Elon Musk’s Groke AI chatbot is now free. But it has some glaring limitations

Elon Musk’s Grok AI chatbot is no longer tied behind a paywall and can now be accessed by all users for free. Grok was first launched by Musk’s xAI in 2023 and was closely integrated with X (formerly Twitter), but users had to purchase an X premium subscription in order to get access to the chatbot, unlike many of its peers like ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude.

While xAI is yet to issue a formal statement confirming the availability of Grok for all users, many users have shared their experience on gaining access to Grok without purchasing an X premium subscription. We can confirm that Grok AI has indeed rolled out to our X feed.

However, since this feature is available for all users, it does come with some limitations.

On Friday, X made its chatbot, Grok, accessible to non-premium users, though with certain restrictions on query limits and features.

Free users can interact with Grok by asking up to 10 questions every two hours and are limited to three image analyses and four image generations per day, according to the chatbot’s guidelines.

Subscribers to X’s Premium and Premium+ plans, priced at $7 and $14 per month respectively, enjoy expanded access, with the ability to ask up to 50 questions daily.For those without an X account, using the chatbot requires an account that is at least seven days old and verified with a linked phone number.Grok is known for its conversational capabilities but also serves as a versatile AI assistant. It can assist users in researching and explaining trending topics, offer coding support, and manage customer inquiries automatically for business users.

X has not yet issued an official statement about the rollout and declined to respond to a request for comment from Forbes.