Despite facing legal heat from OpenAI, Elon Musk’s AI venture, xAI, is pressing forward with the release of its highly anticipated xAI Grok 3 API. The new API gives developers direct access to xAI’s flagship Grok 3 and Grok 3 Mini models, both designed to compete with OpenAI’s GPT-4o and Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro.

Grok 3, a multimodal model capable of analyzing images and answering complex questions, now powers parts of Musk’s social network X, which xAI officially acquired in March. The API rollout marks a significant step for xAI, positioning it as a serious player in the AI model-as-a-service market.

Grok 3 API Pricing: Input & Output Token Costs

xAI offers two versions of its API:

• Grok 3:
  • $3 per million input tokens
  • $15 per million output tokens
  • Premium version: $5 input / $25 output per million tokens
• Grok 3 Mini:
  • $0.30 input / $0.50 output per million tokens
  • Premium version: $0.60 input / $4 output per million tokens

While competitively priced against Anthropic’s Claude 3.7 Sonnet, Grok 3 still comes in higher than Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro—especially considering performance benchmarks, where Grok has occasionally underdelivered.

Limited Context Window & Benchmark Concerns

Some developers have flagged a discrepancy in Grok 3’s context window. Though xAI claimed support for up to 1 million tokens earlier this year, the Grok 3 API maxes out at 131,072 tokens (~97,500 words). That’s far less than advertised and may affect adoption by users needing extensive input processing.

Adding to the criticism, xAI has faced backlash for allegedly misleading claims in benchmark comparisons. Several experts say Grok 3 may not outperform its competitors as convincingly as xAI’s marketing suggests.

Political Positioning & Grok’s “Unfiltered” Legacy

Initially billed as an “edgy” and “anti-woke” AI model, Grok made headlines for its willingness to generate content other models wouldn’t touch. Earlier versions, like Grok 2, were known for using vulgar language and responding to controversial prompts.

Yet, despite its branding, Grok reportedly leaned politically left on subjects like diversity and transgender rights. Musk has attributed this to training data sourced from public web pages and vowed to steer Grok toward a more “politically neutral” stance.

Whether Grok 3’s API version reflects that shift remains uncertain. Users have yet to see clear evidence of major changes in bias mitigation or moderation.

What’s Next for the xAI Grok 3 API?

With Grok 3 now accessible via API, developers and enterprises can finally test its real-world capabilities. But questions remain: Will xAI deliver on its promises of performance, neutrality, and transparency? Or will pricing, limited context windows, and political baggage hold it back?

One thing’s clear — the xAI Grok 3 API is here, and Elon Musk isn’t backing down from the AI race.

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