Migration Guides

grok-imagine-image-quality Retirement on November 2, 2026

grok-imagine-image-2.0 now covers everything grok-imagine-image-quality was used for, at a lower price. Effective November 2, 2026, the grok-imagine-image-quality model slug is retired from the xAI API. Its 60-day notice period began on September 2, 2026.

After November 2, 2026, requests to grok-imagine-image-quality are served by grok-imagine-image-2.0 with quality set to low. The slug continues to resolve, so you do not need to change your code to avoid breakage. grok-imagine-image-2.0 is priced differently than the model it replaces.

grok-imagine-image (1.0) is not affected by this change.

How the redirect works

Starting November 2, 2026:

  • Requests to grok-imagine-image-quality on /v1/images/generations and /v1/images/edits are served by grok-imagine-image-2.0 with quality: "low".
  • The request and response shapes are unchanged. Every parameter accepted today is accepted after the switch, and grok-imagine-image-2.0 additionally accepts quality, up to five source images for editing, and the 21:9 and 5:2 aspect ratios.
  • The model field on responses reports the model that served the request, so you can confirm the switch from your logs.
  • Requests to grok-imagine-image-pro, which already redirect to grok-imagine-image-quality, follow it to grok-imagine-image-2.0 at low.

Pricing impact

grok-imagine-image-2.0 at low quality is $0.01 per image cheaper than grok-imagine-image-quality at every resolution. If you keep sending requests to the retired slug after November 2, you are billed at the grok-imagine-image-2.0 low rate. See Pricing for current per-image rates.


We recommend switching to grok-imagine-image-2.0 explicitly before November 2. Doing so lets you choose the quality you pay for, rather than accepting the low default applied by the redirect.

Model being retiredRedirect target after November 2
grok-imagine-image-qualitygrok-imagine-image-2.0 with quality: "low"

Migrating is a one-line change to the model field. grok-imagine-image-2.0 also accepts an optional quality parameter:

  • low is what the redirect uses. It ranks #2 on the Arena Image Edit leaderboard and #3 on Text-to-Image, and is the closest match in cost to grok-imagine-image-quality.
  • medium spends more compute on each image for finer detail; choose it where output quality matters more than cost.
  • auto (the default when quality is omitted) currently serves low for generation and medium for editing, and you are billed at the quality served.
import xai_sdk

client = xai_sdk.Client()

response = client.image.sample(
    prompt="A watercolor painting of a lighthouse at dawn",
    model="grok-imagine-image-2.0",
    quality="low",
)

print(response.url)

The same model change applies to image editing requests on /v1/images/edits.

Need help?

If you have questions or need assistance with this migration, reach out to support@x.ai.


Last updated: September 2, 2026