Grok, an artificial intelligence chatbot that was built by Elon Musk’s other company, xAI, is now exclusively accessible to premium users of social network X who pay for the service. On the other hand, it seems that the website is getting ready to make the chatbot accessible to people who are not paying for it.
The release of a free Grok version for users in certain regions was discussed over the weekend by a number of app researchers and users. The information was disseminated around the internet.
X is at least testing Grok’s free user access in New Zealand which confirmed the presence of this testing.
According to a researcher on X who goes by the handle Swak, there are currently limitations on usage. These limitations include the following: three photo analysis inquiries each day, ten Grok-2 model queries every two hours, and twenty Grok-2 mini model searches every two hours.
If you want to use Grok for free, you need to have a phone number that is associated with your account and you need to be at least seven days old.
Grok-2, powered by the FLUX.1 model developed by Black Forest Labs and equipped with the ability to generate images, was made available by xAI in the month of August. Late in the previous month, the company also made it possible for the model to interpret photographs.
The only members who had access to all of these features up to this point were Premium and Premium+ members. xAI may be looking to increase the size of its user base and speed up the feedback loop for its products by making Grok accessible to free users. This would allow the company to better compete with other models that are currently available on the market, such as ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini.