Grok — built to understand the universe, trained on X.
xAI is Elon Musk's AI lab. Grok 4.6 (August 2026) is their most capable model — built for long-running agents, it finishes agent tasks in roughly half the turns of rivals. Grok keeps its unique real-time X/Twitter integration.
Rankings refresh dailyScored on 6 criteriaNo paid rankings
Grok 4.6 finishes agent tasks in roughly half the turns of rivals — cheap per completed task
Grok has real-time access to X/Twitter data — unique among frontier models
Grok 4.6 ranks 4th on the AA Intelligence Index (61), within reach of Claude Opus 5
8 models
All xAI Models
Every xAI model in the directory, ranked by overall capability score.
xAIBalanced
Grok 4.6
xAI's long-horizon agent model — it finishes agentic tasks in roughly half the turns of its rivals, which makes it cheaper in practice than its per-token price suggests.
Verdict
Finishes agent tasks in half the turns — cheap where it counts.
Quality score
84%
Pricing
$2.00/1M in
$6.00/1M out
Speed
Fast
4/5 speed
Context
500k tokens
Released August 12, 2026, succeeding Grok 4.5. Long-context billing is a cliff, not a ramp: at 200K tokens and above the whole request is charged at $4/$12. DeepSWE 65.9%, CursorBench 3.2 70.8%, FrontierCode 1.1 Extended 61.3%, Terminal-Bench 3.0 26.5%, APEX-Agents 57.5%.
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.
Verdict
Best cost-per-solved-task coding agent — efficiency over ceiling.
Quality score
83%
Pricing
$2.00/1M in
$6.00/1M out
Speed
Fast
4/5 speed
Context
500k tokens
Released July 8, 2026 on the 1.5T-parameter V9 base. Pricing verified on docs.x.ai: $2/$6 under 200K prompt tokens, $4/$12 above. Full access initially gated to SuperGrok Heavy; staged rollout to SuperGrok $30 tier. EU availability lagged launch.
Grok 3 Beta is xAI's flagship large language model, trained on a massive dataset with claimed real-time access to X (Twitter) data and strong reasoning capabilities. It competes directly with frontier models like Claude Sonnet 4 and GPT-4o across coding, analysis, and general tasks.
Verdict
A powerful but unproven flagship that earns its place for STEM and real-time social data use cases, but the beta tag means it's not yet ready to dethrone Anthropic or OpenAI at this price.
Quality score
71%
Pricing
$3.00/1M in
$15.00/1M out
Speed
Balanced
3/5 speed
Context
131k tokens
Model is currently in beta, meaning capabilities and pricing may change. Real-time X data integration depends on xAI's API access policies, which may be subject to change. No image generation support confirmed.
FrontierSTEMReal-timexAIBeta
Best for
Users who want a frontier-capable model with real-time social context from X and strong STEM reasoning at a mid-range price point.
Grok 3 Mini Beta is xAI's lightweight reasoning-capable model designed for cost-efficient tasks that benefit from structured thinking without the full compute of Grok 3. It offers a 128K context window at sub-dollar pricing per million tokens.
Verdict
A surprisingly capable budget reasoner held back only by its beta instability.
Quality score
58%
Pricing
$0.30/1M in
$0.50/1M out
Speed
Fast
4/5 speed
Context
131k tokens
Model is in Beta — API behavior, rate limits, and availability may change without notice. No multimodal support confirmed. Reasoning mode may increase effective latency on complex prompts despite fast base speed.
BudgetReasoningMiniBetaxAI
Best for
Budget-conscious users who need light reasoning and logical tasks without paying flagship prices.
Grok 3 Mini is xAI's lightweight, budget-tier reasoning model built on the Grok 3 architecture, designed to deliver strong logical and analytical performance at a fraction of the cost of flagship models. It targets cost-sensitive workloads where reasoning quality still matters.
Verdict
A sharp budget reasoning model that earns its place when logic matters more than creativity or multimodal support.
Quality score
57%
Pricing
$0.30/1M in
$0.50/1M out
Speed
Fast
4/5 speed
Context
131k tokens
Pricing is highly competitive at $0.30 input / $0.50 output per million tokens. Context window is 131K tokens. No vision/image input support. xAI's API platform is newer and may have availability or rate-limit considerations compared to established providers.
BudgetReasoningLightweightLow CostxAI
Best for
Developers and researchers who need solid reasoning and logic tasks at near-throwaway pricing without committing to a full flagship model.
Grok 3 is xAI's flagship large language model, trained on a massive dataset including real-time X (Twitter) data and designed for advanced reasoning, coding, and research tasks. It competes directly with GPT-4o and Claude Sonnet 4 at a similar price point.
Verdict
A strong STEM-focused flagship with unique real-time X data access, but priced high for what it delivers versus Claude Sonnet 4 and GPT-4o.
Quality score
68%
Pricing
$3.00/1M in
$15.00/1M out
Speed
Balanced
3/5 speed
Context
131k tokens
Available via xAI API and integrated into X Premium subscriptions. Real-time X data access is a differentiating feature not available on competing models. Pricing is competitive but output costs are on the higher end for balanced-tier models.
FlagshipSTEMReal-time dataReasoningxAI
Best for
Users who need strong reasoning and coding capabilities with access to real-time X/Twitter data for current events and social context.
Grok Code Fast 1 is xAI's budget-tier coding-focused model optimized for speed and cost efficiency, built on xAI's infrastructure with a 256K context window. It targets developers who need rapid code generation and completion at near-commodity pricing.
Verdict
A scrappy, low-cost coding model worth benchmarking for high-volume pipelines, but output pricing limits its ceiling.
Quality score
45%
Pricing
$0.20/1M in
$1.50/1M out
Speed
Very fast
5/5 speed
Context
256k tokens
Pricing is asymmetric: input at ~$0.20/1M is excellent, but $1.50/1M output undercuts its budget appeal for generation-heavy use. Availability through xAI's API; check for rate limits and regional availability as xAI's infrastructure is still scaling.
budgetcodingfastxAIcode-focused
Best for
High-volume, low-latency coding tasks where cost per token matters more than peak quality.
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xAI FAQ
What is xAI's best model in 2026?
Grok 4.6 (released August 12, 2026) is xAI's most capable model — 88.4% on Terminal-Bench 2.1 and roughly twice the turn efficiency of rivals on long agent runs, at the same $2/$6 price as Grok 4.5. Grok 4.5 remains the coding-first pick with the top SWE Marathon score. Both keep real-time X/Twitter access.
How does Grok compare to Claude and GPT?
Grok 4.6 ranks 4th on aggregate intelligence (AA Index 61) behind Claude Opus 5, but has no published SWE-bench score, so it can't be compared on the standard coding leaderboard. Its edge is turn efficiency on long agent runs and real-time X/Twitter access. Note the billing cliff: prompts of 200K+ tokens are charged at double rates ($4/$12).
How do I access Grok?
Grok is available via the xAI API and through X Premium subscriptions. The API supports streaming and tool use. Consumer access is via x.com/grok.