X Tests Free Version of Grok AI Chatbot with Limited Access

Elon Musk's X Is Letting Some Users Try Grok AI for Free

(Credit: SOPA Images/Contributor/ LightRocket via Getty Images) X is reportedly testing a free version of its Grok AI chatbot. Grok is currently limited to X Premium users, but the company is now testing a non-premium version of Grok in New Zealand, TechCrunch reports. According to an X user named Swak, an account must be at least seven days old and have a linked phone number to use the free Grok. Additionally, testers are allowed to ask the Grok-2 model 10 questions every two hours and the Grok-2 mini model 20 questions every two hours. They can also "analyze up to 3 images per day," says Swak. At launch, xAI's Grok-2 model had outperformed competitor models such as OpenAI's GPT 4o-mini, Claude's 3.5 Sonnet, Google's Gemini Advanced, and Meta's Llama 3.1, according to a rating system run by the University of California, Berkeley. Like other chatbots, however, Grok has also had issues with providing false information. X's new free offering comes amid reports that alternatives like Bluesky and Threads are picking up users who have dropped the Elon Musk-owned social network.

X is testing a free version of AI chatbot Grok

Social network X has so far limited its AI chatbot Grok (built by Elon Musk's other company xAI) to its premium, paying users. However, the platform is seemingly preparing to open up the chatbot to free users. Over the weekend, several app researchers and users posted about a free version of Grok being made available to people in certain regions. TechCrunch was able to confirm that X is at least testing access to Grok for free users in New Zealand. According to a researcher who goes by Swak on X, there are limits on the usage for now: 10 queries per two hours with the Grok-2 model, 20 queries per two hours with the Grok-2 mini model, and three image analysis questions per day. To use Grok for free, your account should be at least seven days old and have a phone number linked to it. xAI launched Grok-2 in August with image generation capacities, backed by Black Forest Labs' FLUX.1 model. Late last month, the company also gave the model the ability to understand images. All these features were available only to Premium and Premium+ users until now. By opening up Grok to free users, xAI is possibly looking for a more significant userbase and faster feedback cycle for its products, so that it can better compete with other models on the market like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.

X is testing a free version of its Grok AI chatbot that doesn't need a blue-tick subscription

Over the weekend various users of X noticed that they were being offered a free-tier version of Grok, X's AI chatbot, to try. The free version comes with some limitations, however. So far Grok has only been available on subscription, an approach that's markedly different from other AI generators like OpenAI's ChatGPT, Meta's MetaAI and Google Gemini, which offer a free tier that has fewer features than the paid-for version. Similarly, Apple Intelligence is still yet to roll out completely, but will remain free for its first few years at least. X user @lohansimpson posted a screenshot of the Grok invite and wrote, "Free Grok is coming(With limits)! It will be limited locations at first". Screenshots of the invitation to try Grok contain the text, "A free tier of Grok is now available in your region. Chat, generate images and analyze photos. Limits apply." According to a researcher on X who has the user name swak, users on the Grok free tier will be limited to 10 Grok 2 questions every two hours and 20 Grok 2 mini questions every two hours. Grok 2 and Grok 2 mini are different LLMs that X offers. You will also be restricted to analyzing up to three images a day. It's not all good news for X users, because if those are the limitations on the free tier of Grok then it will be much more restricted than its competitors, like MetaAI. Grok raised a lot of eyebrows, and quite a few questions, when Grok 2 was released in August this year containing the Flux image generator which had very few restrictions on its image-generation capabilities compared to other AI image generators. While most AI image generators will stop short of letting you create images of politicians, celebrities, and copyrighted characters, like Superman or Iron Man, Grok seemed to be happy to let you create these type of images with abandon. It's not clear if the free version of Grok will have the same unrestricted access to the Flux image generator as the subscription service X currently offers, but a move to offer Grok to the wider X user base for free could dramatically increase the number of Grok users almost overnight, turning it into a real competitor to ChatGPT, Meta AI and Google Gemini.

You Might Soon Get to Use Grok AI on X for Free

X (formerly known as Twitter) is said to be testing a free version of the platform's native artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Grok, several users posted. On Sunday, some users claimed to have received access to Grok despite not being a paid subscriber on X. There are some limitations to the free tier of the chatbot, as per the users, and its availability is said to be limited to certain regions. Notably, the development comes just a week after xAI released the Grok API and announced several incentives for developers to use it. Several X users including app researchers and AI enthusiasts posted on the platform that the social media company is testing a free version of the chatbot, allowing even those who have not purchased the X Premium subscription to access it. Notably, Grok was released in November 2023, and so far, it has only been limited to the platform's subscribers. In a report, TechCrunch confirmed that X is testing the free tier of Grok in New Zealand, however, other regions might also have access to the chatbot. Gadgets 360 staff members were not able to verify the existence of the test. The AI bot also appears to not be available in India. Apart from the free version, Grok is also said to be getting a new logo. The current "Grok" word logo is said to be replaced with a socket-like logo. One of the X users also detailed several limitations for the free version. According to a reply to another comment, Grok will only be available to accounts that are at least seven days old and have a phone number linked to it. Currently, non-subscribers are said to get 10 Grok 2 questions every two hours, and 20 Grok 2 mini questions in the same duration. Further, the free tier of the chatbot can also analyse up to three images per day. Separately, xAI, the company behind Grok, rolled out a Grok API last week. The company also announced several incentives for developers to try out the API such as free credits worth $25 (roughly Rs. 2,100) per month till the end of the year. Additionally, all the developers who have already purchased prepaid credits for the API were given free credits worth the same amount every month till the end of 2024.

xAI's Grok-2 might be available for free on X soon

Elon Musk's xAI launched its AI chatbot, Grok, at the end of 2023 and it has remained exclusively available to X (formerly Twitter) premium users since. Now, one year later, Grok is seemingly coming to free X users in select areas, TechCrunch reports. The news comes from multiple reports on X by researchers and users who spotted updates to Grok. According to X user Swak, there are stipulations to who can access Grok for free and how much they can use it. For starters, accounts need to be at least seven days old and have a phone number attached to them. Free users are also reportedly limited by how many things they can do in two hours. They can ask the Grok-2 model 10 questions and the Grok-2 mini model 20 questions within that time frame. Furthermore, free users only get three image analyses each day. The Grok-2 and the Grok-2 mini models are relatively new, releasing late summer of this year. Grok-2 is xAI's most advanced AI chatbot to date and pulls real-time information right from X, while the company claims the mini version "offers a balance between speed and answer quality."

Elon Musk's X Appears to Be Making Grok AI Free for Some Users

The supposedly free speech-forward chatbot has been limited to paying X users thus far. It appears that X, formerly Twitter, is making its AI chatbot Grok free to some users. The product has been limited to Premium users thus far, but TechCrunch reports that some users began sharing that they had gained free access over the weekend. TechCrunch was able to access the free version of Grok by visiting X through a New Zealand-registered account. Copy on the site reads, "A free tier of Grok is now available in your region. Chat, generate images, and analyze photos. Limits apply." New Zealand is a common place for social networks to test new products before rolling them out more widely. According to a security researcher on X, accounts need to be at least seven days old and have a linked phone number to be eligible to use the free tier of Grok. That makes sense because chatbots are resource-intensive, and X already has a significant problem with bots flooding the platform with AI slop. They need to put some guardrails up to prevent costs from spiraling. To that end, free users of Grok will be limited to asking ten questions every two hours on the Grok 2 model, or twenty questions using the Grok 2 mini model. Free users are also limited to analyzing up to three images per day. It's unclear at this point if a free tier of Grok will be made available to users in the United States. Grok is technically developed by xAI, another in Elon Musk's orbit of companies. Its model, which Musk says is supposed to be the most free speech-forward of all the major models, is trained using content from X, a unique benefit that allows the model access to near real-time information. It's a benefit at least if you believe in Musk's ideas of citizen journalism being the "real" source of truth in the world. Of course, while information moves fast on X, a lot of that information that gets disseminated is false or misleading before it's corrected by mainstream outlets or X's own Community Notes, and those corrections often do not get as much distribution as the original falsehood. Grok, like any other chatbot, also just gets things wrong often by the nature of being a chatbot. xAI is pretty much Musk's sole hope in getting a return from his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter. While Fidelity values X at a pitiful $9 billion, down 79% since the purchase, xAI has already raised $6 billion and is raising billions more in fresh capital atâ€"yes, this is trueâ€"a $45 billion valuation. Investors who put money into Musk's purchase of Twitter have been given access to the xAI fundraise essentially as another chance to get their money back. Musk has been brute-forcing his way into the AI race partly out of vengeance for getting kicked out of OpenAI. Typical of his ventures, xAI has already made noise for quickly building what is apparently the world's largest AI supercomputer in Memphis, much to the consternation of locals. But hey, Grok can make you an image of Mario flying into the Twin Towers. The other chatbots won't let you do that.

X Testing Free Version of Grok AI for Users With Updated Logo and Regional Access

This development aligns with X's recent moves to bring its AI technology to more users X (formerly known as Twitter) is testing a free version of its AI chatbot, Grok, making the platform's native artificial intelligence accessible to a broader audience. Over the weekend, several users shared that they had received access to Grok despite not being X Premium subscribers, suggesting that the platform may be experimenting with limited access to non-paying users. This development aligns with X's recent moves to bring its AI technology to more users and demonstrates the company's interest in expanding its AI capabilities. Originally, Grok was available only to those users who upgraded their X to the X Premium version after its launch in November 2023. Now, selected users in some areas, especially New Zealand, are said to have access to the free tier of the chatbot. According to these early users, the free version offers a limited number of interactions: In a two-hour and 20-minute period, users can ask Grok ten standard questions and twenty mini-questions. It also enables users who are not subscribers to perform up to three analyses of images per day making it useful for those who want a dialed-down version of the chatbot equivalent to the trial level. Nevertheless, there are some conditions that limit the right of the applicants to require simplified access. For Grok users to be given access to the free application, they must sign in using an account that has been registered for more than seven days, and have a phone number linked to their account. At the moment, this free tier looks rather regional and there is no guarantee that it is going to be launched in all markets. TechCrunch did verify the test in New Zealand but it has not been seen if it is available in other locations. Furthermore, there is authoritative evidence that the chatbot has not been active in India for some time, at least according to the local media. Besides this trial, company X has changed the logo of Grok. There are new interface modifications: the previous graphical emblem in the form of the Grok wordmark is substituted by the socket as a symbol of the bot's development throughout the design and application components. The change in the visual design itself is consistent with the evolution of Grok from a premium version of LinkedIn - an expensive paid service - to one that aims to include all generic Internet users, thus making it attractive and relevant to audiences beyond the paying/dedicated clientele. Separately, xAI, the company behind Grok, recently launched an API for the chatbot, encouraging developers to integrate Grok's capabilities into their own applications. To boost engagement, xAI is offering developers $25 (approximately ₹2,100) in free monthly credits through the end of 2024. Those who have already purchased prepaid API credits are also being offered the same monthly value as a bonus until the end of the year, further promoting Grok's adoption and utility among third-party developers. This free trial is accompanied by the new logo and offers the developer incentives, and it shows that X still cares about the further development and availability. This strategy could improve X's standing in the AI marketplace, increase the user base of Grok and at the same time investigate possibilities of AI related to social media and other related industries.

Grok is now free on X -- 3 things to try on the AI chatbot

Grok, the AI chatbot built into X, is now available for free to some users as part of an experiment by the social media platform. Previously, access required an $8 per month X premium subscription. It comes after the recent launch of Grok 2. This is going to be a gradual rollout to certain countries first -- although which countries isn't clear -- so you may not get access immediately. If you don't want to pay for Grok or wait for the free version, check out our guide to the best AI chatbots. Grok is primarily available inside X. It is deeply integrated into the platform and can even provide analysis of a specific account or a post. To access it you sign in to an X account and click the Grok logo. Recently, xAI opened an API to allow developers to build using the Grok AI model and so access is now more widely available. Platforms like Poe and Perplexity now make Grok available as an option when starting a 'chat'. Using a third-party tool is one way to get free access if you don't want to create an account on X. However, if you already have an X account then Grok may be coming whether you want it or not -- with limits. A post in the Grok community on X by Swak pointed to more details around limits for free access to X. For example, you get 10 questions every two hours, an analysis of three images per day, and the account has to be at least a week old with a phone number attached. Despite starting slightly later, Grok is very quickly catching up with OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude in terms of capability and performance. xAI has a mega cluster of 100,000 Nvidia GPUs to train the next-generation Grok model so that performance is only likely to improve. Grok is already capable of image analysis, can code, can respond to most queries without issue and has live internet access as well as information on X posts and trends making it ideal for analyzing news and information. Here's three things you can try out on it. This idea is not for the faint of heart as Grok tends to be more opinionated than most AI models, but you can ask it to rate your desk setup -- or anything really. It gave me a "solid 7 out of 10" but suggested I need a better backdrop and to improve the lighting in my office. Grok said: "Overall, your setup is practical and geared towards productivity, with room for some aesthetic and ergonomic improvements." Simply give it an image of a space in your home, garage or anywhere else and ask it to "rate my setup." As well as live internet access, Grok can also see everything being shared on X and draw from it the most popular topics of the day. One of the "suggested" use cases for Grok when you first open the chatbot is to have it show the latest headlines. You can ask Grok to go into more detail about any one of the headlines and even show you X posts from different perspectives on that particular topic. If you don't want "all" headlines, you could ask it to show you the latest news stories about a particular topics -- such as ChatGPT or LLMs. Grok has the Flux AI image generation model built in and so can create a range of images from the photorealistic to anime and cartoon style. It isn't clear to what extent this will be available to free users of Grok, although if it is anything like ChatGPT you'll get access just limited to a set number of images per month. There are other platforms to try out the Flux model and I recently shared 7 fun prompts to try on Flux. The advantage of using a chatbot like Grok to create images is that they can refine the prompt for you and even adapt it based on your replies. I asked it to "Create an image of an astronaut on Mars walking in a dust storm."

Elon Musk's xAI testing free version of chatbox Grok on X

xAI, founded by Elon Musk, is reportedly piloting a free trial of its artificial intelligence-powered chatbot, Grok. As per a report by US publication TechCrunch, users on social media platform X have discovered the free version is accessible in specific regions, including New Zealand. Currently, Grok AI is exclusive to X Premium and Premium Plus subscribers. Under this, users can make up to 10 queries every two hours with the Grok-2 AI model, and up to 20 queries every two hours with the Grok-2 mini model. Further, the chatbot introduces a feature that allows users to analyse images, with a restriction of three queries per day. xAI has also announced plans to recruit bilingual tutors in Hindi and English in India, offering an hourly rate between $35 and $65 (around Rs 2,950-5,500) per hour, as per a News18 report. xAI's competitors xAI and its Grok chatbot face fierce competition from other large AI models such as ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity and Copilot. ChatGPT by Open AI- Open AI's valuation has jumped to $157 billion from $14 billion in 2021, ET reported on November 9. Last month, the ChatGPT maker closed a $6.6-billion funding round, which could value the company at $157 billion, as per a Reuters report. Claude by Anthropic - Anthropic, a startup backed by Google and Amazon, in March this year, revealed a suite of artificial intelligence models known as Claude 3. TechCrunch reported in August that Claude crossed $1 million in gross mobile app revenue across iOS and Android and was ranked 95th in the Productivity category by downloads and 68th in that category by revenue. Gemini by Google - Google CEO Sundar Pichai has confirmed that the company is working on the third generation of the Gemini AI model at the earnings call post its Q3 2024 results announcement. Perplexity- Jeff Bezos-backed Perplexity AI has begun fundraising talks in which it is looking to more than double its valuation to $8 billion or more, the Wall Street Journal reported in October. It has told investors it is looking to raise around $500 million in the new funding round. Copilot by Microsoft- Microsoft posted revenues of $61.9 billion and net income of $21.9 billion for the FY24 third quarter that ended on March 31. The company incurred capital expenditure worth $14 billion directed towards demand for cloud services as well as to scale up its AI infrastructure. The Wall Street Journal reported on October 29 that xAI is in talks with investors for a funding round that would value it around $40 billion. Following Donald Trump's victory in the US elections, Musk has been in the news consistently. Musk also highlighted a 15.5% increase in new user sign-ups on X, with an estimated 43% surge in sign-ups during the US election vote count.