Created by Elon Musk’s startup xAI, Grok is an AI chatbot that seeks to differentiate itself from its competitors by being more than happy to answer “spicy questions that are rejected by most other AI systems.”
As a result, it’s often sassy, snarky and sarcastic, injecting humour into conversations. It’s also unfiltered which has proven rather controversial – but then it does largely reside within X which is much more of a free-for-all these days. Let’s check it out.
This article was correct as of February 2025. AI tools are updated regularly and it is possible that some features have changed since this article was written. Some features may also only be available in certain countries.
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What is Grok?
Originally set to be called TruthGPT, Grok was initially released by xAI in November 2023 as a feature usable by Premium+ users of X. It’s since been made available to all and it’s becoming well known for adopting an edgier approach to its chats. And while it’s very much integrated within X, it’s also been stepping out of the social media bubble in recent times with its own app. It’s certainly become one to watch.
As with rivals, it makes use of a large language model but, in this instance, it’s also draws upon the millions of posts on X (as well as data pulled from Tesla). It uses those posts for training and, crucially, to help provide answers to all manner of questions. Grok can access web pages too, which allows it to stay abreast of current affairs.
What can you use Grok for?
Since it’s a chatbot, Grok is able to answer questions on just about any topic. You can request all manner of things from recipes and code to news summaries and recommendations. You can also use it to analyze PDFs and images, summarize texts and check out the latest trends.
The chatbot can get personal. It will draw upon your own tweets and work out your interests – great for, say, generating book and podcast recommendations but it may make you a little wary about privacy. There’s a “roast me” feature too which again draws on your interests to make you the butt of a host of jokes – great if that’s your thing.
Grok lets you create images using a video model called Aurora. It’s capable of generating photorealistic images and there are no restrictions on using real-life people or characters. This has already led to deepfakes featuring the likes of Taylor Swift, Donald Trump and Mickey Mouse. It will draw the line at fully nude images, though.
What can’t you use Grok for?
Grok is mainly embedded within Twitter and while it’s beginning to branch out a bit, it’s not yet being widely integrated into other apps – you can’t call upon it with a word processor app such as Word or Pages, for instance.
Grok’s personality and unfiltered answers also make it relatively unsuitable for business or educational use – its potential for causing offence can also be off-putting. And while you will see citations when Grok draws upon a particular source, the service has been known for sharing misinformation.
How much does Grok cost?
Grok has a free tier and it allows you to make 10 requests every couple of hours along with four image generations and three image analyses. If you subscribe to the Premium and Premium+ tiers of X, however, there are no limitations to how you use Grok. A Premium subscription costs $8 / £8/ AU$13 each month while Premium+ is $22 / £17/ AU$35 each month – which one you opt for will depend on how you intend to use X as a whole. For example, Premium+ gives you early access to newer versions of Grok.
Where can you use Grok?
Grok is available by clicking Grok in X‘s menu and also directly from a post – if you select the Grok logo on a post, Grok will lend some context and allow you to start asking questions based on it. Grok also has a standalone website at grok.com and there are apps for iOS and Android.
Is Grok any good?
Grok is particularly good at keeping you up to date with current trends and goings on – being integrated with X and having web access means it’s a rather decent search engine. It has good general knowledge and it’s certainly good at drawing on your interests to create relevant answers. Whether or not you like your X posts feeding Grok’s large language model is another question.
Grok’s image generation capabilities are exceptional so long as you don’t start pushing the boundaries of taste. Grok has humour too and while it may not be to everyone’s liking, it does at least lend personality. Its coding abilities are on a par with GPT-3.5 and the whole package shows promise. Grok 3 (currently only for Premium+ subscribers) is taking everything to another level too so it’ll be interesting to see where this AI chatbot goes.
Use Grok if…
You should use Grok if you want an AI that can react quickly to real-time topics and be reflective of internet culture and trends. You’ll also use Grok if you’re looking for AI to generate images that involve people including yourself because the results are great. Grok is also useful if you simply desire an AI that doesn’t take life seriously – it’s fun and unfiltered. But is that always a good thing?
Don’t use Grok if…
You want an AI for work or for education – it’s unfiltered nature means it’s not always suitable. Don’t use Grok if you want to produce deepfakes either – yes, it can produce them but that doesn’t mean you should (ok, preachy preachy). Don’t use Grok if you want app integration either – for that, the likes of Copilot and Apple Intelligence make more sense.
Also consider
ChatGPT does much of what Grok achieves other than being entirely up-to-date but if that doesn’t matter then you’ll find this one does a very professional job.
Flux AI is also great at generating images in multiple styles using natural language descriptions.
Want to read more about Grok?
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