FiveM in 2026: what it is, how to play GTA V roleplay, what PC you need and how to set up your server

FiveM is the platform that lets you play GTA V on modified multiplayer servers: community-built roleplay cities with their own rules, jobs, cars and maps. It's free, runs only on PC and requires a legal copy of GTA V. Since August 2023 its team, Cfx.re, has been part of Rockstar Games, and in July 2026 it launched an early-access version for GTA V Enhanced. To play smoothly on big servers, what matters most is the processor and RAM, more than the graphics card.

Here's how to start playing, which PC suits each type of server, what you need to set up your own server and what we know (and don't know) about roleplay in GTA VI. All the information was checked as of 26 October 2026.

What FiveM is and who's behind it

FiveM is a multiplayer modification for the PC version of GTA V. It doesn't touch the game files: it's installed separately and connects to independent servers, and each server can add its own cars, maps, weapons, clothing and scripts, which players download when they join. According to its official website, it's built on the Cfx framework, which has existed in various forms since 2014, and it supports scripts in Lua, C# and JavaScript.

The most popular mode is roleplay (GTA RP): you play a character with a job, a home, a car and a bank account, in a city shared with other players who act as police officers, paramedics, mechanics or criminals. There are also racing, drifting and combat servers.

From banned mod to Rockstar platform

• 2015: Rockstar went as far as banning the FiveM team, accusing it of creating an unauthorised multiplayer service that facilitated piracy.

• 11 August 2023: Cfx.re, the team behind FiveM and RedM (its equivalent for Red Dead Redemption 2), announced that it was joining Rockstar Games.

• 10 April 2025: txAdmin, the most popular server management panel, was officially integrated into Cfx.re.

• 12 January 2026: the Cfx Marketplace opened, an official, curated store for scripts, maps and props, and a new licence agreement for creators came into force.

• 21 July 2026: FiveM for GTAV Enhanced arrived in early access, with reworked network sync. The classic version, now called Legacy, keeps running alongside it.

The official website, fivem.net, showed more than 120,000 players online while we were writing this article.

How to start playing on FiveM roleplay servers

1. Get GTA V for PC. You need a legal copy from Steam, the Epic Games Store or the Rockstar Games Launcher. FiveM Legacy uses GTA V Legacy and the new version uses GTA V Enhanced; if you buy GTA V on PC today, you get access to both editions.

2. Only download FiveM from its official website. It's free. The first time, it checks that you own the game and, if automatic validation fails, asks you to sign in with your Rockstar account. According to Cfx.re, playing FiveM won't get you banned from GTA Online, because it doesn't modify the game files.

3. Choose a server. In the client's server list you can filter by language and search for “roleplay”. A padlock next to the name means the server has an admission process (allowlist): filling in an application, joining its Discord or similar.

4. Read the rules and prepare your character. Serious servers ask you to stay in character, not to use information from outside the game and to respect other players. Almost all of them have a Discord with guides for new players.

5. Use a microphone. Roleplay is played by talking, and FiveM comes with proximity voice chat. A headset with a good mic makes all the difference; you'll find ideas in our 2026 gaming peripherals guide.

Your first connection to a big server takes a while: the client downloads its custom cars, maps and clothing. Those files stay in the cache and can take up several gigabytes. The Enhanced version debuts an installer that lets you store that cache on another drive and automatically deletes whatever servers no longer use.

What PC do you need for FiveM?

Official FiveM system requirements

These are the requirements Cfx.re publishes for each version:

• FiveM Legacy, minimum: Windows 10, Core 2 Quad Q6600 or Phenom 9850, 4 GB of RAM, a 1 GB graphics card (GeForce 9800 GT or Radeon HD 4870) and 125 GB of disk space plus 4 GB.

• FiveM Legacy, recommended: Windows 11, Core i5-3470 or FX-8350, 8 GB of RAM, a 2 GB GTX 660 or HD 7870 and 125 GB plus 8 GB.

• FiveM for GTAV Enhanced, minimum: Windows 10, Core i7-4770 or FX-9590, 8 GB of RAM, a 4 GB GTX 1630 or RX 6400 and 105 GB plus 4 GB.

• FiveM for GTAV Enhanced, recommended: Windows 11, Core i5-9600K or Ryzen 5 3600, 16 GB of dual-channel RAM, an 8 GB RTX 3060 or RX 6600 XT and 105 GB plus 8 GB.

Why big servers demand more

Those requirements are designed for the base game. In a roleplay city with one or two hundred players, your computer has to keep track of far more characters and vehicles than in a normal session, and each server loads its own cars, buildings (known as MLOs) and clothing. That's why, in FiveM, the bottleneck is usually the processor and the memory rather than the graphics card. Cfx.re hinted as much when it unveiled FiveM for GTAV Enhanced: its new sync promises players lower CPU usage and, potentially, more frames per second, “especially on the most populated servers”.

On top of that comes everything running at the same time: lots of people play with Discord open or while streaming on Twitch, and all of that eats into CPU and RAM.

Our recommendations for smooth play

These aren't official requirements, but what we consider sensible based on the above:

• Processor: six modern cores as a minimum and, for big servers, eight cores with strong per-core performance. Ryzen chips with 3D cache, such as the 7800X3D or the 9800X3D, tend to perform very well in CPU-bound games. You'll find options in our processors section.

• RAM: 16 GB in dual channel is the official starting point for Enhanced. For servers with lots of custom resources, or if you stream, we recommend 32 GB. Keep an eye on prices: in our 2026 components guide we explain how much DDR5 has gone up.

• Graphics card: 8 GB of video memory is enough to play, but custom cars and clothing fill it up quickly. Between 12 and 16 GB gives you headroom to play at 1440p.

• Storage: a 1 TB NVMe SSD as a minimum. The game takes up between 105 and 125 GB depending on the version, and the server cache keeps growing the more you play.

Three example builds

• Getting started (1080p, mid-sized servers): Ryzen 5 7600, 16 GB RTX 5060 Ti or RX 9060 XT, 32 GB of DDR5 (16 GB if your budget is tight) and a 1 TB SSD.

• For big cities at 1440p: Ryzen 7 7800X3D or 9800X3D, RTX 5070 or RX 9070, 32 GB of DDR5-6000 and a 2 TB SSD.

• For playing and streaming: Ryzen 7 9800X3D, RTX 5070 Ti or RTX 5080 (its video encoder handles the stream with barely any load on the processor), 32 to 64 GB of RAM and a 2 TB SSD.

If you'd rather have a PC that's ready to play, you'll find our pre-built machines in gaming PCs.

How to set up your own FiveM server

The basics of a FiveM server are free: Cfx.re distributes the server software and the licence key is registered at no cost on the Cfx Portal. What costs money is hosting, quality scripts and, above all, the time spent on management and moderation.

Hosting or your own machine

• Specialist hosting: the simplest option. Cfx.re works with authorised providers (GPORTAL, Shockbyte, Nitrado, Nodecraft, xREALM and ZAP-Hosting) which, according to FiveM itself, get a server up and running in under five minutes.

• Your own machine or a dedicated server: more control and, in the long run, it can work out cheaper. You need Windows or Linux (Cfx.re considers the Linux version a “courtesy” port), port 30120 open on TCP and UDP, a connection with a good upload speed and the machine switched on day and night. Hosting guides agree that, for the server, the speed of each core matters more than having lots of them, and the RAM you need depends on how many resources you load.

How many players you can have

With OneSync, FiveM's synchronisation system, any server supports up to 48 players for free. For more slots you need to subscribe to Element Club through the Cfx Portal: Argentum ($15 a month plus tax, up to 64 players), Aurum ($25, up to 128 with OneSync Infinity) and Platinum ($50, up to 2,048), according to the FiveM server hosting page. Cfx.re is already testing how to go beyond that 2,048 limit in FiveM for GTAV Enhanced.

txAdmin: the panel to manage it

txAdmin comes built into the server. When you start it for the first time, it opens in your browser, you link your Cfx.re account, choose a template (recipe) and it gets the server up and running for you. From there you can view the console, restart, manage players and punishments, and schedule automatic restarts. The default template is a basic server; roleplay ones also need a database, usually MariaDB or MySQL.

Frameworks: ESX, QBCore and Qbox

A roleplay server is built on a framework, the foundation that handles characters, money, jobs and inventory. The most widely used are:

• ESX (now ESX Legacy): the veteran, with the widest catalogue of scripts.

• QBCore: newer and very widespread among servers created in recent years.

• Qbox: an evolution of QBCore built on the ox libraries (ox_lib and ox_inventory), compatible with a good share of its scripts.

All three are still active in 2026. The choice matters because it determines which scripts you'll be able to use: almost all paid scripts state which framework they work with, and the Cfx Marketplace itself lets you filter by ESX, QBCore, Qbox, vRP or standalone versions.

FiveM scripts: free, paid and where to get them

Scripts are the resources that bring a server to life: phone, garages, housing, inventory, jobs, shops… There are plenty of free, open-source ones on the Cfx.re forum and on GitHub, and paid ones that are delivered protected by Cfx.re's escrow system, encrypted and tied to your account.

As well as the official Cfx Marketplace, there are stores that specialise in FiveM scripts. One of them is Quasar Store, which sells scripts, maps (MLOs and shells), vehicles and bundles for roleplay servers. Some of its scripts:

• Smartphone: a complete phone for your character, with more than 50 apps, voice and video calls, messaging, social media, banking and a camera.

• Advanced Garages: public, private, faction or job garages that you create from within the game itself and that save each vehicle's state (fuel, damage and upgrades).

• Housing Creator: owned or rented homes, estate agencies, decorating with furniture and house robberies.

• Inventory: a drag-and-drop inventory with car boots, stashes, shops, item crafting and weapons with serial numbers.

According to its website, most of them work with ESX, QBCore and Qbox; the full catalogue is on Quasar Store. Wherever you buy, check three things before you pay: that the script is compatible with your framework, that it has documentation and support, and that it's kept up to date with new versions of FiveM, including the one for GTA V Enhanced.

And if you plan to charge your players (VIP ranks, donations), read Cfx.re's licence agreement first: its official payment partner is Tebex and there are restrictions on what can be sold.

FiveM and GTA 6: what we know about roleplay in GTA VI

Rockstar hasn't announced anything concrete about roleplay in GTA VI. This is where things stand as of 26 October 2026.

What's confirmed

• GTA VI launches on 19 November 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S only. No PC version has been announced, and FiveM only exists on PC.

• Rockstar hasn't announced roleplay servers, a roleplay mode or tools to create them in GTA VI, nor has it put a date on its online mode.

• When it joined Rockstar, Cfx.re made it clear that the collaboration was focused on FiveM and RedM, and explicitly asked people not to ask about the next GTA.

• Rockstar has, however, shown interest in roleplay: when it bought Cfx.re, it pointed out that it had expanded its mod policy to include mods from the roleplay community, and its mod guidelines, published on 10 September 2026, reserve modded multiplayer for its official licensed platform and require monetisation only through Rockstar-approved stores.

• FiveM keeps receiving investment: an official store, a version for GTA V Enhanced and tests to go beyond 2,048 players per server.

What's rumour

• On 13 October, citing four anonymous sources, GamesBeat reported that GTA VI will come to PC in the first quarter of 2027, and it sees that version as a necessary first step for roleplay. Rockstar hasn't confirmed it.

• Several leakers talk about a “Project ROME”, a Rockstar platform for creating content and servers in GTA VI that would eventually replace FiveM. Rockstar has never mentioned that name.

In the meantime, the roleplay community will stay on GTA V for quite a while. If roleplay does eventually come to GTA VI, it will most likely be on PC and with a far more demanding game; in our article on GTA 6 on PC we separate what's official from rumour and estimate what computer to build for when it arrives.

Build your PC for FiveM in Andorra

At MEGA SYSTEM we build every gaming PC by hand in Escaldes-Engordany and put it through 24 hours of testing before delivery, with a 3-year warranty and repairs in our own workshop. You can pick every part yourself in the PC configurator or message us via chat or the contact form telling us which servers you play on and whether you stream: a real person replies, not a bot. If you need a machine to host your server or PCs for your community or business, we'll put together a tailored quote, with an invoice showing your NRT and the IGI itemised. We deliver within 24 h to every parish in Andorra, and collection from our shop at Av. Carlemany, 38 is free, Monday to Saturday from 10:00 to 13:30 and from 16:00 to 20:30.

Frequently asked questions

Is FiveM free?

Yes. The client and the server software are free, but you need GTA V for PC. Some servers sell perks or priority access, and hosting more than 48 players requires an Element Club subscription.

Can I get banned from GTA Online for playing FiveM?

According to Cfx.re, no: FiveM doesn't modify the game files and only contacts Rockstar's services to validate your copy. That said, each server has its own rules and can kick you out if you don't follow them.

Can you play FiveM on PS5 or Xbox?

No. FiveM only exists on PC. Cfx.re explains that it isn't viable on console because it relies on mechanisms that only PC offers, as a platform open to developers without prior approval.

How much RAM do I need for FiveM?

The official minimum is 4 GB for Legacy and 8 GB for Enhanced, and the recommended amount for Enhanced is 16 GB in dual channel. For big servers with lots of custom cars and maps, or if you stream, we recommend 32 GB.

Where can I buy FiveM scripts?

On the official Cfx Marketplace, on the Cfx.re forum (where you'll also find plenty of free ones) and in specialist stores such as Quasar Store. Always check that the script is compatible with your framework: ESX, QBCore or Qbox.

Will there be FiveM for GTA 6?

It hasn't been announced. GTA VI launches on 19 November 2026 on consoles only, and Rockstar hasn't confirmed either a PC version or roleplay. Everything else, including the supposed “Project ROME”, is rumour.