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-qualityon/v1/images/generationsand/v1/images/editsare served bygrok-imagine-image-2.0withquality: "low". - The request and response shapes are unchanged. Every parameter accepted today is accepted after the switch, and
grok-imagine-image-2.0additionally acceptsquality, up to five source images for editing, and the21:9and5:2aspect ratios. - The
modelfield 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 togrok-imagine-image-quality, follow it togrok-imagine-image-2.0atlow.
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.
Recommended replacement
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 retired | Redirect target after November 2 |
|---|---|
grok-imagine-image-quality | grok-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:
lowis 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 togrok-imagine-image-quality.mediumspends more compute on each image for finer detail; choose it where output quality matters more than cost.auto(the default whenqualityis omitted) currently serveslowfor generation andmediumfor 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