Grok

Grok is xAI's chatbot, and its party trick is live information. It searches the web and X in real time, so a question about this morning's news or a trending post gets an answer built from current sources with citations, rather than from training data that's months old.

That's only one mode, though. According to xAI's product page, the same chat thread can reason step by step, write and debug code, analyse uploaded files and PDFs, read screenshots and photos, and hold a voice conversation with very little lag. Grok Imagine handles images and video from text or a reference photo, with clips up to 15 seconds. There's also a multi-agent mode where several agents work on parts of a hard question in parallel and show their reasoning, plus memory across chats, a Canvas for long-form writing and custom instructions. Grok runs on the web at grok.com and in iOS and Android apps, and supports 30+ languages.

Plans (checked October 2026)

Grok is free to try. Paid plans on grok.com/plans share one usage pool across Grok Chat, Voice, Imagine, Build and the Grok API, and they also bundle X perks such as fewer ads and a checkmark:

• Plus: $8 a month, or $80 a year. The introductory tier.
• Premium: $30 a month ($300 a year), with four times the usage of Plus, the latest models, image and video creation, and cloud agents.
• Super: $100 a month ($1,000 a year), 15× Plus usage, 1080p video and priority access at peak times.
• Ultra: $200 a month ($2,000 a year), 50× Plus usage and the most powerful chat models.

The page was running a first-month discount of 50% on the monthly Premium, Super and Ultra plans. Prices exclude tax.

Where it fits

Grok makes the most sense for people who follow news, markets or online conversation closely and want answers that reflect the last few hours. The X integration is a real advantage there. If you already pay for X, bundling the two can also save a subscription.

Pros: live web and X search with sources; images, video, voice and code in one app; a free tier to start.
Cons: the jump from Plus to Premium is steep; usage is described in multiples rather than message counts, so limits are hard to predict; answers drawn from social posts still need checking against primary sources.

Alternatives

ChatGPT and Claude are the main general-purpose rivals. For cited web research, compare Perplexity, and if you live inside Google's apps, Gemini is the natural pick.