How to get an xAI API key.

Sign up at console.x.ai. Everything in the console belongs to a team, and keys, credits, and usage are all scoped to the team you have selected. If you belong to more than one, check the team picker before you do anything else.

• Open API Keys in the console sidebar and create a key. Copy it into a password manager; treat it like a password, not like a setting.
• The same page manages the key later. The three-dot menu on a row can disable a key temporarily or delete it permanently, which is what you want the moment one leaks.
• xAI participates in GitHub's secret scanning, so a key pushed to a public repository gets disabled and you get an email. Convenient, but not a plan.

xAI runs on prepaid credits by default. Buy them under Billing, then API spend management. Monthly invoiced billing exists but is off unless you arrange it with xAI, and while the invoiced billing limit sits at its $0 default your API requests are simply rejected once the credit balance hits zero. Card purchases land immediately; a bank transfer takes two to three business days. xAI's billing guide →

Auto top-up is worth switching on for production work. You set the balance that triggers it and the amount to buy, from $25 per top-up, plus a monthly ceiling. The console warns you at 80% of that ceiling.

• In Photoshop, open the Creator MAX panel and click the gear icon (top-right of the plugin), then Manage API keys.
• Paste the key into the xAI field and hit Save. Creator MAX checks it against xAI's models endpoint, so a bad key tells you immediately instead of failing on your first generation.
• Out of the box the panel shows Google only. Open Manage models and switch xAI on, or the Grok tiers will not appear in the picker.
• The Remove key link replaces the input once a key is stored, so you can swap or wipe it anytime.

xAI bills you directly for every generation. We never touch the transaction, never mark it up, and never add a Bielfor rate limit. Unlike the other two providers, Grok image pricing is flat per image rather than metered per token:

• Grok Imagine Image Quality (grok-imagine-image-quality): $0.05 per image
• Grok Imagine Image (grok-imagine-image): $0.02 per image
• A request blocked by xAI's usage guidelines before generation still costs a $0.05 fee

That makes the Standard tier the cheapest way to iterate anywhere in the Creator MAX lineup, which is exactly what it is there for. Exact current numbers on xAI's pricing page.

No. The key is stored in Photoshop's secure preferences on your machine and used only by your local plugin instance to call xAI. No key, prompt, or image ever passes through a Bielfor server.

xAI states that it does not train on API inputs or outputs without explicit permission, and that requests and responses are stored encrypted for 30 days for abuse auditing before automatic deletion. Teams with stricter requirements can enable Zero Data Retention, though it changes how image results come back and disables several stored-data features, so read what it turns off first: xAI's data and privacy FAQ →

• A 401 or unauthorized error usually means the key was created on a different team than the one you think you are billing. Check the team picker, then the key.
• Requests that stop working with credit still showing are worth checking against the correct team's balance, since credits are per team.
• A 429 is a rate limit rather than a billing problem. The image models allow a few requests per second, so a large batch fired at once will throttle.
• xAI's error reference →

One key is enough to start, and you can add the others later. How to get a Gemini API key covers Google's Nano Banana models, and how to get an OpenAI API key covers GPT Image 2.

Email support@bielfor.com with a screenshot of the error and we'll unblock you, usually same day.