xAI could release a standalone Grok app soon

The Grok logo appears on the screen of a smartphone, and in the background, the logo of the social network X (formerly Twitter) is on the computer screen, in Reno, United States, on November 12, 2024. Grok is an artificial intelligence chatbot generative technology developed by xAI, with an initiative from Elon Musk. The company tests a free version of the service that will be available soon.

If you’re one of the around 1.3 million people who are X Premium subscribers — or about 0.26% of the platform’s user base — you have access to Grok, X’s AI chatbot similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, that you can use through the X app. But that access might be getting a bit more broad.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Elon Musk’s AI company xAI will be releasing a standalone consumer app. It will work similar to the ChatGPT app and give users access to Grok from their phones. There doesn’t seem to be a huge rush, though — Tech Crunch reports that it likely won’t come to fruition until xAI closes its next funding round.

Grok is available only to X Premium subscribers, and it’s unclear how that might change with a standalone app. Will you have to have an X account to use it? Will you have to be a premium subscriber? Who knows! But this comes at a time in which X is allegedly experimenting with making access to Grok free. As with most changes under Musk’s tutelage, we’ll probably just have to wait and see.