xai-grok-api-guide

xAI Grok API Guide

Grok is xAI's frontier AI model with native X (Twitter) data access. This guide covers API usage, models, and integration patterns.

Why Grok?

Feature	Grok Advantage
Real-time X data	Access to live tweets, trending topics
No knowledge cutoff	Trained on latest data continuously
Humor/personality	More engaging conversational style
Function calling	Full tool support
Vision	Image understanding
Long context	128K+ context window

Models

Model	Context	Best For	Price (1M tokens)
Grok-3	128K	Complex reasoning, analysis	$5 / $15
Grok-2	128K	General tasks, faster	$2 / $10
Grok-2-mini	128K	Quick responses, budget	$0.50 / $2

Quick Start

curl https://api.x.ai/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $XAI_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "grok-3",
    "messages": [
      {"role": "user", "content": "What is trending in crypto on X right now?"}
    ]
  }'

OpenAI-Compatible API

import OpenAI from 'openai';

const xai = new OpenAI({
  baseURL: 'https://api.x.ai/v1',
  apiKey: process.env.XAI_API_KEY,
});

const response = await xai.chat.completions.create({
  model: 'grok-3',
  messages: [
    { role: 'system', content: 'You are a crypto market analyst.' },
    { role: 'user', content: 'Analyze $SPA on X/Twitter.' }
  ]
});

Function Calling

const response = await xai.chat.completions.create({
  model: 'grok-3',
  messages: [{ role: 'user', content: 'What is the price of SPA?' }],
  tools: [
    {
      type: 'function',
      function: {
        name: 'getTokenPrice',
        description: 'Get the current price of a cryptocurrency token',
        parameters: {
          type: 'object',
          properties: {
            symbol: { type: 'string', description: 'Token symbol (e.g., SPA, ETH)' },
            chain: { type: 'string', description: 'Blockchain (e.g., arbitrum)' }
          },
          required: ['symbol']
        }
      }
    }
  ]
});