OSRS F2P Money Making Guide: Best Free-to-Play Methods

Overview

Free-to-play money has a low ceiling and a short list of methods. On the wiki's Money making guide, the best steady F2P figure is about 680k an hour from superheating runite bars, which needs 85 Smithing. With no stats at all, the realistic range is about 57k to 274k.

That range matters because most F2P players are really saving for one thing: an Old school bond. It cost about 11.7M on 14 October 2026 and buys 14 days of membership. At 57k an hour that is about 205 hours of play; at 680k it is about 17.

If you already have membership, use the money making hub and the low-level members guide. Everything below stays on the free side of the gate.

Pick your method

Every figure below is the wiki's hourly profit for that method, priced at Grand Exchange values after tax. Rows run from no requirements to high level.

GP/hr figures are the wiki's at 14 October 2026 and move with Grand Exchange prices.

Left out on purpose: shop-selling runs the wiki marks as heavily contested, such as selling archery supplies (listed at about 736k but rarely achieved); smithing rune items for player-to-player sale (about 1.16M, but it needs 99 Smithing, 30M+ and buyers on world 308); and Wilderness pickups such as team capes (about 253k) and nature runes (about 194k in level 42–43 Wilderness). For the Magic rows, our alching guide covers item choice and the F2P training guide gets you to 43 and 55 Magic.

Killing cows vs tanning cowhides

This is the first money choice most F2P accounts make, and the wiki's numbers settle it fast. Killing your own cows is free but slow, buying hides and tanning them doubles the rate, and pie shells, which use the same bank-and-click rhythm, double it again.

Verdict: kill cows only while you have no cash and want the combat XP anyway; buy and tan hides once the account clears the trade restriction and has about 400k; make pie shells for the best rate, but stock pie dishes over several 4-hour windows first, because 500 dishes is only about 12 minutes of work.

All the leather numbers run through Ellis in Al Kharid, the closest tanner to a bank with no requirements: 27 hides per trip, about 25 seconds per round trip while running, and 3 coins per hard leather or 1 coin per soft leather (Tanning cowhide). The wiki's figure always uses whichever leather is worth more after the fee.

From F2P to a bond

A bond is the item that turns F2P gold into membership: 14 days per bond, about 11.7M on 14 October 2026. The table divides that price by each method's wiki figure.

A route that works from a fresh account:

1. 1

   Clear the first three floors of the Stronghold of Security for 10,000 coins (2,000, 3,000 and 5,000 from the reward at the end of each floor). No stats needed.

2. 2

   Put that into pastry dough and pie dishes, or kill cows while you work toward 20 hours played, 10 quest points and 100 total level so the account can sell leather.

3. 3

   At 32 quest points, finish Dragon Slayer I. Oziach then sells anti-dragon shields, about 274k an hour with no skill requirement.

4. 4

   Train toward 43 Magic and 70 Smithing for adamantite superheating (about 578k), or 55 Magic plus capital for high alching (about 490k).

5. 5

   Buy the bond and start a members method in the first 14 days.

   Tanning green dragonhide at the same Ellis tannery pays about 1.03M an hour on members (Tanning green dragonhide), so with about 5M of hides the next bond is roughly 11 hours away.

Requirements

F2P money has three gates: skill levels, a couple of quests and the new-account trade restriction. Nothing in the table above needs a members unlock.

Setup

F2P setup is a bank layout, not gear. Get the inventory right once and every trip after is the same clicks.

1. 1

   Buy one hour of inputs at your usual offer price, not the instant-buy price, and test the margin on a single item first.

2. 2

   For Superheat Item and alching, wield a staff of fire and keep nature runes in the same slot every trip.

3. 3

   For adamantite superheating, withdraw 9 ore and 18 coal, cast three times, withdraw all coal, cast three more, withdraw coal again and finish: the wiki's pattern makes 9 bars per three bank openings.

4. 4

   For pie shells, withdraw 14 pastry dough and 14 pie dishes, use one on the other and hold space.

5. 5

   Time one real hour before you scale.

   If you land far under the wiki figure, the gap is usually travel or slow offers.

Route and Process

Each F2P method is a short loop. These are the loops the wiki's figures assume, so you can check your own pace against them.

Costs to Subtract

The wiki's figures already take these out. Your own numbers need them too, because F2P margins are thin enough that one missed cost turns the hour.

• Grand Exchange tax: 2% of each sale, rounded down and capped at 5M per item. Items sold for under 50 coins pay none (Grand Exchange).
• Tanning fees: 3 coins per hard leather, 1 coin per soft leather.
• Nature runes: one per Superheat Item or High Level Alchemy cast, about 140 coins each on 14 October 2026.
• Energy potions on running loops.
• Buy-limit downtime: pie dishes cap at 500 per 4 hours, and bones at 3,000, which the wiki says is only 8–9 minutes of Bones to Bananas.

How to Calculate Realistic Profit

Check the wiki's number with one worked example. Pie shells on 14 October 2026: a shell sells for 314 coins, minus 6 coins of tax, minus 185 for the pastry dough and 12 for the dish, which leaves about 111 coins. At 2,450 shells an hour that is about 272k, the table figure.

1. 1

   Write down the price you actually paid and the price you actually sold for.

2. 2

   Take the 2% tax and any fees off the sell side.

3. 3

   Multiply the margin by what you produced in a timed hour, not by the wiki's rate.

4. 4

   If your number is under half the wiki's, fix the loop before buying a bigger batch.

Ironman Relevance

F2P ironmen cannot buy inputs on the Grand Exchange, so every row that starts with a purchase is out. What still works is gathering your own materials: cows for hides you tan yourself, ore you mine and superheat, and alching what you make.

The bond is the exception. The Old school bond page notes it is the only item ironmen may buy on the Grand Exchange, through an ironman-only interface, so an F2P iron can alch its way to coins and buy membership. Iron routes after that are in the ironman money making guide.

Common Mistakes

These five cost F2P players the most time or gold.

• Killing cows on a day-one account and finding the leather will not sell: cowhide, leather and hard leather stay restricted until 20 hours played, 10 quest points and 100 total level.
• Ordering 2,000 pie dishes at once. The limit is 500 per 4 hours, so the offer sits part-filled while your pastry dough waits.
• Mining runite in the Lava Maze with your bank on you. The rocks are in level 46 Wilderness and the wiki is blunt that player killers will show up; bring only what you can lose.
• Smelting runite at the Edgeville furnace after reaching 43 Magic. Superheat Item makes about 1,150 bars an hour against about 400, which moves the wiki figure from about 292k to about 680k.
• Planning a green dragon trip on F2P. The wiki lists every green dragon location, including the Wilderness ones, as members-only.

When to Move On

Switch when one of these is true:

• You can afford a bond. On members, tanning green dragonhide at the same tannery pays about 1.03M an hour against 127k for cowhide; the money making hub has the rest.
• Your best row is under 150k an hour and the next unlock (43 Magic, 32 quest points) is close. Train toward it instead of grinding the slow row.
• You only log in to adjust offers. That is flipping, covered in the GE flipping guide.

FAQ

Still stuck on a mechanic? Ask the team on our Discord, it is free.

Where paid help fits

If the bond table shows more hours than you want to spend, our OSRS gold page lists the current rate per million. Everything above works without it; the tables are there so you can price your own time first.