Grok 4.6 lands on Google Cloud Vertex AI: 500K context, $2/$6
A managed Vertex endpoint with four reasoning tiers and image input — xAI's second major cloud after Bedrock. Plus: ChatGPT can now send texts from your Mac.
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One console, no separate xAI key
Grok 4.6 is now a managed model in Vertex AI's Model Garden — enable it from the console and call it through Google's billing, no separate xAI account. It's the model's second big cloud after this week's Amazon Bedrock GA, so GCP-native teams keep everything in one stack.
500K context, four reasoning tiers, images in
The Vertex build ships a 500K-token window and low/medium/high/xhigh reasoning levels you set per request, plus image input, function calling and structured outputs — the pieces you need for long agent loops and visual web tasks.
$2 in, $6 out — no cloud tax
Pricing is $2 per million input tokens and $6 per million output, with cached input discounted — the same rates as xAI's direct API. Moving onto Vertex is a routing choice, not a cost penalty.
Elsewhere: ChatGPT can text from your Mac
OpenAI's new Messages plugin (Apple silicon Macs) lets ChatGPT read, search and send iMessage, SMS and RCS locally via AppleScript and Accessibility — sends need approval by default. It's live across all plans, including Codex.