xAI Launches Grok 4 with Advanced AI Features and $300 Monthly Subscription

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI has officially launched Grok 4, its latest flagship AI model, during a livestreamed event on July 9, 2025. The release introduces significant technical advancements and a new $300-per-month “SuperGrok Heavy” subscription tier, positioning xAI in direct competition with OpenAI’s anticipated GPT-5 and Google’s Gemini.

Grok 4 is engineered for “scientist-grade” reasoning, with Musk claiming it outperforms PhD-level expertise across all academic subjects. The model is trained on xAI’s Colossus supercomputer, leveraging up to 200,000 GPUs for training. The new model processes not only text but also images, and is expected to support video and audio inputs soon, addressing a major limitation of previous versions. A specialized variant, Grok 4 Code, targets developers with intelligent code completion, debugging, and real-time IDE integration, similar to GitHub Copilot and GPT-4 Code Interpreter. Grok 4 continues to offer real-time web data integration, especially from X (formerly Twitter), enhancing the model’s ability to provide up-to-date responses. The model is also tuned to interpret memes, slang, and humor, a feature Musk highlighted as a differentiator from rivals.
 

xAI has introduced a $300-per-month subscription plan for enterprise and power users, granting early access to upcoming features and models. For individual users, Grok 4 is available via X Premium+ at $40 per month, while the standalone SuperGrok subscription is priced at $30 per month. xAI announced that an AI coding model is scheduled for August, a multimodal agent for September, and a video generation model for October, with early access for SuperGrok Heavy subscribers.

The launch skips the previously expected Grok 3.5, reflecting xAI’s accelerated roadmap amid intense competition from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. The debut follows controversy over Grok’s earlier outputs, including antisemitic and politically charged responses. xAI responded by removing a section of Grok’s system prompt that encouraged “politically incorrect” statements and briefly limited the chatbot’s interactions. The launch also coincided with the resignation of Linda Yaccarino as CEO of X, adding to a turbulent week for Musk’s companies. During the livestream, Musk described Grok 4 as ushering in a “Big Bang Intelligence” era, stating, “Reality is the ultimate reasoning test. At times, [Grok 4] may lack common sense, and it has not yet invented new technologies or discovered new physics, but that is just a matter of time”.

The launch event was broadcast on July 9 at 8 PM Pacific Time via xAI’s official X account, featuring live demonstrations of Grok 4’s capabilities. Grok 4’s debut marks a high-stakes escalation in the AI arms race, with xAI betting on advanced reasoning, multimodal support, and aggressive pricing to attract both consumers and enterprise clients.