Grok 4.5 has been out for about a week now and it’s a big step up, especially for coding and agentic work. Unfortunately, those of us in the EU are still waiting for the official release, thanks to those lovely EU regulations. In the meantime I’ve been experimenting with several ways to get access in both Cursor and the Grok Build CLI, and I figured I’d share what actually works well.
Here are the main options I’ve tested, from simplest to more advanced.
1. Full VPN (Quick but Not Ideal for Daily Use)
The easiest way is just to connect your whole machine to a US server via VPN and then open Cursor or the Grok CLI. Grok 4.5 shows up right away.
We don’t use this as our main setup because routing everything through a VPN gets annoying for daily work (latency, local services, etc.). But if you just need something quick, it’s reliable.
Recommendation: Mullvad is solid and privacy-focused. Interestingly, some paid Revolut plans include a NordVPN subscription, which also works fine. One tip: if you’re in Europe, a Switzerland exit node often gives noticeably better latency than jumping all the way to the US. (We used a US one because we already have dev servers over there.)
2. Tailscale Exit Node (Full or Selective)
You can set up a US VPS (or any reliable machine) as a Tailscale exit node. From there you have two main ways:
- Use it as a full proxy (all traffic goes through the exit node when enabled)
- Or configure custom domain routing so only specific domains go through it.
We actually prefer the selective approach.
3. Tailscale App Connector with Custom Domains (Our Current Daily Driver)
This is what we’re using right now. We set up a US exit node and then use the Tailscale App Connector to route only the xAI-related domains through it.
Key domains we route:
api.x.aix.aiauth.x.aigrok.comcli-chat-proxy.grok.com
Once configured, both Cursor and the Grok CLI see Grok 4.5 naturally, while the rest of our traffic stays local.
Pros: Low overhead, feels native, and very stable.
Cons: Takes a bit of initial setup, but it’s worth it for daily use.
4. Docker / Sandboxed Setup (Great Isolation)
Run the Grok CLI inside a Docker container that forces all its traffic through a VPN (there’s even a nice project called vpngrok that makes this easy with gluetun + Mullvad).
Your main machine stays untouched, while the agent gets full access.
Pros: Very clean separation.
Cons: One extra layer, but it’s straightforward once set up.
What We’re Doing and What’s Next
Right now the Tailscale-based approach (custom domain routing through our US exit node) is our daily driver. It strikes the best balance for us.
Things in AI are moving ridiculously fast these days. New models and tools keep dropping, and we’re using them heavily in our own projects. I plan to share more practical guides like this one — covering setups, workflows, prompting tips, and real-world experiences.
If you’ve found a setup that works particularly well (or you’re still hitting issues), let me know in the comments. I’ll update the post with the best tips.
More content like this coming soon!