During the game's opening cutscene at the Los Santos International Airport terminal, a listing for Carcer City from the game Manhunt can be seen on the travel schedule board behind CJ.

A pedestrian bears a striking resemblance to Sharon Stone's character Catherine Tramell in the film "Basic Instinct". The film came out the same year that the game takes place in, 1992.

There is a pedestrian that bears a resemblance to Tupac Shakur's character Bishop in the film "Juice". The film came out the same year that the game takes place in, 1992.

A pedestrian in the game wears clothes that bear a striking resemblance to an outfit that Cuba Gooding Jr.'s character Tre wears in the film Boyz n the Hood, a film that heavily influenced the game.

San Fierro was originally named "San Fiero". This can be seen on unused textures within the game's files.

David Cross, the actor who voiced Zero in the game, said that he hated the mission "Supply Lines", which his character was in, because of how difficult it was and finding his voice accompanied with it to be annoying.

In an interview, Cross said, "It's the most annoying voice you could imagine, accompanying that," "I stopped, I tried to cheat, I could not listen to myself, it was so annoying," "So annoying. I hated it. And I couldn't fucking do it. The RC thing? ... It's impossible."

On the Tiki Theater Xymposium building in Los Santos, close to Grove Street, there is a giant tiki idol resembling one of the collectible hidden packages from Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

Pictures of characters from Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City are used on the playing cards in the Video Poker minigame.

If the player fails the Running Dog mission while CJ's fat level is over 50%, Big Smoke will call CJ afterward. He tells CJ to go to the gym and lose some weight.

The beta version of Big Smoke is shown wearing a white jersey and black trousers, with Smoke having a bald head. This can be seen on the statue of Smoke in his crack palace in East Los Santos.

The beta version of Sweet wore a black t-shirt, a long sleeved white undershirt, black trousers and a black skully, which can be seen in a picture inside the Johnson House.

The full sized Micro SMG (alternatively called Uzi) was originally intended to be featured in the game, but it was cut from the final release. It can be seen in several beta screenshots.

There are unused files for the M249E2 SAW which was originally intended to be included in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, but was never actually in it. They can be found in the PS2 version.

The original beta name for Grove Street Families was Orange Grove Families. Beta graffiti around South Central Los Santos referring to the "Orange Grove Families" and the "OGF" still exist. Likewise, CJ can get a tattoo on his upper back in Los Santos that references the "Orange Grove Families". CJ will also sometimes shout out phrases related to the "Orange Grove Families" and the "OGF" during a fight.

In The Introduction, a twenty minute video that was available with the North American PS2 Special Edition of GTA San Andreas or the official soundtrack double CD, the appearance of Sex Club Seven in the Liberty City scene is a canonical error. Before 1998, it was called Paulie's Revue Bar. This happened because Rockstar wrote GTA Liberty City Stories after GTA San Andreas.

The TEC 9 has no recoil animation.

The PSG-1 was originally going to make an appearance, but it was removed. It can still be seen in Ammu-Nation, and the Sniper Rifle's HUD icon resembles the PSG-1.

In the mission, Nines and AK's, during the cutscene, Emmet is wearing a red shirt under his jacket, but during gameplay, while learning how to shoot, Emmet is wearing a white shirt under his jacket.

In the mission 'Madd Dogg's Ryhmes', one of the security guards playing a video game (possibly DRIV3R) says, "This sucks, I mean, how could Refractions mess up so bad? You suck Tanner!" This is actually an Easter egg mocking the game DRIV3R, which some consider to be a Grand Theft Auto clone; the main character's name is Tanner, and the game is made by "Reflections".

The Jetpack has an unused HUD icon, although it can still be found in the game's files.