---
title: xAI
slug: xai
url: "https://toolweight.com/options/xai"
homepage: "https://x.ai"
categories: llm-apis
last_verified: 2026-01-15
license: CC-BY-4.0
---

# xAI

> Grok models with an OpenAI-shaped API and live X data access

xAI serves the Grok family through an API deliberately shaped like OpenAI's, so porting is close to a base-URL change. Its differentiators are real-time access to X/Twitter content and aggressive pricing on the fast tiers. The trade-off is a thinner enterprise story: less published governance, fewer regions, and a shorter track record on deprecation handling than the older labs.

## Identity

|  |  |
| --- | --- |
| Name | xAI |
| Company | xAI |
| One-liner | Grok models with an OpenAI-shaped API and live X data access |
| Site | https://x.ai |
| Docs | https://docs.x.ai |
| Founded | 2023 |
| Funding | Late-stage private |
| Open source | No |
| Brand | https://toolweight.com/vendors/xAI |
| Compared in | 1 |

## Where it is compared

### [LLM APIs](https://toolweight.com/compare/llm-apis)
Ranked **#9 of 18** on default weights.
| Field | Value | Confidence | Verified | Source | Note |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Flagship model | Grok 4.1 | Inferred | 2026-01-15 | - | xAI ships fast and renames tiers often; confirm the current model list before quoting. |
| Context window | - | Unknown | - | - | Withdrawn. The 256K figure previously carried here describes Grok 4, not the Grok 4.1 generation named above, and the 4.1 tier that most API traffic actually reaches is documented with a far larger window. Rather than publish a number that measures a different model from the one this row names, this cell is blank until we can verify the flagship's own figure. |
| Max output | - | Unknown | - | - | - |
| Image input | ● | Inferred | 2026-01-15 | - | - |
| Audio in/out | ○ | Inferred | 2026-01-15 | - | - |
| Open weights | ◐ | Community-reported | 2026-01-15 | - | Older Grok generations have been released publicly; current models are closed. |
| OpenAI-compat API | ● | Inferred | 2026-01-15 | - | Deliberately shaped as a drop-in for the OpenAI SDKs. |
| TTFT p50 | - | Unknown | - | - | - |
| Output tok/s | - | Unknown | - | - | - |
| $/M input | - | Unknown | - | - | Withdrawn, and worth explaining. This cell previously read $3/M, a Grok 4-class list rate, as its own note conceded, while the row names Grok 4.1. Those are different models an order of magnitude apart in price: the 4.1 generation reaches the API mainly through a fast variant billed in cents, not dollars, per million tokens. Publishing the old number under the new model's name would have overstated the cost of running Grok 4.1 by more than tenfold, which is exactly the failure this page's methodology promises not to make. It stays blank until we can quote a rate for the model actually named. |
| $/M output | - | Unknown | - | - | Withdrawn for the same reason as the input rate: the $15/M previously here was a Grok 4 figure standing in for a Grok 4.1 row. |
| $/M cache read | - | Unknown | - | - | - |
| Batch discount | - | Unknown | - | - | No batch endpoint documented at the time of writing. |
| Tool use | ● | Vendor-claimed | 2026-01-15 | https://docs.x.ai/docs/guides/function-calling | - |
| Schema output | ● | Inferred | 2026-01-15 | - | - |
| Effort control | ◐ | Inferred | 2026-01-15 | - | Reasoning is exposed on specific model variants rather than as a graduated per-request control across the line-up. |
| Computer use | ○ | Inferred | 2026-01-15 | - | - |
| MCP support | ○ | Inferred | 2026-01-15 | - | - |
| Cache TTL | - | Unknown | - | - | - |
| Continuity policy | Dated model IDs exist and are the recommended way to address a model, but xAI publishes no formal deprecation policy or notice window, and model naming has changed repeatedly between generations. The shortest track record of any first-party lab here. | Inferred | 2026-01-15 | - | - |
| Notice period | - | Unknown | - | - | No published policy located. |
| Pinnable versions | ● | Inferred | 2026-01-15 | - | - |
| Zero retention | - | Unknown | - | - | - |
| Trains on your data | ◐ | Inferred | 2026-01-15 | - | Consumer terms are permissive; API terms are stricter but read them rather than assuming parity with OpenAI or Anthropic. |
| AU region | ○ | Inferred | 2026-01-15 | - | - |
| API since | 2024 | Inferred | - | - | - |
| Positioning | Fast, cheap frontier models with live access to X | Inferred | - | - | - |

**Verdict.** Trivially easy to try given the OpenAI-shaped API, and the fast tiers are widely reported as some of the best price-performance in the category, but note that this row currently carries no price or context figure at all. The numbers that were here described Grok 4 while the row named Grok 4.1, and a wrong number is worse than a blank one, so they were pulled rather than patched. Read the pricing page yourself before budgeting. The governance story is separately the thinnest of the first-party labs, no published deprecation policy, no regional pinning, and terms that need reading rather than assuming. Fine for consumer features, harder to justify for regulated work.

## Alternatives

- [Qwen](https://toolweight.com/options/alibaba-qwen), Alibaba's model family, huge open-weight range, closed flagship
- [Amazon Bedrock](https://toolweight.com/options/amazon-bedrock), Multi-vendor model access inside your existing AWS account
- [Anthropic](https://toolweight.com/options/anthropic), Claude models, built around long agentic runs and tool use
- [Cerebras](https://toolweight.com/options/cerebras), Wafer-scale inference, the fastest tokens per second available
- [Cohere](https://toolweight.com/options/cohere), Enterprise-focused models built for RAG and private deployment
- [DeepSeek](https://toolweight.com/options/deepseek), Frontier-adjacent models at a small fraction of Western prices
- [Fireworks AI](https://toolweight.com/options/fireworks-ai), Fast open-weight inference with strong structured-output support
- [Google Gemini](https://toolweight.com/options/google-gemini), Gemini via AI Studio for prototyping or Vertex AI for production
- [Groq](https://toolweight.com/options/groq), Custom LPU silicon serving open-weight models at extreme speed
- [Meta Llama](https://toolweight.com/options/meta-llama), Open-weight Llama models, hosted almost everywhere but Meta
- [Mistral AI](https://toolweight.com/options/mistral-ai), European lab with an open-weight lineage and EU-resident hosting
- [Moonshot AI](https://toolweight.com/options/moonshot-ai), Kimi models, open-weight agentic performance at low cost

## Licence and attribution

Data from toolweight (https://toolweight.com), licensed CC-BY-4.0.

- Licence: [CC-BY-4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
- Canonical HTML: https://toolweight.com/options/xai
- Machine-readable: https://toolweight.com/options/xai.md · https://toolweight.com/api/v1 · https://toolweight.com/mcp
- toolweight takes no affiliate revenue and sells no placements. Corrections: https://toolweight.com/suggest