How to get a Grok API key without an X subscription

A Grok API key opens direct access to the models from xAI, Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, without going through the X social network or its Premium subscription. Creating it takes five minutes on console.x.ai and requires a payment method. Billing is then per use, so you pay for the tokens consumed at the model's official rate and nothing else.

Clear resources on the subject are scarce and the name clash with Groq spreads confusion even in English-language tutorials. The steps that follow come with prices of the day taken from the official source. You'll also see where this key fits in a key ring that mixes several providers.

01Key takeaways

• Grok is not Groq. Grok, with a k, is the xAI family of models, while Groq, with a q, is an infrastructure company that serves open models very fast. The two companies have no link at all.
• You create the key on console.x.ai, on the API Keys page, after signing up with an email or Google account. Credits must be loaded before the first call.
• Keys carry the prefix xai- and are shown only once, so you must copy them immediately.
• No X Premium subscription is required. The API is purchased independently of the social network.
• The API speaks the market's standard format, so the key plugs as is into OpenAI-compatible tools.

02Grok is the xAI model and has nothing to do with Groq

Grok is the in-house model family of xAI. The current generation, led by grok-4.3, offers a context window of one million tokens and competes with the big general-purpose models for writing, analysis and reasoning, with a tone that's often more direct than its competitors. The API also exposes image and video generation models under the Grok Imagine banner, billed per item.

The name clash is worth clearing up right away. Groq, with a q, is an infrastructure company that serves open models designed by others. It has its own guide on the Groq key and its record speed. These are two companies with two APIs and two keys. Within the picture of AI without a subscription, the xAI key adds one more general-purpose model to your key ring, with a personality all its own.

03Step 1. Create the xAI account

You sign up on accounts.x.ai with an email address or a Google account, which then leads to console.x.ai, the developer console. You don't need an account on the X social network, because the two share a brand but not their logins. The console brings together team management, keys, billing and documentation.

If you're coming from other consoles, there's a pleasant surprise. The interface is plain and the path is short, with two screens between sign-up and the keys page. The language is English, as with almost every provider. The labels quoted here match the exact wording of the console, so you can find your way around without any translation.

04Step 2. Add a payment method

Unlike Google or Groq, xAI doesn't offer a permanent free tier. The official documentation asks you to load credits before the first call. A stop on the Billing page is therefore required, with a credit card and a free choice of a modest starting amount. Given the prices detailed further down, a few dollars cover weeks of testing for individual use.

Promotional credits show up depending on the period and the programs offered at sign-up. Their amounts and conditions change regularly, so the console is the reference at the moment you create the account. One useful habit applies in every case. Set a spending limit during this first visit to Billing, so experimenting stays a line of a few euros a month.

If having no credit card at all is your entry requirement, this provider isn't the right starting point. The list of APIs you can use for free covers the providers that let you try without any payment method, along with the limits that come with each of them.

05Step 3. Generate the key

1. Open your team's API Keys page in console.x.ai.
2. Click "Create API Key" and name the key after the tool that will use it.
3. Copy the key shown right away, in the xai-... format. It won't be displayed again afterward.
4. Paste it into the target tool, then close the tab.

A lost key can't be recovered, only replaced, with a deletion and a new creation in two clicks. Adopt the rule of one key per tool from the start. Then take five minutes to secure a freshly created key, because the steps are the same at every provider and they head off most bad surprises.

06Official prices of the Grok models

Prices are listed on the Models page of the xAI documentation, per million tokens, with input and output shown separately. Here are the figures of the day for the text models. Image and video generation are paid per item, outside this price list.

xAI API prices per million tokens, official price list recorded on October 16, 2026

Model	Context	Input	Output
grok-4.3	1M tokens	$1.25	$2.50
grok-4.20 (reasoning variants)	1M tokens	$1.25	$2.50
grok-build-0.1 (code)	256K tokens	$1	$2

For context, the xAI flagship costs much less than the stars from OpenAI or Anthropic and sits in the market's mid-range zone. For visuals, Grok Imagine charges $0.02 to $0.05 per image depending on the quality requested and $0.02 to $0.08 per second of video. For a content creator, one generated article costs a few fractions of a cent. The monthly line comes to a few euros rather than tens of euros.

07What this key adds to your key ring

Three arguments come out of real use. The first is a competitive general-purpose model at a mid-range price, which handles everyday writing and analysis without blowing up the bill. The second is a one-million-token window, comfortable for large documents, long transcripts or bodies of text to summarize in one go. The third is tone. Grok takes on a sharper voice than average, which suits some content and not others. A ten-minute test settles the question.

If you'd like to try Grok without opening one more provider account, the xAI models also appear in the catalog of a hub like OpenRouter. You get one key for hundreds of models, in exchange for fees on credit purchases. The direct key stays the cheapest path for regular use, while the hub wins when you like to sample many models.

08Paste the key into OpenTahr

Once copied, your Grok API key goes into the OpenTahr settings after you create a free OpenTahr account. It stays in your browser and never reaches our servers. The tools use it wherever you select it. You get the comfort of a complete tool while the AI is paid at xAI cost price, with no in-house credits and no margin per action.

The same mechanism works for every provider on the market. The guides for each provider detail the creation of every key with the same care, from the account all the way to the first generated text, so you can add engines one at a time.

09Frequently asked questions

Is the Grok API free?

It isn't. Credits must be loaded before the first call and usage is then billed per million tokens. Promotional credits exist at certain times, with varying amounts and durations. The console shows the offer in force when you sign up. That offer is the reference for your account.

Do you need an X Premium subscription to use the API?

You don't. The social network subscription gives access to the consumer Grok chatbot in the X app. The API is purchased separately on console.x.ai, with its own pay-per-use billing. You can have one without the other, since the two accounts don't communicate with each other.

Grok or Groq, how do you stop mixing them up?

Remember the last letter. Grok with a k refers to the family of models built by xAI. Groq with a q refers to an infrastructure company that serves open models at high speed, with no financial or technical link to xAI. The two names sound the same but everything else differs.

Which models sit behind the key?

You get the grok-4.3 text family and its 4.20 reasoning variants, a code-focused model called grok-build and the Grok Imagine range for images and video, plus voice APIs. The catalog changes fast. The Models page of the documentation lists the current models and is the reference.

Does the key work in OpenAI-compatible tools?

It does. xAI provides its own SDK but exposes an API in the market's standard format. The official documentation shows the same examples using the OpenAI SDK pointed at the xAI servers. In practice, the key goes into any BYOK tool that accepts an OpenAI-compatible provider.

Transparency note. The models and prices were checked on October 16, 2026 on the official xAI console and documentation (docs.x.ai). Promotional credits vary over time, so your console is the reference. xAI does not pay us anything.

10Sources

1. xAI, official quickstart guide (key creation and credits)
2. xAI, official page of models and their prices