xAI launches public api beta for grok models

xAI has launched a public beta for its application programming interface — a set of rules and tools that lets different software programs talk to each other — giving developers direct access to the Grok series of foundation models.

Model preview and features

The public beta begins with a preview model released under the provisional name grok-beta. This text-only model supports system prompts and function calling — a feature that allows a model to trigger external tools or functions based on user requests.

The model features a context length of 128,000 tokens — the total amount of text the model can process and remember in a single request. A multi-modal version capable of ingesting images will follow.

Developer credits and compatibility

xAI is offering $25 of free API credits per month to everyone participating in the public beta through the end of the year. Users who previously purchased prepaid credits will receive matching monthly allowances for November and December.

The REST application programming interface is designed to be compatible with existing endpoints from OpenAI and Anthropic. Developers can migrate existing code by updating the base URL and using an xAI API key.