Grok 4.5 API pricing
xAI · Mid-range price tier · Proprietary · released 2026-06. Prices in USD per 1 million tokens. Data snapshot: 2026-11-12.
A support ticket workload of 100K requests a month costs $600.00 on Grok 4.5; the next cheaper model in the Mid-range price tier for this workload, Kimi K3.1 Pro, does it for $456.05. Grok 4.5 has held the same list price since 2026-08-15 and is the 64th 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 is rated a stable release but does not meet all four criteria of the FinOps Friendly badge.
- Input: $2.00 per 1M tokens
- Output: $6.00 per 1M tokens
- Batch API (in/out): Not published
- Prompt-cache read: $0.30 per 1M tokens
- Context window: 500K tokens
- Arena ELO: 1448 as of 2026-11-08
Available on
Direct API, OpenRouter
Curated by hand; check with the provider before committing.
Market position
On blended price ($4.80 per 1M tokens at 30% input, 70% output) it is cheaper than 37% of models in the Mid-range price tier: 64th cheapest of 113, tied with 8 others. Across every price tier it is cheaper than 24% of priced text models in the catalogue: 224th cheapest of 303, tied with 8 others. Its Arena ELO of 1448 ranks 41st of the 160 models that carry one, above 75% of them. With an Arena score of 1448, Grok 4.5 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 4.5 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 500K context window once costs $1.00 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, $2.00 input / $6.00 output per 1M tokens, which is the price we quote.
| Host | Input $/1M | Output $/1M |
|---|---|---|
| xAI (model maker, price we quote) | $2.00 | $6.00 |
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 | $447 – $600 |
| Knowledge Q&A | 2,000 / 800 | $642 – $880 |
| Meeting Summary | 10,000 / 1,200 | $2.5K – $2.7K |
| Marketing Content | 2,500 / 1,800 | $1.5K – $1.6K |
| Coding Task | 3,000 / 2,000 | $1.5K – $1.8K |
| Invoice Processing | 1,500 / 600 | $584 – $660 |
| Call Summary | 2,000 / 700 | $786 – $820 |
| Agent Workflow | 6,000 / 3,000 | $2.3K – $3.0K |
Price history
Grok 4.5 has been in our daily price archive since tracking began on 2026-08-15, when it listed at $2.00 input / $6.00 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 4.5
2 of the 4 comparable models below cost less than Grok 4.5: Grok 4.20 Multi-Agent undercuts it by 56%, and scores 3 Arena points higher.
- Next cheaper model in the Mid-range price tier: GLM 5.2 (Zhipu) at $4.7621 blended, 1% less.
- Next more expensive: Aion 3.5 (aion-labs) at $5.10 blended, 6% more.
The nearest models in the Mid-range price tier on Arena ELO, each with its blended price and score difference against Grok 4.5.
- GPT-5.6 Terra (OpenAI): $2.00 in / $12.00 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1449 (88% more expensive, 1 ELO point higher)
- GPT-6.1 Sol (OpenAI): $2.00 in / $10.00 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1446 (58% more expensive, 2 ELO points lower)
- GLM 5 (Zhipu): $1.00 in / $3.20 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1446 (47% cheaper, 2 ELO points lower)
- Grok 4.20 Multi-Agent (xAI): $1.25 in / $2.50 out per 1M, Arena ELO 1451 (56% cheaper, 3 ELO points higher)
- Cheapest within 15 Arena points: Gemma 4 26B A4B (Google), 98% cheaper, 14 ELO points lower, out of 37 models in that band.
- Highest Arena ELO within 20% of this price: Qwen3.8 Max (0902) (Alibaba), same blended price, 37 ELO points higher, out of 8 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: $1.25 / $2.50
- Grok 4.20 Multi-Agent: $1.25 / $2.50
- Grok 4.3: $1.25 / $2.50
- Grok 4.6: $2.00 / $6.00
- Grok 4.7: $2.00 / $6.00
Common questions about Grok 4.5 pricing
- How much does Grok 4.5 cost?
- Grok 4.5 costs $2.00 per 1M input tokens and $6.00 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 4.5?
- xAI is the only host with a published rate, $2.00 input / $6.00 output per 1M tokens, which is the price we quote. Host rates as listed on 2026-11-12.
- Does Grok 4.5 offer batch or cached pricing?
- Yes, for prompt caching only. Cache reads cost $0.30 per 1M tokens, as listed on 2026-11-12. No batch pricing is published.
- What would Grok 4.5 cost per month?
- With the Support Ticket profile (1,500 input and 500 output tokens per request), 100,000 requests a month cost about $600 on Grok 4.5 at the list price quoted on 2026-11-12.
- Can Grok 4.5 be self-hosted?
- No, as far as this site records. Grok 4.5 is recorded here as proprietary: access is through an API, priced by the token.
- Has the price of Grok 4.5 changed?
- Grok 4.5 has been in our daily price archive since tracking began on 2026-08-15, when it listed at $2.00 input / $6.00 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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