grok-imagine-image-quality retires Nov 2: what about quality?

On November 2, 2026, xAI retires the grok-imagine-image-quality slug and serves requests to it with grok-imagine-image-2.0 at quality: low, with no change to the request or response shape. On Sume there is no quality slug to migrate: Grok Imagine is the single id x-ai/grok-image, and it advertises no quality parameter.

Vendor facts are from xAI's release notes and image guide; Sume facts from the Image API docs and catalog code. All read 2026-09-30.

What did xAI change?

Two notes matter. The September 2 note sets the retirement. The August 28 note says quality on grok-imagine-image-2.0 now accepts auto, that omitting it now means auto instead of medium, and that images are billed at the quality they are served at.

Does Sume's Grok id accept quality?

No. The router only publishes a quality descriptor when the catalog lists qualities for that model, and its public quality table covers GPT Image and Ideogram, not Grok. The docs say a parameter the model does not list is rejected with 400 unsupported_parameter instead of being dropped, so a request that carries quality to x-ai/grok-image fails rather than silently picking a tier. See the 400 rule.

What should I change in my requests?

If you call xAI directly with the retiring slug, switch the model to grok-imagine-image-2.0 and set quality yourself; low matches what the slug will become. If you call Sume, remove quality from the body and read the endpoint's supported_parameters for what the id accepts. The Sume id, ratios and edit limits are in Grok Imagine on Sume.

How is a Sume Grok image billed?

Per image, as one flat price line, and only when the generation completes; the docs say failed or cancelled generations are not billed. Read the current figure from the catalog entry rather than from a post.