Grok Imagine Pricing: Images and Video Costs Breakdown
Five models, a 12x price difference between cheapest and most expensive. How much a minute of 1080p costs, which model to choose, and how to cut your bill.
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Grok Imagine offers five models for images and video, with a twelve-fold price difference between the cheapest and most expensive variants. We’ve gathered the complete pricing from the producer’s documentation and calculated what a minute of footage actually costs - because that’s the number that matters in production.
Verdict in One Paragraph
The cheapest image costs $0.02, the most expensive $0.08. Video ranges from $0.05 to $0.25 per second. A minute in 1080p costs approximately $15, the same minute in 480p on the older model - $3. On top of that, there’s a charge for input material when you generate from a reference image. Practical takeaway: resolution and model choice matter more for your bill than footage length.
Images: Complete Pricing Table
| Model | Input | Resolution and Quality | Price per Image |
|---|---|---|---|
| grok-imagine-image-2.0 recommended by producer |
$0.01 / image | 1K, low | $0.04 |
| 1.5K, low | $0.05 | ||
| 2K, low | $0.06 | ||
| 1K, medium | $0.06 | ||
| 1.5K, medium | $0.07 | ||
| 2K, medium | $0.08 | ||
| grok-imagine-image older, cheapest |
$0.002 / image | 1K | $0.02 |
| 2K | $0.02 | ||
| grok-imagine-image-quality | $0.01 / image | 1K | $0.05 |
| 1.5K | $0.06 | ||
| 2K | $0.07 |
The “input” column refers to reference images, when instead of generating from scratch, you’re transforming an existing image.
One Thing That Stands Out
In the older model, 2K costs the same as 1K - $0.02. In the newer variant, 2K is half again as expensive as 1K. If you only care about resolution and not the quality of the latest model, the older model gives you 2K for one-quarter the price of the new one.
This is an opinion: for article graphics and thumbnails, the quality difference rarely justifies four times the price. For materials people view up close - it does.
Video: Complete Pricing Table
| Model | Input | Resolution | Price per Second | Per Minute |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| grok-imagine-video-1.5 text, image and audio input |
$0.01 / image | 480p | $0.08 | ~$4.80 |
| 720p | $0.14 | ~$8.40 | ||
| 1080p | $0.25 | ~$15 | ||
| grok-imagine-video older, no 1080p |
$0.01 / s $0.002 / image |
480p | $0.05 | ~$3 |
| 720p | $0.07 | ~$4.20 |
The producer states that Imagine generates video up to 15 seconds and up to 2K resolution for images. The newer model accepts audio input, the older one accepts video.
Price Jump at 1080p
This is a number worth remembering: moving from 720p to 1080p in the newer model raises the price by 79 percent - from $0.14 to $0.25 per second. Moving from 480p to 1080p is more than triple.
For comparison: the same second in 480p on the older model costs $0.05. Between the cheapest and most expensive second of video, there’s a five-fold difference.
What Real Production Costs
Let’s translate the rates into typical tasks. I’m assuming material composed of 6-second shots, because that’s what short-form editing usually looks like:
| Task | 480p (older) | 720p (newer) | 1080p (newer) |
|---|---|---|---|
| One 6s shot | $0.30 | $0.84 | $1.50 |
| 30s reel (5 shots) | $1.50 | $4.20 | $7.50 |
| 3-minute video (30 shots) | $9 | $25 | $45 |
| Ten 30s reels | $15 | $42 | $75 |
These are generation costs only, without editing, sound, and revisions. This is an opinion from production practice, not a measurement of this tool: the real number of generations is usually two or three times higher than the number of shots in the finished material, because some need to be repeated. When budgeting, multiply these amounts by three.
Which Model to Choose
| Purpose | Model | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Article graphics, thumbnails | grok-imagine-image | 2K for $0.02, four times cheaper |
| Print and display materials | grok-imagine-image-2.0, 2K medium | Highest quality in the set |
| Transforming your own photos | 2.0 or quality | Image input at $0.01 |
| Video tests and prototypes | grok-imagine-video, 480p | $0.05 per second |
| Social media reels | video-1.5, 720p | Reasonable compromise, $0.14 per second |
| Screen and client material | video-1.5, 1080p | Only variant with this resolution |
Note on 1080p availability: in subscriptions, 1080p is only available in the SuperGrok Plus plan at $100. In the API, you get it with pay-as-you-go billing, without a subscription. For irregular production, API works out cheaper - we compared plans separately.
Four Things That Lower Your Bill
- Test at the lowest resolution, finalize at the highest. You can evaluate composition, framing, and motion in 480p at $0.05 per second. Repeating attempts in 1080p means paying five times more for the same insight.
- Reference images cost pennies. Image input is $0.01, and it greatly reduces the number of attempts because the model doesn’t guess at composition.
- Check whether you really need the newer image model. At 2K, the difference is $0.02 versus $0.08.
- Count in minutes, not shots. Billing is per second, so five 6-second shots cost exactly the same as one 30-second shot.
Practical tips for the prompts themselves - separately for images and for video.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does it cost to generate an image in Grok Imagine?
From $0.02 on the older model to $0.08 in the 2K medium quality variant.
How much does a second of video cost?
From $0.05 in 480p on the older model to $0.25 in 1080p on the newer one. A minute in 1080p is approximately $15.
How long a video can you generate?
The producer states up to 15 seconds and image resolution up to 2K.
Is 1080p available in subscriptions?
Only in the SuperGrok Plus plan at $100 per month. In the API, it’s available with pay-as-you-go billing.
Which image model is cheapest?
grok-imagine-image - $0.02 in both 1K and 2K.
Do I pay for a reference image?
Yes, separately: $0.002 on the older model and $0.01 on newer ones.
Sources and Verification Date
- All rates
- model names
- and resolutions read on September 21
- 2026 from the producer’s documentation at docs.x.ai/docs/pricing and docs.x.ai/docs/models
- video length and image resolutions from the product page at x.ai/grok. USD calculations and production costs are our editorial calculations. We did not generate materials on this platform - the numbers come from the pricing list
- the note about the three-times multiplier for retakes is our experience from generated video production
- not a measurement of this tool
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