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This is an interesting question, and depends on how you understand the Tetori and the grab ability. Unfortunately, the Tetori, while a really awesome and flavourful archetype, is one of those messy archetypes that lends itself easily to all sorts of rules questions and confusions.
The first part of the ability in question reads: "At 8th level, a tetori gains the grab special attack when using unarmed strikes" which suggests that he gains the grab ability with no restrictions.
The second part reads "and can use this ability against creatures his own size or smaller by spending 1 point from his ki pool" which creates a confusion, because those are the base size restrictions of the grab ability anyways. In other words, if the Tetori has the grab ability, then spending a single ki point does nothing. This leads to the inference that perhaps the Tetori doesn't gain grab after all. Perhaps the Tetori only gains grab when he spends a ki point.
So does the Tetori gain grab, as the first part suggest, or does the Tetori only gain grab when he spends a ki point, as the second part suggests?
Here's one possible answer I've come up with:
Originally, in Bestiary 1, grab only worked against targets SMALLER than the grabber. In Bestiary 2, they changed it to work on targets THE SAME SIZE OR SMALLER.
My theory is that Jason Nelson (I believe it was him who wrote the Tetori), was operating off the Bestiary 1 version. If you work off that assumption, then the wording on the ability makes sense. The Tetori has Grab all the time (as the wording of the ability suggests), and you only spend ki if you want to grab bigger targets than the base ability would allow. For me, that's the best way to reconcile the two parts of the ability.
You might want to ask Jason Nelson though. I'm sure he could clarify what he had in mind.