MTA:SA review 2026: how Multi Theft Auto: San Andreas turns GTA: San Andreas into free open-source multiplayer, its Lua scripting, and top alternatives.
Multi Theft Auto: San Andreas (MTA:SA) is a free, open-source multiplayer modification that adds networked online play to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, a single-player game originally released in 2004. Developed and maintained by the volunteer MTA Team, the project's roots trace back to 2003, when an early two-player GTA III multiplayer prototype first demonstrated the concept.
Early playable San Andreas content appeared in January 2006, and the project has since been fully open-sourced under the GPLv3 license, with development continuing publicly on GitHub. More than two decades after its origins, MTA:SA remains actively played, with reports of tens of thousands of concurrent players across its many community-run servers.
At its core, MTA:SA acts as a game engine that injects stable networked multiplayer into GTA: San Andreas, supporting up to hundreds of players on a single server. Its defining feature is deep Lua scripting support, which lets server owners build entirely custom game modes, from realistic roleplay cities to racing leagues and deathmatch arenas, on top of the shared engine.
Because MTA:SA is open source and non-commercial, its community has produced an extensive ecosystem of custom maps, resources, and scripts that server administrators can freely install and modify, giving the platform a level of customization rarely found in commercially maintained multiplayer games.
MTA:SA is completely free to download and play, distributed under the GPLv3 open-source license with no purchase price, subscription, or in-app monetization from the MTA Team itself. Players do need a legally owned copy of the base game, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, to run it.
Individual community servers may implement their own optional donation or perk systems, but the core MTA:SA software and official infrastructure carry no cost and are maintained by volunteer developers.
Yes, Multi Theft Auto: San Andreas is completely free and open source, though you need to own a legal copy of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas to play it.
MTA:SA adds multiplayer functionality to Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the 2004 Rockstar North game.
Server owners use the Lua scripting language to build custom rules, mechanics, and entire game modes on top of the core MTA:SA engine.
Yes, MTA:SA has remained actively played for over two decades, with community reports of tens of thousands of concurrent players across its servers.
Yes, MTA:SA's source code is open source under the GPLv3 license and hosted publicly on GitHub under the multitheftauto organization.
Both are multiplayer mods for GTA: San Andreas, but MTA:SA is fully open source and uses Lua scripting, giving it a different technical foundation and community ecosystem than SA-MP.