WebSocket Responses API Mode
WebSocket Responses API mode is now available. Drive the Responses API over a single, long-lived WebSocket connection for lower end-to-end latency on tool-heavy agent workloads.
xAI changelog: May 2026
8 releases from to
Everything xAI shipped in May 2026, collected from official xAI sources. Each entry is dated and links to the page it came from.
May 2026 at a glance
May 2026 was xAI's busiest month of the 12 months to then: 8 releases, about 2.4× its monthly average of 3. That was 3 releases more than April 2026. Most were API (3), followed by Model (2) and Product (2).
Releases
8
+3 vs April 2026
Rank of 12 months
1st
Average 3.3 a month
Most shipped
API
3 releases
Notable xAI launches in May 2026
- Model
Grok Build 0.1
SpaceXSI's coding model, trained specifically for agentic coding workflows. Currently in early access. The model slug is grok-build-0.1.
Source: xAI Release Notes - Model
Grok Build 0.1
SpaceXAI's coding model, trained specifically for agentic coding workflows. Currently in early access. The model slug is grok-build-0.1 .
Source: xAI Release Notes - Product
Image Search in Web Search
Web Search now supports explicitly searching for images. Enable enable_image_search to let Grok search directly for relevant images; responses can include returned images as Markdown image embeds.
Source: xAI Release Notes
All xAI releases in May 2026
Newest first. Each entry links to the official page it came from.
May 20268 releases
Smart Turn for Streaming STT
The streaming Speech to Text API now supports Smart Turn end-of-turn detection. When enabled via the smart_turn query parameter, an ML model predicts whether the speaker has finished their thought at silence boundaries - reducing false endpointing during dictation, number sequen…
Grok Build 0.1
SpaceXSI's coding model, trained specifically for agentic coding workflows. Currently in early access. The model slug is grok-build-0.1.
Context Compaction API
The Context Compaction API is now available. You can shrink long conversations into a shorter context and reuse it in follow-up requests for lower cost, faster time-to-first-token, and sharper responses on long agent loops.
Image Search in Web Search
Web Search now supports explicitly searching for images. Enable enable_image_search to let Grok search directly for relevant images; responses can include returned images as Markdown image embeds.
Grok Build 0.1
SpaceXAI's coding model, trained specifically for agentic coding workflows. Currently in early access. The model slug is grok-build-0.1 .
Grok Build
Grok Build is now available in beta. Use the interactive TUI, run headlessly in scripts, or build apps and orchestrators with the Agent Client Protocol. Install with a single command: Bash curl -fsSL https://x.ai/cli/install.sh | bash
Custom Voices
You can now clone a voice from a short audio clip and use it across the Text-to-Speech and Speech to Speech APIs. Create and manage your voice catalog from the xAI console.
Where May 2026 sits
xAI releases per month, for May 2026 and the 11 months before it. A taller bar means more releases that month; the dated entries for each month are on its own page.
Other companies in May 2026
14 of the companies we track shipped in May 2026; xAI ranks 4th by number of releases.
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