Grok 4.5 gives Musk an Opus-class price weapon

SpaceXAI launched Grok 4.5 on July 8, a coding-focused AI model priced at $2 per million input tokens and $6 per million output tokens, with Elon Musk claiming it rivals Claude Opus 4.7 in performance while offering superior speed and cost. The move signals Musk's strategy to compete on price and latency rather than benchmark scores, aiming to capture real-world usage in developer tools like Cursor and Grok Build.

Grok 4.5 gives Musk an Opus-class price weapon SpaceXAI launched the coding-focused model on July 8th with $2 input and $6 output pricing, while Musk cast speed as the real edge. By Ryan Merket /author/ryan-merket · Published Why it matters Grok 4.5 shows Musk shifting the AI fight from leaderboard claims to cost, latency and tool distribution, where a slightly weaker model can still win real usage. Elon Musk put a ceiling and a floor on Grok 4.5 on July 8, saying his internal assessment places SpaceXAI's new model around Claude Opus 4.7, with speed and cost as the edge. https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2074911038286295049?ref=runtimewire https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2074911038286295049?ref=runtimewire SpaceXAI launched Grok 4.5 on July 8, pitching it more for coding, agentic tasks, and knowledge work than consumer chat. According to Axios, Grok 4.5 is available in Grok Build, in Cursor on all plans, and via the SpaceXAI console, but it is not yet available in the EU. Axios also reports pricing at $2 per million input tokens and $6 per million output tokens.