Groq

Groq provides ultra-fast inference on open-weight models (Llama, Gemma, Kimi, Qwen, GPT OSS, and more) using custom LPU hardware. OpenClaw includes a bundled Groq plugin that registers both an OpenAI-compatible chat provider and an audio media-understanding provider.

Property	Value
Provider id	`groq`
Plugin	bundled, `enabledByDefault: true`
Auth env var	`GROQ_API_KEY`
Onboarding flag	`--auth-choice groq-api-key`
API	OpenAI-compatible (`openai-completions`)
Base URL	`https://api.groq.com/openai/v1`
Audio transcription	`whisper-large-v3-turbo` (default)
Suggested chat default	`groq/llama-3.3-70b-versatile`

Getting started

Get an API key
Create an API key at console.groq.com/keys.

Set the API key

openclaw onboard --auth-choice groq-api-key

export GROQ_API_KEY=gsk_...

Set a default model

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      model: { primary: "groq/llama-3.3-70b-versatile" },
    },
  },
}

Verify the catalog is reachable
Terminal window
```
openclaw models list --provider groq
```

Config file example

{
  env: { GROQ_API_KEY: "gsk_..." },
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      model: { primary: "groq/llama-3.3-70b-versatile" },
    },
  },
}

Built-in catalog

OpenClaw ships a manifest-backed Groq catalog with both reasoning and non-reasoning entries. Run openclaw models list --provider groq to see the bundled rows for your installed version, or check console.groq.com/docs/models for Groq’s authoritative list.

Model ref	Name	Reasoning	Input	Context
`groq/llama-3.3-70b-versatile`	Llama 3.3 70B Versatile	no	text	131,072
`groq/llama-3.1-8b-instant`	Llama 3.1 8B Instant	no	text	131,072
`groq/meta-llama/llama-4-scout-17b-16e-instruct`	Llama 4 Scout 17B	no	text + image	131,072
`groq/openai/gpt-oss-120b`	GPT OSS 120B	yes	text	131,072
`groq/openai/gpt-oss-20b`	GPT OSS 20B	yes	text	131,072
`groq/openai/gpt-oss-safeguard-20b`	Safety GPT OSS 20B	yes	text	131,072
`groq/qwen/qwen3-32b`	Qwen3 32B	yes	text	131,072
`groq/groq/compound`	Compound	yes	text	131,072
`groq/groq/compound-mini`	Compound Mini	yes	text	131,072

Reasoning models

OpenClaw maps its shared /think levels to Groq’s model-specific reasoning_effort values:

For qwen/qwen3-32b, disabled thinking sends none and enabled thinking sends default.
For Groq GPT OSS reasoning models (openai/gpt-oss-*), OpenClaw sends low, medium, or high based on /think level. Disabled thinking omits reasoning_effort because those models do not support a disabled value.
DeepSeek R1 Distill, Qwen QwQ, and Compound use Groq’s native reasoning surface; /think controls visibility but the model always reasons.

See Thinking modes for the shared /think levels and how OpenClaw translates them per provider.

Audio transcription

Groq’s bundled plugin also registers an audio media-understanding provider so voice messages can be transcribed through the shared tools.media.audio surface.

Property	Value
Shared config path	`tools.media.audio`
Default base URL	`https://api.groq.com/openai/v1`
Default model	`whisper-large-v3-turbo`
Auto priority	20
API endpoint	OpenAI-compatible `/audio/transcriptions`

To make Groq the default audio backend:

{
  tools: {
    media: {
      audio: {
        models: [{ provider: "groq" }],
      },
    },
  },
}

Environment availability for the daemon

If the Gateway runs as a managed service (launchd, systemd, Docker), GROQ_API_KEY must be visible to that process — not just to your interactive shell.

Custom Groq model ids

OpenClaw accepts any Groq model id at runtime. Use the exact id shown by Groq and prefix it with groq/. The bundled catalog covers the common cases; uncatalogued ids fall through to the default OpenAI-compatible template.

{
  agents: {
    defaults: {
      model: { primary: "groq/

” }, }, }, } ```

Model providers

Choosing providers, model refs, and failover behavior.

Thinking modes

Reasoning effort levels and provider-policy interaction.

Configuration reference

Full config schema including provider and audio settings.

Groq Console

Groq dashboard, API docs, and pricing.