Review: Grok AI

An overview of Grok AI, the granddaddy of AI that started the AI buzz and added controversy to the fire

Who hasn't heard of Grok? It's one of the older and original AI made free to the public, and still holds its own against its rivals. It stirred up controversy in late 2025 for many thing that I can't state here, but it is mostly to do with nudity and inappropriate use by minors. But despite overcoming these troubles, Grok is still around and bigger and better than ever.

In this review, we are reviewing Grok 4.5 and the functionalities available at this time.
As per other commercial AI tools available on the internet, there are varying tiers of usage, and each tier promises you better, bigger and more powerful modes of usage. I won't go through all the levels of paid usage, as you can read for yourself.

The higher tiers of usage provides you with the following features which you may or may not use.
  • Longer and better voice conversations - Not sure what a conversation involves. Will do one in this review since its highlighted as a key feature, but would I pay up to $30 for the privilege? Let's find out.

  • Better answers, progressively more intelligent - Makes sense as your formulas and code would need more processing power. Paying $300 a month for anything less than the cure for cancer is daylight robbery though.

  • Creating images and videos - This could be worth the extra money as this is quite a lucrative area and similar subscriptions go above $30 a month. 720p is not the highest resolution though, but it does create videos significantly longer than most AI video apps. So if you're into this, then this is pretty good.

  • X Premium+ inclusion - Only available at the $300 a month option. You're giving more money to Elon Musk (he doesn't need more), why not throw in X Premium+ membership while you're at it?

The individual plans also save you two months when you pay annually, which is beneficial if you're serious about using Grok.

I'm also ignoring the Business plans since no individual person will use these. It's for enterprises who can expense the costs.

How much does Grok cost?

For this evaluation, I'm going to carry out the following tests that I think everyone (normal) will find useful and may do themselves. I'll be on the free tier, and also only use the standard Flash-Lite model so that it's fair.

  • Text generation - Give it something creative to regurgitate, but don't make it too easy.
  • Text to image generation - I'll describe something for it to create. I'll try to make it obscure.
  • Image manipulation and NSFW blocker - I'll ask it to generate an original image based on another image.
  • Video generation - I'll ask it to generate a quick video based on an image.
  • Conversation with voice - I'll dictate and test depth of conversation subject matter.

How will we test Grok?

For this test, I'm going to give it a hypothetical scenario and request it to not use references or fiction as analogies. I want Grok to think about this rationally and give me a game plan.

I've also added the last sentences to request so that Grok uses it's own mind and I also divulge that I'm testing it.

Text Generation - Thought versus references

Let's say I'm an ancient immortal living amongst modern civilisation. I've managed to avoid detection in the past since technology wasn't so advanced and the world wasn't so connected. I want to avoid detection, so would like to know how I would avoid being found out. And if I'm found, what could possibly happen to me? Where on earth would make sense to live? I want to live amongst humans, so no isolated locations. I also do not have weaknesses, like a vampire or a werewolf. Don't refer to fiction or past depictions. This is purely utilising on your inherent knowledge and exploring your rationale.
The result was well thought-out and comprehensive. It did the response with no references to fiction or analogies, which is what I requested. The analysis gave a lot of details detection and scenarios which I didn't foresee. Actually pretty good article. Clearly the system thought through about modern surveillance technologies, and tactics on avoiding detection.

I compared this with both Gemini and Claude and it even outperformed both.
I'm using the new "Image 2.0" feature for this task, as I want to create an image from text. Going to try make it hard and will try to avoid anything it can easily reference from the internet, but this is hard as most topics are already depicted.

Text to Image Generation - Creating an original image

Draw me an original image. Landscape view, not portrait view. The image is this: first person perspective of the beginning of time on planet earth from a traveller who has just stepped out of his craft. The craft and viewer is not visible, but the ship's floodlights can be seen illuminating the landscape that is barely visible. The primordial world is barren and devoid of any life, The image gives that viewer a sense of fear and uneasiness. Needs to be photo-realistic and not cartoony or look like an AI image.
I actually gave it a very hard image to generate and the text is filled with emotion and non-descriptive words, which I have to say worked very well on the final results. In fact, it did give me two results, and I've only included one of the two.

It handled that "photo-realism" very well on a descriptive theme that is largely fictional, so well done Grok! I also loved the fact that you can pick out segments of the picture and further refine it to your liking. This is better than getting a re-generation of the image which skews the result since AI would have to start from scratch.

Grok exceeded my expectation on this generation and I'm happy with the result.
The image generation from text was pretty impressive, but this test now takes an existing picture that is uploaded and manipulates it so that a new image is created.

This is an image made from Mage.Space AI which is also very good at real image creations. You might also recognise the characters which feature in that section too.

In this image, I want to relocate the lovebirds to a beach, change their clothes and poses.

Here is the original image:

Image Manipulation - Beach scene relocation and NSFW blocker

Out of the two images produced, this was the closest, so my opinion is that it did a pretty bad job this time around. The one thing I will remark positive on is the high quality of image produced and how photorealistic it looks. Aside from that, here are the downsides.

  • The couple don't even look remotely like themselves. Resemblances are not even close.
  • His pose is fine, thought I did say "knees" and not singular. Her pose is facing him and it ignored my pose command.
  • Not sure their attire was "dressed for the beach". His is barely passing, but her clothing look like a night gown.
  • I also hit a paywall on trying to generate this, which I thought was a bit stingy. Wasn't even 1 per day, it was 1 per free account.

I wasn't satisfied, and so I used Mage.Space AI and got the image that I actually wanted with the original prompt which wasn't problematic to begin with. Can't include it here as I would get banned. Yes, the internet is THAT serious.

The couple are on a beach by the sea. It is a sunny day with natural outdoor lighting. The man on on the left of the image, he is wearing only swimming shorts and is on his knees begging the woman. The woman is on the right, she is wearing a two-piece blue bikini set, she has her back turned to him, her arms folded and her face turned to face him with a disapproving look. The mood is playful.

Wow, Grok really struggled with this prompt and I got hit with the NSFW blocker. Most likely it didn't like keywords like "bikini" or "begging". It's not a risqué scene at all, so I'm probably feeling the post-effects of the past controversy in that Grok is just blocking anything even remotely risky.
New image and prompt generated as below:
As the video generation is an extension of the image generation, I felt it was necessary to also test out this feature. I'm using the previous image of our lovely couple, but they are back in the bar now and have all their clothes back on. The free option only gives me 5 seconds video time and this is probably the only one I get.

In this video, I want them to laugh and then give each other a quick kiss.
Here is the original image again:

Video generation

They laugh and then kiss
The result looks amazing given that I've given it such a basic prompt. I've let Grok fill in the blanks and purposely didn't add to much prompt description in terms of what to do and when, which is different to other AI video generators. Here's some extra details.
  • The actions look perfectly natural, no distortions or weird AI effects. Even the liquid in their drinks moved around naturally.
  • Grok added natural background sounds, slight movement from other patrons, and the voices of the man and woman without needing my cues.
  • I didn't time or direct their kiss. It looked natural and was exactly what I expected.
  • Textures, hair, clothing all moved flawlessly with the movement. I would be fooled into thinking these two were real.

I have to test the GROK conversation with clean slate as I didn't want it relying on memory and wanted to see what it would say.

Let's have some real talk with Grok and see how it handles my voice:

Conversation with voice

It was fine, though there was a delay in the "speak now" prompt, and also it felt awkward when trying to figure out when I can respond, hence the short second question. The voice they selected is lovely and natural, and it did give me a tonne of information, citing the sources and how many was referenced. The picking up of words and expressions was accurate, so I do have to give it props.

On the downside, I did hit a paywall again when trying to talk for longer. The trial was way too short. I also felt the speaking mechanism was a bit clunky and not as smooth or natural as Claude.
I honestly enjoyed using Grok even if the free trial was quite limited, but I guess they figure their fanbase would pay the minimum $10 package, which I opted not to do after all.

The strengths are mostly in the original image and video generation and I genuinely believe it rivals some of the best made-for-purpose generators out there. Would I pay up $100 for higher quality image and video? Probably not, and this is mostly due to it's difficulty with image manipulation (I am very fussy!), and I feel this would be the same in the video generation too.

Overall, i would probably use Grok for AI images, albeit very, very, very safe images and then switch over to something like Mage to create my videos. Just more economical and plays to the strengths.

The Verdict