How to Build AI Agents Using Grok API

You don't need technical expertise to create AI chatbots

The API for the Grok model is finally here, and it comes with a nice bonus: $25 in free credits! Let's explore the AI from Elon Musk’s startup and determine which practical scenarios it will be useful in. As a test project, we'll create an AI travel agent with a guide so you can implement your solution without advanced skills.

Let's go.

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xAI API with Free Credits

While Grok is primarily known for its scandalous positioning (Musk has made no secret that his chatbot acts as a counterweight to ChatGPT, Gemini, and others), it's actually one of the best models on the market. According to several independent benchmarks, Grok is on the same level as GPT-4, Claude 3, and Llama 3.1. In some cases, the xAI model even outperformed the competition.

Starting this month, developers can see for themselves (well, or disprove it). xAI has launched a public beta program through the end of 2024, during which users get $25 of free API credits monthly.

Keep in mind that the offer only lasts two months, so it's worth trying it soon.

Only one model, called grok-beta, is available as part of the public beta. It has a context length of 128,000 tokens and supports function calls and system hints. In the near future, xAI plans to publish more information, as well as open access to a multimodal version that will handle not only text but also images. It's called Vision.

xAI also noted that their Rest API is compatible with those offered by OpenAI and Anthropic. This makes it easy to migrate. If you're currently using the OpenAI Python SDK, you can start using Grok by simply changing the base_url to https://api.x.ai/v1 and using the xAI API key you created on the company's website.

By the way, as far as prices are concerned, Grok-beta is not the cheapest. To be more precise, the most expensive. Here is a comparison with the most popular models.

• Grok-beta — input: $38.15 (per 1M); output: $114.44 (per 1M)

• GPT-4o — input: $2.5 (per 1M); output: $10 (per 1M)

• Claude 3 Opus —  input: $15 (per 1M); output: $75 (per 1M)

• Gemini Pro — input: $0.33 (per 1M); output: $0.33 (per 1M)

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However, Grok has already shown that it can engage in human-like text interactions by providing answers, insights, or dialogue. Its essential feature is that this AI utilizes X posts for up-to-date information. Since users on X discuss all the latest news and share their personal experiences, Grok is a reasonable basis for real-world projects.

So, as soon as the xAI API became publicly available, creators rushed to test how it handles building AI agents, websites, and apps. And we're no exception. Here's a guide to help you set up an AI travel agent using the Grok API and Replit. I'll break down each step so you can follow it, even without a technical background.

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How to Build Your AI Agent Using Grok