What is Grok Build?
Grok Build is the coding agent from SpaceXSI, the company formerly called xAI. It runs in a fullscreen terminal interface, headless in scripts with grok -p, or inside other editors through the Agent Client Protocol, and it reads a codebase, edits files, runs commands and can split work across up to eight subagents. The default model is Grok 4.7, and a faster Grok 4.7 Fast variant is offered only in Grok Build and Cursor.
It entered beta in May 2026. On 12 July a security researcher showed that version 0.2.93 had been uploading users' entire repositories, including Git history and committed secrets, to SpaceXSI's cloud storage. SpaceXSI stopped the uploads with a server-side switch, said it would delete the data, turned default retention off and, on 15 July, published the source under the Apache-2.0 licence.
It is included in The X Subscription (Plus $8, Premium $30, Super $100, Ultra $200 a month), sharing one weekly usage pool with Grok and Cursor, or can be billed per token with an API key.
How much does Grok Build cost?
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | Limited use |
| Plus | $8/month | |
| Premium | $30/month | |
| Super | $100/month | |
| Ultra | $200/month | |
| API key | $2 / $6 per 1M tokens | Grok 4.7 Fast $4 / $12 |
Free source code (Apache-2.0); limited use on the free plan. Included in The X Subscription: Plus $8/month, Premium $30, Super $100, Ultra $200, with a shared weekly pool. With an API key, Grok 4.7 costs $2 input / $6 output per 1M tokens and Grok 4.7 Fast $4 / $12.
Is Grok Build worth it?
Handing a coding agent your repository means handing it everything in the history: the API key someone committed in 2023, the customer export that was deleted but never purged.
That is why Grok Build's July matters more than its features. On 12 July 2026 a researcher known as cereblab published a capture of version 0.2.93 at work. Besides sending the model the files it read, the tool packed the whole tracked repository, full Git history included, into a bundle and uploaded it to a SpaceXSI cloud storage bucket. It did so when told only to reply "OK" and open nothing, and with the "Improve the model" setting switched off. In a 12 GB test the model needed about 192 KB; the storage channel accepted 5.10 GiB before the capture stopped. Other users reported a whole home directory, SSH keys and password databases included, going up the same way.
SpaceXSI's response was quick and partial. It flipped a server-side setting, disable_codebase_upload, that stopped the uploads within hours, said retention had been on by default for non-enterprise users during the beta and was off from 12 July, and Elon Musk promised that all earlier uploads would be deleted. The Register and the researcher could not confirm the deletion, and no formal incident report has followed. The fix also lives on SpaceXSI's servers, so the company could turn it back without shipping an update.
What changed for good is the code. On 15 July SpaceXSI published Grok Build under the Apache-2.0 licence; the Rust repository has about 27,700 stars. You can now read exactly what the agent sends, build it yourself and point it at a model running on your own machine.
As a tool it is capable and cheap. It runs in the terminal, headless in CI or inside other editors, supports skills, plugins, hooks and MCP servers, and splits work across up to eight subagents. Grok 4.7 costs $2 per million input tokens and $6 output on an API key, well under Claude or GPT flagship prices, and The X Subscription bundles it with Grok and Cursor from $8 a month.
The catch: the bundle shares one weekly pool across Grok, Grok Bot, Cursor and Build, and SpaceXSI publishes multiples, not numbers, so a long agent session quietly eats your chat and editor allowance. Privacy outside zero data retention still depends on a /privacy toggle and a first-run screen asking to keep your data to improve the model.
Our take: running Grok Build on open-source code costs little and risks little. For a private codebase, build it from source, use an API key under zero data retention, and rotate any secret that ever sat in a repository version 0.2.93 touched.
Where it earns its place
A maintainer of a popular open-source Python library
Triage and fix small issues from the terminal on a budget
The code is public anyway, so upload risk is low. On an API key, a session of 2 million input and 200,000 output tokens on Grok 4.7 costs about $5.20; on an $8 Plus plan it draws on the weekly pool instead.
A security lead at a 50-person start-up whose developers tried Grok Build in July
Work out what may have leaked
Treat any private repository opened with version 0.2.93 before the server change as disclosed to a third party: list secrets ever committed to its history, rotate them and record the exposure, since deletion was promised but not verified.
A platform engineer at a defence contractor
Use an agent harness without sending code off the network
Build Grok Build from the Apache-2.0 source, set a local model in ~/.grok/config.toml and run it air-gapped. You lose Grok 4.7 but keep the terminal interface, plan review and extension system.
Before you commit
- Setup
- Install with curl -fsSL https://x.ai/cli/install.sh | bash (PowerShell on Windows), run grok in a project and sign in through the browser, or set XAI_API_KEY; building from the GitHub source is also supported.
- Integrations
- Skills, plugins and marketplaces, hooks, MCP servers and subagents; headless mode with streaming JSON for CI; the Agent Client Protocol for other editors; custom models in ~/.grok/config.toml.
- Data and privacy
- With zero data retention no trace or code data is kept, and API-key use respects it. Without it, code retention is controlled by /privacy and /settings and has been off by default since 12 July 2026; a first-run screen asks to keep data to improve the product and model.
- Cost at scale
- Ten developers on Premium seats pay $300 a month, each with its own weekly pool; usage beyond it bills as top-ups. Heavy API-key use on Grok 4.7 Fast costs twice the standard rate.
- Limits
- Plan usage is a shared weekly pool with published multiples only; the free plan is limited and excludes Grok 4.7 Fast; SpaceXSI has not published an incident report on the July uploads.
What’s good
- Source published under Apache-2.0, so you can audit what it sends
- Can run fully local against your own model
- Grok 4.7 at $2 / $6 per 1M tokens, below rival flagship models
- Terminal, headless and Agent Client Protocol modes, with up to eight subagents
- Skills, plugins, hooks and MCP servers
What’s not
- Uploaded whole repositories, secrets included, until July 2026
- Deletion of the uploaded data has not been independently confirmed
- The upload fix is a server-side flag SpaceXSI controls
- Subscription usage is a shared weekly pool with no published numbers
- Data retention outside zero data retention relies on an opt-out
Best for
Developers who want a low-cost, open-source terminal agent and are willing to build it themselves or run it under zero data retention.
Grok Build alternatives
Grok Build: common questions
- Is Grok Build worth it?
- Grok Build is now an open, inspectable coding agent at a low price, but a tool that once shipped your whole repository to its maker's cloud has to earn back trust that the code alone cannot. We rate it 3.3 out of 5.
- How much does Grok Build cost?
- Free source code (Apache-2.0); limited use on the free plan. Included in The X Subscription: Plus $8/month, Premium $30, Super $100, Ultra $200, with a shared weekly pool. With an API key, Grok 4.7 costs $2 input / $6 output per 1M tokens and Grok 4.7 Fast $4 / $12.
- What are the downsides of Grok Build?
- Uploaded whole repositories, secrets included, until July 2026; deletion of the uploaded data has not been independently confirmed; the upload fix is a server-side flag SpaceXSI controls; subscription usage is a shared weekly pool with no published numbers; data retention outside zero data retention relies on an opt-out.
- Who is Grok Build best for?
- Developers who want a low-cost, open-source terminal agent and are willing to build it themselves or run it under zero data retention.
- How much does Grok Build cost for a team or in production?
- Ten developers on Premium seats pay $300 a month, each with its own weekly pool; usage beyond it bills as top-ups. Heavy API-key use on Grok 4.7 Fast costs twice the standard rate.
- Is Grok Build safe for company data?
- With zero data retention no trace or code data is kept, and API-key use respects it. Without it, code retention is controlled by /privacy and /settings and has been off by default since 12 July 2026; a first-run screen asks to keep data to improve the product and model.
- What are the best Grok Build alternatives?
- The closest alternatives we have reviewed are Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, Cursor and Cline.
Answers checked Nov 6, 2026.