The Kosatka Is a GTA$2,200,000 Submarine Built Around One Job
The Kosatka is a player-owned submarine that arrived with The Cayo Perico Heist on December 15, 2020. Its base price is GTA$2,200,000 from Warstock Cache & Carry, and buying absolutely everything for it brings the total to GTA$9,085,000.
Its main job has never changed: the Kosatka is the planning base and launch point for The Cayo Perico Heist, the most repeatable money-maker in GTA Online. Everything else it does — the Sparrow helicopter, the sonar treasure hunts, the guided missiles — is built around that role.
This guide covers what the submarine is for, how to buy it, what every upgrade costs, and the order veterans buy them in. Prices are the standard Warstock list prices as of November 2026; the sub and its upgrades do go on discount in some weekly events.
Key Takeaways
- The base Kosatka costs GTA$2,200,000 and unlocks after you meet Miguel Madrazo at The Music Locker, beneath The Diamond Casino.
- The base submarine is enough to run The Cayo Perico Heist. Every upgrade is optional.
- Upgrades: Sonar Station GTA$1,200,000, Guided Missiles GTA$1,900,000, Weapon Workshop GTA$350,000, and Moon Pool vehicles totalling GTA$3,360,000.
- Buy the Sparrow helicopter first (GTA$1,815,000). It transforms how fast heist prep moves.
- Fully loaded, a Kosatka costs GTA$9,085,000 in total — buy in stages, letting heist earnings pay for the later upgrades.
1. How to Unlock and Buy the Kosatka
The submarine is not on sale to a brand-new character immediately. First, visit The Music Locker — the nightclub underneath The Diamond Casino & Resort — and meet Miguel Madrazo, whose cutscene unlocks the Kosatka on Warstock Cache & Carry.
Buy it from the Warstock website like any military vehicle. A colour change costs GTA$75,000 and the flag change is free; everything else is an upgrade covered below, and all of it can be added later from the same site.
Once owned, request the Kosatka through the Services menu in the Interaction Menu and it surfaces near your position. It doubles as a spawn point and a fast-travel hub, and carries only a small GTA$150 daily utility fee.
2. What the Base Submarine Already Includes
The GTA$2,200,000 base model is a complete heist headquarters. On board you get the planning room where The Cayo Perico Heist is scoped and launched, the bridge with its periscope and torpedo tubes, and the Moon Pool bay ready to receive vehicles.
The periscope is more than decoration: it is used to survey targets, and the torpedoes give the sub a basic defence of its own. Guided missiles, despite sounding standard, are a paid upgrade — see the next part.
You can also simply sail the thing. Piloting the Kosatka yourself, surfacing off the coast or diving to cruise the ocean floor, turns it into the game's largest drivable vehicle — and berthing aboard as your spawn point makes it a genuine second home rather than a menu with a hull.
Crucially, nothing about the heist itself is locked behind upgrades. A stock Kosatka scoping a first run plays exactly the same finale as a fully loaded one; the upgrades buy speed and side income, not access.
3. Every Upgrade and Its Price
Sonar Station — GTA$1,200,000. Adds the sonar used to detect the ten Hidden Caches scattered on the ocean floor each day, worth GTA$7,500 apiece, and to spot other submerged Kosatkas. It also works from the Moon Pool submersibles, not just the mother ship.
Guided Missiles — GTA$1,900,000. A missile station on the bridge firing remotely piloted missiles you steer to the target yourself, with roughly a one-minute cooldown between shots. Enormous fun, entirely optional — Rockstar even gave this upgrade free to GTA+ members during one 2023 event period, which tells you where it sits in the priority order.
Weapon Workshop — GTA$350,000. A bench for Mk II weapon conversions and special ammunition types, at the cheapest upgrade price on the list. If you are building out your best weapons loadout, having the bench where you spawn is quietly convenient.
Colour and flag — GTA$75,000 / free. Pure cosmetics, priced accordingly.
Add the Moon Pool vehicles from the next part and the full build totals GTA$9,085,000 including the submarine itself.
4. The Moon Pool Vehicles
The Moon Pool is the flooded bay in the sub's belly, and its two vehicles are sold as a GTA$3,360,000 bundle or separately.
Sparrow helicopter — GTA$1,815,000. A light, fast helicopter stored inside the sub and requestable through the Interaction Menu wherever you are. It takes optional homing missiles for a further GTA$240,000, and it is the single most recommended upgrade in this guide.
Kraken Avisa — GTA$1,545,000. A small submersible for underwater work: exploring wrecks, reaching the Hidden Caches the sonar finds, and slipping around beneath the waves. Charming, specialised, and slow.
The Moon Pool also stores other eligible personal vehicles — the Pegassi Toreador and the Ocelot Stromberg can be kept aboard — turning the Kosatka into a mobile base for amphibious cars as well.
5. What to Buy First: The Sensible Order
Buy the Sparrow before anything else. Cayo Perico prep means crossing the map repeatedly, and a helicopter that spawns next to you — and respawns about two minutes after being destroyed — cuts every prep run down to minutes. Most grinders consider the sub-plus-Sparrow package, at just over GTA$4 million, the real product.
Second, the Weapon Workshop earns its modest GTA$350,000 by simply being where you already are. Third, the Sonar Station pays a slow dividend: ten caches a day at GTA$7,500 each is GTA$75,000 of daily treasure, tracked alongside the game's other rotating collectibles and daily pickups.
Last come the Guided Missiles and the Avisa — the luxury tier. Buy them when heist profits have made GTA$1.9 million feel small, not before.
In budget terms, the sensible build is the base submarine plus the Sparrow and the Weapon Workshop: GTA$4,365,000 all-in. Everything beyond that is the sub paying for its own toys out of heist earnings, which is exactly how the purchase is meant to feel.
6. The Kosatka and The Cayo Perico Heist
Everything about the purchase case rests on the heist. The Kosatka's planning screen runs the full Cayo Perico operation: scope the island, complete the prep missions, then launch the finale solo or with up to three other players.
Your first run carries no setup fee; afterwards, each new run costs a GTA$100,000 setup fee at the planning screen. A cooldown applies between finales — at the time of writing, 144 minutes for solo players and 48 minutes with a crew — which is why most grinders alternate Cayo runs with other income rather than chaining them back to back. Target values have been rebalanced over the years — most recently in the July 2026 update — so the current numbers live in our full guide to The Cayo Perico Heist, which covers approaches, targets and the drainage tunnel route in detail.
For context on where its payout sits against the Casino, Doomsday and the newer heists, our heist payouts comparison keeps the whole table in one place.
7. Is the Kosatka Still Worth It in 2026?
Yes — with one honest caveat. The Kosatka remains the entry ticket to the most reliable solo income loop in the game, and its base price is typically recovered within your first few completed Cayo Perico runs.
The caveat is that the heist's target values are not what they were in 2021, after several rounds of rebalancing. The Kosatka is no longer a licence to print money at the old rate; it is a dependable earner that still anchors most solo money-making routines.
It also has no real rival for the role. No other single purchase in the game unlocks a full heist, a helicopter berth, a weapon bench and a daily treasure hunt at once — which is why "buy a Kosatka" remains the standard advice given to any player asking what to save for first.
Buy the base sub, add the Sparrow, and let the heist itself fund everything else on the upgrade list. That sequence, unchanged since 2020, is still the correct one.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does the Kosatka cost in GTA Online?
The base submarine costs GTA$2,200,000. Buying every upgrade and both Moon Pool vehicles brings the total to GTA$9,085,000, including a GTA$75,000 colour change.
Where do I buy the Kosatka?
From the Warstock Cache & Carry website, after visiting The Music Locker beneath The Diamond Casino and meeting Miguel Madrazo. The meeting unlocks the listing.
Do I need any upgrades to run The Cayo Perico Heist?
No. The base submarine includes the planning room and everything the heist requires. Upgrades add speed and side activities, not access.
What is the best Kosatka upgrade?
The Sparrow helicopter at GTA$1,815,000. It stores in the Moon Pool, can be requested almost anywhere, and dramatically speeds up heist prep travel. Add its homing missiles for GTA$240,000 if you want it armed.
What does the Sonar Station actually do?
It reveals the ten Hidden Caches hidden on the ocean floor each day, worth GTA$7,500 each — GTA$75,000 a day if you collect them all — and detects other submerged Kosatkas nearby.
Are the Guided Missiles worth GTA$1,900,000?
As entertainment, yes; as an investment, no. They are manually steered missiles fired from the bridge with about a one-minute cooldown. Buy them last, with profits, if at all.
Can other players come inside my Kosatka?
Yes. Members of your organisation or MC can board and use the sub's facilities, and the heist itself supports a crew of up to four launching from your planning room.
How do I get the Kosatka to come to me?
Open the Interaction Menu, choose Services, then request the Kosatka. It surfaces in the water near your position; you can also set it as a spawn point when logging in.
Can the Kosatka be destroyed?
It is one of the toughest vehicles in the game and shrugs off punishment that would end most vehicles, but sustained attack can sink it. If that happens, simply request it again through the Services menu.
How much does it cost to rerun The Cayo Perico Heist?
The first run has no setup fee. Each subsequent run costs a GTA$100,000 setup fee, paid at the Kosatka's planning screen when you start a new heist.
Wrapping Up
The Kosatka succeeds because it is honest about what it is: a GTA$2,200,000 key to the game's best solo heist, wearing a submarine costume.
Buy the base model, bolt on a Sparrow, and resist the GTA$9 million full build until the heist has paid for it several times over. Five years on, no purchase in GTA Online has a clearer job description — or does its job better.
