xAI retired 8 Grok models on May 15 — the slugs still resolve, so your bill and output quality changed silently
xAI silently retired eight Grok model slugs on May 15, 2026, without requiring code changes from users. This change redirects requests to different, more expensive models and alters reasoning capabilities without explicit error signals. The silent nature of this deprecation means that cost attribution dashboards may become inaccurate, and applications relying on specific model behaviors could experience degraded performance or unexpected cost increases. AI
IMPACT Developers face silent cost increases and potential performance degradation due to opaque model deprecations, necessitating robust monitoring and configuration management.