How do I check my Grok (xAI) API usage and credits?

Last updated: 26 September 2026 · Deutsch

Where you see your usage

In the xAI Console, open the Usage Explorer. It shows your API spend in US dollars, or tokens if you switch, and lets you group and filter by API key, model and more.

• Dimension. Cost in US dollars is the default. You can switch to tokens or to billing item counts.
• Granularity. For example daily.
• Group by and filters. Split or narrow the chart by API key, model, request IP, cluster or token type.

xAI describes the Usage Explorer as a tool for team admins. If you cannot open it, ask the admin of your team. xAI’s page does not say how fresh the figures are or whether you can export them.

One detail when you compare counts: xAI notes that its endpoints add some tokens of their own to each request. Your prompt can therefore cost more tokens than a tokenizer shows.

Where you see your credits

Go to Billing → API spend management in the xAI Console. It shows your prepaid credit balance, and you can buy credits or apply a promo code there.

• Paying. Credits are charged at once. A bank transfer takes two to three business days.
• Auto top-up. You set the balance that triggers a top-up, the amount to buy (at least $5), and the most that may be topped up per month.
• Warning. The API spend management card warns you once you have used 80 per cent of the monthly limit you set.

The billing pages say nothing about refunds or about credits expiring.

Prepaid credits or a monthly invoice

xAI knows two ways to pay for the API. Prepaid credits are the standard. Monthly invoiced billing is off by default; you ask for it at sales@x.ai or through the contact link on the Billing page.

With the default invoiced billing limit of $0, xAI rejects your API requests once your prepaid credits are used up. Further use only goes on a monthly invoice if xAI has turned on invoiced billing for you and you have raised that limit.

• Order. Prepaid credits are always used first. Only then does use count toward the invoice.
• The limit. You raise it under Billing → API Credits, as xAI’s docs name the page. Once your invoice reaches it, requests stop until you raise it again.
• Invoices. Under Billing → Invoices. xAI says it cannot regenerate invoices at the moment, so check your billing address and tax details first.

This limit does not cap your prepaid use. To use only prepaid credits, xAI says to keep the limit at $0.

Through the Management API

xAI also offers these figures to scripts. You need a management key, which is separate from your API key: xAI Console → Settings → Management Keys. Your account needs the Management Keys read and write permission; if it lacks it, your team admin can grant it. The base address is management-api.x.ai.

The billing endpoints that read figures, each for one team:

• GET …/prepaid/balance — the prepaid balance and its changes.
• GET …/postpaid/spending-limits — the monthly limit for invoiced use.
• GET …/postpaid/invoice/preview — what you owe so far for invoiced use this period.
• POST …/usage — past usage over a time span, grouped by fields you choose.

The full paths start with /v1/billing/teams/{team_id}. Other endpoints change things, such as the limit or a top-up; treat a management key like a password.

Subscription or API

Does a SuperGrok or X Premium plan come with API credits? xAI’s docs do not say so. API credits are a separate product, bought and billed in the xAI Console. A Grok subscription is managed on grok.com, or by X if you pay through X Premium.

Your subscription use has its own page: in the Grok app or on the web, Settings → Usage. It shows a bar with your share used this week, a split by product and the time of the weekly reset. That split lists “API” as one product; xAI’s FAQ does not explain what counts there, so don’t read it as your console balance.

xAI’s FAQ adds a point worth knowing: a large invoice you don’t recognise is often a yearly SuperGrok Heavy plan, not API use.

In AI Cockpit

The Grok card sits in the Mac menu bar and in the app on iPhone and iPad. Apple Watch shows it as one row in its list of services, sent over by the iPhone app. The card needs the management key from the xAI Console, not the usual xai- key; the app finds your team on its own.

• Your available credit in US dollars. The short summary turns to a warning at zero.
• If a limit for invoiced use applies: a bar with the share used and the limit itself. The bar uses the same warning colours as other limits, by default at 75 and 90 per cent on the Mac, at 80 and 95 on iPhone and Apple Watch. On the Mac you can also pick it as the figure in the menu bar.
• If xAI only reports an automatic cap, the card shows that amount as a plain figure, without a bar.
• On the Mac, with sparklines turned on in Settings, a curve of your balance over time.
• It checks every 15 minutes by default; you can set 5 to 60 minutes.

What it does not do: show spend per model, tokens or a monthly total, or buy credits. The card says so itself: use per model is only in the console. For the same reason, Grok is left out of the app’s monthly sum of plan and API costs.

How AI Cockpit reads costs from the other API services is in AI API costs at a glance; for OpenAI there is How much is the OpenAI API costing me this month?. Short answers to other questions are on the FAQ page.