Open-world · 42 days to launch · Inputs verified 7 September 2026

Does GTA 6 have auto-aim? Test your free aim hold

GTA VI took the auto-aim away. Can your thumb do the job?

Every Grand Theft Auto since 2001 has snapped your reticle onto a body. VI does not — manual aiming with aim assist, free aim on by default, and enough recoil that holding the trigger throws your shot. Placing a reticle, holding it still and releasing a trigger cleanly are skills this series has never asked for. They are skills of the hand, and your hand is here right now.

Layer 1 · MeasuredRead off your own controller in this browser. It does not depend on GTA VI at all.

Sprint moved onto the stick you steer with

For twenty-five years sprinting meant tapping Cross or A. In VI it is a click of the left stick — the same stick pointing you down the street. Pressing down on a stick you are holding off-centre moves it. Push the stick, hold it, then click.

Sprint L3 (click)LS (click)

Confirmed by creators who played the preview build: sprint is a stick click by default, not repeated taps of Cross/A.

Heading moved — Push the stick and click it

Counted—

Median—

Worst—

Push the stick, then click it

The page measures how far your heading moves at the moment the click lands.

Why degrees. The game is not out and a number in game terms would be invented. Degrees of heading change is a property of your hand on your controller. As plain trigonometry, 10° of error puts you 1.8 m off line over ten metres of running, whatever Rockstar's movement code turns out to do.

Layer 1 · MeasuredRead off your own controller in this browser. It does not depend on GTA VI at all.

The auto-lock is gone. How still is your thumb?

Holding a reticle on a distant head is holding the right stick at a small, constant deflection — and a thumb at 35% deflection is doing something quite different from a thumb at rest or one at full lock. Push the right stick until the dot sits on the ring, then hold it there. The wander is the radius your aim would travel while you believe you are holding still.

Wander while holding — Push the right stick out to the ring and hold it

On the ring—

Worst—

Samples—

Nothing measured yet

Start the hold, push the right stick out to the ring, and keep it there until the timer ends.

What this is not. It is not a model of GTA VI's aim assist, its sensitivity curve or its bullet spread — none of those are published and all of them would be invented. It is your own thumb, on your own stick, doing the thing the game will start asking for in November.

Layer 1 · MeasuredRead off your own controller in this browser. It does not depend on GTA VI at all.

Recoil punishes a held trigger. Can you let go on time?

Assault rifles in VI are reported to reward controlled bursts and tap-firing, because holding the trigger throws your aim off. Pull the right trigger the way you would fire a three-round burst, eight or ten times. The finding is not how long you hold — it is whether your hold is the same length every time.

Burst consistency — Mean deviation from your own median hold

Pulls—

Median hold—

Controlled—

Pull the right trigger in short bursts

Eight to ten pulls is enough. Each one is timed from the frame it crosses the press point to the frame it falls back below it.

About the round count. Rounds are this page's arithmetic on your own hold at a stated 10 rounds per second, not a claim about any GTA VI weapon. No rate, spread or recoil figure for this game has been published, and none is invented here.

Layer 1 · MeasuredRead off your own controller in this browser. It does not depend on GTA VI at all.

Shoulder switching is back. Can you reach it mid-aim?

Flipping the camera to the other shoulder is a button pressed while aiming. Which button has not been shown and this test does not need to know — every candidate is a shoulder. Hold the right stick as if aiming, then press any bumper. The page reports how far your aim travelled while your index finger moved.

Aim moved — Median, as a share of full stick travel

Counted—

Worst—

From centre—

Hold the right stick, then press a bumper

A press made with the stick at rest has no aim to disturb, so it is counted separately rather than folded in.

This is the same finding as the sprint bench one floor up, and that is not a coincidence. VI asks one hand to do two things at once in more places than any Grand Theft Auto before it.

Layer 2 · ConfirmedShown by Rockstar or reported by creators who played the build, and dated.

What actually changed between V and VI

This table is computed from the two verified control entries behind the GTA V control reference and the GTA VI one rather than typed out, so editing either one moves it. Actions only one game has are left out — a new thing is not a change.

And the shortness of it is the finding. Only 3 confirmed VI inputs have a GTA V counterpart at all, and 2 of those moved. Almost everything Rockstar has shown is not a remapped old button — it is an action GTA V had no equivalent for: knocking on a door, slim-jimming a lock, hurrying a partner, petting a dog. That is a game adding verbs rather than shuffling keys, and it is why a page comparing the two control schemes runs out of rows so quickly.

Sprint

GTA VCross (tap) → GTA VIL3 (click)

changed

Look / camera

GTA VR3 (press) → GTA VIR3

changed

Move

GTA VL3 → GTA VIL3

unchanged

Layer 2 · ConfirmedShown by Rockstar or reported by creators who played the build, and dated.

Same object. Two buttons. Two outcomes.

The clearest thing the Extended Look showed, and a design rule rather than a list to memorise: Triangle is the careful reading of whatever you are standing in front of, Circle is the forceful one. Both columns are read from the verified GTA VI control reference, not typed here.

TriangleYCareful, friendly, precise

Knock on a door
Pick up a mission item or duffel bag
Slim-jim a car door
Pet the dog / scold the dog

CircleBForceful, fast, rough

Smash a car window
Pet the dog / scold the dog
Hurry your partner
Standing takedown · break a grapple

The same subject on both buttons: the button decides which version of you turns up.

TrianglePet the dog Circlescold the dog

Layer 2 · ConfirmedShown by Rockstar or reported by creators who played the build, and dated.

Every fact, dated and sourced

12 things published by Rockstar and 9 reported by people who played the build at a preview event. Those are not the same kind of claim and the board marks them differently. Where a fact means something for a hand on a controller, that is stated beside it — which is most of why this board is here rather than a news list.

Where and whenThe things a reader can act on today — a date, a platform, a price. All of it from Rockstar rather than from a preview.

Launch Rockstar

19 November 2026

Sixty-odd days to get the hand you will play it with into shape, which is the whole reason this page has benches on it.

Platforms Rockstar

PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S

Console pads only at launch, so every measurement on this page is a pad measurement.

PC Rockstar

Not at launch

No keyboard arm on this page, and no mouse sensitivity to convert. GTA V took nineteen months to reach PC; Red Dead Redemption 2 took thirteen.

Pre-orders Rockstar

Opened 25 June 2026

Standard edition Rockstar

$79.99 / €79.99

Ultimate edition Rockstar

$99.99 / €99.99

Adds vehicles, weapons and apparel through the story. Nothing in it changes an input.

Pre-order bonus Rockstar

Vintage Vice City pack

Mode Rockstar

Single-player only

The next Grand Theft Auto Online is a separate game, so nothing here has to hold up against other players.

The state of LeonidaWhere it is set. Included because it is the most-asked question about the game and because two of the regions are water, which decides what a controller spends its time doing.

The state Rockstar

Leonida, a Florida of Rockstar’s own

The city Rockstar

Vice City

Named regions Rockstar

Leonida Keys, Grassrivers, Port Gellhorn, Mount Kalaga, Ambrosia

Keys and wetlands mean boats and aircraft, which are the two vehicle classes a worn stick shows up in first.

Leads Rockstar

Jason and Lucia

Switching Preview

Instant while they are together; a transition when they are apart

An instant swap is an input you make mid-firefight, which is one more thing a thumb has to do without disturbing an aim.

The combat overhaulThe most consequential thing reported about this game for anybody holding a controller, and the reason three of the benches on this page exist. All of it from the preview event rather than from Rockstar directly.

Auto-aim Preview

Gone. Manual aiming with aim assist, free aim on by default

Every GTA since III has snapped the reticle to a body. Placing and holding one is a skill this series has never asked for, and it is a skill of the thumb — measurable today on the pad you already own.

Recoil Preview

Noticeably heavier kick and impact than GTA V

Recoil punishes a held trigger, which turns trigger discipline from a preference into a requirement.

Automatic fire Preview

Assault rifles reward controlled bursts and tap-firing; holding throws your aim off

A burst you can repeat is worth more than a burst you can manage once. That is consistency, and it is what the trigger bench measures.

Shoulder switching Preview

Returns — flips which side the camera sits behind

A button pressed WHILE aiming. Whether your index finger can reach it without taking your aim stick with it is the bumper bench.

Kill cams Preview

Return, and can be switched off

Weapon handoff Preview

Jason and Lucia can pass a weapon to each other

NPC awareness Preview

Civilians react to a visible weapon

Movement Preview

More control over movement speed than GTA V offered

Graded movement on a stick that also sprints on a click — the two are the same piece of plastic, which is what the sprint bench is about.

Layer 3 · ExpectedHas been in every Grand Theft Auto so far. Nothing here is confirmed for VI.

What the series has always brought with it

Cheats have been in every mainline Grand Theft Auto since 2001, and so have the same handful of functions. That is a fact about the series and a reasonable basis for expecting them in VI. The lineage is printed beside each one so you can weigh the claim yourself rather than taking this page's word for it.

Cheat codes at all