xAI Grok

Listed at https://console.x.ai

Overall Rank #4 ⭐⭐ Recommended
❌ Proxy required | 🌍 International

💰 Token Pricing

TypePriceNote
Input Grok 4.6: $2/M tokens (fast variant $4/M) per million tokens
Output Grok 4.6: $6/M tokens (fast variant $12/M) per million tokens
💡 Free Credits:

🤖 Supported Models (4)

Grok 4.6Grok 4.6 FastGrok 4.5Grok 4.5 Fast

✨ Pros

  • Grok 4.6 (Aug 12) matches GPT-5.6 Sol on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (61)
  • Built for long-running agents: multi-step research, coding, turning ideas into working artifacts
  • Priced $2/$6 per M tokens, roughly half the cost of comparable frontier models
  • Fast variant at 2x price for low-latency workloads
  • OpenAI-compatible API; available in Cursor, Grok Build, and via OpenRouter, Vercel, Cloudflare

⚠️ Cons

  • ×Near-frontier but slightly behind Fable 5 Max on several evals (AA Intelligence 61 vs 62)
  • ×No multimodal input support in this release (positioned for knowledge work and agents)
  • ×Proxy required for China access
  • ×Platform ecosystem (SDKs, tooling) less mature than OpenAI/Anthropic
  • ×No official free API credit at launch

🎯 Best For

Long-running agents and coding (codebase work, multi-step research); developers who want near-frontier quality on a tighter budget; real-time X/Twitter data integration

💰 Pricing & Plans

ModelInput ($/M)Output ($/M)Notes
Grok 4.6$2.00$6.00Flagship, agentic + coding focus (Aug 12, 2026)
Grok 4.6 Fast$4.00$12.00Fast variant at 2x price for low latency
Grok 4.5$2.00$6.00Prior flagship, still served
Grok 4.5 Fast$4.00$12.00Fast variant of prior generation

🔧 API & Developer Experience

  • API Surface: OpenAI-compatible HTTP API at console.x.ai (chat completions, streaming, function calling). The xAI SDK and OpenAI SDK both work, so migration from OpenAI is near-zero.
  • Models: Grok 4.6, Grok 4.6 Fast, plus prior Grok 4.5 / Grok 4.5 Fast. The flagship is tuned for agentic RL across knowledge work, general coding, kernel optimization, web dev and CAD.
  • Availability: Live today in Cursor and Grok Build (2x included usage for the first week), in the API, and through partners OpenRouter, Vercel and Cloudflare.
  • Agentic focus: Stronger first passes on visual/interactive projects and self-testing on longer trajectories; Grok 4.6 checks its own work before moving on, useful for building apps end-to-end.
  • Tools & SDK: x.ai CLI installer (curl https://x.ai/cli/install.sh), full REST docs at docs.x.ai, and integrations with Cursor / Grok Build.
  • No free API tier: Grok 4.6 has no official free API credit at launch; try it free inside Grok Build, then pay-as-you-go via the API.

🚀 Agent-Ready Reasoning & Coding

Grok 4.6's headline is long-running-agent capability: it can research unfamiliar domains, structure an application, implement the core interactions, and keep refining through several rounds of feedback. On official evals it scored GDPVal-AA v2 1753, CursorBench v3.2 69.9%, DeepSWE v1.1 65.9%, and FrontierCode v1.1 (Extended) 61.3%, matching GPT-5.6 Sol on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (61 vs 61) and trailing Fable 5 Max by a single point (62). xAI says Grok 4.6 does a longer supplemental training run with curated model-generated reasoning data and an improved RL recipe, which materially strengthens first-pass output on visual and interactive builds. For a frontier-adjacent model at roughly half the per-token price of rivals, this is the strongest agentic-coding value xAI has shipped to date.

🌐 Regional Availability & Latency

Grok 4.6 is served from xAI's multi-region inference fleet in the US and EU (API console.x.ai), with a dedicated Fast variant priced at 2x that targets low-latency interactive and agent-loop workloads. There is no mainland-China region: direct access from China requires a stable overseas proxy or an aggregator (OpenRouter, Vercel AI Gateway, Cloudflare) that fronts the xAI API. Latency-wise, the standard Grok 4.6 trades a little speed for frontier reasoning; teams needing the quickest first-token time should select the Fast model. Business tiers add dedicated capacity and higher rate limits through xAI sales. For China-based developers, the practical route is an OpenAI-compatible aggregator that can route around regional blocks.