Elon Musk’s company X (formerly Twitter) has introduced a free version of its AI chatbot, Grok, to expand its user base; previously available only to premium subscribers, it now allows non-premium users to engage with the chatbot under certain limits.
On Friday, the company announced that free-tier subscribers can send up to 10 messages to Grok every two hours. This tier also allows limited interaction with image-related features, letting users analyze up to three images and create four new ones daily.
For those subscribed to X’s Premium services, priced at $7 for Premium and $14 for Premium+, the chatbot offers a broader scope, allowing up to 50 daily queries. Users must link their X account, which needs to be at least seven days old, to a phone number to utilize the free-tier chatbot.
Grok’s Development and Features
Originally launched in 2023 by Musk’s AI firm, xAI, as a “humorous AI assistant,” Grok initially became available exclusively to X Premium subscribers. In August, xAI updated the chatbot to include a text-to-image generation feature, which quickly drew attention to producing controversial images. By September, xAI had begun testing a free version in select areas, an offering they have now expanded with this latest update.
Read: Elon Musk’s xAI Aims for $1 Billion to Rival OpenAI’s ChatGPT
Beyond casual interactions, Grok can support research, coding, and even business customer service automation. While xAI has kept actual user figures confidential, unofficial estimates suggest Grok’s user base might number in the millions, with potential growth thanks to the new free tier.
This rollout positions xAI to compete with major free AI chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Microsoft’s Copilot, and Anthropic’s Claude. These platforms have carved out substantial market shares, with OpenAI and Meta’s bots boasting millions of active users.
Substantial market shares characterize the AI industry, with OpenAI and Meta’s bots boasting millions of active users.
Founded in 2023 and valued at $50 billion, xAI, Elon Musk’s AI venture, accesses vast amounts of data from X and visual data from Tesla’s car cameras. The company also leverages significant computational resources, including a supercomputer in Memphis, Tennessee, which it plans to expand to enhance AI training capabilities.
