Grok Imagine Review 2026: xAI's Video Generator, Tested for Australia
The gate: Five stars need 21+ and Australian Fit of at least 4/5.
Skip to the verdictThe verdict: Grok Imagine is xAI's image and video generator, built into Grok and reachable by API. The current model, grok-imagine-video-1.5, turns a still photo or a text prompt into a short clip fast, and it undercuts Sora and Veo heavily on price. The raw output is good. The context around it is the problem. Grok's image tools were used at scale to make non-consensual sexual deepfakes, drawing a California cease-and-desist and an active Australian eSafety investigation. New AU Online Safety Codes that tighten obligations on AI services began on 9 March 2026. There is no AUD billing, no onshore data, and no Australian support. For a Melbourne business that needs reliable, defensible marketing video, the legal and reputational risk outweighs the low price today. Score: 13/25 — Good.
What it is
Grok Imagine is the image-and-video generation feature inside Grok, xAI's chatbot. It does three things: it makes still images from text, it animates a still image into a short video (image-to-video), and it generates video straight from a text prompt. xAI also offers it as a developer API, billed per second of video and per image.
The headline product is the video model. xAI's documentation names the current version grok-imagine-video-1.5, with an older grok-imagine-video still available for a "reference-to-video" mode the newer model drops. On the consumer side, you reach Imagine through a paid Grok subscription on the web or the X app.
This is a Video Generation tool by our category. So we judge it the way we judge Sora, Veo and Kling: can a non-technical Australian get a usable clip out of it, at a fair price, without nasty surprises.
What it costs in Australia
There is no Australian pricing. Everything is billed in US dollars, so add roughly 55% for the exchange rate, and check your card's foreign-transaction fee on top. GST treatment on digital subscriptions sold to Australian consumers is usually GST-inclusive at the price shown, but xAI's checkout does not display an AUD line.
Two ways to pay:
| Path | Price (USD) | Approx AUD | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| SuperGrok Lite | US$10/mo | ~A$14.00 | Entry Grok plus Grok Imagine access |
| SuperGrok | US$30/mo | ~A$42.00 | Full Grok, higher Imagine limits |
| X Premium+ | US$40/mo | ~A$56 | Imagine plus X Premium perks |
| SuperGrok Heavy | US$300/mo | ~A$420 | Top limits, priority |
| API — video 1.5 | $0.080/sec | ~$0.11/sec | Pay per second, reported 720p |
| API — older video | $0.050/sec | ~$0.07/sec | Cheaper, reference-to-video |
| API — image | $0.02/image | ~$0.03 | Standard image |
| API — image (quality) | $0.05/image | ~$0.07 | Higher-quality image |
The API rates are confirmed on xAI's own model documentation. The subscription prices are corroborated across multiple independent pricing trackers (xAI's own plans page sits behind bot protection) and matched to xAI's announcements — confirm at checkout. As a rough sense of the API economics, a short clip runs about US$4.20 a minute — cheap next to the premium tiers of rival models.
How it works / features
The core loop is simple. Upload a photo or type a prompt, pick a length, and Grok renders a clip. Via the API, videos can run up to 15 seconds; the native consumer clips are shorter, around 6 to 10 seconds depending on your tier. Resolution is reported to top out at 720p in the current model.
Some secondary coverage describes native audio — background music, sound effects and short dialogue generated in the same pass. xAI's own API capabilities page lists image and video only and does not mention audio, so we don't credit native audio until xAI documents it.
The 1.5 model's selling point is image-to-video quality at a low price. In a crowd-voted arena where people pick the better of two anonymous clips, it ranks near the top. More on exactly how near in the next section.
Consumer daily limits are tier-based. Reported figures — attributed to Elon Musk rather than a vendor help page — are 50 videos a day on Premium, 100 on Premium+ and 500 on Heavy, and users report the real-world ceiling is lower at higher quality settings.
What it does well
Speed and price are the genuine wins. The 1.5 model produces a watchable image-to-video clip quickly, and the per-second API cost is a fraction of what Sora's and Veo's premium tiers charge. Sora is not a live comparison for long: OpenAI closes its API on 24 September 2026. For a high-volume creator who wants a lot of short clips and is not fussy about a perfect frame, the maths is attractive.
Quality is competitive at the top end. On Artificial Analysis's live image-to-video leaderboard, grok-imagine-video-1.5 sits in the top handful of models by Elo, with a clear generational jump over the 1.0 version. That is a real result, not marketing.
It is also frictionless if you already live in Grok. No separate signup, no new app. Type a prompt in the same window you ask Grok questions, and you get a clip.
Where it falls short
The leaderboard claim needs correcting. Around its late-May to June 2026 launch, secondary outlets reported that Grok Imagine Video 1.5 had topped the image-to-video board and displaced ByteDance's Seedance 2.0. On the live leaderboard at the time of this review, that lead has not held: grok-imagine-video-1.5 ranks second, behind ByteDance's Dreamina Seedance 2.0 at the top. So "topped the leaderboard" was true at launch and is no longer the current state. Sora 2 does not appear on that particular board at all, so head-to-head Elo against Sora is not available there.
Then there is the safety record, which is not a footnote. Grok's image tools were used at scale to produce non-consensual sexual imagery, including material depicting minors. California's Attorney General sent xAI a cease-and-desist letter on 16 January 2026 demanding it stop creating and distributing such content, with a five-day deadline to confirm corrective steps. xAI has since tightened moderation, and users now complain the filter is over-strict and rejects ordinary prompts. So you get both problems at once: a tool with a serious abuse history and a moderation system that can block harmless work.
The limits are also opaque. Reset windows shift, "fair use" throttling kicks in at peak times, and reported caps have been revised down mid-year. That is hard to plan a content schedule around.
Australian fit
Grok Imagine is available in Australia — Grok and X are sold here, and you can subscribe and generate today. But "available" is not the same as "suited to an Australian business," and on the AU specifics it scores poorly.
Currency and GST: there is no AUD pricing and no AUD line at checkout. You pay in US dollars with the conversion and any card fees on top.
Data residency and the Privacy Act: xAI does not offer Australian onshore data storage for Imagine, and we found no Australian Privacy Act commitment for this product. Treat anything you upload as processed offshore.
Regulation: this is the decisive point. Australia's eSafety Commissioner has raised concerns about Grok being misused to generate sexualised content and has signalled it will investigate and act using its regulatory powers. New mandatory Online Safety Codes covering AI services commenced on 9 March 2026, adding obligations around restricting minors' access to explicit material; xAI references an 18-plus media control for Australian users in its settings. The investigation and the 9 March codes are well corroborated by Australian sources.
Support: there is no Australian support channel and no local business contact. You are on US help docs and X's general support.
Net: usable, but for an Australian business the regulatory cloud and the lack of any local footing make this a hard tool to stand behind.
Score
| Criterion | Score | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Value for Money | 4/5 | API per-second cost badly undercuts Sora and Veo; subscriptions are mid-priced |
| Ease of Use | 3/5 | Simple if you live in Grok, but opaque limits and an over-strict filter frustrate |
| Feature Depth | 3/5 | Strong image-to-video, up to 15s via API, reported 720p ceiling, audio unconfirmed |
| Australian Fit | 2/5 | Available here, but no AUD, no onshore data, active eSafety probe, new AU codes |
| Reliability & Support | 1/5 | Shifting limits, no AU support, and a serious documented safety record |
| Total | 13/25 |
⭐⭐⭐ Good (13/25)
This tool is not rated five stars. Under our methodology, Australian Fit below 4/5 caps the top rating regardless of total — though here the raw score sits in the three-star band in any case.
Bottom line
If you are a Melbourne small-business owner who wants safe, defensible marketing video, this is not your tool yet. The low price is real, but the active Australian eSafety investigation and the deepfake history are not risks worth taking for a few short clips. Use a model with a cleaner record.
If you are a high-volume creator chasing the cheapest competent image-to-video and you understand the moderation and reputational risks, Grok Imagine's API is genuinely cheap and the 1.5 model is competitive. Go in with your eyes open about the limits and the filter.
If you are already paying for SuperGrok or X Premium+ for other reasons, trying Imagine costs you nothing extra. Treat it as a bonus, keep anything sensitive off it, and do not rely on it for client-facing work.
If your priority is Australian fit — AUD billing, local data, local support, a clean compliance story — look elsewhere in our Video Generation category. Grok Imagine does not clear that bar today.
Update history
- 1 Oct 2026 — re-checked by browser; unresolved, no claims re-verified.
grok.com/planson an Australian connection lists SuperGrok and SuperGrok Heavy with features (Imagine video now "HD 720p, 30-second") but shows no price without signing in. The table is left as reviewed. Score unchanged. Capture:Dossiers/captures/grok-imagine-pricing-2026-10-01.txt. - 20 Sep 2026 — Sora mention dated against OpenAI's sunset: the consumer app closed 26 April 2026 and the API closes 24 September 2026. Score unchanged.
- 23 Jun 2026 — First reviewed.
- 24 Sep 2026 — 3 Australian figures recut to the current basis. They were converted at about 1.57 — the retired basis — inside a column headed ex-GST whose other rows were already at 1.4045. Corrected to US$1 = A$1.4045 (Frankfurter/ECB, 18 September 2026): API — video 1.5 ~$0.12/sec → ~$0.11/sec; API — older video ~$0.08/sec → ~$0.07/sec; API — image (quality) ~$0.08 → ~$0.07. No USD price moved and no score changed.
reviewed:untouched per our dating rule.
Frequently asked questions
Is Grok Imagine available in Australia?
Yes. Grok and X are sold in Australia, so you can subscribe and generate video here. But there is no AUD billing, no Australian data storage, and an active eSafety investigation into Grok's misuse.
What is the current Grok Imagine video model?
xAI's documentation names grok-imagine-video-1.5 as the current model, billed at US$0.080 per second via the API, with an older grok-imagine-video at US$0.050 per second.
Did Grok Imagine top the video leaderboard?
It topped Artificial Analysis's image-to-video board around its launch in mid-2026. On the live board at our review date it ranks second, behind ByteDance's Dreamina Seedance 2.0.
Why is Grok Imagine controversial?
Grok's image tools were used to make non-consensual sexual deepfakes, including of minors. California's Attorney General sent a cease-and-desist on 16 January 2026, and Australia's eSafety Commissioner is investigating.
How much does Grok Imagine cost in Australian dollars?
There is no AUD pricing. The API charges about US$0.12 per second of video after conversion. Consumer access needs a paid Grok subscription, billed in US dollars.
Read next
Sources
- xAI — Grok Imagine model capabilities documentation (primary): https://docs.x.ai/developers/model-capabilities/imagine
- xAI — model and API pricing documentation (primary): https://docs.x.ai/docs/models
- Artificial Analysis — image-to-video leaderboard (primary, live ranking): https://artificialanalysis.ai/video/leaderboard/image-to-video
- California Office of the Attorney General — cease-and-desist letter to xAI, 16 January 2026 (primary): https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-sends-cease-and-desist-letter-xai-demands-it-halt-illegal
- eSafety Commissioner (Australia) — concerns about misuse of Grok to generate sexualised content (secondary): https://www.esafety.gov.au/newsroom/media-releases/esafety-raises-concerns-about-misuse-of-grok-to-generate-sexualised-content
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