Grok Imagine Quality vs base stills

Grok Imagine Image Quality is 4 credits, text-to-image. Description: quality-optimized generation up to 2K, wide aspect ratios. Grok Imagine is 2 credits, text-to-image, 4K. Description: fast, loosely-styled stills, a strong ideation model when you want unexpected takes rather than strict prompt adherence. Quality mode before I2V. Base mode before you know whether the sentence wants to be a picture. Do not animate the 2-credit sketch because it is 4K. Megapixels are not a still contract.

Neither row is video. Grok Imagine Video is the T2V clip from 24 credits, 720p, 6–30 seconds. This page is the still you might later upload to an I2V row. Four credits versus two. Quality versus base.

Four and two are catalog stickers. Do not call Quality “more than twice as good.” It is a different pass: quality-optimized, up to 2K on the card, versus a 4K loose still at 2 credits. The 4K token on base is not a reason to skip Quality when the still has to hold type.

Base at 2 credits: the 4K sketch

Use base when:

You are asking whether the prompt is a picture at all. Two credits is how you find out.
You want unexpected takes, not a lockup. The card says loosely-styled. That is a feature for ideation and a defect for a pack shot.
You will not I2V this file. Moodboards, thumbnails you will redraw, a colourway you will discard.

Do not use base as the I2V input when the label has to survive. A 4K loose still with melted type is a 4K problem. Image-to-video will inherit the melt. You cannot prompt the video row into sharpening a letter the still never had.

When base is the wrong pick:

The still is going into Wan, Kling, Flux first-last, or any I2V hero.
The still is a PDP pack, a logo lockup, a UI chrome capture you are reconstructing, a talent plate you will reuse.
You already know the prompt. Sketching at 2 credits is optional. Skipping Quality to save 2 on the still you will animate is how you spend 20 on video of a bad plate.

Base is 4K on the card. Quality’s description says up to 2K. If the insertion order is “I need a 4K still and I do not care about tight type,” base is the 2-credit 4K door. If the insertion order is “I need a still that will hold in motion,” Quality is the 4-credit door even when the ceiling is 2K. I2V rows do not become 4K because the input was 4K. Several I2V cards in this catalog top out at 1080p. A 4K sketch into 1080p motion is a downscale of a loose plate. A 2K Quality plate into 1080p motion is a plate that was built to hold.

Quality at 4 credits: the still you will move

Use Quality when:

This PNG is frame one of an I2V take, or one still in an R2V kit.
Type, silhouette, or a face has to survive a push, a pour, a turn.
You already liked a base sketch and you are rerunning the same prompt for a plate you will keep.

Two extra credits on the still is cheaper than a 20-credit Wan 2.6 Image to Video of a melted label, cheaper than a 45-credit Kling O3 Standard Image to Video of the same melt, cheaper than a 34-credit Flux 3 First Last Frame to Video pair that never agreed. Quality mode before I2V means: pay 4, proof at 100%, then buy motion.

Approve, at 100% zoom:

Brand lockup, variant line, net contents.
Cap, pump, silhouette.
Face geometry if talent is locked.
Crop to the delivery ratio so I2V is not also a reframing pass.

If Quality still melts the type, stop. Do not I2V it. Change the prompt, change the still family, or photograph the pack. A 4-credit miss is a cheap miss. A 4-credit miss plus 20 of motion is a 24-credit stubbornness.

When Quality is the wrong pick:

You are fishing. Start at 2.
You already have a photographed pack. Do not generate a cousin. I2V the photo.
You needed video in one step. Grok Imagine Video is T2V from 24, 720p. It will not obey a still you did not upload.

Do not invent a Quality video slug. Quality is text-to-image. Motion is another row.

Quality still, then I2V — the actual pipeline

Draft on base at 2 credits until the sentence is a composition you can live with.
Rerun on Quality at 4 credits. Proof type.
If the still is a pack, match it to the PDP photo you will ship against. A pretty Quality bottle that is not the live SKU is a different listing.
Pick the I2V flag:
- Mute draft: Wan 2.6 Image to Video Flash, 20 credits, 1080p, 5 / 10 / 15s.
- Native-audio hero: Wan 2.6 I2V at 20, or Kling O3 Standard I2V at 45.
- Two endpoints: Flux 3 first-last at 34 credits, 5–20s. Quality both ends.
Do not skip to Veo 3.1 T2V at 64 credits and hope it invents the Quality still. T2V will invent a cousin. If you wanted Veo on a kit, that is VEO 3.1 Reference to Video at 128 credits, 8 seconds, up to three stills — and those stills should be Quality or photographs, not 2-credit sketches.

Native audio lives on the video row, not on the still. Quality will not speak. If the brief needs a line, pick an I2V card with audio true, or lay Cartesia Sonic 3.5 at 4 credits per 1,000 characters on a mute Flash take.

What Quality will not do

Quality will not become video. There is no Quality clip slug. Motion is a different row. Grok Imagine Video is T2V from 24 credits, 720p — a sentence, not an upload of the Quality PNG. If you needed the still to remain frame one, you needed I2V.

Quality will not beat a photograph of the live pack. If the PDP hero already exists, I2V that file. Generating a 4-credit cousin that is “close” is how you advertise a sibling SKU. Quality is for stills you do not have a camera for, or for a lockup you are still designing before the photo lands.

Quality will not mint a person you can run as a peer. Article 50 applies to photoreal people in the still. Four credits does not exempt a generated face. Label at first exposure for EU audiences since 2 August 2026 if the still goes into an ad as an authentic-looking person. New York’s synthetic-performer law (N.Y. GBL § 396-b, in force 9 June 2026) is about generated human performers in ads that can reach New York consumers. A Quality still of a fake spokesperson is still a performer once it moves.

Sora leftovers that were “make me a still then animate it” map here: 2-credit sketch, 4-credit plate, then I2V. The Sora API shuts 24 September 2026 (OpenAI Help Centre, September 2026). This is not a Sora page. It is which Grok still sticker to pay before you buy motion.

The AI video generator is the motion launcher. The still has to be right before you press it. Captions after the clip; the AI caption generator will not repair a pack the still invented.

If the cut still works after you swap the bottle, you animated a sketch. Put Quality on the still you will actually ship.

Lock the still at 4 credits, then move it in Versely.

FAQ

Is Quality 4K?

The published description says up to 2K. Base Grok Imagine is the 4K still at 2 credits. Quality is the 4-credit tighter pass, not a 4K upgrade.

Should every I2V input be Quality?

If the still is generated and has to hold type or a face, yes. If the still is a photograph of the live pack, skip generate. If you are only fishing for a composition, base at 2 is enough until it is not.

Can Grok Imagine Video take the Quality still as frame one?

Grok Imagine Video is published as text-to-video in this catalog. For a still contract, use an image-to-video row and upload the Quality PNG.