grok-cli

Pricing

Pay-per-token with no subscription. Costs based on xAI published rates with TOON compression active.

Light

per month

Solo dev, side project

Medium

$44

per month

Full-time IC engineer

Heavy

$112

per month

Tech lead, multi-repo

Super Heavy

$235

per month

Principal eng, CI integrated

Ultra Heavy

$280

per month

Platform team, org-wide

Tier	Who	Daily Pattern	Tokens/Mo	Cost/Mo
Light	Solo dev, side project, 1-2 hrs/day	10-15 prompts, occasional debug	~6M	$6
Medium	Full-time IC, single repo, 4-6 hrs/day	30-50 prompts, daily PRs, code review	~25M	$44
Heavy	Tech lead, 2-3 repos, 6-8 hrs/day	100+ prompts, reviews every PR, architecture	~62M	$112
Super Heavy	Principal/Staff eng, CI pipeline, 8-10 hrs/day	200+ prompts, security audits, incident response	~132M	$235
Ultra Heavy	Platform team lead, org-wide tooling, 10+ hrs/day	300+ prompts, multi-team PRs, scheduled agents across repos, continuous security scanning	~180M	$280

Real-World Examples

Activity	Sub-Agent	Model Tier	Tokens/Call	Cost/Call
Quick question	—	Fast	~3K	$0.002
Implement a feature	implement	Standard	~20K	$0.01
Code review a PR	code-review	Deep	~60K	$0.48
Debug a production issue	debug	Deep	~50K	$0.40
Architecture design	architect	Deep	~80K	$0.64
Security audit a module	security-audit	Deep	~100K	$0.80
Write test suite	test-writer	Standard	~25K	$0.01
Generate docs	docs	Fast	~8K	$0.004

Deep model (grok-4.20-0309-reasoning) is 10x the cost but only used for architect, code-review, debug, and security-audit. The fast model handles 80% of work at $0.20/$0.50 per M tokens.

What's Different in This Fork

Ink React Terminal

Full markdown rendering powered by marked-terminal. Vivid syntax highlighting for 25+ languages including Python, JavaScript, Rust, Go, Java, C/C++, Ruby, and more. Headers, bold, italic, tables, code blocks, lists, links, blockquotes — all rendered correctly in every terminal.

TOON Compression

Token-Oriented Object Notation compresses structured tool results 30-50% before they enter conversation context. Reduces costs automatically and transparently.

Persistent Memory

ai-memory MCP integration with session-scoped connections, auto-recall on startup, and compaction summary storage. Your agent remembers across sessions.

Security Hardening

16 red team findings addressed. MCP tool name collision prevention (39 reserved names), description sanitization against prompt injection, proper lifecycle cleanup.

10 Sub-Agents

architect, code-review, debug, implement, refactor, test-writer, docs, quick-fix, data-ops, security-audit — across 3 model tiers.

All-Mode MCP

MCP tools work in plan, ask, and agent modes. Memory recall available everywhere, not just when executing tasks.

Full Grok Model Lineup

15 models from grok-4.20-0309-reasoning ($2/M) to grok-3-mini. All with 2M token context. Default: grok-4-1-fast-non-reasoning ($0.20/M) for instant responses.

Full Configuration

Complete ~/.grok/user-settings.json — copy, paste, replace the API key.

// ~/.grok/user-settings.json
{
  "apiKey": "YOUR xAI Grok API KEY GOES HERE",
  "baseURL": "https://api.x.ai/v1",
  "defaultModel": "grok-4-1-fast-non-reasoning",
  "models": [
    "grok-4.20-0309-reasoning", "grok-4.20-0309-non-reasoning", "grok-4.20-multi-agent-0309",
    "grok-4-1-fast-reasoning", "grok-4-1-fast-non-reasoning",
    "grok-4-fast-reasoning", "grok-4-fast-non-reasoning",
    "grok-4-0709", "grok-code-fast-1",
    "grok-3", "grok-3-mini"
  ],
  "settingsVersion": 2,
  "subAgents": [
    { "name": "architect",      "model": "grok-4.20-0309-reasoning",          "instruction": "Senior software architect..." },
    { "name": "code-review",    "model": "grok-4.20-0309-reasoning",          "instruction": "Thorough code reviewer..." },
    { "name": "debug",          "model": "grok-4.20-0309-reasoning",          "instruction": "Expert debugger..." },
    { "name": "security-audit", "model": "grok-4.20-0309-reasoning",          "instruction": "Application security auditor..." },
    { "name": "implement",      "model": "grok-4-1-fast-reasoning",      "instruction": "Implementation engineer..." },
    { "name": "refactor",       "model": "grok-4-1-fast-reasoning",      "instruction": "Refactoring specialist..." },
    { "name": "test-writer",    "model": "grok-4-1-fast-reasoning",      "instruction": "Test engineer..." },
    { "name": "docs",           "model": "grok-4-1-fast-non-reasoning",  "instruction": "Technical writer..." },
    { "name": "quick-fix",      "model": "grok-4-1-fast-non-reasoning",  "instruction": "Fast patch agent..." },
    { "name": "data-ops",       "model": "grok-4-1-fast-non-reasoning",  "instruction": "Data operations agent..." }
  ]
}

Full sub-agent instructions in user-settings-example.json. See CONFIGURATION.md for the complete guide.

ai-memory Integration (optional)

Add persistent cross-session memory. Merge into the config above:

{
  "mcp": {
    "servers": [{
      "id": "ai-memory",
      "label": "AI Memory",
      "enabled": true,
      "transport": "stdio",
      "command": "ai-memory",
      "args": ["mcp", "--tier", "semantic"]
    }]
  }
}

Model Catalog

Model	Context	Input $/M	Output $/M	Best For
`grok-4.20-0309-reasoning`	2M	$2.00	$6.00	Architecture, complex debugging, security audit
`grok-4.20-0309-non-reasoning`	2M	$2.00	$6.00	Fast flagship without thinking tokens
`grok-4-1-fast-reasoning`	2M	$0.20	$0.50	Deep analysis sub-agents
`grok-4-1-fast-non-reasoning`	2M	$0.20	$0.50	Default — instant responses, daily coding

Sub-Agent Tiers

Tier	Model	Agents	Cost per M
Deep	`grok-4.20-0309-reasoning`	architect, code-review, debug, security-audit	$2.00 / $6.00
Standard	`grok-4-1-fast-reasoning`	implement, refactor, test-writer	$0.20 / $0.50
Fast	`grok-4-1-fast-non-reasoning`	docs, quick-fix, data-ops	$0.20 / $0.50

Documentation

Configuration Guide — full setup with model catalog, sub-agents, and cost analysis
Example Configuration — copy-paste ready template
ai-memory Integration — persistent memory setup
Sub-Agents Guide — built-in and custom agents
Releases · Changelog

Built for Developers

Install

Pricing

Real-World Examples

What's Different in This Fork

Ink React Terminal

TOON Compression

Persistent Memory

Security Hardening

10 Sub-Agents

All-Mode MCP

Full Grok Model Lineup

Full Configuration

ai-memory Integration (optional)

Model Catalog

Sub-Agent Tiers

Documentation