Grok 4.5 Free on Cursor: Performance, Cost, and How to Use It

Grok 4.5 Quietly Lands on Cursor — And It's Free

Many developers may not have noticed a change yet: xAI's Grok 4.5 is now available for free inside Cursor. No API Key, no credit card binding, and no extra configuration needed — it simply shows up in the model list. Based on hands-on testing, there are almost no noticeable restrictions during use, which means you can invoke a Frontier-level model with virtually zero barriers.

The background is worth mentioning: Grok 4.5 is the first model released after the collaboration between xAI and Cursor, and its training data includes a large amount of Cursor coding corpus. In a sense, Cursor has actually become the smoothest free gateway to experience this model.

How to Enable It for Free

Enabling it is very simple:

1. Update Cursor to the latest version;
2. Open the Agent panel, click the model selector, and Grok 4.5 should be right there in the list;
3. If you don't see it, go to Settings → Models and manually toggle the corresponding switch on.

It's worth emphasizing that all Cursor plans can use it, including the free plan that has never been paid for. During the launch phase, Cursor even doubled the usage allowance, though that promotional window has now ended.

Two Key Reasons to Pay Attention to Grok 4.5

Cursor already integrates several frontier models, so why single out Grok 4.5? There are two core reasons.

Reason One: Solid Benchmark Performance

Based on publicly available evaluation data, Grok 4.5's capabilities are no joke:

• Terminal Bench: scored 83.3%, roughly on par with GPT-5.5 and slightly below the Gemini series;
• SWE-Bench Pro: can solve 64.7% of tasks;
• Context window: up to 500K tokens.

This isn't a filler "bonus" model — it's a genuine contender competing within the frontier tier. Across multiple coding test problems, it even ranked ahead of Sonnet 5 and Opus 4.7.

Reason Two: Significant Token Efficiency Advantage

What really stands out is its cost efficiency. Hands-on data shows that when completing equivalent tasks, Grok 4.5 outputs roughly one-quarter the token volume of Opus 4.8. Fewer tokens consumed, combined with a lower per-token price, results in a considerable gap:

Model	Per-Task Cost (Measured)
Grok 4.5	~$0.31
Opus series	~$2.75

Even after the free window closes and API billing kicks in, its price is only $2 per million input tokens and $6 per million output tokens — placing it among the more affordable options in the mainstream frontier model tier. For scenarios that require running long Agentic tasks, this efficiency advantage is especially pronounced.

How Long Will the Free Window Last? What You Need to Know Beforehand

Regarding the restrictions everyone cares most about: this is indeed a limited-time free offer, and there's currently no clear end date. However, keep the following points in mind:

• Some users on the Cursor forum have reported confusing displays on the Usage page — the same usage record is sometimes marked as free and sometimes counted against the allowance;
• Cursor has historically adjusted its billing rules without prior notice.

It's recommended to check the Usage page regularly while using it, to avoid unexpected charges. Based on the historical pattern of similar model releases, such free windows usually last anywhere from a few days to a few weeks — so if you want to try it, sooner is safer.

More Than Just Cursor

If you don't use Cursor, Grok 4.5 is currently also available for free in Grok Build, and it also supports Grok CLI. No matter what your workflow looks like, there are multiple channels to access this model.

Practical Strategy: Mix and Match, Don't Replace

It's worth noting that Grok 4.5 is not an all-purpose replacement for your main model. On the hardest tasks, it still falls slightly short of Gemini 5 and Opus 4.8.

A more sensible approach is a mix-and-match strategy:

• Assign Grok 4.5 to long, tedious Agentic workflows;
• Concentrate your paid allowance on complex problems that truly require top-tier capability;
• Continuously observe its actual performance in your own real codebase to build intuitive judgment.

Having a frontier-level model built right into the editor you use daily — and for free — running alongside paid models is clearly the most cost-effective combination available right now.

Summary

The free availability of Grok 4.5 in Cursor is an opportunity window worth seizing. It sits firmly in the frontier tier in benchmarks, its token efficiency is especially outstanding, and its per-task cost can be as low as about one-ninth of comparable models. While it's not yet top-tier on the hardest tasks, it's more than practical enough as a cost-effective assistant for handling everyday coding and long-running workflows.

For developers, the action item is clear: while the free window is still open, flip the switch in your settings and just start running it.