Bounties

Bounties are a feature in Grand Theft Auto Online Free Mode. They are unlocked at Rank 10 after visiting Lester at his house (when it is marked by an L on the map).

PvP
Players are able to set bounties on other players by calling Lester. The bounty can range from $2,000 to $10,000 but Lester takes a $1,000 commission on all bounties so the amount claimable will range from $1,000 to $9,000. A player can only set one bounty at a time until the player with the bounty on their head is killed or the bounty expires. There is an enforced delay between Lester accepting requests to set new bounties of 10 real-time minutes. Players with bounties will be shown on the radar as red dots with crossbones on them in order to differentiate between psychopathic players. The 10 minute time limit was introduced in patch 1.12 to prevent the same player from setting a bounty after the previous bounty had been claimed. As part of an exploit fix, players can no longer gain unlimited RP by setting a bounty and then claiming it themselves repeatedly.

PvE
If the player steals an NPC's vehicle, either by Carjacking or taking any parked car, there is a random chance that a bounty will be set on that player. They will first receive a threatening message from a contact called "Unknown", which notifies them that they will have a bounty on their head. The bounties set by NPCs have the same rules as bounties set by players. There is also a chance that the player may get a bounty from a gang boss if they win five Gang Attacks in one game day.

These bounties can be obtained in any free mode session type and are not limited to open public sessions.

PvP
Other players with bounties on their heads are announced to the entire free mode session when they get the bounty or when they enter a session with an existing bounty on their head. They will be distinguishable on the map by the red crossbones icon.

To claim a bounty, a player must kill the other player with the bounty on their head, by any means. Players with bounties are targeted by the lock on feature of rockets when they are in vehicles. Prior to the insurance changes in patch 1.16, destroying an occupied personal vehicle of a bounty to achieve the kill did not result in any insurance charges or bad sport points.

Players claiming a bounty are able to use the share cash option to distribute the bounty to other players (or even pay it directly back to the person who had the bounty on their head - except on the PC version where exploits resulted in this functionality being removed).

Claiming a bounty will also provide RP to the bounty hunter.

PvE
Patch 1.15 introduced a form of NPC bounties initiated by Lester, known as Kill Target. These were later removed from the Enhanced Version in the Freemode Events Update but remain available in the original version on the older consoles.

The GTA Online: After Hours update in the Enhanced Version added another form of PvE bounty hunting for Maude Eccles similar to her Bail Bond jobs for Trevor Philips in Grand Theft Auto V story mode. In these bounty hunting jobs, live capture is the aim in order to receive the maximum payout.

Escaping a Bounty
To lose any bounty, the player has to stay alive outside of safehouses for 24 in-game hours (48 minutes in real-time). Entering a safehouse or a job or leaving the online session will pause the timer and it will resume when the player re-enters the outdoor world in free mode.

If the player stays alive for 24 hours after having the bounty set, the player will be awarded the bounty amount, a "You have survived the Bounty placed on you" message, and, if it is the first time surviving a bounty, the player will get the "Run Like The Wind" achievement/trophy.

The fastest and easiest way for a player to check if a bounty is still active is by seeing if Enable Passive Mode in the Interaction Menu is greyed out or not.

Bounties and Passive Mode
Passive Mode and the bounty system are incompatible. A player in Passive Mode can have a new bounty set upon them, though they will remain in Passive Mode until they exit it through any means, such as using a weaponized vehicle or registering an organization. Any player who has a bounty set on them cannot proceed to enter Passive Mode while the bounty is active. Players can use this to their advantage to attempt to prevent NPC bounties by entering passive mode before stealing any NPC vehicle.

Trivia

 * Even if the NPC owner of a vehicle is killed when stealing the car, they can still send a text message that sets a bounty on the player.
 * Players are able to claim the bounties that they themselves have set. this will always result in a net cost to the player of the $1,000 commission to Lester.
 * Since other players can only see the value of a bounty when a player gets it or changes session, after a few minutes the value of the bounty will no longer appear, only leaving a red skull icon marking the player location. This makes more expensive bounties somewhat wasteful since it only increases chances of having players attacking during the first few minutes.
 * It is possible to call Lester and while trying to set a bounty on a player with one already, the menu will show the current amount placed on target. Lester will also comment "Looks like they have a bounty already. Choose another player or go earn the prize."
 * If a player with a bounty chooses “Kill yourself” option after being shot by a player, it will not count as a kill, but claims a bounty for the shooter.
 * The Bounty system is no longer available on the PS3/Xbox 360 versions of GTA Online.