To motivate students, intrinsic interest is generally preferred over the instrumental values (useful for future study/work) of the tasks. Such general principles could be complicated by the differential work-related values and attitudes across cultures. Understanding and applying the appropriate motivational systems in congruence with students' cultural beliefs is important. Using self-determination theory, we examined the possible differential importance (and other complicated interactions) of motivational factors in representative student samples from 19 countries and economies in two cohorts of large-scale international surveys (in total 188,481 students in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study TIMSS, 2015 and 2019). Results showed that emphasizing task instrumental values helped academic performance for students with a low intrinsic interest in collectivistic cultures. In contrast, stressing instrumental values did not help low-interest students in individualistic cultures. Notably, intrinsic motivation facilitates academic performance universally in all cultures. •Low-intrinsic collectivist students will benefit from instrumental motivation.•Only intrinsic motivation was positively influential for individualistic students.•A cultural interactive model is supported.