Check Grok / xAI Status Right Now

xAI publishes status updates through these channels:

• xAI Status: status.x.ai — official service status page
• X / Twitter: @xAI — incident announcements
• Grok on X: @Grok — product updates
• Reddit: r/grok — community incident reports
• Downdetector: User-reported outage map for grok.x.ai

Quick Diagnostic: What's Actually Broken?

API Health Check

If you're using the xAI API, test connectivity directly:

# Check xAI API status (replace with your API key)
curl -s https://api.x.ai/v1/models \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $XAI_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json"

# Expected: JSON list of available models (grok-2, grok-2-vision, etc.)
# If 401: invalid key
# If 503/502: service outage
# If timeout: network or infrastructure issue

# Minimal chat completion test
curl -s https://api.x.ai/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $XAI_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "model": "grok-2-latest",
    "messages": [{"role": "user", "content": "ping"}],
    "max_tokens": 5
  }'

xAI's API is compatible with the OpenAI SDK — swap base_url to https://api.x.ai/v1:

# Python — OpenAI SDK compatible
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    api_key="your-xai-api-key",
    base_url="https://api.x.ai/v1",
)

response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="grok-2-latest",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "ping"}],
    max_tokens=5,
)
print(response.choices[0].message.content)

Rate Limits and Quotas

xAI enforces per-model rate limits on the API. As of 2026, Grok-2 limits vary by tier:

A 429 response means you've hit a rate limit — not a service outage. Check your usage at console.x.ai.

# Handle rate limits with exponential backoff (Python)
import time
import random

def call_with_backoff(client, **kwargs):
    max_retries = 5
    for attempt in range(max_retries):
        try:
            return client.chat.completions.create(**kwargs)
        except Exception as e:
            if "429" in str(e) and attempt < max_retries - 1:
                wait = (2 ** attempt) + random.uniform(0, 1)
                print(f"Rate limited. Waiting {wait:.1f}s...")
                time.sleep(wait)
            else:
                raise

Grok in X (Twitter): When the Chat Button Disappears

X Premium and Premium+ subscribers get access to Grok directly in the X sidebar. If the Grok icon disappears or shows errors:

1. Check X subscription status at x.com/settings/subscription — Grok requires X Premium or higher.
2. Check status.x.com — X platform issues can break the Grok integration even if xAI's backend is fine.
3. Try the standalone app at grok.x.ai — if this works, the issue is X's UI, not xAI's servers.
4. Clear browser cache/cookies for x.com — stale session tokens cause Grok to 401.
5. Check for X app updates — mobile app caches sometimes serve old UI that breaks after xAI changes.

Available Grok Models (2026)

Model availability can degrade independently. If grok-2-latest is failing, try grok-2 with a specific version tag.

Historical Reliability

xAI launched its public API in late 2024. Being a newer provider, it has experienced occasional capacity-related degradations during high-demand periods (major news events, product launches). The X integration is generally more stable than API tier access, as xAI prioritizes capacity for Premium subscribers.

Monitor Grok availability continuously with ezmon.com — free uptime monitoring for xAI API and grok.x.ai.