Grok 4 — reviews, specs & pricing

xAI's flagship — sharp reasoning, real-time web access via API.

Summary

Grok 4 is xAI's flagship conversational AI, engineered for advanced analytical reasoning and deep conceptual synthesis. Building on its predecessor's strengths, it utilizes real-time web access and direct data streams to deliver exceptionally current responses. The model represents a major step forward in handling complex, multi-step logical tasks through a streamlined chat interface.

Sample use case

A quantitative researcher can utilize Grok 4 to conduct live sentiment analysis and gather immediate context on sudden market anomalies. By querying the model, they can cross-reference real-time social media trends on X with breaking financial news to generate an instant, comprehensive market report before traditional data sources have even updated.

Specifications

  • Provider: xai
  • License: closed
  • Context: 256k tokens
  • Input price: $3/M tok
  • Output price: $12/M tok

Pros

  • Unmatched real-time web and data integration
  • Highly sophisticated logic and reasoning
  • Excellent code generation and debugging
  • Low-latency response generation

Cons

  • Subject to noise and bias from real-time social streams
  • Restricted to text-based chat modalities
  • Heavy reliance on proprietary xAI data ecosystems

Average rating 3.0 from 5 community reviews on Reviuws.

Community reviews

Ars Technica on Grok 4

Rating: 2.0 / 5 — by Ars Technica staff (use case: General reasoning chatbot with X integration)

Ars Technica's launch coverage frames Grok 4 as benchmark-impressive but overshadowed by its release timing right after Grok generated antisemitic content on X, raising doubts about xAI's safety practices.

Pros: Strong claimed benchmark performance versus rivals; Heavy variant adds multi-agent reasoning

Cons: Launched amid a serious safety scandal; raises trust concerns about content moderation

PCMag on Grok 4

Rating: 3.0 / 5 — by Ruben Circelli (use case: General chatbot use with companion and web search features)

PCMag's formal review rates Grok 'Good' but not exceptional, citing solid ease of use offset by weak image generation and unremarkable research/citation quality compared to competitors.

Pros: Easy to use interface; unusual features like virtual companions; competent basic web search

Cons: Disappointing, error-prone image generation; deep research weaker than rivals; pricier than most competitors

Tom's Guide on Grok 4

Rating: 3.0 / 5 — by Amanda Caswell (use case: Comparative chatbot prompt testing)

Caswell's nine-prompt head-to-head found GPT-5 edging out Grok 4 overall, though Grok 4 held its own on several specific creative and reasoning tasks, making the contest closer than expected.

Pros: Competitive performance on creative and reasoning prompts; fast responses

Cons: Lost the overall head-to-head to GPT-5 on most tasks tested

Tom's Guide on Grok 4

Rating: 4.0 / 5 — by Amanda Caswell (use case: Benchmark-driven capability assessment)

Caswell reports that despite mixed public sentiment about Grok, Grok 4 topped a key leaderboard, suggesting the model deserves more credit for its underlying capability than it often receives amid controversy over xAI.

Pros: Topped a leading independent benchmark leaderboard; strong raw capability

Cons: Public perception dragged down by xAI controversies unrelated to core performance

Simon Willison's blog on Grok 4

Rating: 3.0 / 5 — by Simon Willison (use case: Long-context reasoning tasks via API or subscription)

Willison's initial technical notes on Grok 4 highlight its large context window and strong claimed benchmark results, while flagging the inability to see or disable reasoning tokens as a notable transparency limitation.

Pros: 256,000 token context window, double Grok 3's; strong claimed benchmark scores against rivals

Cons: Reasoning tokens hidden and cannot be disabled, reducing transparency

Frequently asked questions

What is Grok 4?

Grok 4 is xAI's flagship conversational AI, engineered for advanced analytical reasoning and deep conceptual synthesis. Building on its predecessor's strengths, it utilizes real-time web access and direct data streams to deliver exceptionally current responses. The model represents a major step forward in handling complex, multi-step logical tasks through a streamlined chat interface.

How much does Grok 4 cost?

Grok 4 costs $3 per million input tokens and $12 per million output tokens.

Is Grok 4 open source?

Grok 4 is released under the closed license.