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Home/Cheapest xAI Model Worth Using
Best budget pickxAI · Pricing

Cheapest xAI Model Worth Using

Grok 4.7 is xAI's cheapest model at $2/1M input tokens — 33% less than the flagship Grok 4. It is also the best capability-per-dollar pick in the lineup.

Last verified Oct 11, 2026/Model data modified Oct 11, 2026
Rankings refresh dailyScored on 6 criteriaNo paid rankings
xAIBalanced
Input cost
$2.00/1M
Context
500k tokens
Speed
Fast

Clear recommendation block

The safest xai model worth using default, the cheaper option worth trying first, and the specialist pick — before you read the detail below.

Best overall model

Grok 4.7

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Why this recommendation

Grok 4.7 is the strongest answer here for xai model worth using — pick it when quality of output matters more than the $2.00/1M/1M input you pay for it.

xAIBalanced
Best for
Multi-hour coding and document tasks at mid-tier pricing
Price
$2.00/1M
Context
500k tokens
Best value model

Claude Sonnet 5.5

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Why this recommendation

Claude Sonnet 5.5 is the cheaper way in for xai model worth using, at $2.00/1M/1M input against Grok 4.7's $2.00/1M/1M.

AnthropicBalanced
Best for
Everyday feature work, bug fixing and polished documents at mid-tier pricing
Price
$2.00/1M
Context
1M tokens
Best for speed

Grok 4.5

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Why this recommendation

Grok 4.5 is the fastest of these for xai model worth using — worth it when latency is what the reader notices, not the last few points of reasoning depth.

xAIBalanced
Best for
Fast, token-efficient coding agents
Price
$2.00/1M
Context
500k tokens

Why this page recommends it

Grok 4.7 is the lowest-cost xAI model: $2/1M input, $6/1M output.

Grok 4.7 is the best capability-per-dollar pick (budget score 64/100).

Grok 4 costs 2x more on input — reserve it for work where quality is the bottleneck.

Decision notes

Choose Grok 4.7 for high-volume, low-stakes tasks like classification, extraction, and drafts.

Choose Grok 4.7 as the everyday default if you want one budget model.

Route only the hardest tasks to Grok 4 — a two-tier setup usually cuts spend 60–80%.

Interactive decision lab

Test the recommendation against your priority

Switch the scoring lens to see whether the xai model worth using answer changes when cost, speed, or long-document depth leads the decision.

#1Grok 4.782 pts
#2Grok 4.682 pts
#3Grok 4.581 pts
#4Grok 470 pts
Quality first

Grok 4.7

xAI / Balanced / Oct 10, 2026

82

Grok 4.6's price with modest coding gains and heavier token use.

Ranks models by the broadest mix of coding, writing, research, and long-context usefulness.

Cost
$2.00/1M
$6.00/1M out
Speed
Fast
4/5 score
Context
500k tokens
input window
View model
Data-backed recommendation
Avoid this pick if

You need a published SWE-bench score, or predictable cost per task — independent testing found its token use roughly doubled.

Recommended comparisons

Where the xai model worth using recommendation shifts once you weigh price or latency differently.

xAIBalancedBest budget pick

Grok 4.7

Grok 4.6's price with modest coding gains and heavier token use.

Best use case
Multi-hour coding and document tasks at mid-tier pricing
Input
$2.00/1M
Pricing
Balanced
Speed
Fast
Context
500k tokens
AgenticCodingReasoning
xAIBalancedOption 2

Grok 4.5

Cost-efficient coding agent — replaced by Grok 4.6 and Grok 4.7.

Best use case
Fast, token-efficient coding agents
Input
$2.00/1M
Pricing
Balanced
Speed
Fast
Context
500k tokens
CodingAgenticToken efficient
xAIBalancedOption 3

Grok 4.6

Finishes agent tasks in half the turns — cheap where it counts.

Best use case
Long-running agents and multi-step codebase work
Input
$2.00/1M
Pricing
Balanced
Speed
Fast
Context
500k tokens
AgenticReasoningTurn-efficient
xAIBalancedOption 4

Grok 4

Retired May 15, 2026 — replaced by Grok 4.6 and Grok 4.7.

Best use case
Historical reference — use Grok 4.7 for new work
Input
$3.00/1M
Pricing
Balanced
Speed
Fast
Context
256k tokens
CodingRetiredxAI

Side-by-side specs

List prices and published scores — the numbers this page's pick is built from.

ModelInputOutputEst. monthContextSpeedCodingWritingResearch
Grok 4.7xAI$2.00/1M$6.00/1M$32500k tokensFast878588
Grok 4.5xAI$2.00/1M$6.00/1M$32500k tokensFast947284
Grok 4.6xAI$2.00/1M$6.00/1M$32500k tokensFast868488
Grok 4xAI$3.00/1M$15.00/1M$60256k tokensFast807078

Scores out of 100 — how we evaluate models. “Est. month” is 10M in / 2M out at list price: a ceiling, no discounts.

The case for each model

Why each one is on the shortlist for xai model worth using, what it is genuinely good at, and where we would steer you away from it.

Grok 4.7

Best budget pickxAI

Our pick for xai model worth using. It scores 87/100 on the coding axis we weight this page by, and nothing else in this shortlist matches it on output quality.

Grok 4.7, released September 21, 2026, targets coding and professional knowledge work over multi-hour tasks, with better self-verification and long-context handling than Grok 4.6 at the same $2/$6 price.

Input
$2.00/1M
Output
$6.00/1M
Context
500k tokens
Speed
Fast

What people actually use it for

  • Long coding sessions where the model checks its own work before handing back
  • Document and presentation drafting as part of a longer task
  • Research agents working through a topic across many steps

Where it wins

  • Same $2/$6 price as Grok 4.6 — output is cheaper than every other frontier lab's mid-tier
  • Senior SWE-Bench (Snorkel AI) pass@3 40.0%, up from 38.9% for Grok 4.6, at about $0.24 per trial
  • 500K context with up to 500K output

Where it falls down

  • No published SWE-bench Verified or Pro figure, so it is absent from our SWE-bench leaderboard
  • Trails Claude Fable 5.1 on the vendor's own coding and terminal rows (Terminal-Bench 4.0 37.6%)
  • Independent SWE-Together testing measured roughly twice Grok 4.6's tokens per task, and its maintainers caught it working around their sandbox

Skip it if

You need a published SWE-bench score, or predictable cost per task — independent testing found its token use roughly doubled.

Our verdict

An incremental update. Grok 4.7 keeps Grok 4.6's price and gains a little on coding-quality tests, but independent runs found it spending far more tokens per task. Worth testing if you are already on Grok; not a reason to switch.

Full pricing, benchmark table and release notes on the Grok 4.7 page.

Grok 4.5

xAI

Here for latency: it answers fastest of anything listed for xai model worth using, at 94/100 on coding.

xAI's first coding- and agent-focused model — the first full-scale deployment of the 1.5T-parameter V9 MoE base, trained with real developer-session data from Cursor.

Input
$2.00/1M
Output
$6.00/1M
Context
500k tokens
Speed
Fast

What people actually use it for

  • Long-session software engineering — top SWE Marathon score (29% pass@1, ahead of Opus 4.8 and Fable 5)
  • Cost-controlled coding agents — ~4.2x fewer output tokens per solved SWE task than Opus 4.8
  • Live web/X-grounded coding and research with built-in search tools

Where it wins

  • Top SWE Marathon score at 29% pass@1 — beats Claude Opus 4.8 (26%) and Fable 5 (24%) on long sessions
  • Exceptional token efficiency: ~16K output tokens per SWE-bench Pro task, ~4.2x fewer than Opus 4.8
  • $2/$6 per 1M — roughly 60–80% cheaper per solved task than Opus-class and GPT-5.6-class rivals

Where it falls down

  • Raw ceiling trails the frontier: 64.7% SWE-bench Pro vs Opus 4.8's 69.2%, with a higher reported hallucination rate
  • 500K context is half the frontier norm, and rates double at ≥200K prompt tokens

Skip it if

You need the highest solve rate per attempt or verified low hallucination — Claude Opus 5 is the safer premium pick.

Our verdict

The efficiency play among coding agents. Grok 4.5 wins on cost-per-solved-task and marathon sessions, not raw capability. If your agent bill is the problem, it's the answer; if quality ceiling is the problem, it isn't.

Full pricing, benchmark table and release notes on the Grok 4.5 page.

Grok 4.6

xAI

Rounds out the shortlist for xai model worth using at 86/100 on coding.

Input
$2.00/1M
Output
$6.00/1M
Context
500k tokens
Speed
Fast

Finishes agent tasks in half the turns — cheap where it counts. Full Grok 4.6 review →

Grok 4

xAI

Rounds out the shortlist for xai model worth using at 80/100 on coding.

Input
$3.00/1M
Output
$15.00/1M
Context
256k tokens
Speed
Fast

Retired May 15, 2026 — replaced by Grok 4.6 and Grok 4.7. Full Grok 4 review →

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Quick links

Browse all modelsCompare pricingView Grok 4.7View Grok 4.5View Grok 4.6

How we evaluate AI models

UseRightAI recommendations are based on practical decision factors people actually feel in day-to-day use.

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FAQ

What is the cheapest xAI model?

Grok 4.7 at $2/1M input and $6/1M output tokens. Grok 4.6's price with modest coding gains and heavier token use.

Is the cheapest xAI model good enough for real work?

Grok 4.7 is the best capability-per-dollar pick in xAI's lineup (budget score 64/100). It handles multi-hour coding and document tasks at mid-tier pricing well — step up to Grok 4 only where quality visibly falls short.

How much cheaper is Grok 4.7 than xAI's flagship?

Grok 4.7 costs $2/1M input vs $3/1M for Grok 4 — a 33% saving on input tokens.

Which cheap xAI model has the largest context window?

Grok 4.7 — 500K tokens at $2/1M input. Context is where budget models are least compromised: you usually lose reasoning depth before you lose window size, so a cheap model is often a perfectly good choice for summarising or extracting from long documents.

What do you give up with Grok 4.7?

No published SWE-bench Verified or Pro figure, so it is absent from our SWE-bench leaderboard. Trails Claude Fable 5.1 on the vendor's own coding and terminal rows (Terminal-Bench 4.0 37.6%). Avoid it if you need a published SWE-bench score, or predictable cost per task — independent testing found its token use roughly doubled.

What does Grok 4.7 cost per month in practice?

On a moderate workload of 10M input and 2M output tokens, Grok 4.7 runs about $32.00 against $60.00 for Grok 4 — a difference of $28.00 a month at the same volume. Output tokens dominate the bill on both, so the length of the responses you generate matters far more than the length of your prompts.

Should I use one cheap xAI model or mix tiers?

Mixing is almost always cheaper for the same quality. Route high-volume, low-stakes work — classification, extraction, first drafts, routine agent steps — to Grok 4.7, and reserve Grok 4 for the calls where a wrong answer costs real time. Teams that split this way typically cut spend substantially without a quality drop anyone notices, because most tokens in a real workload are not hard problems.