How did San Andreas cheats work?

San Andreas cheats were button sequences on consoles. You pressed a string of controller inputs during normal play, and the game applied the effect with no menu and no confirmation screen. GamesRadar's cheat guide, last updated September 11, 2026, counts "around 90" of them. It says console codes go in during regular gameplay, not in a cutscene and not while paused. The PC version worked differently: players typed a phrase or a short code on the keyboard.

None of this tells you anything about GTA VI. Rockstar has published nothing about cheats in GTA VI, which is set for November 19, 2026 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. VI Cheats has verified no GTA VI code. Our GTA 6 cheats page tracks that status.

Which San Andreas codes can we verify?

We print a San Andreas code only after matching it, character by character, against two sources we fetched ourselves. For this article those were GamesRadar's San Andreas guide and GTANet's printable button-cheat sheet, both checked on September 28, 2026. Three PlayStation-layout codes matched exactly.

  • San Andreas, cash plus health and armor (PlayStation): R1, R2, L1, X, Left, Down, Right, Up, Left, Down, Right, Up. GamesRadar says this gives $250,000 with full health and armor.
  • San Andreas, lower wanted level (PlayStation): R1, R1, Circle, R2, Up, Down, Up, Down, Up, Down.
  • San Andreas, spawn a Hydra jet (PlayStation): Triangle, Triangle, Square, Circle, X, L1, L1, Down, Up.

The two sources describe that wanted-level code differently. GamesRadar says it clears all your stars. GTANet says each use drops the level by two, and since nobody here has tested it on a console, we report both.

Other codes did not survive the check. The jetpack sequence, for example, is printed differently by the two sources, so it is left out. We also do not print Xbox or Switch strings. GamesRadar notes that the Definitive Edition swaps the trigger buttons used in Xbox codes, which means an original Xbox string and a Definitive Edition string are not interchangeable.

Did San Andreas cheats break saves or trophies?

They could cause trouble. GamesRadar tells players to make a save and keep it safe before cheating, because some effects can become permanent and may make story progress difficult. The GTA Place, a fan site, gives similar advice on its PS2 cheat page: it recommends not saving after using cheats, warning that effects may stay on permanently or corrupt the save.

On newer releases there is a second cost. GamesRadar says that on a recent version of the game, cheating disables trophies or achievements. It also notes that some original codes did not make it into the Definitive Edition releases.

Why does GTA have a cheat culture?

One sign of lasting interest is that GamesRadar still maintains separate cheat guides for GTA 3, Vice City, San Andreas, GTA 4 and GTA 5, and it updated both its San Andreas and GTA 4 pages in September 2026. GTANet still hosts a printable San Andreas sheet, and The GTA Place still keeps a PS2 cheat page.

The codes were also built for single-player play. They change the player's own game: money, weapons, vehicles, weather, the police. That is the only kind of cheating this site covers. We do not cover mod menus, trainers or money generators, and we do not link to them.

How did cheat entry change after San Andreas?

GTA IV moved cheats onto the phone. GamesRadar's GTA 4 guide tells players to use Niko's mobile phone to enter the numbers. It also warns that some of those cheats disable certain achievements and trophies when activated.

GTA V kept the phone and kept button strings too. Its phone codes use a 1-999 prefix. As one GTA V example, the BMX spawn is 1-999-226-348, which spells 1-999-BANDIT on the keypad; GTA BOOM and GTA BASE print the same digits for it. Rockstar Support's page on GTA V cheats, last updated April 28, 2024, says: "Saving is allowed when cheat codes are enabled but achievements are temporarily disabled." GTA V cheats are also session-based: reloading a save or rebooting resets them.

We cover that shift in more detail in our history of phone cheats.

How do Red Dead Redemption 2 cheats compare?

Red Dead Redemption 2 dropped both button strings and phone numbers. GamesRadar's RDR2 guide, last updated June 17, 2026, describes the process. You pause, open the Settings tab, and press Triangle or Y to reach a Cheats screen. Pressing it again opens a text box where you type a phrase. After that, each cheat can be switched on or off from the list.

The phrases are hidden in the world. GamesRadar says they appear at the bottom of in-game newspapers such as the Saint Denis Times, and some only work after you buy the matching paper at a certain story point. It counts 37 cheats. It also warns that activating cheats in RDR2 disables autosaving as well as trophies or achievements. Our guide to how RDR2 cheats work has more on that system.

What does this history say about GTA VI?

It gives three past models: San Andreas button strings, the GTA IV and GTA V phone, and the RDR2 typed-phrase menu. It does not tell you which one, if any, GTA VI will use. Rockstar has not said. Any GTA VI cheat list published before Rockstar or the game itself confirms one is a guess. VI Cheats is independent and not affiliated with Rockstar Games or Take-Two Interactive.

Do San Andreas cheats work in GTA 6?

There is no evidence that they do. San Andreas codes belong to San Andreas. Rockstar has published nothing about cheats in GTA VI, and VI Cheats has verified no GTA VI code.

Did San Andreas have phone cheats?

No. On consoles, San Andreas used button sequences, and the PC version accepted typed codes. Phone entry arrived with GTA IV.

Can you save after cheating in San Andreas?

Neither source says the game stops you. GamesRadar and The GTA Place both advise caution, though, because some effects can become permanent. Keep a clean save from before you started cheating.

Why is this page not a full San Andreas cheat list?

We print only codes that matched exactly across two sources we fetched. Most of the roughly 90 codes were not checked twice here, and one we did check, the jetpack, did not match.