Getting-started guide
Absurdly fast answers from open AI models — try it in a browser before writing any code.
Last reviewed 2026-09-07 · for Groq
You open Groq's console in a browser, pick a model (the AI "brain" that does the actual thinking) from a dropdown, and type a question into a chat box. The answer arrives about as fast as the page loaded. Swap the model, ask again.
First, the name. Groq is not Grok. Grok is xAI's chatbot, the one on X. Groq makes computer chips and sells fast AI hosting to developers.
It didn't build the models it offers; it runs open ones from other labs on its own machines. Most AI services use GPUs, chips designed for video game graphics — Groq built its own chip for language models, which is why words arrive at page-load speed. You're renting speed, not intelligence.
Infrastructure, not a finished product. No app, no memory of past chats — the console is a testing bench for people building things, still worth twenty minutes of yours to feel what speed does to a tool.
Free and genuinely free — an email or Google account, no card, nothing to install. Start in the playground rather than with a key — though Groq's docs never quite say the playground runs without one, so you may need to make a key once you are signed in.
The free plan gives you nothing to spend. It caps how often you can ask. It counts requests and tokens (chunks of text, roughly three-quarters of a word) per minute and per day; hit a cap and requests fail until it resets. Caps cover your whole organisation, not each key, and only the limits page in your console settings is current — published numbers change.
You probably won't pay. Usage beyond that is currently priced per million tokens, cents rather than dollars for the smaller models — check the pricing page. You'd upgrade for real users hitting the caps, for batch or flex processing, or for the spend cap under Settings, Billing, Limits, which is paid-plan only.
What you type runs on Groq's servers. Groq's documentation says it doesn't retain customer data from the requests you send, but that inputs and outputs may be logged temporarily — currently up to 30 days — for troubleshooting and abuse investigation. Data Controls has a zero-data-retention setting that switches that off, at the cost of features needing stored data.
Explain what an API key is to someone who has never written code, in about four sentences.
Why this one: You're not judging the answer, you're calibrating what fast means — the one thing Groq's own chip buys you, and the one thing a screenshot can't show. Ask for 500 words and you watch a stream rather than a burst.
List every number between 40 and 80 that divides by 3 and whose digits add up to more than 10, and show your reasoning.
Why this one: The catalogue runs from very small and fast to larger and slower, and switching is a dropdown, not a new account. The small ones sometimes get this wrong; the larger ones take longer and usually don't.
Tweak: Groq sells speed, so look for a tokens-per-second readout beside each reply — that number, not the answer, is what you came to compare.
Want the full picture first? See the Groq overview for pricing, the free tier and related tools.
