Is Grok 4 free? — a close look as of August 2025
Grok 4 — the latest flagship model from xAI — is the hot topic in AI circles this summer. Its debut has reignited the competition between xAI, OpenAI, Google and Anthropic for the “most capable general-purpose model,” and with that race comes the inevitable question for everyday users, developers and businesses: is Grok 4 free? The short answer is: partly — with important caveats. Below I unpack what xAI has announced, how access is being distributed across tiers, what “free” actually looks like in practice, and what you should consider when deciding whether to test, adopt or pay for Grok 4.
What Grok 4 is
Grok 4 is xAI’s frontier reasoning model trained at very large scale (their “Colossus” cluster). It was built to think longer and use tools (code interpreter, web search, X search) as part of its reasoning, supports a 256,000-token context window, and has a “Heavy” variant that runs multi-agent / parallel hypothesis evaluation for better accuracy on hard tasks. It also has upgraded voice and multimodal/vision ambitions.
Key features
- Native tool use — Grok can call a code interpreter, browse/search the web and X, and use internal tools to augment answers.
- Real-time / live search integration — can use a live-search API to fetch up-to-date info (Live Search has its own cost).
- Huge context window — 256k tokens, useful for long documents, books, or long conversations.
- Grok 4 Heavy (multi-agent) — a higher-compute variant that considers multiple hypotheses in parallel (sold as “Heavy” for power users/researchers).
- API + consumer app support — available through grok.com / X apps and as an API (multimodal features rolling out).
Is Grok 4 free?
- In-app: Yes,but it’s conditional and time-limited. xAI and its official X (formerly Twitter) account published messages during the launch window indicating that Grok 4 would be made available for free to all users for a limited promotional period, with the caveat that free access would be subject to usage limits and routing rules (e.g., Auto mode routing more difficult prompts to Grok 4 rather than always forcing Grok 4 on every interaction).After the free times of grok4 are used up, it will revert to grok3(Free-tier users are limited to 5 queries every 12 hours.).
- API / production use: Not free — API usage is billed per the token pricing under. If you plan to integrate Grok 4 into an app or do sustained workloads, expect to pay via the API.
What does it cost (paid options & API pricing)?
Subscription tiers (consumer / in-app):
- SuperGrok (consumer premium tier): generally reported around $30 / month (regional pricing may vary; sometimes presented as annual options).
- SuperGrok Heavy (top tier): reported at $300 / month for early/Heavy access and extra features. This is the ultra-premium consumer tier for Grok 4 Heavy.
Subscription Tiers
| Tier Name | Price | Access Details |
|---|---|---|
| SuperGrok | ~$30/month | Provides regular Grok 4 access via web, app, or X |
| SuperGrok Heavy | $300/month | Unlocks Grok 4 Heavy, a multi-agent, higher-compute variant |
API (token-based) pricing (official):
xAI’s public docs list per-token API pricing for Grok 4 as (model alias: grok-4-0709 / grok-4):
- Input tokens: $3.00 per 1,000,000 tokens
- Cached input tokens: $0.75 per 1,000,000 tokens
- Output tokens: $15.00 per 1,000,000 tokens
- Live search (retrieval) add-on: $25.00 per 1,000 sources (so live search usage increases API costs).
(There are separate higher rates if you exceed the base context window; see the docs for full details.)
Quick cost examples (API) — realistic, small examples so you can estimate:
- 1,000 input tokens + 1,000 output tokens ≈ $0.018.
- 10,000 input + 10,000 output ≈ $0.18.
- 100,000 input + 100,000 output ≈ $1.80.
- 1,000,000 input + 1,000,000 output ≈ $18.00.
(These come directly from the $3/1M and $15/1M rates; live search runs on top of that.)
Live search example: fetching/retrieving from 10 live sources ≈ $0.25 (because live search is $25 per 1,000 sources).
Rate Limits for API Usage
- Requests per minute: up to 480 rpm
- Tokens per minute: up to 2,000,000 tpm
Use Grok4 via CometAPI,20% off the official price
CometAPI is a unified API platform that aggregates over 500 AI models from leading providers—such as OpenAI’s GPT series, Google’s Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude, Midjourney, Suno, and more—into a single, developer-friendly interface. By offering consistent authentication, request formatting, and response handling, CometAPI dramatically simplifies the integration of AI capabilities into your applications. Whether you’re building chatbots, image generators, music composers, or data‐driven analytics pipelines, CometAPI lets you iterate faster, control costs, and remain vendor-agnostic—all while tapping into the latest breakthroughs across the AI ecosystem.
Developers can access Grok 4 (grok-4; grok-4-0709)through CometAPI , the latest models version listed are as of the article’s publication date. To begin, explore the model’s capabilities in the Playground and consult the API guide for detailed instructions. Before accessing, please make sure you have logged in to CometAPI and obtained the API key. CometAPI offer a price far lower than the official price to help you integrate.
Price:
- Input Tokens: $2.4/ M tokens
- Output Tokens: $12/ M tokens
What that means in practice: paying subscribers get predictable higher throughput, priority access and fewer or no throttles. Heavy-tier subscribers get additional compute and concurrency for complex, large-context jobs. The free window is useful for testing, but production workloads and high-volume use cases will require paid tiers.
Is There a Catch to the Free Access to Grok 4?
Absolutely—free doesn’t mean unrestricted.
Usage Limits and Restrictions
Caps like 5 queries per 12 hours apply, with upgrades prompted for more. Features like Grok Imagine are US-only temporarily.
Availability of Advanced Features
Grok 4 Heavy, for the toughest tasks, requires payment. Free users miss out on unlimited priority access.
Temporary Nature of the Offer
Many sources label it “for a limited time,” suggesting it could revert to paid-only.
In conclusion, Grok 4 is indeed free as of August 19, 2025, offering unprecedented access to advanced AI for everyone, though with limits to encourage subscriptions. This development not only enhances user experiences but also reshapes the AI competitive landscape.
How can individuals and developers use Grok 4 for free (or cheaply)?
Practical entry paths
If you want to experiment with Grok 4 without paying upfront, here are practical routes:
- Use the free consumer experience on grok.com: xAI has enabled a public route that includes constrained Grok 4 access for non-paying users. That’s the easiest way to get an immediate feel for the model.
- Use third-party integrations: Third-party integration platforms will provide trial credits, which you can use to use grok 4. For example, CometAPI provides a trial of $0.1 to new users, and it also offers a discount of at least 20% below the official price, which is very cost-effective.
Caveats and ethical considerations
Using “free” access to probe a model is reasonable, but respect the platform’s terms and rate limits. For developers or companies thinking about production use, don’t assume the free lane will meet uptime, privacy or performance requirements; plan for paid tiers or enterprise agreements for guaranteed service levels. Also consider data-handling and privacy disclosures when sending sensitive information to any third-party model.
How should you decide whether to rely on free Grok 4 or pay?
Ask three quick questions:
- Will you need Grok 4 reliably? If your work demands consistent capacity, paid tiers are the right choice.
- Is your usage experimental or production? Experimentation is a perfect match for a free trial; production needs paid SLAs.
- Do you need advanced features like Grok 4 Heavy? If yes, expect to pay for the Heavy tier.
Final verdict: is Grok 4 free?
Grok 4 is partly free: xAI provides a limited free access path so that users can try the model, but the full capabilities — higher quotas, the Grok 4 Heavy variant, priority access and broad API use — are paid. That hybrid model of “taste for free, pay for scale” is intentionally designed: it drives adoption and evaluation while reserving premium performance for paying customers. If your immediate goal is experimentation or occasional use, the free tier will likely suffice. If you need sustained, commercial or high-volume access, budget for a paid tier or API usage.
