# xAI deprecations, retirements and release notes
Status: DOCUMENTED (release notes + two migration guides); redirects LIVE_VERIFIED on 2026-09-19 (GET /v1/models/grok-3, /v1/models/grok-4-fast, /v1/language-models/grok-4-0709 → grok-4.3 object; /v1/models/grok-code-fast-1 → grok-build-0.1 object; /v1/models/grok-2-image → 404).
Sources: https://docs.x.ai/developers/release-notes · /developers/migration/may-15-retirement · /developers/migration/imagine-image-quality-nov-2 · /developers/pricing · /developers/models · /developers/rest-api-reference/inference/legacy.
Last verified: 2026-09-18 · Machine-readable: generated/fragments/deprecations/xai-deprecations.json.
# 1. Lifecycle model
xAI has no dedicated deprecations page and publishes no minimum support window. Pattern observed:
| Stage |
Meaning |
| Available |
on /developers/models and /developers/pricing, in GET /v1/models |
| Deprecated (notice) |
retirement date in a migration guide; ~60-day notice (grok-imagine-image-quality: announced 2026-09-02 for 2026-11-02) |
| Retired |
removed from the catalogue, but the slug keeps resolving and is redirected to a replacement billed at the replacement's price — code does not break, bills change |
| Legacy (undocumented) |
grok-2 / grok-3-mini / grok-beta era ids that vanished without a notice |
# 2. Current deprecation
| id |
Retirement |
Replacement |
Behaviour after |
grok-imagine-image-quality (+ aliases -20260403, -latest, grok-imagine-image-pro) |
2026-11-02 |
grok-imagine-image-2.0 with quality: "low" |
same request/response shape on /v1/images/generations and /v1/images/edits; response.model reports the serving model; $0.04 instead of $0.05 per image (1k). grok-imagine-image (1.0) unaffected. |
# 3. Retired on 2026-05-15 12:00 PT
| Retired id |
Redirect target |
Billing after |
grok-4-1-fast-reasoning |
grok-4.3, reasoning_effort: low |
grok-4.3 rates ($1.25 / $2.50) |
grok-4-1-fast-non-reasoning |
grok-4.3, reasoning_effort: none |
idem |
grok-4-fast-reasoning |
grok-4.3, low |
idem (verified: GET /v1/models/grok-4-fast → grok-4.3) |
grok-4-fast-non-reasoning |
grok-4.3, none |
idem |
grok-4-0709 |
grok-4.3, low |
idem (verified) |
grok-3 |
grok-4.3, none |
idem (verified) |
grok-code-fast-1 (grok-code-fast, -0825) |
grok-build-0.1 |
build rates ($1.00 / $2.00); now official aliases (verified) |
grok-imagine-image-pro |
grok-imagine-image-quality → 2.0 low on 2026-11-02 |
|
# 4. Legacy ids (no notice found)
grok-2-1212, grok-2-vision-1212, grok-2-image-1212 (GET /v1/models/grok-2-image → 404 not-found), grok-3-mini, grok-3-mini-fast, grok-beta, grok-vision-beta, grok-4 / grok-4-latest, grok-voice-think-fast-1.0 (superseded by 2.0; grok-voice-latest moved on 2026-08-05), the docs' example id grok-420-reasoning.
# 5. Deprecated / legacy API features
| Item |
Status |
Notes |
POST /v1/completions, POST /v1/complete |
LEGACY |
"Not supported by reasoning models"; use chat completions / Responses / /v1/messages |
logprobs, top_logprobs |
ignored |
silently ignored on grok-4.20 and newer |
Live Search (search_parameters) |
superseded |
server-side tools since Oct 2025; search_price = 0 in the catalogue |
x_search per-call billing |
ends 2026-09-21 12:00 PT |
replaced by per-post ($5/1k) + per-profile ($10/1k) |
quality default on grok-imagine-image-2.0 |
changed Aug 2026 |
medium → auto |
| STT default model |
inconsistent |
release notes: 1.0; model page: 2.0 |
zdr_status: "pii_scrubbing" |
legacy enum |
accepted on read only |
Management teamId in key validation |
DEPRECATED |
use scope / scopeId |
# 6. Release-notes digest (newest first)
| When |
What |
| 2026-09 |
grok-voice-transcribe-2.0; grok-imagine-image-quality retirement announced |
| 2026-08 |
Grok 4.6 (500k ctx, xhigh, no output limit, $2/$0.50/$6); Imagine image auto quality, 5 reference images, 21:9 / 5:2; Grok Bot |
| 2026-07 |
grok-imagine-video-1.5 T2V/I2V/reference-to-video 1080p; grok-voice-think-fast-2.0; STT vad_threshold; Grok 4.5 ($2/$6, effort low/med/high) + EU console availability |
| 2026-06 |
Priority Processing (service_tier); Files public URLs; Imagine ↔ Files (image_file_id, storage_options) |
| 2026-05 |
Smart Turn (STT); Context Compaction; WebSocket Responses; image search in web search; grok-build-0.1 + Grok Build CLI; Custom Voices; (15th) model retirements |
| 2026-04 |
cost_in_usd_ticks; Files TTL; grok-voice-think-fast-1.0; STT GA |
| 2026-03 |
TTS GA; Batch API for image/video + tools + JSONL upload; Grok 4.20 + Multi-agent |
| 2026-01 |
Video generation, new image generation; Batch API |
| 2025-12 |
Speech-to-Speech GA |
| 2025-11 |
Grok 4.1 Fast (Enterprise); tool prices ≤ $5/1k; Files API GA; Collections Search, Remote MCP, mixed client/server tools |
| 2025-10 |
Tools GA (web_search, x_search, code_execution) |
| 2025-09 |
Responses API GA |
| 2025-08 |
Collections API |
| 2025-07 |
Grok 4 |
| 2025-06 |
Management API |
| 2025-05 |
Cached prompts; Live Search |
| 2025-04 |
Grok 3 |
| 2025-03 |
Image generation (grok-2-image) |
| 2025-02 |
Audit logs (console) |
| 2025-01 |
Status page https://status.x.ai, docs dark mode |
| 2024-12 |
Structured outputs; grok-2-1212 / grok-2-vision-1212; tokenizer playground; Replit |
| 2024-11 |
API public beta (grok-beta, grok-vision-beta); LangChain |
# 7. Migration checklist
- Replace retired slugs explicitly (redirects change your bill and reasoning effort silently).
- Move
grok-imagine-image-quality → grok-imagine-image-2.0 and pin quality before 2026-11-02.
- Budget for the
x_search per-post billing from 2026-09-21.
- Do not send
reasoning_effort to grok-4.20 / grok-build-0.1 (400) — only 4.6, 4.5, 4.3 accept it; multi-agent uses reasoning.effort on Responses.
- Read
response.model to detect redirects; log x-request-id.