Musk Sells Grok to U.S. Government Agencies for 42 Cents Each

Even the ugliest feuds with President Donald Trump seem to end with a deal. The U.S. government has agreed to deploy Elon Musk’s Grok AI inside federal agencies for 42 cents per agency.

Musk reportedly chose the price of 42 cents as a reference to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. (Image: xAI ) 

The bargain was described by officials as “unique” and could reset Musk’s rocky relationship with Trump and reshape the fight over which AI models dominate Washington, Eva Roytburg reported for Fortune.

The contract is the latest in a series of agreements under the General Services Administration’s (GSA) OneGov initiative, which has struck short-term deals with Alphabet’s Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic to prevent any single model from dominating. Grok’s 18-month deal is the longest.

On September 22, the GSA announced it would receive free access to Meta’s Llama models, while OpenAI and Anthropic priced their models at $1, and Google at 47 cents.

Musk reportedly chose the price of 42 cents as a reference to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The savings are significant, as xAI’s Grok 4 Fast is typically priced per output and agencies could otherwise face steep API licensing fees.

“We really like the notion of having strong competition and market tension between these models and these companies,” Federal Acquisition Service Commissioner Josh Gruenbaum told the Wall Street Journal. 

“When someone goes and updates their model with a cool feature, that only encourages the others to go do the same thing.”