Nothing breaks. That is the mechanism.
xAI retired its quality image model in the gentlest way an API provider can. From November 2, code that calls grok-imagine-image-quality keeps running. The slug still resolves, the request and response shapes are unchanged, and the bill goes down by one cent per image. What changes is the tier doing the work: every request, generation or edit, is served by grok-imagine-image-2.0 with quality set to low.
The change was not sprung on anyone. xAI posted the date in its release notes on September 2 and gave the migration its own page, which recommends switching to Image 2.0 explicitly "before November 2" so that you choose the quality you pay for rather than accepting the redirect's default. Developers who read vendor changelogs had 60 days. Developers who did not will find out from their output, or from the model field in their response logs, which is the one place the switch announces itself.
A cent cheaper, a cent dearer
The pricing table makes the trade exact. The retired model charged $0.05 per image at 1K, $0.06 at 1.5K and $0.07 at 2K. Image 2.0 at low charges $0.04, $0.05 and $0.06, so the redirect saves $0.01 at every size. xAI's case for the change is that Image 2.0 now covers everything the quality model was used for at a lower price, and its migration guide points to Arena rankings for the low tier: #2 for image editing, #3 for text-to-image. Those are rankings xAI cites in its migration guide, not rankings ALFW has independently verified, and Arena placings are not a test of your workload.
If low is not the output you need, the next tier up changes the economics. Image 2.0 at medium costs $0.06, $0.07 and $0.08 at the same resolutions, respectively $0.01 more than the retired quality model at every size. The retirement therefore produces a price reduction only if you accept the low tier; choosing medium costs more than the old model.
There is another default to account for when migrating manually. Calls to Image 2.0 that omit the quality parameter use auto, which currently selects low for generation and medium for editing. Billing follows the tier actually served. Developers who need predictable output or costs should specify the quality parameter explicitly rather than relying on either the redirect or the automatic default.
Who actually has homework
No caller faces a breaking API change, but anyone using the retired slug receives a different quality tier from November 2. Two groups should review their setup before the change takes effect. Anyone whose product copy, plan page or customer promise says "quality" images is, from November 2, shipping the low tier under that description unless they change one line. Anyone still calling grok-imagine-image-pro is also affected: Pro already pointed to the quality slug, which now routes requests to Image 2.0 at low. The fix in both cases is the same one-line model change xAI recommends, plus a decision about which tier to pay for. The original grok-imagine-image at $0.02 per image is untouched, for anyone wondering whether the whole Imagine line moved. It did not.
Sources
- [1] xAI developer docs — Release Notes, September 2, 2026 entry: "On November 2, 2026, grok-imagine-image-quality is retired. Requests to the slug will be served by grok-imagine-image-2.0 with quality set to low, with no change to the request or response shape and at a lower per-image price. grok-imagine-image (1.0) is not affected." (read first-hand)Read source
- [2] xAI developer docs — "grok-imagine-image-quality Retirement on November 2, 2026" migration guide (60-day notice from September 2; slug continues to resolve; Pro redirect follows; response model field reports the serving model; "$0.01 per image cheaper at every resolution"; auto serves low for generation and medium for editing; Arena rankings as cited by xAI; five source images and 21:9 / 5:2 ratios; read first-hand)Read source
- [3] xAI developer docs — API Pricing (retired model $0.05/$0.06/$0.07 at 1K/1.5K/2K; Image 2.0 low $0.04/$0.05/$0.06 and medium $0.06/$0.07/$0.08; Image 1.0 $0.02; media input $0.01 per image; read first-hand)Read source
- [4] Note: The pricing comparison uses the retired model's listed rates as the baseline; its retirement date is established by the separate migration documentation. The developer documentation carries SpaceXSI branding in its headers but continues to identify the API and models as xAI.