How to Get a Grok API Key (xAI API Key) and Make Your First Request (October 2026)

Quick answer: Sign up at console.x.ai, load credits, then create a key on the API Keys page. Export it as XAI_API_KEY and call https://api.x.ai/v1 with model grok-4.7. It works with the OpenAI SDK. A Grok or X subscription does not cover API usage: xAI bills it separately at the rates on its models page (accessed October 25, 2026).

How do you get a Grok API key?

These are the steps in xAI’s quickstart. xAI’s developer docs now carry the SpaceXSI name, but the console and API domains are still x.ai.

1. Create an account at console.x.ai and load it with credits.
2. Open the API Keys page in the console and create a key.
3. Copy the key once and store it in a password manager or secrets store.
4. Set it as an environment variable:

export XAI_API_KEY="your_api_key"

Or put XAI_API_KEY=your_api_key in a .env file, and add .env to .gitignore.

How do you make your first Grok API request?

With curl:

curl https://api.x.ai/v1/responses \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $XAI_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model": "grok-4.7", "input": "Explain recursion in one sentence."}'

With the OpenAI Python SDK (pip install openai):

import os
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(api_key=os.getenv("XAI_API_KEY"), base_url="https://api.x.ai/v1")
response = client.responses.create(model="grok-4.7", input="Explain recursion in one sentence.")
print(response.output_text)

xAI also has its own Python SDK (pip install xai-sdk) and a Vercel AI SDK provider (npm install ai @ai-sdk/xai zod).

Which Grok models can you call?

Use case	Model (per xAI’s models page)	Notes
Code and chat	grok-4.7	Flagship; 500k-token context; configurable reasoning; knowledge cutoff May 2026
Images	grok-imagine-image-2.0	/v1/images/generations; 1K and 2K output
Video	Grok Imagine Video 1.5	480p, 720p and 1080p
Voice	Grok Voice API	Speech-to-speech, text-to-speech and speech-to-text

Model names follow aliases: <model> points to the latest stable version, <model>-latest to the newest, and <model>-<date> pins a fixed release. Grok has no live knowledge unless you enable the Web Search or X Search tools.

How is the Grok API billed?

• Pay as you go: text models bill per million input and output tokens; Imagine bills per image or per second of video; Voice bills per minute, character or hour. Rates are on the models page.
• Subscriptions are separate: per the x.ai pricing FAQ, paid plans “include Grok API access”, but API usage “is billed separately at standard model rates and doesn’t draw from your plan’s usage pool”.
• Enterprise: xAI’s sales team offers custom rate limits, dedicated infrastructure and volume pricing.

How do you keep a Grok API key safe?

Never put the key in front-end code or a public repo. Use one key per app so you can revoke it without breaking others, and rotate it if it leaks. If you get 401 or 429 errors, see how to fix AI API errors. Setting up other providers too? See how to get an OpenAI API key and how to get a Claude API key.