Grok token counter & xAI cost calculator
Paste any text to see how many tokens Grok reads it as, and what it costs on each xAI model. Counts update as you type.
| Model | Input $/M | Output $/M | Context | Per call | Per month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Grok 4.6
xAI |
$2.00 | $6.00 | 500K | — | — |
|
Grok 4.5
xAI |
$2.00 | $6.00 | 500K | — | — |
|
Grok 4.3
xAI |
$1.25 | $2.50 | 1M | — | — |
|
Grok Build 0.1
xAI |
$1.00 | $2.00 | 256K | — | — |
Rates are USD per million tokens, published list price, checked 2026-08-31. Batch and cached-input discounts are not applied. Confirm against the provider before committing a budget.
How Grok counts tokens
Grok uses its own tokeniser vocabulary. This calculator does not model it separately — it applies one generic multiplier to every provider outside the big three, so read the Grok figure as a close approximation rather than an exact count.
The counter above is an estimate, not xAI's own merge table. It models the behaviour that actually drives the number — a leading space merging into the word after it, digits grouping, characters outside the Latin range costing several times more — which is close enough to size a prompt and budget a workload, and deliberately not close enough to reconcile an invoice against.
Every Grok model doubles in price above 200K tokens
This is the thing to know before you budget for xAI, and it is easy to miss because the headline rate never mentions it. Every model here is priced in two tiers: prompts below 200K tokens bill at the rate in the table, and prompts at or above it bill at double — both input and output. Because the models carry 500K and 1M context windows, the workloads people choose Grok for are exactly the ones that cross the line. A long-document job priced off the headline number will come in at twice the estimate, and it goes wrong precisely when you are using the model for what it is good at. Treat the table as the price below 200K and the floor above it.
Grok Build 0.1: Rate shown is for prompts under 200K tokens; above that it doubles.
Grok 4.3: Rate shown is for prompts under 200K tokens; above that it doubles.
Grok 4.6: Rate shown is for prompts under 200K tokens; above that it doubles.
Grok 4.5: Rate shown is for prompts under 200K tokens; above that it doubles.
What the 4 Grok models cost
Take one representative call — a 2,000-token prompt and a 600-token reply, which is roughly two pages in and one page out — and run it 100 times a day.
the cheapest here
the dearest here
for identical work
on the dearest, vs $9.60 on the cheapest
The 4.3 line is roughly half the price of 4.6 and 4.5 on input and considerably less on output, while carrying the larger context window of the two. If your work is long-input rather than hard-reasoning, that combination usually makes 4.3 the better value, and the doubling threshold applies to it just the same.
Which Grok model to use
Grok 4.3 is the sensible default: the largest context window in the range and the lower rate. Move up to 4.5 or 4.6 when the task needs the extra reasoning quality and you can justify roughly double the input cost. Grok Build is the cheapest per token but carries the smallest window, so it suits short, high-volume calls rather than document work.
Context windows
The Grok models here run from 256K tokens to 1M. That window is shared: your prompt, every earlier turn in the conversation, and the reply all have to fit inside it together. The table above marks a model in red when the text you have pasted plus the reply length you set would not fit — which is usually how people discover that a window is not as generous as the headline number suggests.
Because the range spans 256K to 1M, a prompt that works on one Grok model can fail on another in the same family. Check the fit before you switch model to save money.
Questions
How much does the Grok API cost?
It depends on the model and, unusually, on the length of your prompt. Below 200K tokens the rates are as shown in the table; at or above 200K both input and output roughly double. Paste your real text above to see which side of the line you are on.
Does X Premium include the Grok API?
No. An X subscription gives you Grok in the X apps with usage limits; it is not API access and it is not billed per token. The rates here are for the xAI developer API, which is billed separately.
Which Grok model has the biggest context window?
Grok 4.3 carries the largest window in the range at 1M tokens, and it is also the cheaper of the main models. The newer 4.6 and 4.5 carry 500K. That makes 4.3 the natural choice for long-document work on both axes.
Is this the official xAI token count?
No, it is an estimate using a generic multiplier, because the Grok tokeniser is not separately modelled here. It is close enough to size a prompt and budget a workload, and not close enough to reconcile a bill.
Counting for a different provider
The same text costs a different number of tokens on every family, so if you are comparing providers, compare on your own text rather than on a rule of thumb.
Rates are USD per million tokens, published list price, checked 2026-08-31. Batch and cached-input discounts are not applied. Confirm against xAI before committing a budget.
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