xAI API: Your First Call

Why Developers Care

The xAI API speaks the OpenAI chat-completions format, so existing code migrates by changing the base URL and key. You also get Grok-only models with live search and reasoning.

First Call

curl https://api.x.ai/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $XAI_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model": "grok-3-mini", "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "Summarize recursion in one tweet"}]}'

Practical Rules

Keep keys server-side, never in shipped apps. Pin model versions in production. Log tokens per feature from day one so one runaway loop cannot surprise your bill.