grok-build-0.1 launches public beta at $1 input and $2 output per million

• xAI moved xAI's public beta announcement into the API on May 29, pricing grok-build-0.1 at $1 per million input tokens and $2 per million output tokens.
• Day-one distribution was unusually broad, with xAI's integrations reply listing OpenRouter, Vercel AI Gateway, Cursor, Hermes Agent, OpenClaw, Kilo Code, and OpenCode.
• Early hands-on posts were already skewing toward quick toy apps, with halfmage's Grokulator demo showing a browser game built in about 25 seconds and Eric Zakariasson's Cursor post confirming the model was live inside Cursor.
• The API launch removed one obvious gate, because xAI's Kilo Code post had framed grok-build-0.1 around SuperGrok or X Premium+ access two days earlier, while xAI's API key link now points builders straight to xAI's API console.

You can grab an API key from xAI's console, trace the earlier subscriber-only rollout in xAI's Kilo Code post, and the model showed up across coding surfaces fast enough that xAI's own reply read more like an ecosystem map than a launch addendum. The more interesting creative angle is how quickly early testers turned it into disposable little products, from a 25-second Grokulator build to the first wave of Cursor experiments in Eric Zakariasson's post.

xAI says grok-build-0.1 is the same model behind the Grok Build CLI, and pitched it around agentic coding rather than general chat. The headline numbers are simple: $1 per million input tokens, $2 per million output tokens, public beta, API access.

That matters mostly because the product crossed a boundary. Before May 29, the model was showing up as a feature inside xAI-controlled or partner surfaces. After May 29, it became something a developer could wire into their own stack with a normal API key flow via the xAI console.

xAI's launch thread named seven day-one destinations:

• OpenRouter
• Vercel AI Gateway
• Cursor
• Hermes Agent
• OpenClaw
• Kilo Code
• OpenCode

That list is the real launch story for creative coders. grok-build-0.1 did not arrive as a single API endpoint that might later trickle into tools. It landed already threaded through hosted gateways, IDEs, and agent clients.

The first public examples were lightweight, fast-turn app builds. halfmage's demo shows a playable "Grokulator" assembled in roughly 25 seconds, then extended with sound effects and easter eggs.

That is exactly the kind of artifact this release will spread: tiny web toys, internal UI mocks, and one-file experiments that are more about speed than polish. icreatelife's prompt for reactions also shows the launch immediately turning into user-to-user comparison and taste-testing, not just API documentation chatter.

Two days before the public beta, xAI was positioning grok-build-0.1 as a benefit inside Kilo IDE extensions and CLI, tied to SuperGrok or X Premium+ subscriptions. That earlier post linked to xAI's Kilo Code announcement and described the model in almost the same terms xAI reused for the API launch: high speed, agentic coding intelligence, available inside developer tooling.

Put together, the sequence is clear. xAI tested the model as a subscriber perk inside partner tooling first, then opened it as a general API product. For builders, the practical difference is that grok-build-0.1 is no longer just a feature you happen to get inside someone else's editor, it is a model endpoint you can route into your own app or workflow.