Grok Imagine
Grok Imagine is the image model xAI launched with the Imagine feature on 28 July 2025, the successor to its December 2024 Aurora generator. It is still sold on the xAI API as grok-imagine-image at $0.02 per image, the cheapest of the family, but Grok Imagine 2.0 replaced it in the X app in August 2026 and is what xAI recommends.
Anvisha Pai, Co-founder & CEO, ModaTested xAI · released
›What we asked for
A self-portrait of the original Grok Imagine, xAI's 2025 image model, as a retro pulp science-fiction magazine cover: a chrome rocket-robot waving from a red planet, bold painted brushwork, halftone dots, a masthead reading 'IMAGINE', 1950s palette of teal, red and cream.
xai/grok-imagine-image
aspect_ratio: 3:4, resolution: 1k, output_format: png, num_images: 1
returned 864 by 1152 pixels
At a glance
- Price
- $0.02 per image, the cheapest model on this site.
- Superseded
- Grok Imagine 2.0 replaced it in the app in August 2026; it stays on the API.
- Sizes
- 1K or 2K in thirteen fixed shapes.
- Edits
- Up to three reference images on fal.
- Speed
- Fast; our run puts a number on it under the samples.
Other Grok Imagine models: Grok Imagine 2.0, Grok Imagine Pro. Compare all 3.
Anvisha's take
Two cents a picture and it is not embarrassing. The poster text came out right, the face is genuinely good, and the composition test was mostly right. What gives it away is text at any length: the self-portrait magazine cover repeats its own headline twice and invents a second one. If you are generating hundreds of images and will hand-pick, it is the cheapest way to do that; for anything with words beyond a title, spend the extra two cents on 2.0.
Grok Imagine real output: the same 12 prompts every model gets
Every model on this site gets the same 12 prompts, so you can compare like with like. These are the pictures Grok Imagine returned, one try each, nothing re-rolled or retouched. Generated on . The 12 pictures took 6 to 32 seconds each and cost $0.24 in total.
Spelling, kerning and hierarchy of three lines of set text.
›What we asked for
A concert poster that reads 'MODA SUMMER SESSIONS' in large bold type, with the subtitle 'Friday 12 June, 8pm, Roundhouse' and a smaller line 'Tickets at the door'. Risograph style, two colours, tangerine and navy, grainy ink texture.
xai/grok-imagine-image
aspect_ratio: 3:4, resolution: 1k, output_format: png, num_images: 1
returned 864 by 1152 pixels
Catalogue lighting, a clean seamless background and a believable contact shadow.
›What we asked for
Studio product photograph of a matte black ceramic pour-over coffee dripper on a seamless white background, soft top light, subtle contact shadow, centred, catalogue style.
xai/grok-imagine-image
aspect_ratio: 1:1, resolution: 1k, output_format: png, num_images: 1
returned 1024 by 1024 pixels
A natural face, correct finger count and hands holding an object.
›What we asked for
Close-up portrait of a woman in her 40s with short grey hair, laughing, holding a red ceramic mug with both hands, natural window light, 85mm lens, shallow depth of field.
xai/grok-imagine-image
aspect_ratio: 3:4, resolution: 1k, output_format: png, num_images: 1
returned 864 by 1152 pixels
A flat single-colour mark with a legible wordmark and no gradients or photo texture.
›What we asked for
A flat vector logo mark for a bicycle repair shop called 'Spoke & Chain': a single-colour icon combining a chain link and a wheel spoke, with the wordmark below in a geometric sans-serif, black on white.
xai/grok-imagine-image
aspect_ratio: 1:1, resolution: 1k, output_format: png, num_images: 1
returned 1024 by 1024 pixels
Many distinct objects and people in one frame without merging or duplicating them.
›What we asked for
A crowded Saturday farmers market seen from slightly above: at least twelve stalls with striped awnings, shoppers carrying tote bags, a dog on a leash, crates of oranges, a musician with a guitar, bunting overhead, late morning light.
xai/grok-imagine-image
aspect_ratio: 4:3, resolution: 1k, output_format: png, num_images: 1
returned 1152 by 864 pixels
A named historical style applied faithfully rather than a generic painterly look.
›What we asked for
A lighthouse on a rocky cliff during a storm, in the style of a Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock print, with visible wood grain texture, flat colour areas and a bokashi gradient sky.
xai/grok-imagine-image
aspect_ratio: 3:4, resolution: 1k, output_format: png, num_images: 1
returned 864 by 1152 pixels
Six labelled bars at the stated heights, in order, with readable axes.
›What we asked for
A clean bar chart titled 'Monthly active users' showing six months, January through June, with the values 120, 150, 180, 170, 220 and 260, labelled axes, white background, one accent colour, no 3D effects.
xai/grok-imagine-image
aspect_ratio: 4:3, resolution: 1k, output_format: png, num_images: 1
returned 1152 by 864 pixels
A 21:9 composition that leaves the left third clear for headline text.
›What we asked for
Website hero banner: a wide panorama of a sunlit modern co-working space with plants, the left third of the frame kept as clear wall space for text, warm neutral palette.
xai/grok-imagine-image
aspect_ratio: 2:1, resolution: 1k, output_format: png, num_images: 1
returned 1408 by 704 pixels
Four numbered steps in the given order with their exact wording, plus an icon each.
›What we asked for
An infographic card titled 'How to brew pour-over' with four numbered steps in this order: 1. Rinse the filter, 2. Bloom for 30 seconds, 3. Pour in slow circles, 4. Wait 3 minutes. A simple icon beside each step, muted palette, clean sans-serif type.
xai/grok-imagine-image
aspect_ratio: 3:4, resolution: 1k, output_format: png, num_images: 1
returned 864 by 1152 pixels
Appetising, menu-grade food with correct textures and no melted anatomy.
›What we asked for
Overhead photograph of a margherita pizza on a wooden board, fresh basil leaves, one slice pulled out with the cheese stretching, restaurant menu photography, natural light.
xai/grok-imagine-image
aspect_ratio: 1:1, resolution: 1k, output_format: png, num_images: 1
returned 1024 by 1024 pixels
Exact counts and left-right placement of five named objects.
›What we asked for
A glass of water on a wooden table with exactly three ice cubes in it, a yellow pencil resting across the rim of the glass, a blue book to the left of the glass and a red apple to the right, photographed from table height.
xai/grok-imagine-image
aspect_ratio: 4:3, resolution: 1k, output_format: png, num_images: 1
returned 1152 by 864 pixels
Change one object's colour and add a part while leaving background, light and framing untouched.
›What we asked for
Change the coffee dripper to a deep forest green and add a small brass handle on its right side. Keep the background, lighting and composition exactly as they are. (applied to the product on white result above)
xai/grok-imagine-image/edit
aspect_ratio: auto, resolution: 1k, output_format: png, num_images: 1
returned 1024 by 1024 pixels
How the cost under each picture was worked out: fal's published per-image price for 1k (fal model page, read 2026-09-09).
Grok Imagine pricing
| Where | Unit | Price | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| xAI API | Image | $0.02 | xAI models and pricing, read |
| fal | Image Same price at 1K and 2K. Edits are $0.02 plus $0.002 per input image. | $0.02 | fal model page, read |
Is Grok Imagine free?
Grok Imagine is a paid feature of X. Since March 2026 image generation has been gated to X Premium, Premium+ and SuperGrok subscribers, with free accounts getting intermittent, small allowances that xAI adjusts without notice. The API has no free tier.
- •X app and grok.com: Premium, Premium+ and SuperGrok subscribers generate from a shared usage pool; free accounts have had access switched on and off through 2026 with a handful of images a day when it is on.
- •xAI API: pay per image, no free tier. Flat per-image pricing regardless of prompt length.
- •fal, Artlist and other hosts: pay per image; a request xAI refuses on policy grounds is still charged.
Where to use Grok Imagine
- Grok on X and grok.com · The Imagine tab in the X app and at grok.com; paid X plans.
- xAI API · Model id grok-imagine-image on the images endpoint; up to 10 images per request, edits with up to 5 source images.
- fal · Flat per-image pricing, generate and edit endpoints.
Generate with Grok Imagine in Moda
Pick Grok Imagine in the Moda design agent, then edit the result as vectors, text and layers rather than a flat image.
Open Moda →What we noticed running Grok Imagine
- •Two cents a picture, at 1K or 2K, the lowest price on this site, and most pictures came back in six or seven seconds.
- •The portrait is one of the better ones here: natural face, correct hands, a believable knit and window light. See the face and hands picture.
- •Short set text works: all three poster lines correct. Longer text does not: the self-portrait cover repeats its own headline twice and invents a 'Chrome Chronicles' feature. See the text in an image picture.
- •Book left, apple right, pencil across the rim, and four or five ice cubes rather than three, plus an invented 'Collected Works' spine. See the hard composition picture.
- •The slowest of the twelve took 32 seconds; the rest were under ten.
- •Sizes follow xAI's shape list, with the wide banner rendered at 2:1 (1408 by 704) as the nearest shape to 21:9.
Grok Imagine limits and API parameters
| Limit | Value |
|---|---|
| Output size | 1K or 2K in thirteen fixed shapes from 2:1 to 1:2, including phone-screen ratios like 19.5:9. No arbitrary pixel sizes. fal API reference, read |
| Input images for edits | Up to 3 on fal, up to 5 on the xAI API. fal API reference, read |
| Transparent background | Not supported. fal API reference, read |
›Every setting, for developers
fal (xai/grok-imagine-image)
fal API reference, read
| Parameter | Type | Values | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| prompt | string | Any text Required. | |
| aspect_ratio | enum | 2:1, 20:9, 19.5:9, 16:9, 4:3, 3:2, 1:1, 2:3, 3:4, 9:16, 9:19.5, 9:20, 1:2 | 1:1 |
| resolution | enum | 1k, 2k | 1k |
| num_images | integer | 1 or more | 1 |
| output_format | enum | jpeg, png, webp | jpeg |
| image_urls | list of URLs | Up to 3 Edit endpoint only, where it is required. |
xAI API
xAI image generation guide, read
| Parameter | Type | Values | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| n | integer | Up to 10 images per request | |
| aspect_ratio | enum | 2:1, 20:9, 19.5:9, 16:9, 4:3, 3:2, 1:1, 2:3, 3:4, 9:16, 9:19.5, 9:20, 1:2 | |
| resolution | enum | 1k, 2k | |
| image_url | URL | Up to 5 source images on the edits endpoint | |
| response_format | enum | url, b64_json |
What Grok Imagine will not draw
xAI's acceptable use policy applies through every host, and fal notes that a request refused on those terms is still charged. In practice the boundaries are the usual ones for a model with a permissive reputation: no sexual or intimate depictions of real people, no sexual, violent or harmful depictions of minors, no election disinformation, no deceptive real-person imagery without disclosure, no impersonation. xAI says generated media goes through content policy review and is not used for training.
Alternatives to Grok Imagine
Frequently asked questions
What is Grok Imagine?
Grok Imagine is xAI's image and video feature, launched on 28 July 2025. This page covers its original image model, still sold on the xAI API as grok-imagine-image at $0.02 per image. Grok Imagine 2.0 replaced it in the app in August 2026.
Is the original Grok Imagine worth using?
Only for price. At two cents it is the cheapest model here, and the samples show what that buys. For anything that ships, Grok Imagine 2.0 is a cent or two more and better on text and edits.
How this page is made
Prices, limits and settings are read from the linked vendor and host pages on the dates shown. Every picture was generated by us through fal with the request shown under it, and the original files are kept unedited. A generation that failed is shown as a failure. Model and vendor names are used to identify the products; no vendor imagery appears on this page.
