grok-imagine-image-quality retired with redirect to grok-imagine-image-2.0 with quality set to low

Verification is under 30 days old, not a live check; date passage does not confirm shutdown.

What changed

Impact summary

xAI retires grok-imagine-image-quality on Nov 2, 2026; requests redirect to grok-imagine-image-2.0 with quality set to low on /v1/images/generations and /v1/images/edits with unchanged request/response shapes and lower per-image price.

BeforeDedicated grok-imagine-image-quality model slug (pro already redirected here)

After / replacementgrok-imagine-image-2.0 with quality set to low

Affected models and systems

grok-imagine-image-qualitygrok-imagine-image-pro

Migration action

Recommended next step: Switch clients from grok-imagine-image-quality (and any remaining grok-imagine-image-pro traffic) to grok-imagine-image-2.0 before Nov 2, 2026. Set quality explicitly (low/medium/auto) rather than relying on the post-retirement redirect, which forces quality=low and bills at the 2.0 low rate. Confirm via response model field. Note: grok-imagine-image (1.0) is not affected.

Source and interpretation

API platform & regional scope

xAI direct API · Direct developer platform; eligibility and regional restrictions are account-specific.

Not consumer Grok subscriptions.

Bounded manual catalog. Original event checks retained from 2026-09-01; not reverified in this expansion.

Unconfirmed regions are not assumed to be global. Automatic monitoring is OFF. Source checks

Official evidence locators

Release Notes → September → ### grok-imagine-image-quality retirement on November 2 — On November 2, 2026, grok-imagine-image-quality is retired. Requests to the slug will be served by grok-imagine-image-2.0 with quality set to low
Migration guide https://docs.x.ai/developers/migration/imagine-image-quality-nov-2 → How the redirect works / Pricing impact / Recommended replacement table — 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.

60-day notice began 2026-09-02; retirement effective 2026-11-02 per migration guide. Distinct from evt_xai_imagine_quality_default (2026-08-28 default behavior change). Original source date and qualifier retained; exact shutdown time is not inferred. grok-imagine-image-pro remains listed as already-redirected traffic sharing this retirement path.

Affected endpoints: /v1/images/generations, /v1/images/edits

Action / deadline: Review required · Stated deadline

This record is classified as official announcement. The facts above were normalized from the provider's public developer documentation. API Change Watch does not treat an unreviewed page diff as a verified announcement.

Record revision history

2026-09-10T14:53:01.770Z · addition · ad274ae62954

Full before/after values are retained in the JSON export. Recording time is not announcement or verification time.

Read the official source ↗