You can now access xAI’s most advanced large-scale language model, Grok 3, even if you don’t pay for an X subscription. Grok 3 is available for free “for a short time,” according to xAI founder Elon Musk, although the company hasn’t yet specified what exactly “a short time” means. When you go to Grok on X or on the web, as well as when you launch the standalone app, you’ll see the new Think and Deep Search options that are only available in xAI’s newest LLM family. Just make sure you use Grok 3 instead of Grok 2 in the drop-down menu of the chatbot interface. If you pay for X Premium+, which currently costs $40 per month, or the standalone SuperGrok plan for $30 per month, you’ll get “advanced access” to Grok 3 features, as well as early access to advanced features like voice mode.
The company unveiled the Grok 3 family of models a few days ago during a live stream, where Elon Musk described it as “an order of magnitude more powerful than Grok 2.” Some of the models in the family are capable of “human thinking” that can be activated by selecting the “Think” option. They are best used for more complex queries, such as math, science, and programming. Meanwhile, xAI describes DeepSearch as a “next-generation search engine” that can generate summaries for research queries.
I asked the free version of Grok 3 how it differs from the paid version. The chatbot replied that “free interaction can reach server limits if too many people pile in at once” and that paid users have priority. Paid users get access to the “Big Brain” mode, which can answer complex math, science, or code problems that require additional processing power, and there is no limit to the number of images SuperGrok subscribers can generate.
