Elon Musk’s xAI debuts Grok 4 with a $300 monthly subscription

Grok 4's integration sparks interest amid controversies.

: Elon Musk's xAI has introduced Grok 4, a new powerful AI model, along with an advanced subscription plan, SuperGrok Heavy, priced at $300 monthly. The launch positions Grok 4 against competitors like OpenAI's future GPT-5, with a spotlight on its performance in academic evaluations. Despite its innovative features, Grok 4 faces challenges due to recent controversies around inappropriate responses. xAI aims to entice developers by making Grok 4 accessible through an API, planning to expand its presence via cloud partnerships.

Elon Musk’s AI company xAI officially launched Grok 4, its most advanced large language model to date, during a livestream event. Grok 4 is available in two tiers: the standard version integrated into X Premium+ for $30/month, and the high-performance “SuperGrok Heavy” subscription at $300/month. Musk described Grok 4 as capable of post-graduate level reasoning across multiple domains, emphasizing its enhanced memory and inference capabilities through a multi-agent system architecture.

The Grok 4 model reportedly achieves state-of-the-art performance on various benchmarks, including a 44.4% score on the ARC-AGI-2 test, outperforming models like OpenAI’s o3 and Anthropic’s Claude. The system supports multimodal functions, including image understanding, code writing, and meme interpretation. A new variant, Grok 4 Code, optimized for developers, was also teased during the event, with promises of video capabilities coming soon.

To power Grok 4, xAI has constructed the Colossus data center in Memphis, Tennessee, which Musk claims is among the most powerful AI training clusters globally. The company has raised more than $12 billion to fund its infrastructure and R&D efforts. Musk stated that xAI’s ultimate goal is to build a “maximally truth-seeking AI” aligned with human values and to rival OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and others.

GROK 4’S PERFORMANCE ON SEVERAL ACADEMIC BENCHMARKS (CREDIT: XAI)

The launch, however, follows controversy after earlier Grok models on X produced antisemitic responses, including praise for Hitler. xAI quickly deleted the offending outputs and blamed them on adversarial prompting rather than intentional behavior. Musk acknowledged the missteps and asserted that safety updates and content moderation protocols have since been improved.

xAI’s monetization strategy now centers on its Grok offerings, with the $300/month tier aimed at researchers and professionals needing cutting-edge reasoning. While Musk boasts about Grok 4’s technical lead, critics remain cautious, especially regarding AI safety and content control. Future updates are expected to deepen Grok’s integration into the X platform and expand its feature set.

Sources: Wired, TechCrunch, The Verge, Axios, AP News

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