Elon Musk says Grok 5 would be released “in Q1 sometime”, later than a deadline he previously set of releasing the model by the end of 2025
Says Musk Is ‘Like Da Vinci’ X: @scaling01 : Huge Leaks on Grok-5 and its predecessors from recent Elon Musk interview: - “Grok-5 is a 6 trillion parameter model, whereas Grok 3 and 4 are based on a 3 trillion parameter model” - “the 6 trillion parameters will have a much higher intelligence density per gigabyte than [image] Louie Peters / @_louiepeters : Very rare glimpse inside LLM architecture at closed AI labs. Grok-3 and Grok-4 were 3 trillion total parameters, Grok-5 will be 6 trillion. This still doesn't tell us active parameters for the models (given Mixture of Experts architectures) but it sounds like Grok-5 will be @scaling01 : Huge Leaks on Grok-5 and its predecessors from recent Elon Musk interview: - “Grok-5 is a 6 trillion parameter model, whereas Grok 3 and 4 are based on a 3 trillion parameter model” - “the 6 trillion parameters will have a much higher intelligence density per gigabyte than [image] @scaling01 : Grok-5 is going to be a 6 trillion parameter multimodal MoE, twice the size of Grok-3 and 4 @scaling01 : Grok-5 started training and is now officially postponed to Q1 2026. Musk also said it will be “the smartest AI in the world by a significant margin, in every metric, without exception” Elon gives Grok-5 a 10% of being AGI @testerlabor : “Grok 5, I think, will be the smartest AI in the world by a significant margin on every metric without exception.” — Elon Musk [video] Ed Ludlow / @edludlow : Musk seems to indicate there that Grok 5 is slightly behind schedule. He says its likely to come “sometime” in 1Q. Previously he had said year-end 2025. @testerlabor : “Grok 5 will have real-time video and few other special things.” — Elon Musk [video] Phil Trubey / @ptrubey : In today's Ron Barron interview Elon outlined why Grok 5 (expected 1Q26) will be the best AI model: - 6T parameters up from 3T now in Grok 4. - trained on much better training data. - natively multimodal. - trained to use tools and to make new tools. - understands real time @techdevnotes : Elon: Grok 5 will be 6 Trillion parameter model, Grok 3 and Grok 4 were 3 Trillion Grok 5 will have real-time video and few other special things Mark Kretschmann / @mark_k : Grok 5 news were just revealed by @elonmusk in a new interview! 👀 Revealed Grok 5 facts: * Will arrive in Q1 2026 * Grok 5 will be intelligent and fast * 6 trillion parameter model (Grok 4 was 3 trillion) * Real-time video generation (!) @autismcapital : 🚨 NEW: Elon Musk says that Grok 5 is expected to be released sometime Q1 2026 and he anticipates it to be the best performing AI by a big margin across every single metric. “It's the first time I thought we have a non zero chance of creating AGI. I never thought that before.” @garcapital : - Elon Musk anticipates the release of Grok 5 in Q1. - Investors should keep an eye on potential market impacts. - Exciting developments ahead in tech innovation. @teslaownerssv : “Grok 5 is the first time where I thought we have a non-zero chance of achieving artificial general intelligence.” Elon Musk [video] Bluesky: @frankbough : No wonder Tesla agrees to his trillion dollar bonus **Which is bound to deadlines** — Trick won't get a penny. E.W. Niedermeyer / @niedermeyer.online : “Elon Musk misses deadline” is literally the opposite of news, hope this helps [embedded post] Dr Audrey Glover / @draudreyglover : Why be surprised, when does Musk ever release anything on time
Context & Ripple Effects
xAI has moved Grok from an initial X Premium+ rollout toward broader distribution: Grok 3 and Grok 3 mini were added to Microsoft’s Azure AI Foundry catalog in May 2025. The company had also previewed Grok-1.5 Vision’s multimodal capabilities, making the proposed native multimodality of Grok 5 part of an established product direction.
The revised timing matters because xAI is now asking users and prospective enterprise customers to wait longer for its next frontier-model step, while its public claims of capability remain untested until release.
First-order effects
- Grok 5’s public availability moves from xAI’s prior end-of-2025 target to an unspecified point in Q1 2026, extending reliance on the current Grok lineup.
- The model’s proposed real-time video, native multimodal, and tool-use features remain roadmap claims rather than product capabilities available to customers.
Second-order effects
- The delay lengthens the window in which xAI’s commercial presence is defined by existing Grok models, including the Grok models already available through Azure AI Foundry.
- For customers evaluating frontier-model options, the schedule change raises the value of demonstrated availability and deployment terms over headline parameter counts or pre-release performance claims.
Third-order effects
- If frontier-model timelines continue to slip after training begins, release execution—not only model scale—will become a sharper differentiator among AI labs.
- The pattern reinforces compute execution risk: increasingly ambitious models can make public launch dates less dependable as indicators of when usable capabilities will reach developers and enterprises.
The trend: Frontier AI competition is shifting from announcing larger models to reliably turning training-scale ambitions into broadly accessible products.