SpaceXAI Launches Grok 4.5, Its First Model with Cursor
SpaceXAI has released Grok 4.5, the company’s most capable model yet and its first since going public and acquiring AI coding startup Cursor. This joint effort between the two firms had been eagerly anticipated.
Elon Musk describes Grok 4.5 as "Opus-class" but with significant improvements in speed, token efficiency, and lower cost, aiming it squarely at coding and agentic work, not casual chat.
Key Features:
- Training: Trained alongside Cursor, acquired in a $60 billion deal.
- Capabilities: Designed to handle complex tasks like software engineering, legal and financial work, and cybersecurity.
- Pricing: Significantly cheaper than competitors at $2 per million input tokens and $6 per million output tokens.
- Performance: Outperforming some OpenAI and Anthropic models in speed, price, and performance while not yet reaching their largest models.
Musk’s Vision:
He aims to attract paying business customers by focusing on Grok 4.5’s affordability and its strengths in coding and specialized work.
The Competition:
While Grok 4.5 undercuts rivals like Anthropic’s Opus 4.8 and OpenAI’s GPT-5.6 Luna, SpaceXAI concedes that it doesn’t currently match their latest and largest models. Musk expects to close this gap in the future.
A Crowded Launch:
Grok 4.5 releases on a busy day for AI, with OpenAI also launching GPT-5.6 and new voice models. Government scrutiny surrounding cybersecurity risks hangs over all these launches.
Ana Maria Constanti authored this story.