grok-imagine-image-quality retires November 2, 2026

This note is about the xAI developer API. imaginegrok.org is an independent site and is not affiliated with xAI. Stills on /grok-imagine use the model id grok-imagine and cost 2 credits. That generator does not send grok-imagine-image-quality or grok-imagine-image-2.0.

What retires

xAI's migration note, last updated September 2, 2026, says the API slug grok-imagine-image-quality is retired on November 2, 2026. The 60-day notice started on September 2, 2026. Source: grok-imagine-image-quality retirement.

After November 2, 2026, requests to that slug on /v1/images/generations and /v1/images/edits are served by grok-imagine-image-2.0 with quality set to low. The old slug still resolves, so an unchanged client does not get a hard break. The request and response shapes stay the same. The model field on the response reports the model that served the request, so logs can show the switch.

grok-imagine-image (1.0) is not part of this retirement. Requests to grok-imagine-image-pro already redirect to grok-imagine-image-quality, and after November 2 they follow that redirect to grok-imagine-image-2.0 at low.

What 2.0 adds

grok-imagine-image-2.0 also accepts quality, up to five source images on an edit, and the aspect ratios 21:9 and 5:2. The September 2 note says low is $0.01 per image cheaper than grok-imagine-image-quality at every resolution. If you keep calling the retired slug after November 2, you are billed at the grok-imagine-image-2.0 low rate.

• low — the redirect target. Closest cost to the old quality slug.
• medium — more compute and finer detail when the picture matters more than the price.
• auto — the default when quality is omitted. It currently serves low for a new image and medium for an edit. You are billed at the quality that was served.

Switch the model field to grok-imagine-image-2.0 before November 2 and set quality yourself. Leaving the old slug in place accepts the low redirect.

Request shape

The sample below is the curl from that xAI note. Replace the key with your own. The same model change applies to edits on /v1/images/edits. The note also shows Python and JavaScript clients.

curl -X POST https://api.x.ai/v1/images/generations \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $XAI_API_KEY" \
  -d '{
    "model": "grok-imagine-image-2.0",
    "prompt": "A watercolor painting of a lighthouse at dawn",
    "quality": "low"
  }'

A third-party walkthrough of the same switch is at metagrok.io. Use the xAI note above if the two disagree. Questions about the API go to support@x.ai.