GTA Online: How to Get a Solo Public Session

Grinding your businesses safe from griefers is second nature for any GTA Online veteran. Good news: since 2022, a simple Invite Only session is all you need to sell in peace. And for content that still demands a public session, there’s a reliable trick on PC and a network tweak on console. Here’s everything, without ever risking a ban.

Why an empty session changes everything

Grand Theft Auto Online doesn’t run on dedicated servers: each public session links up to 30 players peer-to-peer, with one of them acting as host. That web-like setup is also its Achilles’ heel. The moment a rival takes off on an Oppressor Mk II, your cargo delivery goes up in smoke and half an hour of business grinding vanishes. For years, Rockstar forced sell missions into public sessions precisely to make you take that risk. Hence the legend of the empty public session: all the money, none of the danger.

The real fix in 2026: an Invite Only session

This is the part plenty of players still don’t know. The Criminal Enterprises update, released on July 26, 2022, lifted the old restriction: resupply and sell missions, once confined to public lobbies, can now be launched in Invite Only, Friends or Crew sessions. You can also register as a CEO, VIP or MC President in these private sessions. In practice, the vast majority of the grind (Bunker, CEO warehouses, MC businesses, Agency, Nightclub) can be done solo, without touching your network settings.

Here’s how: pause menu, Online tab, “Play GTA Online,” then “Invite Only Session.” You become the host of a lobby nobody can join without an invite. It’s sanctioned by Rockstar, so there’s zero risk. The only edge public sessions still have: a higher high-demand bonus on sales, your reward for taking the risk. That bonus scales with the number of players in the lobby, so a truly empty lobby barely benefits from it anyway.

On PC: suspend the process, the reliable method

When you genuinely need a public session (for a freemode event or the high-demand bonus), the cleanest trick on PC doesn’t require any software:

1. Open Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc) and go to the Performance tab.
2. Click “Open Resource Monitor” at the bottom of the window.
3. Find GTA5.exe in the list, right-click it and choose “Suspend Process.”
4. Wait about 10 seconds.
5. Right-click again, choose “Resume Process,” then head back into the game.

Why it works: by freezing the client, your machine stops responding to the other players. In a peer-to-peer setup, they drop you after a timeout and the game puts you in a fresh session with you as host. An alternative for tinkerers: create a temporary Windows Firewall rule that blocks port 6672, the one used for session traffic. None of this installs or modifies anything in the game.

On PS5 and Xbox: the MTU trick and its limits

On PS5, the well-known route goes through the MTU: Settings, Network, Set Up Internet Connection, select your connection then Advanced Settings, switch MTU to manual and enter 800, save and launch GTA Online. You’ll often start in a nearly deserted lobby. On Xbox, most of the tricks (MTU at the router level, plugging in the Ethernet cable mid-load) are patched or hit-or-miss these days. On every platform, the old brute-force method still works: unplug your router’s network cable for about ten seconds, then plug it back in. Either way, be ready: other players will eventually join.

Recap: which session to pick

Is it risky? What BattlEye actually looks for

No, not for the methods described here: none of them modify the game. That distinction matters since Rockstar added BattlEye anti-cheat to GTA Online on PC (September 2024, for the game’s 11th anniversary), carried over to the modern GTA V Enhanced version released in March 2025. BattlEye hunts for code injection and mod menus, not a process paused by Windows or a port closed in the firewall. The only players playing with fire are the ones using mod menus or third-party tools hooked into the game: they’re the ones exposed to ban waves. Process suspension, on the other hand, has never led to a penalty, which is also why it survives every update.

What about GTA 6?

Rockstar hasn’t detailed the future of online play with GTA 6 yet. The big unknown: will that multiplayer stay peer-to-peer, or move to a server infrastructure that would make these tricks obsolete and griefing harder? In the meantime, if you’re already planning your move, know that your solo-session habits aren’t done paying off. For everything else, our rundown of the Grand Theft Auto VI release date keeps track of everything official.