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27.08.2025

Best Methods to Earn Gold in Old School RuneScape


Old School RuneScape is a mature game – and so is its economy. A large and complex market offers endless opportunities to anyone willing to accumulate massive wealth. But before you set out on an ambitious journey like this, you need to learn the basics of the OSRS money making – and that's what we're going to give you today.

We'll cover what the game's money is like, the limit per character, what you can spend it on – and, most importantly, how you earn it fast.


🤔 How does money work in OSRS?

What to call it 💬

A money guide for OSRS has to start with clearing this up! Some people just say "money" – but what exactly are we talking about? Do the dwellers of Gielinor use dollars or pesos? Nah, they have a much simpler approach – for them, it's just coins. Some less lazy folks call them gold pieces, while lazier ones shorten it to GP. But overall, "coins" is used the most, so that's what you'll see us use most often in this article.


What to do with it 🤷‍♂️

Coins are the main currency in the game. While there are many others, this one's universal and has the broadest use. That includes buying items from NPC vendors, trading with players, paying for various services, and covering costs in certain quests. In short, great amounts of OSRS money make your character stronger and give you access to virtually anything.


How much coins you can have 🏦

There's only so much you can carry in one stack: 2,147,483,647 per character. Sorry, how many? Could you repeat that? No, few people can – and we wouldn't guarantee we could pronounce it right the first time either. This peculiarly specific number is the result of the game using 32-bit integers for values.

The good news is you can bypass this limit and have more money on one character. That's why we have platinum tokens: each of them costs 1000 GP, and you can store up to – you guessed it – 2,147,483,647 such tokens per character. So with that in mind, what's the grand total of coins per character? Correct – 2,147,483,647,000.

And trust us, that's a lot of money – more than you might ever need. So if you were worried about hitting the limit, don't be. Reaching it is much harder than not – anyone involved in Old RuneScape money making will tell you that.

But imagine you somehow did – what now? What do you spend all these gold pieces on? Let's find out!

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🎁 What can you spend it on?

Most money sooner or later changes hands. So if you're been stacking yours up not knowing what to use it for, we'll help you find a purpose for your wealth. We'll start with the things most players usually spend their coins on. Then we'll take a peek at the ungodly expensive items that few players ever buy – but most dream about.


Ordinary expenses 🛒

Each character has a long list of needs that you need to satisfy to keep it competitive. Here are the most important ones:

  • Consumables: food, potions, runes, ammo, and other supplies you use up regularly.
  • Gear: endgame, leveling, special builds, and all other types of armor, weapons, and other equipment.
  • Skills: materials, special items, and other stuff required for raising your skills' level or just crafting valuable items.
And more. Some purchases are less important for combat performance but are notoriously expensive nonetheless – furniture and all things Housing and Construction, for example.

All in all, most of these expenses can't be avoided completely – that means that no matter how good your money making in OSRS is, they'll remain a negative factor, reducing your profits. The only thing you can do is optimize these expenses: spend money on skills and gear strategically (that is, only when necessary), keep the consumables you find – and spend some time farming them, and so on.


Extraordinary expenses 🛥

If your character is all set up, maxed out, and ready for some real action, you might consider shopping for particularly expensive items. Some of them are deemed the best-in-slot options, crucial for the strongest builds in the game. Others are insanely priced vanity items that players use to show off their wealth. Either way, you'll need a big wallet to afford them. Here are some of the most expensive items in OSRS (prices in coins):

  1. 3rd Age weapons – up to 13,000,000,000
  2. 3rd Age armor – up to 4,400,000,000
  3. Scythe of Vitur (Uncharged) – 1,600,000,000
  4. Twisted Bow – 1,400,000,000
You might notice a pattern: if an item has "3rd Age" in its name, it costs a fortune. Weapons of this type are powerful, but it's almost always possible to find a comparable alternative (if not a better one) at a much lower price. For example, paying 13 billion for a 3rd Age Pickaxe is ridiculous, since a much cheaper Dragon Pickaxe does its job in combat just as well, while costing a mere fraction of that unbelievable price. But the 3rd Age Pickaxe is valued for its rarity and its Exchange price is literally controlled by a small group of sellers that don't want it to go any lower.

3rd Age armor is usually cosmetic, so it won't give you any advantage in combat – just unique looks (and bragging rights). As for the other two items on the list: Scythe of Vitur and Twisted Bow – they are the real deal. Widely believed to be the strongest weapons in OSRS – melee and ranged, respectively – they are parts of the strongest builds and are valued for the performance boost they guarantee their wielder, not just their prestige.

Buying these things isn't what each RuneScape player will ever experience – let's not make a secret out of it. However, those who stick to the best money making practices in OSRS are more likely to eventually equip one of those items. So this is where we'll move on to explore how you can do it.

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💰 What are the fastest ways to earn coins?

Now that you know what you can spend your millions and billions on, let's figure out how you can earn them first. RuneScape is a big game with countless activities, and you can convert any of them into a reliable source of income. However, the community's brightest minds have compared many different approaches and discovered that some of them are noticeably more lucrative.

So if you're after money gains, there are some particular things you'd rather do. For easier navigation, we've broken the coin earning methods into several groups:

  1. Combat 💀
  2. Processing 🔨
  3. Skilling 💪
  4. F2P-Friendly Methods 🆓
Each of them features at least a handful of good money making methods that most OSRS players know about and sometimes use. So it's worth taking a look at each.

Combat Earning Methods 💀

Sorry pacifists – if you want to become rich fast in OSRS, living by the sword is the way to go. Of the 20 most lucrative earning methods, 19 are combat-related. What that means is that you'll have to defeat monsters (often a lot), grab their belongings, and sell them for profit. And that can be some handsome profit indeed, since some of these methods average more than 10 million gold per hour. Don't expect them to be easy to pull though.

So here are the most profitable PvM activities (average gains are given in coins per hour):

  1. Doom of Mokhaiotl (Delve 1-8) – 19,000,000
  2. Theatre of Blood – 12,500,000
  3. Nex (Duo) – 10,700,000
  4. Chambers of Xeric (Challenge Mode) – 10,600,000
If you've played OSRS for a while, you've likely heard these names more than once. And you also likely know how fearful they are: powerful monsters there tear unfortunate adventurers in pieces if they don't come fully prepared – and that means with excellent gear and a load of consumable power-ups. So while the gains are great, the requirements are also very demanding.

But if you still like the idea of clearing instances and beating PvM challenges for gold but want it to be not so intense, there are farming options like that as well:

  1. Dagganoth Kings – up to 3,000,000
  2. Scorpia – 1,900,000
  3. Zombie pirates – up to 1,600,000
Dagganoth Kings can be farmed in several ways. If you solo the full trio, you can indeed earn around 3 million GP per hour. But if you prefer lower intensity, you can, say, defeat only Rex and get about 1.6 million on average.

So to sum it up: participating in combat-based activities is the best way to earn money in OSRS. They don't just return a lot of coins, they also have something for everyone. But it doesn't mean that there's no avoiding fighting when it comes to making gold in OSRS. If you want to keep the sword in the sheath, you can – let's explore other options.


Processing Earning Methods 🔨

Processing methods can be roughly divided into two groups: looting things and crafting things. The first involves lots of running around, opening chests, improving items, and hoping to get valuables in the process. Here are several particularly profitable farming options:

  1. Creating Amulets of Eternal Glory – 4,600,000
  2. Opening Larran's big chests – 2,900,000
  3. Opening eclectic / essence impling jars – 2,400,000
If you have the right equipment and a bit of luck, you'll get precious items to sell for a great profit – but it's not guaranteed. You'll definitely not walk empty-handed, as you'll have lots of charged regular Amulets of Glory to sell – or all kinds of useful stuff from the big chests or impling jars. The gain, however, might be smaller than you expect.

Speaking of crafting things, these are usually considered the most profitable:

  1. Toy cats – 1,400,000
  2. Raw wild pies – 1,100,000
  3. Redwood pyre logs – 800,000
While all these things are often sold at a high price, there are two things to consider. First, the price of production – make sure to check with an up-to-date OSRS gold making guide to find the optimal way of obtaining materials. Otherwise, production costs might severely cut into your earnings. Second, the market for these things is not very large, so you shouldn't expect your listings to sell immediately. Be patient and adjust your price if current demand differs from your initial expectations.

But all in all, choosing the right Processing activity and mastering it is the second best way to make money in OSRS. These activities might take time to get used to, but with time you might even start having fun with them.


Skilling Earning Methods 💪

These methods are closely tied to certain skills. As you might expect, where there's money, there's an opportunity to level up your Thieving skill. You wouldn't be wrong to suggest that – just look at these farming options:

  1. Pickpocketing elves – 2,800,000
  2. Pickpocketing vyres – 2,700,000
  3. Stealing from Rogues' Castle chests – 1,600,000
These methods require plenty of preparation. First of all, these average hourly profits have been achieved with Thieving maxed. Secondly, there are multiple gear and other skill requirements to come close to these numbers. If you're a dedicated rogue, you'll enjoy the preparation process. But if you're not, maybe you should look elsewhere?

Runecrafting is also quite popular for farming coins – take a look at the runes that help you with that:

  1. Wrath runes – 2,400,000
  2. Double nature runes – 2,300,000
  3. Mist runes – 1,600,000
These methods are fairly action-packed, so if you were expecting a relaxing pleasure cruise, this isn't it. That said, there's actually no real pressure. For example, the 70-80 trips per hour you're expected to make for the Wrath runes method can be made within two hours. That will halve your hourly profit but that's still going to be more than a million – doesn't sound too bad, huh?

As for other skills, here are some other notable farming options:

  1. Agility: Wilderness course – 2,000,000
  2. Fletching: Broad bolts – 1,900,000
  3. Mining, Smithing, Runecrafting: Killing Zalcano – 1,800,000
  4. Magic: Enchanting topaz jewelry – 1,600,000
  5. Herblore: Making super combat potions with prescription goggles – 1,600,000
So as you can see, whichever Skill you prefer, there's a fast way to make money in OSRS with the help of it.


F2P-Friendly Earning Methods 🆓

One thing we haven't mentioned is that most methods above require the Membership. Most players will just shrug, as they already have it – but if you don't and don't plan to get one, you'll be happy to know that some effective coin-farming strategies are still available to you too. Sure, members get all the best ones and your expected income is noticeably lower – but that's still hundreds of thousands of GP, so it's not that bad.

Here are some of the best non-membership ways to earn gold pieces:

  1. Selling archery supplies – 850,000
  2. Smithing rune items – 550,000
  3. High alching profitable free-to-play items – 450,000
These methods are quite relaxed: you don't have to cut your way through hordes of monsters, nor do you have to run agility courses or pickpocket in high-risk areas. Just craft stuff and sell it. Sometimes straight to an NPC vendor – that's how the first method works. The only catch is that you have to switch worlds every now and then since the vendor's buy price drops as you sell them more items.

So even if you keep your distance from premium activities, nothing prevents you from OSRS GP making – there are plenty of options to choose from.

* * *

So that's it for our brief money making guide in OSRS. You now know everything any dedicated player should: how to refer to it, how much your character can hold, what you can buy, and how you can earn it. So where do you go from here? The best thing to do next is to choose the earning method that appeals to you most, do a bit more research, and start farming coins with it. Practice makes perfect, so don't worry if you can't reach the promised average gains at once – that will come with time.

But if you don't want to wait, there's a way to skip the grind and get coins in any amount much sooner. ArmadaBoost offers OSRS coin delivery – it's safe, budget-friendly, and very fast. And if there are any other goals in Gielinor that you need help achieving, just browse our catalog to see if there's something that could speed it up – or simply reach out to us to learn more or make an order. We're available 24/7!

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