Grok Imagine API — what it is, xAI's pricing, and the live alternatives

Grok Imagine is xAI's image and short-video generation model — the engine behind the Imagine feature in the Grok app, known for a distinctive aesthetic and strong photorealism. The Grok Imagine API generates images from a text prompt programmatically. This guide covers what the API does, what it costs at xAI's list price, and the live way to run the same workload on Kunavo today.

Grok Imagine API pricing

xAI prices image generation at roughly $0.02 per image — one of the cheapest first-party rates in the market. That's precisely why it isn't live on Kunavo yet: there's no room to resell it under list, and we don't mark models up above the provider's own price.

Text-to-image on Kunavo today

Kunavo exposes image generation through one OpenAI-style endpoint, POST /v1/images/generations. The live models are Nano Banana (closest to Grok Imagine on realism-per-dollar) and GPT-Image-2 (best prompt fidelity and text-in-image). The request shape is identical to what a Grok Imagine call would be — only the model string differs:

import requests

# Live text-to-image on the same OpenAI-style endpoint. Swap the model
# string to Grok Imagine once it's enabled — the request shape is identical.
resp = requests.post(
    "https://api.kunavo.com/v1/images/generations",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {API_KEY}"},
    json={
        "model": "nano-banana",   # live today; Grok Imagine on the roadmap
        "prompt": "a chrome sculpture of a fox, studio lighting, photoreal",
        "size": "1024x1024",
    },
    timeout=120,
)
print(resp.json()["data"][0]["url"])

Grok Imagine vs the live alternatives

If your priority is the Grok aesthetic specifically, xAI direct is the way to get it today. If your priority is production image generation with one bill — realism, editing, text-in-image — the live lineup on Kunavo covers it: Nano Banana for value and consistency, Nano Banana Pro for text-in-image, GPT-Image-2 for prompt fidelity, plus image edit endpoints on the same key. When Grok Imagine is enabled, adopting it is a one-word change to the model field.

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