Luma AI vs xAI: Token Pricing, Speed & Intelligence
Full comparison of Luma AI and xAI — live token pricing, latency, throughput, context window, strengths, weaknesses, and best use cases. Rates sourced from public APIs — verify before use.
Luma AI
Dream Machine — high-quality video generation from text and image prompts
Luma AI develops Dream Machine, a video generation model accessible via API. Dream Machine v1.6 generates high-quality video clips from text or image prompts. The 4K variant produces higher-resolution output. Pricing is per second of generated video rather than per token.
xAI
Grok 4.6 — SpaceXAI with Imagine Image 2.0, Voice Transcribe 2.0, and 500K context
xAI (operating as SpaceXAI) builds the Grok model family. Grok 4.6 is the current flagship with a 500K token context window. The September 2026 platform includes Imagine Image 2.0, Imagine Video 1.5, Voice API (speech-to-speech, TTS, STT), and Grok Voice Transcribe 2.0. Available on Azure AI Foundry, Oracle OCI, and Google Cloud Vertex. Check x.ai/api for current rates.
Key metric comparison
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Live token pricing
Strengths and weaknesses
Luma AI
xAI
Key differentiators
Dream Machine v1.6 delivers high-quality text-to-video and image-to-video generation via a simple per-second API — with a 4K variant for production-quality output.
Grok 4.6 combines frontier-tier intelligence with real-time X/Twitter grounding, a 500K context window, and a full multimodal platform (Imagine Image 2.0, Imagine Video 1.5, Voice API).
Frequently asked questions
Luma AI FAQs
How is Luma AI priced?
Luma AI charges per second of generated video. Dream Machine v1.6 is $0.190/second and the 4K variant is $0.750/second. See lumalabs.ai/dream-machine/api/pricing for current rates.
What is Dream Machine?
Dream Machine is Luma AI's video generation model. v1.6 generates high-quality video clips from text or image prompts, with strong temporal consistency and motion quality.
Does Luma AI support image-to-video?
Yes. Dream Machine supports both text-to-video and image-to-video generation, allowing you to animate a still image or generate video from a text description.
xAI FAQs
What is Grok 4.6 and how much does it cost?
Grok 4.6 is xAI's current flagship model with a 500K token context window, vision, function calling, and real-time web and X/Twitter access. Check x.ai/api for current per-token rates.
What is the xAI Imagine API?
The Imagine API offers image and video generation via Imagine Image 2.0 and Imagine Video 1.5. Both are available under the same API key as Grok text models. Check x.ai/api for current rates.
What is the xAI Voice API?
The Voice API includes speech-to-speech, text-to-speech, and speech-to-text (REST and streaming). Grok Voice Transcribe 2.0 was released September 2026. Check x.ai/api for current rates.
Provider resources
Luma AI — Dream Machine — high-quality video generation from text and image prompts
Luma AI develops Dream Machine, a video generation model accessible via API. Dream Machine v1.6 generates high-quality video clips from text or image prompts. The 4K variant produces higher-resolution output. Pricing is per second of generated video rather than per token.
Dream Machine v1.6 delivers high-quality text-to-video and image-to-video generation via a simple per-second API — with a 4K variant for production-quality output.
xAI — Grok 4.6 — SpaceXAI with Imagine Image 2.0, Voice Transcribe 2.0, and 500K context
xAI (operating as SpaceXAI) builds the Grok model family. Grok 4.6 is the current flagship with a 500K token context window. The September 2026 platform includes Imagine Image 2.0, Imagine Video 1.5, Voice API (speech-to-speech, TTS, STT), and Grok Voice Transcribe 2.0. Available on Azure AI Foundry, Oracle OCI, and Google Cloud Vertex. Check x.ai/api for current rates.
Grok 4.6 combines frontier-tier intelligence with real-time X/Twitter grounding, a 500K context window, and a full multimodal platform (Imagine Image 2.0, Imagine Video 1.5, Voice API).
Key strengths compared
Luma AI
- Dream Machine v1.6 produces high-quality, temporally consistent video clips
- Supports both text-to-video and image-to-video generation
- 4K variant available for higher-resolution output
- Video generation only — no text, image, or audio models
- Per-second pricing can be expensive for long clips
xAI
- Grok 4.6: competitive frontier pricing — check live table for current rates
- 500K token context window
- Real-time X/Twitter data and web search grounding
- No open-weight models — full vendor lock-in
- Smaller ecosystem and fewer integrations than OpenAI
Key weaknesses compared
Luma AI
- Video generation only — no text, image, or audio models
- Per-second pricing can be expensive for long clips
- Generation latency is higher than text inference
- Maximum clip length limited compared to some competitors
xAI
- No open-weight models — full vendor lock-in
- Smaller ecosystem and fewer integrations than OpenAI
- Limited model selection compared to frontier competitors
Provider category context
Luma AI is a frontier lab, founded in 2021. xAI is a frontier lab, founded in 2023. Both are frontier lab providers — the comparison is primarily about pricing, model selection, and feature differentiation within the same tier.
How to choose between them
Both Luma AI and xAI are frontier labs with proprietary models. Choose based on benchmark performance for your specific task: Luma AI leads on dream machine v1.6 produces high-quality, temporally consistent video clips, while xAI leads on grok 4.6: competitive frontier pricing — check live table for current rates. For cost-sensitive workloads, compare the cheapest model tier from each provider in the pricing table above — the gap between efficient-tier models is often larger than between flagship models.