USA and xAI: Federal Agencies to Get Grok at a Fraction of the Price

The U.S. government announced on Thursday that it had signed an agreement with Elon Musk's company xAI. The agreement will allow federal employees to use the Grok chatbot for a nominal fee. The government signed similar agreements with OpenAI and Anthropic last month.

The agreement covers all federal agencies in the executive branch and includes access to the advanced Grok 4 and Grok 4 Fast models. In addition, xAI will provide specialized engineering support to help agencies easily integrate Grok into their day-to-day operations. The agreement runs for 18 months, making it the longest term among similar government artificial intelligence (AI) agreements.

Elon Musk said in a press release: “Thanks to President Trump and his administration, xAI's advanced artificial intelligence is now available to every federal agency. This will empower the U.S. government to innovate faster and fulfill its mission more efficiently than ever before.” Musk was a close ally of Trump during the first months of his presidency, but a public dispute arose between them over the summer. On Sunday, Musk was photographed speaking with Trump at a memorial service for Charlie Kirk.

Pricing and Comparison with Competitors

xAI charges approximately CZK 9.50 per federal agency. This information was provided in a press release by the General Services Administration, which manages many government contracts. OpenAI and Anthropic, by contrast, charge approximately CZK 22.60 per agency. The price of $0.42 is considered a nod to Musk's fondness for the number 42, which refers either to cannabis culture (420) or to the book The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

All three startups—xAI, OpenAI, and Anthropic—along with Google, received Pentagon contracts worth $200 million (approximately CZK 4.52 billion) this summer. These contracts involve providing artificial intelligence services to the Department of Defense.

Impact on Government Operations

President Trump's administration emphasizes the need to embed Western, primarily American, values into artificial intelligence systems used by the government. This is related to strategic competition with China in the field of artificial intelligence. Officials see this technology as potentially transformative, comparable to the internet's impact on society. xAI was selected alongside Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI for the aforementioned Pentagon contracts.