The FiveM and Cfx.re Terms of Service exist to keep the platform stable and legal, but they're long and not always easy to parse. This guide summarises the parts that actually matter to server owners and creators, in plain English.
This is a practical overview, not legal advice. Policies change, and the official Cfx.re Terms of Service and monetization policy are the only authoritative versions. Read them directly before making a decision that matters — especially a commercial one.
The foundation: you need a legitimate GTA V copy
FiveM runs on top of Grand Theft Auto V. Every player on your server must own a legitimate, legal copy. Pirated copies are strictly against the rules, and servers that encourage or enable them risk being shut down.
This is not a technicality Cfx.re overlooks. It is the arrangement that lets FiveM exist at all, and it is enforced.
What you generally can do
- Run a roleplay or gameplay server with custom scripts, maps and assets.
- Use custom resources you have created or legitimately obtained.
- Monetize your server through approved methods, within Cfx.re's rules.
- Sell scripts you created, through the approved platform.
- Build a community around your server.
What is not allowed
- Distributing pirated or stolen assets — leaked scripts, ripped car models, MLOs you do not hold rights to.
- Selling things Cfx.re's monetization policy prohibits.
- Impersonating Rockstar or Cfx.re, or implying an endorsement you do not have.
- Cheating tools and exploits that harm the wider ecosystem.
- Reselling or redistributing resources you bought but do not have distribution rights to.
Monetization: the part that trips people up
This is where most server owners get into trouble, usually without meaning to.
Tebex is the approved platform. Selling through your own payment processor, direct PayPal, bank transfer or Discord-arranged deals is outside the rules — regardless of what you are selling. Route it through Tebex.
The broad principle is that you can charge for things that support the server without breaking the intended experience for everyone else. Cosmetic items, supporter perks and priority queue have historically sat comfortably. Selling raw gameplay power — the thing that makes a paying player strictly stronger than a non-paying one — is where the policy pushes back.
Do not rely on this summary for a specific decision. The monetization policy is updated over time and contains specifics this page cannot keep current. If you are about to build a revenue model around a particular item type, read the current policy first. "Someone else sells it" is not a defence — plenty of servers are non-compliant right up until they are not.
Practical rule of thumb: if the thing you are selling would make a paying player meaningfully more powerful than a non-paying one, treat it as a question to check rather than an assumption to build on.
Selling scripts as a creator
If you develop and sell FiveM resources:
- Sales run through Tebex. Same rule as server monetization.
- You must own what you sell. Original work, or assets you hold commercial rights to. "I found it on a leak site" is not a licence.
- Asset escrow protects your work while keeping distribution inside the platform. We cover the mechanics in the Cfx.re escrow guide.
- Support obligations matter commercially, even where they are not strictly a TOS issue. Tebex handles chargebacks and refunds, and a pattern of disputes is a business problem.
Our fuller answer to whether this is viable at all is in can you sell FiveM scripts.
Assets, images and MLOs: the real grey area
This causes more takedowns than monetization does.
Downloadable does not mean free to use. Car models, MLOs, clothing packs, textures and UI art all have creators and licences. A model posted publicly on a forum may be free for personal use, paid for commercial use, or stolen from a paid pack by someone who was not the author.
Questions worth asking before you install anything:
- Who made it, and does the listing name them?
- What licence does it carry — personal, commercial, or unstated?
- If it is a conversion of real-world branded content, is that a risk you want on a monetized server?
- Was it posted by the creator, or reuploaded?
The risk is not just moral. A DMCA against your server or your Tebex store is disruptive in a way that is hard to unwind, and it does not care that you bought the asset from someone who had no right to sell it.
How enforcement actually works
Worth understanding because it shapes how much risk you are carrying.
- Server delisting. A server can be removed from the server list, which for most communities is the majority of new-player discovery.
- Tebex store action. A store selling non-compliant items can be taken down, which stops revenue immediately.
- Keymaster account action. Losing this affects escrowed assets tied to the account.
- Reports drive most of it. Enforcement is often complaint-led. Competitors, former staff and creators whose work was stolen all report, and a server running leaked content is one disgruntled ex-admin away from a problem.
The pattern to notice: enforcement tends to hit the revenue and the discovery, not just the server process. The cost of non-compliance is rarely "we got a warning" and is often "we lost the store and the listing in the same week".
Practical compliance checklist
- Buy from legitimate creators with named authorship.
- Never install leaked or reuploaded paid resources — including "free release" reposts of paid scripts.
- Route all money through Tebex.
- Read the current monetization policy before designing a revenue model, not after.
- Keep records of what you bought and from whom.
- If a resource's origin is unclear, treat that as a no.
Servers and stores that respect the TOS run for years. Those that do not tend to run fine right up until they suddenly do not.
Where this connects to buying decisions
The compliance question and the quality question overlap more than people expect. A resource sold outside Tebex by an anonymous seller is both a TOS risk and, usually, a code-quality risk — and it is exactly the kind of file that ships with something extra in it. Our guide on spotting a backdoored FiveM script covers the technical side of the same problem.
At Viper Development, all our resources are original work, escrow-protected, and sold through Tebex as Merchant of Record — fully within Cfx.re's framework.