Grok Imagine is the fastest AI video generator most people can actually use right now. It takes a text prompt, a voice command, or a still photo and turns it into a short video with synchronized audio in roughly 17 seconds. That’s faster than Sora 2 or Veo 3.1 by a wide margin. xAI launched it on July 28, 2025 and shipped Grok Imagine 1.0 on February 1, 2026, raising the cap to 10-second clips at 720p with dramatically better sound.
This guide covers what Grok Imagine actually is, the five workflows it supports, and how to access it on the web and on your phone. You’ll also see what each subscription tier unlocks, how the output compares to Google’s Veo 3.1 a Kling 3.0 now that OpenAI is winding Sora 2 down, what to expect from the new Imagine API, the four generation modes (including the controversial Spicy Mode), and where Grok Imagine still falls short.
The Key Takeaways
- Grok Imagine is xAI’s AI image and video generator, built into the Grok app and at grok.com/imagine.
- Generates a video with audio in roughly 17 seconds, several times faster than Veo 3.1 or Kling 3.0.
- Output caps at 10 seconds a 720p as of Grok Imagine 1.0 (February 1, 2026).
- Free tier exists with hourly caps; full features need SuperGrok ($30/month) or X Premium+ ($40/month).
- Five workflows supported: text-to-image, image edit, text-to-video, image-to-video, and video-to-video.
What Is Grok Imagine?
Grok Imagine is xAI’s dedicated image and video generation tool. It lives inside the Grok mobile app and at grok.com/imagine, separate from the conversational Grok 4 and Grok 4.3 chatbots but signed in with the same account. The model handles five workflows in a single canvas, text-to-image, image editing, text-to-video, image-to-video, and video-to-video, and produces clips with native synchronized audio rather than silent video that needs a separate sound pass.
xAI shipped the first version on July 28, 2025 as a 6-second text-to-video tool. The Grok Imagine 1.0 release on February 1, 2026 doubled the clip length to 10 seconds and raised resolution to 720p. It also overhauled the audio pipeline so prompts can specify ambience, sound effects, and short dialogue. A March 2026 update added stylized templates including a Chibi style. In spring 2026 xAI rolled out the Imagine API, Quality Mode for higher realism and stronger text rendering, and an Imagine Agent that plans multi-step image and video sequences for you.
How to Use Grok Imagine
You’ll be generating your first video in under a minute. Here is the fastest path.
- Open grok.com/imagine in any browser, or launch the Grok app on iPhone, Android, or your Mac.
- Sign in with X, Apple, Google, or a Grok account. Free users get a small daily allowance; paid users on SuperGrok or X Premium+ get higher limits and 720p output.
- Pick Image or Video at the top of the canvas.
- Type a prompt, tap the microphone to dictate one with voice, or upload a still photo to animate.
- Choose a generation mode (Normal, Fun, Custom, or Spicy) and tap Generate.
The voice prompt option is one of the more useful additions. Hold the microphone, describe the scene the way you would describe it to a friend, and Grok Imagine turns the spoken description into a full prompt and feeds it to the model. For users who hate writing detailed prompt syntax, this alone is worth a try.
What Grok Imagine Can Do
The headline feature is video generation with native audio. You write a prompt like “a golden retriever wearing sunglasses surfing a turquoise wave at sunset, ocean spray, distant beach crowd cheering.” Grok Imagine returns a 6 to 10-second clip with matching ambient sound, foley, and (if requested) short dialogue. The audio is generated in the same pass as the video, so footsteps line up with steps and rain hits the ground when it should.
Image generation is the other half of the product. Grok Imagine produces multiple variations per prompt in roughly 5 seconds and supports several aspect ratios for vertical and horizontal use. Built-in editing lets you change a background, swap an outfit, or add an object to an existing image without re-running the full generation. xAI uses a hybrid stack built on Black Forest Labs‘ Flux models combined with its own Aurora research. The result lands in the middle of public image-quality leaderboards, behind GPT Image 1.5 and Gemini 3 Pro Image but ahead of older Midjourney releases for speed-sensitive workflows.
The Imagine Agent is the newest piece. Instead of typing a single prompt, you describe a goal (“make me a 30-second product reel with three scenes and a voiceover”) and the agent plans the shots, generates each clip, and stitches them together. It is rolling out gradually to SuperGrok a SuperGrok Heavy subscribers who already have Imagine access.
What Grok Imagine Cannot Do (Yet)
Resolution caps at 720p, so cinematic 1080p or 4K output is off the table for now. Clips top out at 10 seconds; Extend From Frame chains new generations onto the end. Realism is uneven, faces and hands sometimes warp, and longer scenes with consistent characters across cuts are still a weakness compared with Veo 3.1. For broadcast-grade output, you’ll still reach for other AI video generators like Kling 3.0 or Veo 3.1 and accept the longer wait.
Grok Imagine Modes Explained
Grok Imagine ships with four generation modes, and the mode you pick shapes the look and the rules.
Normal mode is the default and produces balanced, professional-looking output that aligns with xAI’s standard content policy. It is the right pick for marketing assets, social posts, product visuals, and anything you plan to publish on a brand account.
Fun mode loosens the dial toward creative variation. The same prompt produces wider stylistic interpretations and more cinematic camera moves, useful when you are still exploring an idea and want surprise.
Custom mode is the precision setting. You can fix lighting, mood, camera angle, motion path, and style with explicit parameters; it is the slowest mode but gives the most consistent output.
Spicy mode is xAI’s adult-content setting and is the most controversial part of the product. It generates artistic content with looser content rules and is gated behind paid subscriptions and age verification. It has also been at the center of safety incidents, including the non-consensual deepfake controversy that drew government criticism in early 2026. xAI has since added more aggressive moderation, but the feature remains divisive. Treat it as a liability if you are creating content for a brand account.
Grok Imagine Pricing
Pricing follows the standard Grok subscription ladder, and Imagine usage is bundled into each tier rather than billed separately. Image generation has the most generous quotas; video generation hits caps the fastest.
| Plan | Price | Imagine access |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Small daily allowance, 480p, 6-second clips |
| X Premium | $8/mo | Higher caps inside X, image-first |
| SuperGrok Lite | $10/mo | 480p, 6-second clips, daily caps |
| SuperGrok | $30/mo | 720p, 10-second clips, ~100 video renders/day |
| X Premium+ | $40/mo | 720p, 10-second clips, higher X feature ceiling |
| SuperGrok Heavy | $300/mo | Top limits across image, video, and Imagine Agent |
Annual billing on SuperGrok brings the effective price to roughly $25/month. For the full ladder including team plans and API credits, see the Grok pricing breakdown.
Grok Imagine vs Veo 3.1, Kling 3.0, and Sora 2
The question most people are really asking is whether Grok Imagine is good enough to skip Google DeepMind’s Veo 3.1 or Kuaishou’s Kling 3.0, the two heaviest live competitors. The honest answer is “depends on what you are optimizing for.”
Note on Sora 2: OpenAI shut down the consumer Sora app on April 26, 2026 and the Sora 2 API enters full retirement on September 24, 2026, with no new API keys issued in the meantime. We’ve kept Sora 2 in the table below as a historical reference, but it is no longer a viable pick for any new project.
| Feature | Grok Imagine | Veo 3.1 | Kling 3.0 | Sora 2 (shutting down) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Max video length | 10 seconds (extendable) | 8s base, up to 148s extended | up to 2 minutes | 20 seconds |
| Max resolution | 720p | 1080p | 4K native | 1080p |
| Native audio | Yes | Yes (with lip sync) | Yes (since 3.0) | Yes |
| Speed (prompt-to-video) | ~17 seconds | 1–2 minutes | 1–3 minutes | 1–3 minutes |
| Access | Grok app, web, API | Google AI Studio / Vertex | klingai.com, fal API | API in maintenance, retires Sep 24, 2026 |
| Best for | Speed, social, iteration | Cinematic, lip-synced dialogue | 4K output, multi-shot continuity | (no new sign-ups; existing keys only) |
If you are testing ideas, posting to social, or iterating on a concept, Grok Imagine wins on raw cycle time and is hard to beat. If you need photoreal humans at 1080p, native 4K output, multi-scene continuity, or believable lip sync for dialogue, Kling 3.0 a Veo 3.1 produce stronger output despite the longer waits, and they are the two live alternatives going forward.
The Grok Imagine API
Developers got their first official entry point with the Imagine API in spring 2026. The unified endpoint covers image generation, image editing, text-to-video, image-to-video, and the new audio pass; it includes Quality Mode for higher realism and stronger text rendering, and pricing follows xAI’s standard credit-based tier system. xAI gives every account promotional credits at signup, with additional credits available through the data sharing program.
The API is the lever you reach for if you are building a product on top of generation rather than running prompts by hand. For a hand-run workflow, the Grok app and web canvas are still the easiest path.
Using Grok Imagine on a Mac
xAI does not ship a native Mac desktop app for Grok or Grok Imagine yet. The cleanest desktop options are grok.com/imagine in your browser or a Grok desktop client for macOS that wraps the web app in a window with menubar shortcuts, dock notifications, and keyboard control.
Want one place for chat across multiple models on your Mac? The Fello AI app on the Mac App Store gives you Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok, and DeepSeek behind a single subscription at $9.99/month. That’s useful when you want to draft a prompt with one model and run it through Grok or another model in the same window. Grok Imagine itself still runs through Grok’s own canvas, but Fello AI removes the friction of bouncing between tabs when you are designing the prompt.
Should You Use Grok Imagine?
Pick Grok Imagine when speed beats polish. Iterating on social content, drafting visual concepts, animating a single still image, or making a 10-second clip you can post in the next 60 seconds is exactly the workflow it is designed for. The combination of voice prompting, native audio, and ~17-second turnaround is fun, and the price is fair if you already pay for SuperGrok or X Premium+.
Skip Grok Imagine when you need cinematic 1080p output, multi-scene continuity, accurate human anatomy, or believable lip-synced dialogue. Reach for Kling 3.0 or Veo 3.1, accept the longer wait, and pay the higher cost. For a fuller picture of where each tool fits, see the FelloAI best AI models hub.
FAQ
What is Grok Imagine?
Grok Imagine is xAI’s AI image and video generator. It produces images, animated images, and short videos with synchronized audio from text prompts, voice commands, or uploaded photos.
Is Grok Imagine free?
Yes, there is a free tier with hourly caps and a 480p ceiling. Full features (720p, 10-second clips, ~100 video renders/day) require SuperGrok at $30/month or X Premium+ at $40/month.
How long can a Grok Imagine video be?
Up to 10 seconds at 720p as of Grok Imagine 1.0. You can chain clips with Extend From Frame to build longer sequences, but each generation produces 10 seconds at most.
How is Grok Imagine different from Grok 4?
Grok 4 and Grok 4.3 are conversational chatbots; Grok Imagine is the dedicated image and video generator. They share the same xAI account and subscription but live in different parts of the app.
Does Grok Imagine have an API?
Yes. xAI launched the Imagine API in spring 2026 with image, video, and audio endpoints, plus a Quality Mode for higher realism. Pricing uses xAI’s credit-based system.
