X is currently testing a free version of its AI chatbot, Grok, taking a significant step towards making artificial intelligence more accessible to its users.
Over the weekend, several users and app researchers posted about a free version of Grok being made available in certain regions. TechCrunch then confirmed that users in New Zealand are now able to access the chatbot, which was previously available only to X Premium and Premium+ subscribers, for free.
However, X has also imposed limits to the free usage. According to a researcher who goes by Swak on social media, some of these include:
- The account should be 7+ days old
- The account should have a phone number linked to it.
- Users are allowed 10 “Grok 2” questions per 2 hours.
- It can analyze up to 3 images per day.
Grok, aka XAI’s Grok-2, launched in August and initially offered image generation capabilities powered by Black Forest Labs’ FLUX.1 model. In late October, it was further enhanced to understand images.
This move by X aligns with the growing trend of tech giants making AI more accessible to the public, seemingly to attract a wider user base and take on its competitors head-on, including ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. Demonstrating its capabilities will also enable X to secure valuable investment to boost its model’s capabilities still further.
