Grok 4
xAI · Grok
xAI's flagship Grok model focused on frontier reasoning, long context, and tool-oriented assistant workflows.
Overview
Freshness note: Model capabilities, limits, and pricing can change quickly. This profile is a point-in-time snapshot last verified on February 15, 2026.
Grok 4 is xAI’s flagship model for advanced language and agent workflows. It sits at the top of the Grok API lineup and is positioned for high-reasoning tasks, coding support, and tool-augmented execution.
In practical product design, Grok 4 is the premium tier for difficult queries, with faster or cheaper variants used for high-volume traffic.
Capabilities
Grok 4 is typically selected for:
- Complex reasoning chains where intermediate constraints must be preserved.
- Tool-calling assistants that execute multi-step workflows.
- Coding and debugging use cases requiring strong analytical output.
- Long-context tasks where large prompts or retrieval packs are required.
- Real-time informed assistants when paired with xAI/X ecosystem integrations.
Its primary value is balancing frontier capability with strong tool use in an API-first setup.
Technical Details
xAI’s API documentation and model catalog list Grok 4 with:
- 256K context window.
- High-tier pricing profile compared with Grok fast variants.
- API-first access model with support for modern assistant/tool patterns.
xAI publicly documents context capacity but does not always separate a distinct “max generation” cap in the same way all providers do. In this profile, maxOutput tracks the documented upper-bound context ceiling for quick-reference consistency.
In production, this means teams should enforce explicit output caps at the application layer rather than assuming provider-level defaults are consistent across all integration paths.
Pricing & Access
Listed API pricing (per 1M tokens):
- Input: $3.00
- Output: $15.00
Access options:
- xAI API platform
- Grok consumer surfaces and partner integrations depending on plan/tier
Because output pricing is significantly higher than input, use strict output-format constraints and routing guards in production.
Best Use Cases
Use Grok 4 for:
- Advanced agent workflows with tool calls and error-recovery loops.
- High-value coding/reasoning queries that justify premium rates.
- Assistants that benefit from xAI ecosystem integration.
- Analysis tasks where long context and directness are priorities.
Avoid using Grok 4 for simple, high-volume requests that cheaper variants can handle. If your product has large traffic spikes, combine Grok 4 with fallback tiers and strict timeouts so premium routes do not become a cost or latency bottleneck.
Comparisons
- GPT-5 (OpenAI): Similar top-tier positioning; GPT-5 often offers broader ecosystem maturity, while Grok can be attractive for xAI-native product stacks.
- Claude Opus 4.6 (Anthropic): Opus is strong on conservative instruction adherence and enterprise governance; Grok emphasizes fast-moving frontier behavior and tool-centric usage.
- Gemini 3 Pro Preview (Google): Gemini is stronger in built-in multimodal breadth; Grok is competitive for language-first reasoning and xAI platform integration.