Is Grok Imagine free? Images yes, with limits. Video starts at $30 a month

Is Grok Imagine free? For images, yes, in limited amounts. For video, no. Grok Imagine is the image and video generator inside Grok, made by xAI (which now signs its site as SpaceXSI, after SpaceX bought it in February 2026). On xAI's own plan table, a $0 Free account gets "Limited" image generation, and video generation isn't included on Free or on the $8 Plus plan; it starts on Premium at $30 a month. xAI doesn't publish how many free images "Limited" means. Every Grok Imagine image and video carries a Grok watermark, paid or not, and the API and Higgsfield charge for every image and clip. Checked on xAI's, X's and Higgsfield's own pages on November 8, 2026.

What does Grok Imagine give you for free?

Images, up to a limit xAI doesn't put a number on. There's one free route: a $0 account on grok.com or the Grok apps for iOS and Android. xAI's subscription docs say new customers, "including anyone with only a free X account", start on The X Subscription, the plan family that now covers Grok, X Premium and Cursor, and its Free tier is the column that applies.

• Images: Limited. The plan table marks image generation (Imagine) as Limited on Free and ticks it on every paid plan, Plus included.
• Video: not on Free. The same table shows video generation as not included on Free or Plus, and included from Premium up.
• No published number. Neither the pricing page nor Grok's help page says how many free images "Limited" means or when the free allowance resets. xAI's Grok FAQ says the free-tier limits on Chat and Voice reset on their own schedule; it doesn't mention Imagine in that answer. If you need a count, the only way to get one is to use a free account and watch for the limit message.
• Resolution. xAI's Grok page says Imagine makes images up to 2K and videos up to 15 seconds. Since August 7, Grok's Quality Mode for images runs Imagine Image 2.0, xAI's newest image model.

We didn't sign in to Grok, so nothing here comes from a free-account test. The pages above are what xAI publishes about the free tier, and that's all anyone can quote with a date on it.

Which Grok plan do you need for video?

Premium, at $30 a month or $300 a year, is the cheapest plan that includes Grok Imagine video. Here's the full ladder from xAI's pricing docs, all prices before tax:

Three things the plan cards don't make obvious:

• One weekly pool, not a clip count. Paid plans get a pool of usage shared across Grok Chat, Imagine, Voice and Bot (and Cursor), and the pricing page says it refreshes weekly. Grok's FAQ adds that products draw different amounts depending on the compute they need, so a high-quality video uses far more of the pool than a chat message. xAI doesn't say how many clips a week Premium covers, so nobody can honestly tell you a cost per clip on a Grok plan.
• 720p can quietly drop to 480p. Grok's FAQ says 720p videos fall back to 480p once you hit the 720p cap for your tier. Its product page lists text-to-video at 720p, and the pricing page lists 1080p, 15-second videos as a Super feature.
• Running out isn't a hard stop. When the weekly pool is used up, the FAQ says you can buy Extra Usage Credits, from $5 on the web, at standard rates that cost more per action than your plan's included usage.

What about SuperGrok and X Premium?

They still exist for people who already pay for them. xAI's docs say existing SuperGrok and X Premium plans "continue unless you change or cancel them", and switching to The X Subscription is optional. X's Premium help page says the Premium+ tier includes SuperGrok, and of SuperGrok it says: "You also get Imagine for videos and images". New customers choose from The X Subscription plans above. On The X Subscription, Premium and higher plans carry the full X Premium+ benefits.

Is the Grok Imagine API free?

No. xAI sells Grok Imagine to developers through its API, and its price list charges for every image and every second of video. We found no free allowance for Imagine on it.

• Images. grok-imagine-image-2.0 costs $0.04 an image at 1K and low quality, up to $0.08 at 2K and medium. The older grok-imagine-image costs $0.02 at 1K or 2K. Edits are billed for the input image too ($0.01 on 2.0).
• Video. grok-imagine-video-1.5-lite is the cheapest at $0.02 a second at 480p and $0.03 at 720p; xAI's video overview says its 1080p is upscaled from 720p. grok-imagine-video-1.5 costs $0.08 to $0.25 a second and renders 1080p natively. Clips run up to 15 seconds.
• One retired name. Since November 2, 2026, requests to grok-imagine-image-quality are served by grok-imagine-image-2.0 at low quality and billed at its price.
• Paid plans don't cover it. The pricing page says paid plans include API access, but API usage is billed separately at standard rates and doesn't draw from the plan's pool.

At those rates, a 5-second clip costs $0.10 at 480p or $0.15 at 720p on 1.5 Lite, and $0.70 at 720p on Grok Imagine 1.5 (our arithmetic). The price list also notes that model access can vary by location and account.

Is Grok Imagine free on Higgsfield?

No. Higgsfield is a separate platform that runs xAI's Grok Imagine models next to Kling, Seedance, Veo and others on one credit balance. Its plans help article says you can generate without a paid plan, but free access "doesn't include credits", and its image menu tags both Grok Imagine models Premium. What new accounts actually receive is in our free Higgsfield credits check.

We read the credit price on Higgsfield's video and image pages signed out, with nothing generated, on November 8, 2026:

API prices are xAI's per-second rate times five seconds, our arithmetic. Higgsfield's Lite button also showed 5 credits at 480p, and its 2.0 image at 2K and medium showed 2.5. Higgsfield's older Grok Imagine image model cost 1 credit at 1K in Standard mode and 2 in Quality mode. One Higgsfield rule matters for Grok in particular: its failed-generation help article says credits come back automatically, except that Grok "generations are charged the moment they start".

What that is in dollars depends on the plan. Higgsfield's plans on November 7 were Starter at $19 for 270 credits, Plus at $59 monthly or $47 a month billed yearly for 1,200, and Ultra at $129 monthly or $99 a month billed yearly for 3,000.

The Higgsfield figures assume you spend every credit at the price the button showed. On 1.5 Lite the gap is smaller in dollars: 5 credits comes to about $0.25 on monthly Plus, against $0.15 on the API. The API is the cheapest per clip if you can write code against it; Higgsfield is the one where Grok sits in the same menu as Kling, Seedance and Veo. Higgsfield credits explained shows how the credits work.

Do Grok Imagine images have a watermark?

Yes, on every plan. Grok's help page answers the question directly:

• On grok.com and the apps: the FAQ says images and videos include a Grok watermark and "There is no setting to remove the watermark." It doesn't make an exception for paid plans.
• Removing it breaks the rules. xAI's Acceptable Use Policy bans "stripping, altering or circumventing" embedded provenance metadata or watermarks, and its consumer terms say xAI may add an AI-generated disclosure to your outputs.
• On the API: the docs we read describe an invisible watermark on text output and say nothing about a visible mark on Imagine images or videos. We didn't generate any, so we can't say what the files look like.
• On Higgsfield: its watermark help article says "On a free account, every generation carries a Higgsfield watermark", and paid plans don't add a visible one. That's Higgsfield's mark; we didn't check whether a Grok mark also appears on Grok output there. More in the Higgsfield watermark guide.

Can you use Grok Imagine images commercially?

xAI says yes, with attribution, though its two pages word it differently.

• xAI's consumer FAQ says you own the outputs and can use them "including for commercial use", and asks you to attribute them to Grok.
• xAI's brand guidelines give the wording: show "Created with Grok" legibly wherever the material is published (a "written with" version covers text).
• xAI's consumer terms (last updated October 27, 2026) say that when you use output or xAI's brand, you're "required to obtain our permission and attribute" it to the service. Read literally, that's stricter than the FAQ, which doesn't mention permission. Until xAI makes them match, credit Grok on anything you publish and read the terms yourself before a client job.

Neither page treats free and paid accounts differently, and the visible watermark comes with the file either way. The terms also put the risk on you: your prompts and outputs are your responsibility, and outputs may not be unique. On Higgsfield, its help center says it "does not restrict the commercial use of outputs" for any user; we go through the details in Higgsfield commercial use.

Who can use Grok Imagine for free?

Anyone 13 or older, with a parent's or guardian's permission between 13 and 17, per xAI's consumer terms. The same terms say Australian users go through age assurance before 18+ content. xAI's acceptable-use rules ban undressing or sexualising real people's images and deceptive impersonation, whatever the plan. Some features launch in the US first: image and voice references for Imagine Video 1.5 started in the US on July 31 before rolling out to other tiers.

Which sites are the real Grok Imagine?

Grok Imagine lives at grok.com/imagine and in the Grok apps for iOS and Android. Its makers' pages are on x.ai and docs.x.ai, and accounts are on accounts.x.ai. xAI's pricing page says subscriptions are sold only through X Subscription Corp. and adds: "We do not authorize any resellers or third-party sellers."

That matters because search results for "Grok Imagine free" are full of other domains with Grok in the name that offer free or "unlimited" generation. They aren't xAI, so whatever they give away isn't xAI's free tier.

Which way should you use Grok Imagine?

• Trying images for free: a free Grok account on grok.com or the apps. Expect a limit you'll only find by hitting it, and a watermark on every image.
• Grok video, a few clips a week: Premium at $30 a month, if you also want Grok's chat, Bot and X Premium+ benefits. xAI doesn't publish how many clips the weekly pool covers.
• Building an app: the xAI API, from $0.02 an image and $0.02 a second of video, billed per use.
• Grok next to other video models: a platform like Higgsfield, where a 5-second Lite clip is 5 credits and Kling, Seedance and Veo sit in the same menu.
• Client work or ads: a paid route, with "Created with Grok" on the result, after reading xAI's terms. The Grok watermark stays on.

Weighing other video models before you pay? Kling AI alternatives prices Grok Imagine next to Seedance, Veo, MiniMax and Wan, and our free checks cover Kling, Veo 3 and Hailuo. The cost of one AI video clip by app, API or rented GPU does the same sum across routes.

The short version: Grok Imagine images are free in small, unpublished amounts with a watermark; video means paying, either a Grok plan from $30 a month or per clip on the API or Higgsfield. Weighing Higgsfield's own free tier too? See is Higgsfield free.