xAI launches grok-4.5 as a premium flagship at $2 / $6 per 1M tokens
xAI shipped grok-4.5, an intelligence-first flagship (500k context) priced at $2 in / $6 out per 1M tokens — its first new flagship priced above the prior one, with grok-4.3 kept live at $1.25 / $2.50.
Flagship grok-4.3 at $1.25 in / $2.50 out per 1M tokens (1M context); SuperGrok runs Grok 4
New flagship grok-4.5 at $2 in / $0.50 cached / $6 out per 1M tokens (500k context); grok-4.3 stays live; SuperGrok now runs Grok 4.5; SuperGrok Lite rung added
xAI released grok-4.5, positioned as its most intelligent model for code and general use, on the Grok API with a 500k-token context window and a February 2026 knowledge cutoff. It is priced at $2.00 input / $0.50 cached / $6.00 output per 1M tokens — notably above the still-live grok-4.3 ($1.25 / $2.50), the first time xAI has priced a new flagship higher than its predecessor rather than continuing its multi-year per-token markdown. The company keeps the cheaper grok-4.3 available and reserves the premium for higher intelligence.
The launch coincides with new API billing mechanics on the docs pricing page (updated 2026-07-09): a 20% Batch API discount on grok-4.3 and grok-4.20 variants, a 2x Priority Processing premium, file/collection storage fees ($0.025 and $0.10 per GiB/day), $0.20/GiB downloads, and a $0.05 usage-guideline violation fee. On the consumer side, SuperGrok ($30/mo) now runs Grok 4.5 and a new SuperGrok Lite rung appears in the plan ladder between Free and SuperGrok.
xAI merges the separate Code API and Chat API rate tables into a single Text API table and adds a second rate column for long context, roughly 2x the short-context rate: grok-4.5 $4.00 in / $0.60 cached / $12.00 out, grok-4.3 and the grok-4.20 variants $2.50 / $0.40 / $5.00, grok-build-0.1 $2.00 / $0.40 / $4.00. Crossing a model's long-context threshold reprices every token in that request, not just the tokens past the line. In the same release grok-4.5 cached input drops from $0.50 to $0.30 per 1M tokens (-40%), while short-context headline rates, agentic tool rates, Batch (−20%), Priority (2x) and consumer plans are unchanged. (Source: docs.x.ai/docs/pricing, live capture 2026-07-21.)