, Native Trainer delves deep into the source code of GTA 5 to allow you to turn on and off various exciting settings. Fancy enjoying a little low gravity? Turn it on from an in-game menu and easily bunny-hop down the Vinewood hills with little danger to your health. You can also swap out character models and become a cat for the day. Native Trainer comes lumped in with most Script Hook V downloads, so chances are you already have the file.

Expanded Field Of View

When playing the game in first-person, GTA 5’s field of view can feel a little restrictive. There’s a slider in the camera settings menu that allows you to alter it, but the highest setting is a measly 55 degrees. The GTA 5 Expanded Field of View mod remedies this oversight, allowing you to set your FOV to any value you fancy. You need to edit the fov.txt file to do so, but with a little fiddling, you’ll be able to see Los Santos more clearly.

Pull Me Over and Better Chases+

As we’ve mentioned previously, the way policing in GTA 5 is handled is hardly realistic. So long as you don’t crash into any vehicles, you can drive at max speed in the wrong lane on the highway and get away with it. With the Pull Me Over mod, patrolling cop cars will attempt to pull you over and give you a ticket for speeding, running a red light, driving against traffic, and many more.

The Better Chases+ mod takes this one step further, introducing arrest warrants that come into effect should you evade capture by the police, and granting LCPD far more responses based on your criminal actions. Traffic violations won’t be tricky to dodge, but hitting a pedestrian will stir up quite the chase.

Gang and Turf

One of the best features in GTA San Andreas was the turf war system that allowed Grove Street Families to steadily take over all of Los Santos. The Gang and Turf mod brings this system to GTA 5. You’ll be able to control a gang with a name and members of your choice, fighting other gangs for complete control of the city.

LSPD First Response

Ever wanted to play for the other team? LSPD First Response transforms GTA V into one of the best police games out there. To get started, head to a police station and create a character before heading out onto the mean streets and responding to robberies, dynamic crime events, and car chases. Find out what it’s like to be on the other end of a police chase!

ATM Robberies & Bank Heists

Satisfy your criminal cravings with ATM Robberies & Bank Heists, perfect for that handy injection of funds when your bank balance gets a little low. This mod lets you steal cash from any of 47 ATMs or 10 banks, but you’ll need to escape to a safe house to secure your haul.

Complex Control

Inspired by the best battle royale games, the Complex Control mod overhauls GTA 5 gameplay by putting you in the shoes of a procedurally generated avatar equipped with several special abilities who must battle against NPCs in an ever-shrinking map. By also incorporating rogue-lite elements to keep things interesting, Complex Control is an incredibly fun and challenging addition to the game.

Basic Needs

This mod adds another layer of realism to GTA 5, assuming that’s what you’re after. Turn GTA 5 into a survival game by adding some Basic Needs. Having fun is only as important as eating and sleeping, so keep filling your face and napping.

The Red House

GTA 5 isn’t exactly short of missions, but you’ll run out eventually. Thankfully modders are here to keep you well-stocked. The Red House mod adds more than 20 new missions, including assassinations and gang clean-outs to the game, plus a new heist.

GTA v 100% Save

You’ve probably finished GTA V numerous times throughout the years, whether that was when it originally launched on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, or years down the line when it dropped on the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. If you own a copy of the game on PC, you’re in luck as you don’t need to spend ages playing through the game again. Instead, download this save game and you should have 100% progress across Michael, Franklin, and Trevor’s story.

GTA RPG

With its heavy story and huge world, GTA 5 is almost an RPG. Don’t settle for almost, though; swap genres entirely with the GTA RPG mod. It adds a questing system to the game, a character creator, and even branching dialogue trees. Forget about making big bucks, earn big XP instead.

GTA 5 enhanced train driver

All aboard! The GTA 5 enhanced train driver mod allows you to hop inside the cabin and take control of the infamous GTA 5 train. Speed up, slow down. Stop. Go. All of the main train driving options are available to you.

Travel to North Yankton

Want to revisit the Fargo-like area of North Yankton featured in GTA 5’s prologue? The game doesn’t provide you with access to this area once you’ve advanced past that first mission and wound up in Los Santos. Fortunately, the Travel to North Yankton mod allows you to fly in via Los Santos Airport, and even pick up and throw snowballs. Festive!

The Army Spawns At Five Stars

In older Grand Theft Auto games, the armed forces would arrive to take you down if your murderous rampage went on too long and reached a five-star wanted level. GTA 5 ditched this feature, but the Army Spawns at Five Stars mod puts it back in place. Get five-star notoriety, and you’ll be pursued by the nation’s finest. The mod’s pragmatic title sounds weirdly poetic too.

Fuel Script V

To add more realism to your urban sandbox, why not make vehicles burn fuel? The Fuel Script V mod adds tons of features, including a fuel bar above the minimap and a working interior fuel gauge. Ensure you’re fuelled up before engaging in a wild chase because running dry with six cops ramming into your tail end won’t end well.

Trucking Missions

One of the most beloved PC-exclusive games is Euro Truck Simulator, proving we somehow adore doing mundane tasks in games for zero pay. The Trucking Missions mod brings the joy of Euro Truck to Los Santos and the surrounding area. It’s a far more dangerous world than the motorways of Europe, that’s for sure.

Better Deformation + More Durable Cars

Because no one in GTA 5 can drive properly, you can spend quite a lot of time involved in car crashes. They’re never quite as spectacular as they could be, though. The Better Deformation + More Durable Cars mod makes car destruction an art form and encourages you to make a mess of your vehicles.

NaturalVision Remastered

The goal for NaturalVision Remastered (or NVR for short) is to make GTA 5 look visually similar to Southern California. The mod creators have carried out extensive research on both Los Santos and Los Angeles, spending more than 4,000 hours so far on the mod.

Intensity ENB

If you’re sick of muted colors or gritty realism, the Intensity ENB is for you. Rather than upscaling the game with the highest resolution textures and shaders possible, Intensity ENB ups the vibrancy with intense god rays and a bright color scheme. Maybe grab some sunglasses before installing this mod – watch out for those shiny reflections.

Real California Architecture

It’s all well and good making GTA 5 look as close to real-life California as possible, but the architecture in-game is still pretty gamified. Real California Architecture aims to replicate buildings from the real world in-game, from One California Plaza to the iconic Hollywood sign.

R*enhancer Photorealism

GTA 4’s champion mod was Icenhancer, a graphical mod that made Liberty City look genuinely real. If you’re looking for a similar effect in GTA 5, R*enhancer Photorealism is the way to go. It’s a lighting overhaul that adjusts atmospheric effects and works wonders on car reflections.

SweetFX GTA graphics enhancer

Not strictly a custom GTA 5 mod, SweetFX is a graphics post-processing injector that adds various fancy visual effects to games. It can be used on pretty much anything, but tests on GTA 5 reveal that it runs pretty much perfectly. The enhanced look removes the washed-out feel the game can sometimes have, providing bolder and deeper colors.

Zombies

Everyone else is making zombie games, so why not GTA? The GTA Zombies mod allows you to fill the streets of Los Santos with crowds of the walking dead for round-based survival. Fend off each successive wave of corpses for bigger and better rewards.

Spider-Man V

What’s the point in having a realistic city sandbox if you can’t roleplay as the world’s favorite web shooter? The Spider-Man V mod allows you to swing from buildings, use webs to zip forward, and crawl along walls. Amazing.

Gravity Gun

It’s a well-known fact that if a third-person game exists on Steam, there legally has to be a gravity gun mod for it. We don’t make the rules. The Gravity Gun mod allows you to aim with the game’s stun gun to make objects hover in the air, or blast through the skies.

The Simpsons Springfield Police Pack

Police are often associated with fear and keeping order in various unruly towns and cities, but it doesn’t have to be that way. The Simpsons Springfield Police Pack replaces the fuzz’s various vintage cars and substitutes vehicles you’ll recognize from Springfield. There’s no sign of Chief Wiggum though, sadly.

Vehicles Jetpack

It’s 2020, and we still don’t have flying cars. It’s a problem in the real world but not in Los Santos where, with the help of the Vehicles Jetpack mod, you can stick jetpacks on cars. Ignore traffic queues and get there on time.

Iron Man Mark V

There’s no reason to trundle around Los Santos in a car when you could strap on some exoskeleton armor and blast off into the skies. That’s exactly what you can do with the Iron Man Mark V mod. You’ll also need the GTA 5 Iron Man Script, but as a bonus, you’ll also be able to check out the mini Hulkbuster Armour.

Funny Vehicles

No one wants to drive normal cars, even if it’s the fastest car in GTA 5. Instead, we want to drive a DeLorean DMC-12 time machine or the Batmobile, or even fly a Tie Fighter. Install the Funny Vehicles mod and you can drive all these cars and more in GTA 5.

Nice Fly

Sick of having to track down one of those pesky jets or helicopters to take to the skies? The Nice Fly mod allows you to take off anywhere, equipping you with a parachute for when you want to land back on solid ground.

No Water + Tsunami + Atlantis

The amount of effort Rockstar put into designing Los Santos’s seabed is inversely proportional to the effort modders put into naming mods. That said, the No Water + Tsunami + Atlantis mod allows you to edit the game’s sea level to drain the oceans or flood the city, turning it into either Mad Max or Waterworld.

Fortnite Emotes

The Fortnite Emote mod lets you perform all of your favorite animations in Epic Games’ battle royale game, from Take the L to Doze Dab. It even includes some emotes exclusive to collabs, such as the Attack on Titan run emotes and the Wakandan salute. Mod creator Victorch4 explains that this is made possible by retargeting animations from the Fortnite skeleton to the GTA 5 skeleton, ensuring a near-identical likeness.

GTA 5 Pedestrian Riot

Harkening back to the old days of GTA 3’s cheat codes, the Pedestrian Riot mod causes all civilians to be aggressive towards you and one another. It also arms them with random weapons, resulting in all kinds of unpredictable madness. Try climbing to a safe vantage point and watching as the city tears itself apart.

Ragdoll/Limp On Demand

Television, that antiquated thing where you passively observe other people doing things, has made so much money from people falling over. Bring the hilarity of candid camera to GTA 5 with the Ragdoll on Demand mod, giving you the ability to trigger the feature whenever you want. It even works in cutscenes, meaning you can add a touch of fun to even the most serious gangster business talks.

Hulk Script

If you fancy yourself a bit more meaner and greener than everyone’s favorite genius billionaire playboy philanthropist, then Hulk script mod is the one for you. This mod puts you in the ripped purple pants of the big guy himself, imbuing you with all the super strength required to Hulk Smash your way through San Andreas. As Hulk, you can grab helicopters right out of the sky, scale buildings, and even use a lamppost as a baseball bat. We hope the city has insurance.

How do I install GTA 5 mods?

Installing GTA 5 mods is simple. Download the mod files and copy them into the main GTA 5 folder. If you’re using the Steam version of the game, the directory should look something like this:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Grand Theft Auto V

If you’re not using the Steam version, you’ll need to find the main game folder with the GTAV.exe file.

Some of the more complex mods require the installation of additional tools, such as Script Hook V. We’ve got information on how to install some of the more essential tools further down the page. Installation guides for any additional tools, and occasionally full installers, are available on mod download pages.

These advanced mods aren’t all guaranteed to work harmoniously together – by all means, don’t be afraid to give it a shot, but you’ve got the best chance of a successful mod installation when working with the vanilla game as a base.

Are GTA 5 mods safe to install and use?

As with any online game, activating mods comes with a risk. Rockstar has stated that PC single-player mods are allowed, and the company has an agreement with Take-Two Interactive not to take legal action against anyone using mods that are strictly single-player, non-commercial, and respect the intellectual property rights of third parties.

Many of these mods use ‘memory hooks’ to enable them to tinker with the fundamentals of GTA 5, and if you try to play GTA Online with them installed, you’ll be swiftly banned on suspicion of cheating. We recommend keeping a separate installation if you want to switch between GTA Online and a modded GTA 5 single-player experience frequently, and it’s always a good idea to back up your game files before making changes.

GTA 5 Script Hook V and how to install it

Since many of the biggest and most popular GTA 5 mods run scripts, Script Hook V is needed for most of the more complex mods you’ll be downloading. It’s an essential tool if you’re getting serious about modding GTA 5, so it’s important to know how to get it working.

You can download Script Hook V here, but links to the download go down all the time, so you might have to find a mirror or new link if the site doesn’t work.

To install the mod:

• Download the ScriptHookV.dll file from your chosen website (be extra careful not to click any malicious links or ads).
• Open the game’s main folder and paste into ScriptHookV.dll. This will be wherever GTA5.exe is located.
• You’ll also need to have an ASI loader installed, which you can download separately, or use the one that comes with most downloads of Script Hook V. To install, paste dsound.dll into the game’s main folder.

Most downloads also come with ‘Native Trainer’. You don’t need this file, but it allows for easy activation of many GTA 5 cheats. To install, copy NativeTrainer.asi into the main game folder.

GTA 5 Community Script Hook V .Net and how to install it

A few mods require both the default version of Script Hook V and a different version that allows scripts in .NET language.

Installing this is slightly trickier than Script Hook V, so here are the steps to follow:

• Check if you have Microsoft .NET Framework 4.8 installed (you can skip this step if you have Windows 10 or higher).
• Check if you have Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Package for Visual Studio 2019 (x64) installed.
• Install Script Hook V if you haven’t already.
• Download Community Script Hook V (again, watch for malicious links or ads)
• Copy ScriptHookVDotNet.asi, ScriptHookVDotNet2.dll, and ScriptHookVDotNet3.dll into your main game folder.

GTA 5 LUA plugin and how to install it

A few mods also require the LUA plugin, so depending on which you’re looking to install, it might be best to do this additional bit of housekeeping.

To install:

• Download the LUA plugin (once again, be careful to click the right links).
• Copy both the ‘scripts’ folder and the LUSA_SDK.asi file into your GTA 5 game directory.
• For any mods that use .lua files, drop the files into the ‘addins’ folder inside the ‘scripts’ folder.

There may already be a few .lua files in the ‘addins’ folder when you download it. If you don’t need these it’s safe to delete them.

How to install GTA OpenIV tool

It can get pretty tricky to keep track of all these mods, and chances are you’ll run into a technical error or two along the way. If you want to make your life a little easier, or If making mods is more your thing, get your hands on OpenIV.

OpenIV was the toolset used to access and edit the game files of GTA 4 and Max Payne 3, but clever PC gamers have managed to get the program to unpack GTA 5. The latest version – OpenIV 4.0 – also supports Red Dead Redemption 2. Ultimately, OpenIV is a multi-purpose editor and archive manager, and several mods run far better on OpenIV than independently.

Now that you have the best GTA 5 mods installed, give them a bit of extra flavor by activating the best GTA 5 cheats and codes. Alternatively, if you’re looking to spice things up in multiplayer, head over to our GTA RP server guide, apply to join a roleplay server as an NPC, and live out your dreams of roaming the streets as a vigilante grandma… or whatever.