Grok (xAI)

What is Grok?

Grok is the language model from xAI, Elon Musk's AI company. It was launched in 2023 and distinguishes itself from competitors through its real-time access to X (formerly Twitter), its direct and sometimes humorous style, and its philosophically more permissive approach to sensitive topics. Grok is available to X Premium subscribers and via the Grok app.

How does Grok work?

Grok is built on xAI's Grok series of models and has unique access to the X data stream. This makes it particularly good at answering questions about trending topics, news events and social media conversations that are not in the training data of other models.

Grok 3 (the latest version) is a strong reasoning model that performs at the level of GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 Sonnet on most benchmarks. The DeepSearch feature conducts extensive web research comparable to Perplexity and Deep Research.

Core features

• Real-time X data — access to trending topics and tweets
• DeepSearch — extensive web research
• Image generation — via Aurora image generation model
• Direct style — fewer detours than other models
• Fewer restrictions — answers more sensitive questions

Advantages

• Unique access to X real-time data
• Fewer limitations on controversial questions
• Strong reasoning model in the latest version

Disadvantages

• Requires X Premium subscription for the best plan
• Smaller ecosystem than OpenAI
• Controversial around content moderation policy

Pricing

Basic Grok available via X. Grok via xAI: free plan available. SuperGrok with more features available via subscription.

Who is it for?

Grok is ideal for X users who want an AI assistant integrated into their social media use, for news followers, and for users who prefer a more direct, less filtered AI style.