Grok AI API launched for developers with $25 in free monthly credits
xAI, the artificial intelligence company founded by Elon Musk, rolled out an API for Grok on Monday. While the API was launched last month, the company has now offered several incentives to developers to try out the API and build apps and software with it. The most notable incentive on offer is free credits worth $25 (approximately Rs. 2,100) per month until the end of the year. The API key can be generated using the xAI console and users can further customize its usage.
xAI offers Grok API with free credits
Three weeks ago, Musk made one after on X (formerly known as Twitter), highlighting that the Grok API was live. However, it seems like this didn’t get much attention from the developer community as xAI’s official name on the social media platform separately announced the rollout of the API and various freebies to attract developers’ attention.
To start, every developer who signs up on the xAI console will get $25 in free credits every month. Since there are still two months left until the end of 2024, developers can get a maximum of $50 (approximately Rs. 4,200) in API credits.
But that’s not all. xAI is also rewarding every developer who has purchased prepaid credits for the API so far. In one blog postthe company said that every developer with purchased prepaid credits will receive an equivalent number of free monthly credits every month until the end of the year.
This means that if a developer purchased $50 in prepaid credits, they will receive $50 + $25 in total free credits in November and December. Considering that the xAI API costs $5 (approximately Rs. 420) per million input tokens and $15 (approximately Rs. 1261) per million output tokens, this is a significant reward for those willing to use the API.
This move also highlights AI companies’ ongoing race to capture the attention of the developer community. Because broader adoption of an AI model relies on various apps and software running the large language model, developers have become an important entity for both ecosystem players and technology providers.
In addition to financial incentives, xAI also highlighted that the company has made its REST API compatible with those of OpenAI and Anthropic. For example, a developer using OpenAI Python SDK can change the base_url to and start building on the xAI API. This move also underlines the company’s intention to reduce friction during migration from one system to another.
