You’ll want a paid plan if you plan to do much with Grok.
Modern AI chatbots can quickly generate hundreds of lines of code and, in some cases, even build entire working applications from a single prompt. But if you’re working with a larger project or codebase, copying AI-generated code back and forth between a chat window and your text editor can easily become time-consuming and tedious.
Coding agents solve this productivity problem by embedding themselves directly within your software development environment. Instead of a simple chat window where it responds to your prompts, a coding agent can directly read and write files, run commands, and even assess the changes. All of these actions can happen in the background without any intervention, making agents a perfect choice for large codebases and complicated workflows.
While the software industry has mostly coalesced around a handful of coding agents, Grok Build is a relatively new competitor. Developed by Elon Musk’s SpaceXAI, the agent uses the company’s flagship Grok 4.6 large language model under the hood. So, how do you get started with Grok Build and what can you use it for? Here’s a quick guide.
What is Grok Build and how do I install it?
Grok Build is a terminal-based coding agent that can directly interact with files and development tools on your computer. Once installed, you can navigate to your codebase’s folder and ask Grok Build to make changes, fix bugs, or add new features. Instead of looking at individual files, it will assess the entire code repository and make changes as necessary. In fact, it can spawn sub-agents to perform multiple changes in parallel.
You can install Grok Build on just about any computer since all of the AI processing takes place in the cloud. If you’re on Windows, press the Windows key on your keyboard and search for PowerShell. In the window that opens, enter the following command:
irm https://x.ai/cli/install.ps1 | iex
On macOS and Linux, meanwhile, the process is largely the same but you’ll have to open a Terminal window instead. Most Linux distributions have a search menu similar to Windows, while you can press Cmd+Space on your keyboard to bring up Spotlight search if you’re running macOS. Either way, you can install Grok Build with this command:
curl -fsSL https://x.ai/cli/install.sh | bash
After the installation completes, navigate to your code environment with the cd command in the PowerShell or Terminal window. For example, cd ~/my-first-webapp. At this point, we can bring up the Grok Build interface with the grok command. The first time you run this terminal command, it should bring you to your browser with a login screen. Simply log into your X account here.
How do I use Grok Build and how much does it cost?
Even though Grok Build runs entirely within a terminal window, it has built-in mouse support so you can click on menu elements instead of solely relying on your keyboard. But if you want to make changes to the code yourself, you’ll need to use a text editor like Visual Studio Code. This distinction matters because some rival coding agent platforms like Google’s Antigravity offer a full integrated development environment (IDE).
Nevertheless, once you enter the Grok Build interface within a terminal window, you can start interacting with it through the text field. For starters, you can ask Grok to explain the codebase or install the necessary tools to test it. If you’re working with a web app, as an example, Grok would install a web server, all of the dependencies, and run the application.
Alternatively, you can ask it to create an entire web app from scratch. Grok Build can do all of that from a single command and offer guidance on how to deploy it as well. From there, you can ask for changes and modifications one prompt at a time.
Since Grok Build relies on cutting-edge AI models, access is limited based on your Grok plan. Free users will run out of tokens relatively quickly, while you get higher limits on a paid SuperGrok plan. The latter ranges from $30 a month at the low end all the way up to $300 per month for the SuperGrok Heavy tier. Usage limits reset once a week and you have a higher thresholdd on the more expensive plans.
From my own experience using coding agents, one tip worth remembering is using Grok Build’s plan mode before requesting major changes to your codebase. This prevents the AI from making unintended changes and draining your plan’s token allocation in the process.
