What is Grok 4.3?
Grok 4.3 is a closed model on xAI's API. It reads text and images, writes text, and works across a 1M-token context. Reasoning runs from none to xhigh, with low as the default, and xAI pitches the model on tool calling and following instructions.
It is current, but no longer xAI's lead model: xAI now recommends Grok 4.7 for code and chat. Grok 4.3 sits below it as the lower-cost choice, and since xAI retired Grok 4 Fast, Grok 4.1 Fast, Grok 4 and Grok 3, requests to those model names are served by Grok 4.3.
How does Grok 4.3 compare with Grok 4.7?
Grok 4.3 is cheaper and has twice the context; Grok 4.7 is the model xAI now recommends for code and chat.
- Price
- $1.25 / $2.50 per million tokens against $2 / $6 for Grok 4.7.
- Context
- 1M tokens against 500K.
- Reasoning
- Grok 4.3 can turn reasoning off and defaults to low; Grok 4.7 always reasons and defaults to high.
- Batch jobs
- Grok 4.3 takes Batch API jobs at 20% off; Grok 4.7 does not accept them.
- Regions
- Grok 4.7 is also served on xAI's US regional endpoint, which keeps inference in the United States; Grok 4.3 is not, but it is served in eu-west-1.
Who is Grok 4.3 best for?
Grok 4.3 is best for developers who want a low-cost, long-context model on the xAI API for tool calling, document work and batch jobs, rather than xAI's strongest coding model.
Long documents on a budget
Its 1M-token context is twice Grok 4.7's 500K, and prompts under 200K tokens stay on the base rate.
Tool-calling agents
xAI pitches it on tool calling and following instructions, and its output price is less than half of Grok 4.7's $6 per million tokens.
Bulk jobs that can wait
The Batch API takes 20% off input, cached and output tokens, and most batches come back within a day.
Apps built on retired Grok models
Requests to Grok 4 Fast, Grok 4.1 Fast and Grok 3 already land on Grok 4.3, so naming it directly lets you pick its reasoning level yourself.
What's included with Grok 4.3?
Five reasoning levels, a 1M-token context with image input, function calling and structured outputs, a 20%-off Batch API, and paid server-side tools.
- Reasoning levels
- Five settings from none to xhigh; low is the default, and none turns reasoning off for quick replies.
- 1M-token context
- Text and images in, text out, with images up to 20 MiB in JPG or PNG and no cap on how many.
- Function calling and structured outputs
- It calls your own tools and can return answers in a fixed JSON shape.
- Batch API
- 20% off every token type; most batches finish within 24 hours and do not count toward rate limits.
- Server-side tools
- Web search, X search, code execution and document search run on xAI's side, billed per call on top of tokens.
- Three regions, two clouds
- Served from us-east-1, eu-west-1 and us-west-2 at the same price, and listed on Google Cloud Vertex AI and Microsoft Foundry.
How much does Grok 4.3 cost?
Grok 4.3 costs $1.25 per million input tokens and $2.50 per million output tokens on the xAI API, with rates doubling once a prompt reaches 200K tokens and 20% off through the Batch API.
- 20% off every token type; cached input $0.16
- Most batches finish within 24 hours
- Prompts of 200K tokens or more: $2.00 / $4.00
- Cached input $0.20 per million tokens
- 1M-token context, text and image input
- Same prices in all three regions
- Cached input $0.40 per million tokens
- The whole request bills at this rate
Prices are in US dollars. Grok 4.3 is a closed model on the xAI API (model name grok-4.3), paid with prepaid credits or a monthly invoice; xAI lists no free credits. Server-side tools cost extra: $5 per 1,000 web searches, $5 per 1,000 X posts and $10 per 1,000 X profiles fetched, and $5 per 1,000 code runs. Priority processing costs twice the standard rates. Default rate limits are 37 requests a second and 10 million tokens a minute. Full pricing on docs.x.ai. We checked these prices on .
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Grok 4.3 pros and cons
It is cheap and fast for its level, but testers rank it well behind frontier models on coding and agent work.
Pros
- Costs $1.25 / $2.50 per million tokens, less than half of Grok 4.7's output price, and several testers call it among the best value in its price range.
- Testers on Hacker News and Reddit rank it among the fastest models they tried, with short, token-dense answers.
- Keeps a 1M-token context, twice that of xAI's newer models, and can switch reasoning off for quick replies.
- Takes Batch API jobs at 20% off, which Grok 4.5, 4.6 and 4.7 do not accept.
Cons
- Testers rank it well behind frontier models on coding, closer to open models such as Kimi and MiMo, and xAI itself steers code work to Grok 4.7 or Grok Build 0.1.
- In third-party agent harnesses such as Hermes, several users say it fumbles simple setup tasks or claims to have run commands it never ran.
- Writers on r/grok say its fiction comes out shorter and flatter than Grok 4.20's, even with detailed prompts.
- Costs climb at the edges: a prompt of 200K tokens or more doubles the price of the whole request, and web or X searches cost $5 per 1,000 on top.
What are the best Grok 4.3 alternatives?
Three tools on Recaply do Grok 4.3's job. MiMo-V2.5-Pro is open source, so you can run it on your own server.
Grok 4.6PaidChoose it when you need xAI's stronger coding and agent model and can live with a 500K context; it costs $2 / $6 per million tokens and takes no Batch API jobs.
Gemini 3.1 Flash-LiteFreeChoose it when price matters most; it costs $0.25 / $1.50 per million tokens with a 1M-token context, and the Gemini API has a free tier.
MiMo-V2.5-ProOpen SourceChoose it when you want open weights with the same 1M-token context; Xiaomi publishes the model under a permissive license and also serves it on its own API.
Questions about Grok 4.3
What is Grok 4.3?
Grok 4.3 is xAI's low-cost API model for tool calling and long documents, with a 1M-token context, image input and adjustable reasoning, priced well below Grok 4.7.
Who is Grok 4.3 for?
Grok 4.3 is best for developers who want a low-cost, long-context model on the xAI API for tool calling, document work and batch jobs, rather than xAI's strongest coding model.
Is Grok 4.3 free?
No. Grok 4.3 is a paid tool, from $1.00 / $2.00 per million input / output tokens.
Do Grok 4.3 web searches cost extra?
Yes. On top of token costs, xAI charges $5 per 1,000 web searches, $5 per 1,000 X posts and $10 per 1,000 X profiles fetched, and $5 per 1,000 code runs. Without these search tools, Grok 4.3 knows nothing about events after its training data.
Is there an open source alternative to Grok 4.3?
Yes. MiMo-V2.5-Pro is an open source tool that does the same job, so you can run your own.
What are the best Grok 4.3 alternatives?
The closest alternatives on Recaply are Grok 4.6, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite and MiMo-V2.5-Pro.
Where can I try Grok 4.3?
On its official website, docs.x.ai.
Is Grok 4.3 still available?
Yes. xAI still lists Grok 4.3 on its models and pricing pages, and requests sent to retired models such as Grok 4 Fast, Grok 4.1 Fast, Grok 4 and Grok 3 are now served by it at Grok 4.3 prices. For code and chat, xAI recommends Grok 4.7.
Does xAI train on my Grok 4.3 API data?
Not without your explicit permission. xAI keeps API requests and responses encrypted for 30 days to check for abuse, then deletes them. Zero Data Retention is available for stricter needs, but it turns off the Batch API, stored conversations, Files and Collections.
Can I use Grok 4.3 on Google Cloud or Azure?
Yes. xAI lists Grok 4.3 in Google Cloud Vertex AI's Model Garden and in the Microsoft Foundry model catalog, billed through your Google Cloud or Azure account. Check each cloud's model card for its regions, quotas and prices.
Can I turn off reasoning in Grok 4.3?
Yes. Set reasoning effort to none for plain, fast replies, or raise it through low, medium and high to xhigh for harder problems. Low is the default, and requests sent to retired non-reasoning models run on Grok 4.3 with reasoning set to none.
Our verdict
Grok 4.3 is still a sound pick for cheap, long-context tool calling on xAI's API, though Grok 4.7 is now xAI's lead model.
It costs $1.25 / $2.50 per million tokens with a 1M context and a 20% batch discount, against $2 / $6 for Grok 4.7, but testers rank its coding well behind frontier models.
- Skip it for
- Hard coding and long agent runs, where xAI points to Grok 4.7 or Grok Build 0.1.
- Check first
- Keep prompts under 200K tokens, since a larger prompt doubles the price of the whole request.
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