The way to judge a paid plan is to list the things you would actually do with it. Below are five workflows most people end up running. For each, we give the pattern and a rough per-run API cost using catalogue prices at the time of writing, so you can see when a subscription would be cheaper.
The API arithmetic is simple. Grok 4 Fast is $0.20 per 1M input and $0.50 per 1M output. A run that reads 10,000 tokens and writes 1,000 costs about $0.0025 on Grok 4 Fast, about $0.015 on Grok 4.3, and about $0.045 on Grok 4.
1. Writing: first drafts and rewrites
Paste your notes, state the audience and length, ask for a draft, then ask for two alternative openings. Two or three turns of a few thousand tokens each. On the free allowance this is a handful of messages; on the API it is well under a cent on Grok 4 Fast. Writing rarely needs a bigger model until the stakes are high.
2. Research: what is being said right now
This is where Grok's X integration earns its keep. Ask for the main positions people are taking on a topic in the last day, with example posts. Then, in a fresh chat with X search off, ask for a neutral summary of the underlying facts. Two chats keep the noise and the analysis separate.
3. Coding: explain, fix, extend
Paste the failing function and the error, ask for the cause and a minimal fix. For larger jobs, the API's big context windows let you load whole modules; Grok 4.20 lists 2,000,000 tokens in our catalogue. Start on Grok Build 0.1 at $1 input and $2 output, and move to Grok 4.6 if it gets stuck. A 50,000-token repo read with a 2,000-token answer is about $0.054 on Grok Build 0.1.
4. Data: clean, extract, classify
Give Grok a CSV excerpt or a batch of messages and ask for structured output: JSON with named fields. This is pure volume work and it belongs on Grok 4 Fast. Classifying 1,000 short reviews at around 100 tokens each, with 20 output tokens per review, costs roughly $0.03 in total. A paid plan makes no sense for this; the API does.
5. Planning: turning a goal into a schedule
Describe the goal, the deadline, the hours you have, and the constraints. Ask for a week-by-week plan as a table, then for the three most likely reasons it slips. This is a few thousand tokens and works fine on the free allowance or the fast tier.
| Workflow | Tokens in / out | Grok 4 Fast | Grok 4.3 | Free allowance? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Writing draft | 3,000 / 1,000 | $0.0011 | $0.0063 | Yes |
| Research (2 chats) | 8,000 / 1,500 | $0.0024 | $0.0138 | Yes, uses several messages |
| Coding (module read) | 50,000 / 2,000 | $0.011 | $0.0675 | Usually too large |
| Data (1,000 reviews) | 100,000 / 20,000 | $0.03 | $0.175 | No, API job |
| Planning | 2,000 / 1,500 | $0.0012 | $0.0063 | Yes |
Knowledge check
Which workflow is the clearest case for the API over a subscription?