# Grok 4.5: Price–Speed–Agent Contender Co-Trained with Cursor

Times of AI Desk · 2026-07-08 · Models

[https://timesof.ai/2026/07/spacexai-grok-4-5-launch-cursor](https://timesof.ai/2026/07/spacexai-grok-4-5-launch-cursor)

> xAI launched Grok 4.5 at $2/$6 per MTok (~80 TPS), default in Grok Build and Cursor, co-trained with Cursor. AA ~54; Arena mid-table—efficiency and coding-agent slices over overall chat crown; EU deferred mid-July.

Read Grok 4.5 as a **price–speed–agent** contender that **ties Sol on some coding-agent slices** without owning the overall Arena or AA intelligence crown. Cursor interaction data is the structural moat for agentic engineering—not a claim of chat #1.

**xAI** launched **Grok 4.5** on **July 8, 2026**—its smartest model for **coding, agentic tasks, and knowledge work**, co-trained with **Cursor**. Pricing is **$2 / $6 per million input/output tokens**, served at about **80 TPS**, with claims of roughly **4.2× fewer** output tokens than **Opus 4.8 (max)** on SWE-Bench Pro–style efficiency comparisons. Availability: **Grok Build** (default), **Cursor** (all plans), and the **xAI API console**; **not yet in the EU** (mid-July expected). Elon Musk called it an **“Opus-class”** model that is faster, more token-efficient, and lower cost.

## What xAI announced

From the primary “Introducing Grok 4.5” post (x.ai/news/grok-4-5) and Cursor’s co-launch post:

- **Positioning**: Strongest xAI model yet; coding + agentic + knowledge/office work (not coding-only).
- **Training**: Co-trained with **Cursor** on large-scale coding and multi-step engineering RL; tens of thousands of **NVIDIA GB300** GPUs; heavy data curation and long agentic rollouts.
- **Speed / efficiency**: ~**80 tokens per second**; vendor charts show much lower average output tokens per SWE-Bench Pro task vs Opus 4.8 max (**~4.2× fewer**).
- **Benchmarks (vendor / third-party harness figures cited by xAI)**: Competitive on Terminal Bench 2.1 and SWE Marathon; trails Fable 5 / GPT-5.5 on some DeepSWE and SWE-Bench Pro resolve rates—strength framed as **cost and token efficiency**, not always raw top score.
- **Office**: Default in **Grok Build**; Excel/PowerPoint/Word plugin workflows.
- **Pricing**: **$2 / $1M input**, **$6 / $1M output**.
- **Access**: Grok Build, Cursor (desktop/web/iOS/CLI/SDK; first-week usage boost noted by Cursor), API model id **`grok-4.5`**; free limited Grok 4.5 usage offered in Grok Build/Cursor at launch.
- **EU**: Explicitly **not available** yet in products or API console; mid-July target.

Context from contemporaneous TechCrunch/Axios/Forbes: first major model release after xAI’s public-company phase and Cursor acquisition path; joint Cursor–xAI training flywheel.

## Claims vs checks

| Source | Snapshot | Standing |
|--------|----------|----------|
| **Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index** | Launch-week / mid-July writeups | Early reports place **Grok 4.5 ~54** — roughly **#4** among labs with a model above **50** after the Jul 8–9 cluster (behind Fable 5, Sol, and often Opus 4.8 depending on snapshot) |
| **AA Coding Agent Index** | AA GPT‑5.6 note | **Grok 4.5 in Grok Build** **ties Sol/Codex** on **SWE-Atlas-QnA**; Sol still leads the full Coding Agent Index composite |
| **Arena Text Overall** | Board dated **Jul 16, 2026** | **grok-4.5** at **1465 ±8** (~5,493 votes) — roughly **#34** overall; well below Fable/Muse Spark 1.1/Kimi K3/Sol top band |
| **BenchLM / secondary boards** | Verified ~Jul 16 | Text Overall Elo ~**1469** band; coding category Elo higher (~**1524** on some aggregators) — still not top-10 overall text |

Note: OpenAI’s same-day SWE-Bench Pro audit (~30% broken tasks) means vendor Pro resolve/efficiency charts—including the **4.2×** token claim—should be read with that noise floor in mind.

## Limits

- EU unavailable at launch (mid-July target).
- Vendor SWE-Bench Pro efficiency charts sit beside OpenAI’s Pro audit noise finding.
- AA ~54 and Arena #34 are launch/mid-July snapshots.
- “Opus-class” is Musk framing, not an independent Elo match.

## Sources

- xAI: “Introducing Grok 4.5” (x.ai/news/grok-4-5, July 8, 2026). Primary.
- Cursor: “Introducing Grok 4.5” co-launch blog (July 8, 2026).
- Artificial Analysis launch-week Intelligence Index / Coding Agent notes (incl. SWE-Atlas-QnA tie vs Sol).
- Arena.ai Text Overall leaderboard snapshot (July 16, 2026).
- TechCrunch, Axios, Forbes same-day coverage; Musk X framing (“Opus-class,” public availability).