Grok AI chatbot, developed by Elon Musk’s xAI was launched last year as a ‘humorous AI assistant’.
The news comes nearly a month after media reports claimed that Musk-owned X was testing Grok AI’s free version in some regions.
During its launch in 2023, Grok AI was available to only premium users of X. This made it one of the only AI chatbots that hid behind a paywall, unlike its peers including OpenAI ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, and Anthropic’s Claude.
Users previously had to purchase a premium subscription of X to access Grok AI. While xAI has not released an official statement yet, users across the microblogging platform have claimed that they could access Grok for free.
However, the free version of the Grok AI chatbot comes with a few restrictions. According to the chatbot’s guidelines, free users can ask up to 10 questions every two hours. The use of the chatbot is also limited to three image analyses and four image generations per day.
Premium users of X, who pay $7 and $14 per month for different plans, still enjoy better access. They can ask up to 50 questions a day.
Users can only access Grok if they have an X account that is older than 7 days and is linked to a verified phone number.
Several X users were excited as soon as Grok AI access was made free and confirmed the access to the chatbot.
“Grok is now free (with usage limits) for all X users. Tried it just now. Loved the attitude, panache, and some sass instead of merely saas… Awaiting the full-scale deployment of Grok-3 multimodal. Only,” a user said, posting his conversation with the AI.
Grok is now free (with usage limitgs) for *all* X users. Tried it just now. Loved the attitude, panache, some sass instead of merely saas… Awaiting the full scale deployment of Grok-3 multimodal. Only. pic.twitter.com/fwSKqg12z6
— SudhirVoleti (@Sudhir_Voleti) December 7, 2024
Another user posted, “Grok is now FREE in most regions! You can ask up to 10 questions per 2 hours unless you subscribe to X Premium! Is the free GROK available in your region?”
GROK is now FREE in most regions!
You can ask for up to 10 questions per 2 hours unless you subscribe to X Premium!Is the free GROK available in your region? pic.twitter.com/RsJC9uMScq
— Nima Owji (@nima_owji) December 6, 2024
Grok vs ChatGPT
Making Grok AI free has opened up competition between the chatbot and its peers like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini.
While both of them are conversational AIs, ChatGPT 4, the latest version, allows users to ask 10 questions every five hours. In comparison, free Grok users can ask 10 questions to the chatbot every two hours.
While the conversation style of ChatGPT is mostly formal, Grok AI is more leaned towards an informal conversation style as pointed out by users.
Many users have also claimed that Grok answers questions that ChatGPT doesn’t. Moreover, ChatGPT has mostly pre-trained data, while Grok can access real-time data.
