Social network X, owned by Elon Musk, is preparing to expand access to its AI chatbot Grok—built by Musk’s AI company xAI—to free users. Previously, Grok was only available to X’s premium, paid subscribers.
Over the weekend, several app researchers and users noticed that a free version of Grok was being made available in certain regions. TechCrunch confirmed that X is testing access to Grok for free users in New Zealand.
Currently, free users face certain limitations: they can make up to 10 queries every two hours with the Grok-2 model, 20 queries per two hours with the Grok-2 mini model, and ask three image-related questions daily. To qualify for free access, an account must be at least seven days old and linked to a phone number.
Grok-2, launched by xAI in August, includes capabilities for image generation through FLUX.1, a model developed by Black Forest Labs. In late October, xAI further upgraded Grok with image recognition abilities. Previously, these features were exclusive to Premium and Premium+ users. By expanding access to free users, xAI aims to broaden its user base and gather faster feedback to improve Grok’s performance, potentially strengthening its position against competitors like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.
