Grok pricing is the most sprawling in AI: five consumer tiers running from $8 to $300 a month, a free plan with tight limits, and a per-token API that undercuts almost everyone. xAI splits its plans across X (formerly Twitter) and the standalone Grok app, which is where most of the confusion starts. This guide untangles all of it with prices verified in July 2026 – what each tier costs, what the free plan actually allows, and how Grok stacks up against ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.
How Grok pricing works: X plans vs SuperGrok vs API
- X Premium tiers – Grok bundled inside X (Twitter), starting at $8/month, with platform-specific usage limits.
- SuperGrok tiers – the standalone Grok app subscriptions ($10 to $300), with full standalone feature access.
- Grok API – per-token developer pricing for building on Grok models.
The overlap between X Premium and SuperGrok is the main source of confusion: X Premium+ at $40 gives you Grok inside X, while SuperGrok at $30 gives you the full standalone app – so the pricier plan is not always the more capable one for pure Grok use. The same subscription-versus-API split applies at every provider; our ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini pricing guides break down their versions.
Grok consumer plans in 2026
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | ~10 requests / 2 hours, basic models, no advanced features |
| X Premium | $8/month | Grok inside X with platform limits |
| SuperGrok Lite | $10/month | Entry standalone tier, 480p image/video, one AI agent, 2x free-tier chats |
| SuperGrok | $30/month | Full Grok 4 (128K context), DeepSearch, Big Brain, Voice, unlimited images |
| X Premium+ | $40/month | Grok in X with full standalone feature access |
| SuperGrok Heavy | $300/month | Grok 4 Heavy multi-agent model, 256K context, highest limits, priority access |
Two things stand out in Grok pricing tiers. First, the $30 SuperGrok tier is priced above the $20 standard plans at every competitor – xAI charges a premium for its standard app. Second, SuperGrok Heavy at $300 is the single most expensive individual AI subscription on the market, more than double the $200 top tiers at ChatGPT, Claude, and Google.
The Grok free tier: what you actually get
The free plan is a genuine trial, not a daily driver. You get roughly 10 requests every two hours – in practice around 60 text prompts and a small number of images per month – on the basic models only. The advanced features that define Grok (DeepSearch web research, Big Brain reasoning, Voice mode, Grok 4 Heavy) are all paywalled. If Grok’s appeal for you is its real-time X integration and multi-agent reasoning, none of that is in the free tier.
Grok API pricing: token rates
For developers, Grok is billed per token and is aggressively priced:
| Tier | Input / 1M | Output / 1M | Context |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grok 4-tier chat models | $1.25 | $2.50 | 1M tokens |
| Grok code model | $1.00 | $2.00 | 256K tokens |
That $2.50 output rate is the headline: it is a fraction of what the comparable flagship tiers cost at OpenAI (GPT-5.6 Sol at $30 output) and Anthropic (Opus 4.8 at $25 output). Grok also offers a free API tier with rate limits for prototyping. The tradeoff is ecosystem maturity – Grok’s API tooling and integrations are younger than the alternatives.
Grok vs ChatGPT vs Claude vs Gemini on price
| Grok / xAI | ChatGPT | Claude | Gemini | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cheapest paid plan | $8 (X Premium) | $8 (Go) | $20 (Pro) | $7.99 (AI Plus) |
| Standard plan | $30 (SuperGrok) | $20 (Plus) | $20 (Pro) | $19.99 (AI Pro) |
| Top individual plan | $300 (Heavy) | $200 (Pro) | $200 (Max 20x) | $200 (Ultra) |
| Flagship API output / 1M | $2.50 | $30 (GPT-5.6 Sol) | $25 (Opus 4.8) | $12 (3.1 Pro) |
The picture is split cleanly: Grok is the cheapest place to run a flagship model on the API, and among the most expensive places to subscribe as a consumer. If you are a developer, Grok’s token economics are hard to beat. If you are an individual user, the $30 standard tier and $300 top tier make Grok a premium choice you pick for its capabilities, not its price.
Which Grok plan should you choose?
- Just curious: the free tier is enough to sample it.
- Heavy X user: X Premium at $8 or Premium+ at $40 if you want Grok woven into your X experience.
- Standalone Grok as your main assistant: SuperGrok at $30 – accept that it costs more than a $20 competitor.
- Professional reasoning work: SuperGrok Heavy at $300, only if you genuinely need Grok 4 Heavy’s multi-agent power.
- Developers: the API, which is where Grok’s pricing is genuinely class-leading – start on the free tier.
Our take
Grok pricing is the clearest example of a two-speed pricing strategy in AI: subscribe and you pay a premium, build on the API and you pay less than almost anyone. For most individual users, a $20 plan from a competitor delivers comparable capability for less – Grok is worth its subscription premium mainly if you specifically want its X integration or multi-agent reasoning. For developers, though, the API rates are a genuine reason to look. For how the wider model landscape is shifting, our ChatGPT and Claude updates hubs track the moves month to month.
What is the cheapest Grok price?
The cheapest paid Grok access is X Premium at $8 a month, which unlocks Grok inside X (Twitter) with platform limits. For the standalone Grok app, SuperGrok Lite at $10 a month is the entry point. Below that, the free tier costs nothing but caps you at roughly 10 requests every two hours with no advanced features.
What are the limits on Grok free?
The free tier runs about 10 requests every two hours – in practice roughly 60 text prompts and a handful of images per month – and excludes the advanced features: no DeepSearch, no Big Brain mode, limited model access, and no Grok 4 Heavy. It is enough to try Grok, not enough for daily work.
What is the difference between free and paid Grok?
Paid tiers remove the every-two-hours request cap and unlock the real feature set: DeepSearch, Voice mode, Big Brain reasoning, unlimited image generation, and access to the strongest models. SuperGrok at $30 adds full Grok 4 with a 128K context, and SuperGrok Heavy at $300 adds Grok 4 Heavy, the multi-agent reasoning model, with the highest limits in the lineup.
Is a Grok subscription worth the price?
For X power users and people who want xAI’s multi-agent reasoning, the $30 SuperGrok tier is the sweet spot – though it costs more than the $20 standard tiers at OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. The $300 Heavy plan is only worth it for professionals who need Grok 4 Heavy’s parallel-reasoning power; most users are better served by a $20 competitor plan unless they specifically want Grok.
How much is SuperGrok per month?
SuperGrok is $30 a month, or $300 a year (two months free). That tier includes full Grok 4 access at a 128K context window, DeepSearch, Big Brain and Voice modes, unlimited image generation, and daily video renders. SuperGrok Lite is a cheaper $10 version with reduced limits; SuperGrok Heavy is the $300 top tier.
What is SuperGrok Heavy and is it worth $300?
SuperGrok Heavy at $300 a month is xAI’s top consumer plan. It is the tier with confirmed full access to the newest Grok models and the only one that includes Grok 4 Heavy – a multi-agent reasoning model with a 256K context window and parallel test-time compute. It is aimed at professionals doing heavy reasoning work; for everyday use it is hard to justify over a $20-30 plan.
How much does the Grok API cost?
Grok’s API bills per token: the Grok 4-tier chat models cost about $1.25 per million input tokens and $2.50 per million output tokens with a 1M-token context window, and the code-focused model runs roughly $1.00/$2.00 with a 256K context. There is also a free API tier with rate limits for prototyping. Those output rates are among the lowest of any flagship-tier model.
Is Grok cheaper than ChatGPT and Claude?
On the API, yes – Grok’s ~$1.25/$2.50 flagship rate undercuts GPT-5.6 and Claude Opus by a wide margin on output tokens. On subscriptions it is more mixed: X Premium at $8 is cheap, but the standalone SuperGrok tier at $30 costs more than the $20 standard plans at ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. And at $300, SuperGrok Heavy is the most expensive individual AI plan on the market.
