Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI has added the ability to generate images to its API.
Currently, only one model is available in the API – “grok-2-image-1212”. Upon request, the model can generate up to 10 images (no more than five requests per second) in JPG format at a cost of $0.07 per image.
For comparison, Black Forest Labs, a startup with which xAI collaborated last year to launch image generation on Elon Musk’s social network, charges about $0.05 per image. Another popular image model provider, Ideogram, charges $0.08 for the top price.
In its documentation, xAI notes that the API does not yet support customization of image quality, size, or style, and that the prompts in requests are subject to verification by a “chat model.”
xAI, which launched its API in October 2024, appears to be looking for significant sources of revenue as it ramps up training and development of flagship models such as Grok 3. The company is reportedly meeting with investors for a potential $10 billion funding round that could bring its valuation to $75 billion.
Hinting at its other ambitions, xAI recently acquired an artificial intelligence video generation startup and is in the process of expanding the Memphis data center it uses to train and run its various models.
