Since November 2, API requests naming xAI's grok-imagine-image-quality model no longer reach that model: they keep the same request and response shape but are served by grok-imagine-image-2.0 with quality set to low, and the older grok-imagine-image-pro name follows the same chain. Nothing returns an error, and the bill drops by a cent per image at every resolution — the replacement bills $0.04 against the old $0.05 at the standard size, AI Pricing Guru's daily-verified pricing tables show.

xAI did give notice: its migration guide went up with a 60-day window starting September 2 and recommends switching to the new model by name so customers choose the quality they pay for. Even so, this is the third xAI model retirement in five weeks handled by silent redirect rather than an error, one tracker noted, and xAI keeps no dedicated deprecations page and no written general notice policy.

The practical lesson for developers is to log the model that actually answered, not just the one requested — at xAI right now, the two can differ. The redirect lands in the same week xAI switches on a default text watermark for Grok API output, from November 7, which the Wire covered on October 31.