Grok 4.20 API pricing
xAI · Mid-range price tier · Proprietary · released 2026-04. Prices in USD per 1 million tokens. Data snapshot: 2026-11-12.
A support ticket workload of 100K requests a month costs $312.50 on Grok 4.20; the next cheaper model in the Mid-range price tier for this workload, GLM 5, does it for $310.00. Grok 4.20 has held the same list price since 2026-08-15 and is the 27th cheapest of 113 models in the Mid-range price tier. Only one host, xAI, sells it, so there is no second price to shop. It holds the FinOps Friendly badge: top-40% Arena quality, top-30% Efficiency, not among the dearest 30%, and no stability flag.
- Input: $1.25 per 1M tokens
- Output: $2.50 per 1M tokens
- Batch API (in/out): Not published
- Prompt-cache read: $0.20 per 1M tokens
- Context window: 2M tokens
- Arena ELO: 1444 as of 2026-11-08
Market position
On blended price ($2.125 per 1M tokens at 30% input, 70% output) it is cheaper than 75% of models in the Mid-range price tier: 27th cheapest of 113, tied with 2 others. Across every price tier it is cheaper than 38% of priced text models in the catalogue: 187th cheapest of 303, tied with 2 others. Its Arena ELO of 1444 ranks 47th of the 160 models that carry one, above 71% of them. With an Arena score of 1444, Grok 4.20 clears OptimNow's Standard working quality threshold: Standard (Arena 1420+), used for meeting summary, invoice processing and call summary. Each threshold is a distance below the best ranked model, which scores 1530 on Arena scores as of 8 Nov 2026.
Licence, size and capabilities
Grok 4.20 is recorded here as proprietary: access is through an API, priced by the token. Its parameter count is not published. Listed capabilities: Text, Vision, Reasoning, Agents. Filling its 2M context window once costs $2.50 in input tokens at list price.
Pricing by host
A host is a company that runs the model and sells it by the token: the model maker, a cloud platform like Amazon Bedrock, Azure or Vertex, or an independent host. One model, several hosts, and often several prices. This model is sold by 1 host. The price we quote elsewhere on this page is marked. We quote one host's rate so that models stay comparable; it is not a recommendation to buy there.
xAI is the only host with a published rate, $1.25 input / $2.50 output per 1M tokens, which is the price we quote.
| Host | Input $/1M | Output $/1M |
|---|---|---|
| xAI (model maker, price we quote) | $1.25 | $2.50 |
List prices as published on 2026-11-12, via OpenRouter. Negotiated rates, committed-use discounts and provisioned capacity are not shown.
Monthly cost at 100K requests, by business use case
From the after-discounts figure (prompt caching on the cached input share, batch API for async workloads, only where xAI publishes those rates), which assumes you implement both, to the list price. One figure means no discount is published.
| Use case | Tokens (in/out) | Monthly (after discounts – list) |
|---|---|---|
| Support Ticket | 1,500 / 500 | $218 – $313 |
| Knowledge Q&A | 2,000 / 800 | $303 – $450 |
| Meeting Summary | 10,000 / 1,200 | $1.4K – $1.6K |
| Marketing Content | 2,500 / 1,800 | $710 – $763 |
| Coding Task | 3,000 / 2,000 | $718 – $875 |
| Invoice Processing | 1,500 / 600 | $290 – $337 |
| Call Summary | 2,000 / 700 | $404 – $425 |
| Agent Workflow | 6,000 / 3,000 | $1.1K – $1.5K |
Price history
Grok 4.20 has been in our daily price archive since tracking began on 2026-08-15, when it listed at $1.25 input / $2.50 output per 1M tokens. No list price change since tracking began on 2026-08-15. Last checked against the 2026-11-12 snapshot.
Alternatives to Grok 4.20
1 of the 4 comparable models below costs less than Grok 4.20: Nemotron 3 Ultra undercuts it by 12%, and scores 1 Arena point higher.
- Next cheaper model in the Mid-range price tier: Kimi K2 0905 (Moonshot) at $1.93 blended, 9% less.
- Next more expensive: Step 5 Preview (StepFun) at $2.19 blended, 3% more.
The nearest models in the Mid-range price tier on Arena ELO, each with its blended price and score difference against Grok 4.20.
- DeepSeek V4 Pro 0813 (DeepSeek): $0.111 in / $4.44 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1445 (48% more expensive, 1 ELO point higher)
- Nemotron 3 Ultra (Nvidia): $0.60 in / $2.40 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1445 (12% cheaper, 1 ELO point higher)
- Kimi K2.5 (Moonshot): $0.532 in / $3.325 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1445 (17% more expensive, 1 ELO point higher)
- Step 5 Preview (StepFun): $1.00 in / $2.70 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1443 (3% more expensive, 1 ELO point lower)
- Cheapest within 15 Arena points: Gemma 4 26B A4B (Google), 96% cheaper, 10 ELO points lower, out of 40 models in that band.
- Highest Arena ELO within 20% of this price: Grok 4.20 Multi-Agent (xAI), same blended price, 7 ELO points higher, out of 16 models in that price band.
Other models from xAI
xAI has 6 other models in the catalogue. Prices per 1M tokens, input then output.
- Grok Build 0.1: $1.00 / $2.00
- Grok 4.20 Multi-Agent: $1.25 / $2.50
- Grok 4.3: $1.25 / $2.50
- Grok 4.5: $2.00 / $6.00
- Grok 4.6: $2.00 / $6.00
- Grok 4.7: $2.00 / $6.00
Common questions about Grok 4.20 pricing
- How much does Grok 4.20 cost?
- Grok 4.20 costs $1.25 per 1M input tokens and $2.50 per 1M output tokens. That is the model maker's own rate (xAI). Prices as listed on 2026-11-12.
- Which host is cheapest for Grok 4.20?
- xAI is the only host with a published rate, $1.25 input / $2.50 output per 1M tokens, which is the price we quote. Host rates as listed on 2026-11-12.
- Does Grok 4.20 offer batch or cached pricing?
- Yes, for prompt caching only. Cache reads cost $0.20 per 1M tokens, as listed on 2026-11-12. No batch pricing is published.
- What would Grok 4.20 cost per month?
- With the Support Ticket profile (1,500 input and 500 output tokens per request), 100,000 requests a month cost about $313 on Grok 4.20 at the list price quoted on 2026-11-12.
- Can Grok 4.20 be self-hosted?
- No, as far as this site records. Grok 4.20 is recorded here as proprietary: access is through an API, priced by the token.
- Has the price of Grok 4.20 changed?
- Grok 4.20 has been in our daily price archive since tracking began on 2026-08-15, when it listed at $1.25 input / $2.50 output per 1M tokens. No list price change since tracking began on 2026-08-15. Last checked against the 2026-11-12 snapshot.
It publishes a prompt-cache rate, which is the discount most often left out of a budget: what prompt caching saves.
These are list prices. Your real cost also depends on caching and batching, negotiated discounts, marketplace agreements, and the contracts you already have. OptimNow audits exactly that.
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