How to Use Grok Imagine: Images, Video and YouTube

To use Grok Imagine, open grok.com/imagine or the Imagine tab in the Grok app, describe the image you want, then turn any result into a short video by describing the motion. Since the July 31, 2026 update you can also skip the image and generate video straight from text, at up to 1080p, with sound generated in the same pass.

That’s how to use Grok Imagine at the button level. The part most guides skip is what to do with a 10-second clip once you have it, especially if the goal is a YouTube video rather than a post on X. This guide covers both: the step-by-step, and how Grok Imagine fits a real production workflow.

What is Grok Imagine?

Grok Imagine is the image and video generator inside Grok, built by xAI. The company merged into SpaceX and was renamed SpaceXAI on July 6, 2026, but Grok and Grok Imagine kept their names. Imagine first launched in the summer of 2025 as a way to make short animated clips from text and images.

It has moved fast since. Grok Imagine 1.0 arrived in early February 2026 with 10-second clips at 720p and much better audio. Video 1.5 became generally available on June 16, 2026, generating sound effects, ambience and dialogue alongside the picture. Then the July 31 update added text-to-video, native 1080p, and reference images that hold a face, product or location steady across generations, up to seven per generation.

So when someone says “Grok Imagine can’t do X,” ask which month they tried it. Plenty of tutorials still online describe a version that has since been replaced.

Where can you access Grok Imagine?

You can use Grok Imagine in four places:

• Web: grok.com/imagine
• Mobile: the Grok app for iOS and Android, under the Imagine tab
• X: through Grok inside the X app
• API: xAI’s developer API, where the current video model is grok-imagine-video-1.5

Generation needs a paid plan. xAI moved Imagine off the free tier on March 19, 2026, and it now runs on SuperGrok and eligible X Premium subscriptions. Plans and limits change often, so check your own plan screen rather than trusting a screenshot from spring.

Grok Imagine also runs inside other products. TubeGen is one of them, and the Grok Imagine model page lays out exactly what it does there, including cost and limits.

How do you generate an image with Grok Imagine?

Type a description into the Imagine prompt box, pick an aspect ratio, and generate. Grok returns images you can save, edit or animate.

Step by step:

1. Open Imagine on the web or in the app.
2. Set the aspect ratio before you write anything. 16:9 for a YouTube scene, 9:16 for Shorts, 1:1 for a social post. Changing shape after the fact means regenerating.
3. Describe the subject, the setting and the light. “A lighthouse keeper climbing a spiral staircase at dusk, lantern light, photoreal” gives the model three decisions to make well. “A cool lighthouse” gives it none.
4. Generate, then pick. Treat the first batch as a sketch. Keep the image whose composition works and ignore the details you can fix later.
5. Edit in plain language. Grok Imagine edits existing images from a written instruction, such as changing the time of day or removing an object, so you rarely need to start over for one flaw.

Where Grok Imagine does best is photoreal and 3D-rendered looks: camera-like lighting, texture and depth. For flat illustration or legible on-image text, other models usually beat it, and that is worth knowing before you spend an afternoon fighting it.

How do you turn an image into a video in Grok Imagine?

Open the image, choose to make a video, and describe only the motion. Grok treats your image as the fixed starting frame, so your words should cover what moves, not what things look like.

1. Start from an image you already like. Generated or uploaded, the frame sets the look for the whole clip.
2. Choose the video option on the image.
3. Describe motion and camera. What moves, how fast, and what the camera does: a slow push-in, a pan left, dust drifting through a beam of light.
4. Generate and review with the sound on. Video 1.5 creates audio in the same pass, and the audio can be as good or as off as the picture.
5. Download the MP4 and keep a note of what you asked for, so you can regenerate a matching shot later.

Image-to-video is the route to use when accuracy matters. Because the first frame is locked, the model can’t reinterpret your subject, only move it.

How does text-to-video work in Grok Imagine?

Since July 31, 2026, you can describe a whole shot in text and get video back with no starting image. Your description now has to cover both the scene and the motion inside it.

It’s faster for exploring an idea and weaker for control. When you need five shots of the same character in the same room, generate the key image first and animate it, or use reference images. xAI’s reference feature lets each reference lock one thing in place, like a face, a product or a location, with up to seven per generation. Voice references, which keep a character’s voice consistent, rolled out first to SuperGrok Heavy and Plus accounts in the US.

What are Grok Imagine’s modes and limits?

Grok Imagine has shipped video presets named Normal, Fun and Custom, plus Spicy, a more permissive option gated behind age verification. The presets have shifted between versions and platforms, and Video 1.5 leans more on written direction than on a preset menu. Normal is the one to use for YouTube work.

The limits that matter for planning:

What	Where it stands in September 2026
Clip length	Up to 10 seconds in the app since Imagine 1.0; the API accepts 1 to 15 seconds
Resolution	480p, 720p and, since July 31, native 1080p for text-to-video and image-to-video
Audio	Sound effects, ambience and dialogue generated with the video
Aspect ratios	16:9 (the API default), 9:16, 1:1 and several others
Editing	No timeline in the app; the API adds video editing and extension

Grok Imagine also runs every request through xAI’s content filters, so some generations come back blocked with a “content moderated” message. That usually means the prompt or the output touched xAI’s policies, most often around real people’s likenesses. Rewording within the rules is the fix. There is no setting that turns moderation off.

Tips for better Grok Imagine results

Most bad Grok Imagine output comes from asking one clip to do too much. These habits fix most of it:

• One or two actions per clip. Stack four movements into one generation and some of them get blended or dropped. Cut between clips instead.
• Lock the frame, then animate. Image first, motion second, gives you control you don’t get from text-to-video.
• Name the camera. Push-in, pan, static, handheld. An unnamed camera tends to wander.
• Hold a single look across a video. Mixing photoreal shots with stylized 3D ones reads as a collage. Pick a style per project and keep it.
• Plan audio separately for YouTube. Generated ambience is great for atmosphere, but narration and music need to run across clip boundaries, which no single clip can do.
• Keep your source images. If a clip fails, you can regenerate from the same frame instead of starting from nothing.

For a deeper checklist on keeping generated visuals from looking samey, see our guide on stopping AI YouTube videos looking generic.

How do you use Grok Imagine for YouTube videos?

Grok Imagine gives you shots, and a YouTube video needs a sequence of them timed to a script. A 10-minute video needs dozens of scenes, each matched to what the narrator is saying at that moment. Generating those one at a time in the Grok app, downloading each, and dragging them onto a timeline is where the hours go.

The faster route is running the model inside a pipeline that already knows where each scene goes. That is how TubeGen uses Grok Imagine, in two jobs.

Scene images. Grok Imagine is one of three image models in TubeGen’s Visuals step, alongside GPT Image and Nano Banana 2. It generates photoreal and 3D-rendered scenes at 1080p, and it is the lowest-cost of the three. You can set it as the project default and switch individual sections to another model where you need a different look. It holds one or two consistent characters per image; scenes with a bigger cast belong on another model.

Animation. Grok Imagine also runs the Turbo tier in TubeGen’s animation quality picker, turning a still scene into a 720p motion clip of 1 to 8 seconds. You choose which scenes move and which stay still, so animation goes where it earns its place.

Around those two jobs, the rest of the video gets built in the same place: the script, narration in 8 languages with voice cloning, music scored to the voiceover, and an editor where every scene is already timed to the narration. You approve each stage and swap anything you don’t like.

Channels in documentary, history, true crime and science formats tend to run most scenes on Grok Imagine, because the photoreal look fits and the cost is low. If you want to see how Grok Imagine compares with the other engines behind today’s tools, our guide to AI video generation models covers the wider field.

Can you monetize videos made with Grok Imagine?

Yes, in general. YouTube judges the finished video, not the tool behind each frame. A narrated, well-structured video that uses generated scenes is eligible for the Partner Program like any other, as long as it adds real value and you use YouTube’s altered or synthetic content setting where the rules call for it.

Two practical checks. Read xAI’s current terms for the plan you generate on, since usage rules live with the plan. And keep a record of what you generated and when, which makes any rights question easy to answer. Our explainer on who owns AI-generated video goes through the ownership side in detail.

The short version

Grok Imagine is quick, cheap to run and strong at photoreal: write the frame, animate it, keep each clip simple. For single shots and social posts, the Grok app is all you need. For a YouTube channel, the model is one part of the job, and the pipeline around it decides how fast you publish. See TubeGen’s plans if you want Grok Imagine working inside that pipeline.