xAI Grok API: free credits and offers

xAI API: no free tier, no trial credits (confirmed non-existent) high confidence

Official pricing page is pure pay-as-you-go from the first call: text models $1.00–$4.00/M input, $2.00–$12.00/M output depending on model and context length (Grok 4.7: $2.00 input/$0.50 cached/$6.00 output below 200k context; $4.00/$1.00/$12.00 above). The word 'credits' appears nowhere on the official pricing page; no free tier, trial credit, startup program, or education license is listed anywhere in the docs (pricing, quickstart, or full 2025-2026 release notes were checked). The quickstart says to 'Sign up for an account at console.x.ai' and 'load it with credits to start using the API' — i.e., you top up paid credits yourself; nothing is granted free. Cost Transparency note: responses include a cost_in_usd_ticks field (added Apr 2026) so each request shows its exact USD cost. WebSearch was unavailable (session budget exhausted), so verification was by direct fetch of official pages.

Eligibility

No eligibility criteria exist because no free offer exists. API account at console.x.ai; paid credit top-up required for usage.

How to claim

Nothing to claim — no free offer to enroll in. Paid: sign up at console.x.ai, add an API key (API Keys page), load paid credits, then call https://api.x.ai/v1.

Expiry

n/a — standing pay-as-you-go model, no expiration; no free tier to renew

Gotchas

No minimum-charge or no-CC claim is documented anywhere today (console.x.ai blocks automated access, so billing fine print could not be re-read today). Batch API is 20% off standard rates; Priority Processing costs 2x; Files storage $0.025/GiB/day, Collections $0.10/GiB/day, downloads $0.20/GiB; Response-API violation fee $0.05/request. Agent tools priced up to $5 per 1000 calls. Any marketing claim of '$150/month free for data-sharing' does not appear on current official billing docs.

Source

docs.x.ai

Grok Build free tier (coding-agent product, NOT API credits) medium confidence

Grok Build is xAI's agentic coding TUI (launched beta May 2026 with grok-build-0.1 at $1.00/$0.20/$2.00 per 1M tokens if used via the paid API; in-product, Fast model is 'billed through your plan'). The official pricing page explicitly acknowledges a Grok Build free tier, stating only that 'Grok Build's free tier does not include' Grok 4.7 Fast. Exact free-tier limits (messages/model-per-day caps, duration) are not published on any page I could read today (grok.com plan pages and console.x.ai return 403 to automated fetch), so amounts/limits are unverified. This is a free product tier, not free API usage: it does not grant api.x.ai keys or billable credits.

Eligibility

Unverified beyond the xAI docs; appears available to anyone who installs Grok Build (TUI) / has a Grok account; no .edu or startup requirement documented. Free tier excludes Grok 4.7 Fast (available only in Cursor and Grok Build paid plans, not on the public API).

How to claim

Install the Grok Build TUI (see docs.x.ai/build/overview), sign in free; the free tier gives access to standard Grok models for coding agents within undocumented limits.

Expiry

Unspecified; Grok Build 0.1 was 'in early access' (May 2026 release notes) — a beta-era product, limits could change at any time; fast-moving product

Gotchas

Trial-vs-free: existence of the free tier is confirmed by xAI's own pricing page but its caps/duration are not stated there — do not report specific numbers without reading grok.com plans in a browser. It is a product tier (like Claude Code Free), NOT free xAI API quota; Grok 4.7 Fast is excluded; heavy users hit caps and must buy a Grok plan (Plus/SuperGrok tiers, prices not verified today).

Source

docs.x.ai

Consumer Grok app free tier (X app) — context only, not an API offer low confidence

Grok inside X has a free consumer tier (rate-limited) plus paid Plus/SuperGrok plans; xAI blocks automated fetches of x.ai/grok.com, so current 2026 plan names/prices could not be re-verified today and are NOT reported here. The consumer free tier gives no API key and no api.x.ai access — irrelevant for the API front except as a reason some users conflate 'free Grok' with 'free Grok API'.

Eligibility

X account holders (unverified details); no .edu, no startup, no credit card required for the app tier; does not include API access

How to claim

n/a for API research; claim only by making a free X account

Expiry

Consumer free tier caps change frequently; not documented on dev docs

Gotchas

Not a developer offer; do not cite it as an API free tier. Region: consumer Grok availability has been region-limited (EU launch Jul 2026 per docs release notes for Grok 4.5).

Source

grok.com

Low confidence: verify before claiming.

Startup program / education license: none documented for xAI medium confidence

As of 2026-10-22 no xAI startup program (age/funding caps, credits) and no education/student license (.edu) appear on any official page: the full docs navigation (docs.x.ai) exposes only a Pricing page among billing-related pages, and 15+ months of API release notes contain zero entries about credits, free tiers, startups, or education. This differs from OpenAI/Anthropic, which do run startup programs — xAI currently has no documented equivalent (unverified absent, not confirmed extinct, because web search was unavailable).

Eligibility

n/a — no documented program

How to claim

n/a

Expiry

n/a

Gotchas

'Medium' only because WebSearch budget was exhausted, so third-party/partnership programs (e.g., a YC-style or partner-distributed credit deal) cannot be fully ruled out; official docs show none.

Source

docs.x.ai