Grok 3API Pricing

Grok 3 API Pricing: xAI's 2026 Token Costs and Value

xAI's Grok 3 has emerged as a serious contender in the LLM market with competitive pricing and strong real-time knowledge capabilities. Here's the full cost breakdown.

You only pay credits per request. No monthly subscription. Paid credits never expire.

Replace multiple AI subscriptions with one wallet that includes routing, failover, and optimization.

Why teams start here first
No monthly subscription
Pay-as-you-go credits
Start with trial credits, then buy only what you consume.
Failover safety
Production-ready routing
Auto fallback across providers when latency, quality, or reliability changes.
Data control
Your policy, your choice
BYOK and zero-retention mode keep training and storage scope explicit.
Single API experience
One key, multi-provider access
Use Chat/Compare/Blend/Judge/Failover from one dashboard.
xAI API pricing (reference)

Kept as reference for model evaluation. LLMWise pricing shown below is request-based credits.

TierInput / 1M tokensOutput / 1M tokensContextNote
Grok 3$2.00$8.00128K tokensxAI's flagship model with real-time knowledge access and strong reasoning. Competitive with GPT-5.2 and Claude Sonnet 4.5 on most benchmarks.
Grok 3 Mini$0.30$0.50128K tokensFast, affordable model for everyday tasks. Low latency makes it suitable for real-time chat and classification workloads.
Grok 3 Vision$4.00$16.00128K tokensMultimodal variant with advanced image understanding. Supports document analysis, chart reading, and visual Q&A.
User-facing pricing is request-based, not per token
Evidence snapshot

Grok 3 pricing analysis

Current Grok 3 billing context: compare providers, then run the same workload on LLMWise for request-based credits.

LLMWise usage
Chat 1, Compare 3, Blend 4, Judge 5, Failover 1
fixed credits per request
Pricing tiers
3
provider options for this model family
LLMWise scenario cost
$32.00/mo with LLMWise auto-routing (routes simple queries to Grok 3 Mini)
10,000 chat messages per month (avg 800 input + 400 output tokens each)
Savings result
33% savings — $192/year saved by automatically routing simple queries to Grok 3 Mini
based on workload mix and routing auto-mode
Usage starts-to-finish

Example: Product support workload

If your team sends 20 support messages a day in Chat mode, you typically use around 600 credits each month (1 credit/request).

Workflow
20 req/day
Chat mode / 1 credit each
Monthly estimate
600 credits
before optional auto-topup
What you get
Predictable
same behavior, single model switch

Why people use LLMWise

API key setup
Single LLMWise API key — access Grok 3 alongside 8 other models instantly
See xAI comparison
Create xAI Console account, request API access, generate key
Billing model
Pay-per-use credits with predictable costs and no monthly billing surprises
See xAI comparison
Pay-as-you-go per token, monthly billing with credit card
Failover
Automatic circuit-breaker failover to GPT-5.2 or Claude if Grok errors or times out
See xAI comparison
No failover — xAI is a newer provider with less proven uptime track record
Model switching
One endpoint, one key, nine models — switch from Grok to any model with one parameter
See xAI comparison
xAI-only ecosystem — separate integrations needed for other providers
Rate limits
Pooled multi-provider throughput — not limited by xAI's individual rate tiers
See xAI comparison
Conservative rate limits on lower tiers, scaling with usage history
Free tier
40 free trial credits on signup — compare Grok against GPT-5.2, Claude, and Gemini
See xAI comparison
Limited free credits for new developer accounts
Cost example

10,000 chat messages per month (avg 800 input + 400 output tokens each)

LLMWise total
$32.00/mo with LLMWise auto-routing (routes simple queries to Grok 3 Mini)
You save
33% savings — $192/year saved by automatically routing simple queries to Grok 3 Mini
Optional: reference direct API cost

$48.00/mo with Grok 3 ($16.00 input + $32.00 output)

Grok 3 is competitively priced against GPT-5.2 and Claude while offering unique real-time knowledge capabilities. The Mini tier is especially compelling at $0.30/$0.50, undercutting most competitors for lightweight tasks. Since xAI is still a relatively young infrastructure provider, pairing Grok with LLMWise failover gives you Grok's strengths with the reliability safety net of falling back to battle-tested providers like OpenAI and Anthropic.

Common questions

How much does Grok 3 API cost per token in 2026?
Grok 3 costs $2.00 per million input tokens and $8.00 per million output tokens. Grok 3 Mini is significantly cheaper at $0.30/$0.50 per million tokens, and Grok 3 Vision is the premium tier at $4.00/$16.00 for multimodal workloads.
How does Grok 3 pricing compare to GPT-5 and Claude?
Grok 3 ($2.00/$8.00 per 1M tokens) is about 33% cheaper than GPT-5.2 ($3.00/$12.00) and 20% cheaper than Claude Sonnet 4.5 ($2.50/$10.00). Grok 3 Mini ($0.30/$0.50) is competitive with GPT-5.2 Mini ($0.30/$1.20) and cheaper on output tokens.
Does Grok 3 have real-time internet access?
Yes, Grok 3 has access to real-time information through xAI's data partnerships, which is a unique differentiator. This makes it particularly useful for tasks that require current knowledge, such as market research, news analysis, and fact-checking against recent events.
Is Grok 3 reliable enough for production applications?
xAI has significantly improved Grok 3's reliability since launch, but its infrastructure is still newer than OpenAI's or Anthropic's. For production use, we recommend accessing Grok through LLMWise with automatic failover enabled, so your app stays online even during xAI's occasional maintenance windows or capacity issues.

One wallet, enterprise AI controls built in

You only pay credits per request. No monthly subscription. Paid credits never expire.

Replace multiple AI subscriptions with one wallet that includes routing, failover, and optimization.

Chat, Compare, Blend, Judge, MeshPolicy routing + replay labFailover without extra subscriptions