Paleto Bay

Updated 30 October 2026 · Fan site. Not affiliated with Rockstar Games or Take-Two Interactive.

Paleto Bay is a small coastal town in the far north of Blaine County in Grand Theft Auto V (2013) and GTA Online. It sits on the Pacific shore below Mount Chiliad and is best known for the Paleto Score, the story heist in which Michael, Franklin and Trevor rob the town's bank. GTA Wiki links its look to Morro Bay and Cambria in California.

Where is Paleto Bay in GTA V?

Paleto Bay is the northernmost town on the map of Grand Theft Auto V, inside rural Blaine County. GTA Wiki places it on the Pacific coast at the north-western foot of Mount Chiliad, with Paleto Forest to the south-east and Procopio Beach to the east. The Great Ocean Highway, Route 1, runs straight through it and heads south past Fort Zancudo towards Los Santos. The town has been on the map since the game came out on 17 September 2013, and it is part of the shared world of GTA Online.

GTA Wiki says the town was founded in 1898 and that a 2013 Weazel News report names Roy Buckley as its mayor. Its welcome sign is partly covered, so the wiki can only estimate a population of roughly 4,000 to 4,900. A lot of the shops look tired or closed, and an in-game note puts that down to the 2008 recession. Underneath the friendly small-town surface, the wiki adds, the local police are crooked.

What is Paleto Bay based on?

GTA Wiki's main comparison is Morro Bay on California's Central Coast, which sits north of Los Angeles in roughly the same way Paleto Bay sits north of Los Santos. The wiki also sees parts of Cambria and Big Sur in the coast, and it compares the town to Trinidad, California. The inland buildings borrow from several small inland towns. Even the police car livery for Paleto Bay is said to be close to the one used by the Morro Bay police. The name itself is a joke: GTA Wiki notes that paleto is Spanish slang for a redneck.

What landmarks are in Paleto Bay?

The largest site is Clucking Bell Farms, a chicken processing plant at the southern edge of town run by the fast-food chain Cluckin' Bell. Closer to the centre are the Blaine County Savings Bank, the sheriff's office, a fire station and St. Brigid Baptist Church. GTA Wiki also lists an Ammu-Nation, a Herr Kutz barber, Willie's Supermarket and the Bay Bar. On the coast are the small Paleto Cove peninsula and Procopio Beach, and the wiki says the town's railway station is controlled by Merryweather Security.

In story mode one local business, The Hen House, can be bought as a property, which brings a few short management jobs. In GTA Online the real-estate site sells homes at 0232 Paleto Boulevard and at 4401 and 4584 Procopio Drive.

What happens in The Paleto Score?

The town's big moment in the story is The Paleto Score, a heist planned by Lester Crest. Michael, Franklin and Trevor hit the Blaine County Savings Bank with one hired gunman; GTA Wiki lists Packie McReary among the candidates. Wikipedia's GTA V article cites the mission by name. To prepare, Michael or Trevor first steals a military convoy in the Grand Senora Desert, which gives the crew heavy armour and big guns.

Inside the bank the gunman cuts into the safe deposit room, and GTA Wiki puts the haul at about $8 million. The way out is the memorable part. The crew walks out in armoured suits with Trevor on a minigun, fighting local police, then NOOSE units, then soldiers with Rhino tanks and a Cargobob helicopter. Franklin, who was meant to wait with a boat, takes a bulldozer from a building site and carries Michael and Trevor in its bucket through the Cluckin' Bell plant to a passing train.

The payoff is a letdown. That night in Sandy Shores, a corrupt FIB agent takes most of the money, about 78% according to GTA Wiki, leaving each protagonist with roughly $455,000 to $464,000. The in-game stock of Cluckin' Bell also drops after the raid on its plant. See GTA heists for how the heist missions fit together.

Is Paleto Bay in GTA Online?

Yes. GTA Wiki lists early contact missions set in or around the town, such as Diamonds are for Trevor, On Maneuvers, A Boat in the Bay and Time To Get Away, and some heist preparation jobs can also send players there. A later mission, The Cluckin' Bell Farm Raid, is set at the chicken plant, with a follow-up called Scene of the Crime. By 2019, the wiki says, The Lost MC had a chapter in Paleto Bay.

How far is Paleto Bay from Los Santos?

In the story Trevor talks about the trip from Los Santos as a four-hour drive. GTA Wiki points out that in real time it takes less than eight minutes, which shows how much the map is compressed compared with the real distance between Los Angeles and the Central Coast.