ChatGPT vs Grok
ChatGPT (OpenAI) and Grok (xAI) are both general assistants with free access and paid upgrades, and both publish their plan prices.
Quick verdict by use case
- You want a published free plan and prices before signing up: Both publish them: ChatGPT on chatgpt.com/pricing, Grok (The X Subscription) on x.ai/pricing.
- You follow news and conversations on X: Grok is built into X.
- You want image and video generation in the same app: Both offer it; compare limits on each plan page.
Pricing and free tier, side by side
| ChatGPT |  Grok | |
|---|---|---|
| What it does | OpenAI's general-purpose AI chat assistant for questions, writing, files, images and voice. | xAI's AI assistant, available on grok.com, in the Grok apps and in X. |
| Is it actually free? | Free tier with limits | Free tier with limits |
| Free plan limits | Free plan: unlimited everyday text chats (subject to abuse guardrails), with limited file uploads, image creation, voice chats, deep research, memory and Codex access. | Free ($0): daily access to Grok, a starter allowance for Cursor's coding agents, and standard X. |
| Pricing | Free; Go $8/month; Plus $20/month; Pro from $100/month; Business and Enterprise plans priced per user. | Grok is sold through The X Subscription (xAI, Oct 12, 2026): Free $0; Plus $8/month; Premium $30/month; Super $100/month; Ultra $200/month; Teams from $30 per user per month. Paid plans share one Grok usage pool across Grok, Cursor and the Grok tab on X; Premium and up include Grok Bot. Prices exclude taxes. SuperGrok is replaced by Premium for new customers; existing subscribers are getting the option to switch. |
| Best for | Everyday questions, drafting, summarizing documents and voice chats on web and phone. | Quick answers, image and video generation, and topics being discussed on X. |
| Not great for | Anything where a wrong answer is costly without checking sources yourself. | — |
| Last checked | 2026-10-13 | 2026-10-15 |
Official site: chatgpt.com ↗ Official site: grok.com ↗
Strengths and weaknesses
ChatGPT
Good for: Everyday questions, drafting, summarizing documents and voice chats on web and phone.
Not great for: Anything where a wrong answer is costly without checking sources yourself.
Grok
Good for: Quick answers, image and video generation, and topics being discussed on X.
Real plays using these tools
- Five Grok Bots: GTM, personal assistant, biz dev, marketing, trainer
- Agentic job-hunt pipeline
- Get calm, step-by-step coaching through a scam accusation call
- Cut a $195,628 hospital bill to about $32,500 by checking it against Medicare rules
- Turn a $25 airline voucher into $4,760.36 in EU261 compensation
- Get a £60 parking charge dropped and win £462.15 in costs
Other options
Claude
Anthropic's AI assistant for writing, analysis, long documents and coding help.
Gemini
Google's AI assistant, built into the Gemini app and Google's apps.
Perplexity
An AI answer engine that searches the web and cites its sources.
Microsoft Copilot
Microsoft's AI assistant, free on the web and phone, and built into Microsoft 365 apps on paid plans.
More comparisons
Sources
- ChatGPT: chatgpt.com pricing ↗ (checked 2026-10-13)
- Grok: x.ai X Subscription news ↗ · x.ai pricing ↗ (checked 2026-10-15)