Grok Imagine: Images and Video in 2026

Updated November 2, 2026 — Imagine. As of November 2, 2026, grok-imagine-image-quality is retired: its requests are now served by Imagine Image 2.0 (grok-imagine-image-2.0, $0.04 per image) in low quality. Replace the ID in your examples and set the desired quality; grok-imagine-image (version 1.0) is unaffected. Imagine Image 2.0 accepts up to five reference images and the auto quality setting, which is now the default.

xAI’s visual creation division is called Imagine, and June 2026 brought two rapid updates you need to understand in sequence. On June 9, the grok-imagine-video-1.5-preview model landed on the xAI API in preview. Its specialty: image-to-video. You provide a starting image, and the model animates it. This starting point matters—it means the generated video can start from a visual you already control, rather than a text prompt whose output is always less predictable. One week later, on June 16, xAI announced Grok Imagine Video 1.5 in a consolidated version, with improved quality “at even faster speeds.” In seven days, the model went from preview to a version announced as faster and more polished: the delivery pace itself signals the priority xAI places on this initiative.

A Two-Line Pricing Grid

The pricing recorded on docs.x.ai on July 28, 2026 fits in a minimal table:

The simplicity of this grid hides a logical difference you need to keep in mind before budgeting anything. Images are priced per unit: $0.02 per generation, whether 1K or 2K. Video, however, is priced per second produced: $0.05, whether the output is 480p or 1080p. This is exactly the same logic as voice billed by the hour, covered in the previous lesson: budget based on duration, not complexity. A 30-second video costs $1.50, whether the prompt requested a minimalist logo animation or an elaborate scene. The practical consequence is that your internal usage templates must prioritize duration: a team that gets into the habit of systematically generating 60-second clips where 15 would suffice quadruples its bill without gaining quality.

What These Prices Enable for Enterprise

At $0.02 per image, the unit cost changes how you work. Illustrating content, creating variations of a product visual, producing quick mockups: at this price, the right method is no longer to search for the perfect prompt on the first try, but to generate in volume and sort afterward. Ten generations to keep the best one cost 20 cents—less than the time spent refining a single prompt.

On the video side, the per-second pricing naturally points toward short formats: logo animations, teasers for social media, transitions. This is where the image-to-video capability makes the most sense for a brand: rather than describing your visual identity in a prompt and hoping the model respects it, you start from an existing brand visual—your logo, your packshot—and ask the model to animate it. The starting point is guaranteed compliant; only the movement is generated.

Distribution rules, however, haven’t changed since our image generation courses, and they apply fully here: verify rights on the source visuals you animate, add generated content labels where regulations require, and never publish anything publicly without human validation. A faster, cheaper model reduces none of these obligations—it actually increases the volume of content that must pass through this filter.

Where This Lesson Fits in the Path

Our “Grok Image Generation” and “Grok Video Generation” courses remain the reference for everything related to prompt writing and API integration: nothing in their methodological content is invalidated. What this lesson updates are two factual elements: the video model version, now 1.5, and the pricing grid above.

Official source: x.ai/news and docs.x.ai/developers/models

Pricing recorded on August 5, 2026 — prices evolve regularly: before any budget calculation, verify the current grid on the official xAI models and pricing page.

Key Takeaways

• grok-imagine-video-1.5: image-to-video, landed on the API in June
• Image: $0.02 per unit (1K/2K); video: $0.05 per second (up to 1080p)
• Budget video by duration produced, not by number of prompts
• Distribution rules (rights, labels, human validation) remain unchanged