OSRS Money Making Progression Guide

The instinct when you want money is to find a gp/hr leaderboard and do whatever's at the top. That's usually the wrong move. A ranking number quietly assumes the gear, quests, stats and, crucially, the uninterrupted attention that the method needs. If you can't meet those, the “best” method earns you nothing.

The more useful definition: the best money method is the one your account can realistically sustain, that also moves your progression forward.A slightly lower gp/hr method you'll actually keep doing for an hour beats a chart-topper you bounce off in ten minutes — and a method that funds your next boss beats one that just adds to a pile.

Before committing to a method, run it past five questions. They matter more than the gp/hr figure:

• Requirements — can your account even do it? Quests, levels and gear gate most of the good methods.
• Attention — is it a fast-click grind or genuinely AFK? Match it to the session you actually have, not the one you wish you had.
• Risk — Wilderness and some PvM can be crashed or PK'd. Fine if you accept it; a dealbreaker on a Hardcore Ironman.
• Startup cost — some methods need capital or a gear setup before they pay. Don't pick one you can't fund yet.
• What it unlocks — a method that pays for your next boss or upgrade is worth more than a marginally higher one that doesn't advance you.

Weigh those together and the “right” method almost always differs from the top of a chart — and differs again for the next player.

On a brand-new account the goal isn't a fat bank — it's enough gp to stop worrying about supplies. Ignore gp/hr leaderboards entirely and earn low-requirement, low-risk income:

• Collecting and high-alching drops from safe monsters as you train combat.
• Early gathering (Mining iron and coal, Woodcutting, Fishing) sold on the Grand Exchange.
• Selling quest-reward items and the freebies from beginner content.

The first 100k funds a rune weapon, some armour and food — everything a fresh account needs to start doing real content, which is where the actual money begins.

The jump to a million is where you build a small buffer and start reinvesting. Reliable early-account earners, chosen for low requirements rather than headline rates:

Herb runs deserve the special mention: a few minutes every ~80 minutes for a profit that grows as you unlock patches and level Farming. Start them as early as you can — they run in the background of everything else.

This is the stage that changes an account. Once you have combat stats and a quest or two, your income stops being a grind and becomes an engine: a repeatable boss you can farm for hours, ideally running alongside passive income.

• Vorkath (needs Dragon Slayer II) — one of the most consistent solo moneymakers for a mid-level account, with a fixed loot table.
• Zulrah (needs the Underground Pass → Regicide line) — higher ceiling, but the rotations take practice before the gp/hr shows up.
• Slayer with a Slayer helm — tasks like the Alchemical Hydra and Kraken pay well and give combat XP and gear at the same time.
• AFK skilling staples for lower-attention sessions — Guardians of the Rift, Blast Furnace, chinning.

At the high end, income is dominated by endgame PvM plus a few premium skilling methods. God Wars generals, the Wilderness bosses (higher risk, higher reward) and eventually raids — Chambers of Xeric, Theatre of Blood and Tombs of Amascut — are where the biggest, most reliable gp lives, dropping items worth tens or hundreds of millions.

On the skilling side, high-level methods like Blood runecrafting and black chinchompas hold up as lower-attention alternatives to bossing. Exact rates move with the economy every day, so the numbers below this line belong on the Money Makers hub rather than in an article that would go stale.

For an Ironman the whole idea of “money making” shifts. You can't buy gear, so gp matters far less than resources: herb runs for potions, Slayer for drops, and raids for the gear itself. The right “money” method is the one that produces what your account needs next, and skills like Farming and Herblore climb the priority list because you grow and brew everything you use. Efficiency of acquisition beats gp/hr every time.

The reinvestment loop is the whole point: earn gp, spend it on the thing that lets you earn faster or do new content, repeat. When you hit your first real pile, spend it on:

• Gear that unlocks or speeds up your next content — see the gear guide for what actually removes your bottleneck.
• Buyable skill levels to clear a quest or gear requirement quickly.
• Supplies, so you can commit long, uninterrupted PvM sessions instead of banking constantly.

What you should not do is hoard gp or drop it all on a luxury item that doesn't change what you can do. The bank is a means to progression, not the goal.

A guide can teach the framework; the live economy is where it needs real numbers. The Money Makers hub reads current Grand Exchange prices and, when you link your account, hides the methods you can't do yet and ranks the ones you can by what actually fits your levels, quests and gear — so you see the best realistic method, not a leaderboard for an account that isn't yours.

From there, the bossing hub shows which money boss you're ready for, and the planner ties earning to your wider goals. The guide tells you how to think about money; ScapePath tells you which method to run today — and every page is readable without an account.