Groq API key setup

Get your key

1. Open the Groq API keys page: console.groq.com/keys
2. Create an account and generate an API key.
3. Paste it into the Dracon BYOK provider keys, stored encrypted (AES-256-GCM), used browser-direct, works in every Dracon tool.

Get the key and test it

1. Open the Groq API keys page: console.groq.com/keys Create a key and copy the secret straight away.
2. Point your client at this provider's base URL: https://api.groq.com/openai/v1 It speaks the OpenAI-compatible shape, so an OpenAI SDK client works against it with no adapter: only the base URL and the key change.
3. Prove the endpoint answers before you trust it. Send one call with no Authorization header: a live endpoint answers 401 Unauthorized, because it is waiting for a bearer key. The wording of that error differs by provider (some say invalid_api_key, others incorrect_api_key or Token is invalid), so read the 401 as the signal, not the error text.
4. Paste the key into the Dracon BYOK provider keys ; stored encrypted, used browser-direct, no relay.
5. Compare other provider plans when this subscription does not match your usage or budget.

Test the key

Both examples read the key from the GROQ_API_KEY environment variable, so the key stays out of the command line.

export GROQ_API_KEY="<YOUR_API_KEY>"

curl https://api.groq.com/openai/v1/chat/completions \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $GROQ_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"model":"llama-3.3-70b-versatile","messages":[{"role":"user","content":"hi"}]}'

import os
from openai import OpenAI

# export GROQ_API_KEY="<YOUR_API_KEY>" first
client = OpenAI(
    api_key=os.environ["GROQ_API_KEY"],
    base_url="https://api.groq.com/openai/v1",
)
resp = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="llama-3.3-70b-versatile",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "hi"}],
)
print(resp.choices[0].message.content)

Free tier

Yes. Free Plan with per-model rate limits and no credit card (rate-limits docs, checked 2026-10-27). no credit card required

Rate limits: Free Plan Limits table (e.g. 30 RPM with up to 14.4K RPD); Developer plan higher; 429s carry retry-after.

Paid plans compared

Every tier Groq publishes, with the price and the limit as the vendor states them, last checked 2026-10-27. Confirm with the provider before you buy. You pay them directly, no Dracon markup.

Official plan source: console.groq.com

Connection details

Base URL

https://api.groq.com/openai/v1

API shape

OpenAI-compatible

Env var

GROQ_API_KEY

Models

llama-3.3-70b-versatile, llama-3.1-8b-instant, openai/gpt-oss-120b

Model lineup

Llama 3.3 70B, Llama 4 Scout, Llama 4 Maverick, Kimi K2, Mixtral 8x7B, Qwen 2.5 72B, Gemma 2 9B

Our verdicts on this kind of provider

Independent comparisons we keep current as pricing and free tiers shift. A guide is setup; a verdict is whether it's worth setting up.

• 22 of the 45 AI providers have a free tier. Only 7 are actually useful.
• Free AI rate limits, compared: which free tiers can do real work
• The AI price war: who cut what in July 2026