How to Use Grok: The Beginner's Guide (Free Tier, Grok 4.7, Grok Imagine, and Grok Bot)

CodexFuse Team · 2026-10-28T17:30:21.901Z · 11 min read

Grok is the AI assistant built by xAI, the company behind X, and learning how to use Grok is mostly a matter of knowing where to open it and what to ask it. You can chat with it free at grok.com, in the Grok app, or from the Grok tab inside X, and the model behind it as of October 2026 is Grok 4.7. This guide walks through the whole first-use system: signing up, the free tier and its limits, the model and its modes, Grok Imagine for images and video, and Grok Bot, the separate agent app that works while you do something else. If you already use another assistant, the ChatGPT beginner guide covers the same first steps there; this page is the Grok lane.

How do I use Grok for the first time?

Open grok.com, sign in with your X account, and type your first question. That is the whole setup, and the steps below take about ten minutes from a cold start.

1. Pick your surface. Go to grok.com in a browser, or install the Grok app on iPhone or Android. Both are the same assistant, and your chats stay in sync between them.
2. Sign in with X. Grok signs in through your X account. You do not need to post on X to use it, and you can use Grok without ever opening the X timeline.
3. Start a new chat. Click or tap "Ask Grok" and type your question the way you would ask a knowledgeable colleague. No special syntax is needed for basic questions.
4. Choose a mode when the question needs it. Leave the default chat mode on for quick questions. Turn on Think for multi-step problems and DeepSearch when you need cited research from the web and X.
5. Follow up instead of restarting. "Shorter", "more formal", or "give me three other options" usually beats typing a brand-new prompt.
6. Check your limits before you pay. The free tier is limited, but xAI does not publish a message count, so use it for a few days first and upgrade only when you actually hit a wall.

Where can you use Grok?

Grok lives in six places, and each one suits a different job. Pick the surface that matches what you are doing, not the one you happened to open first.

The real-time X connection is the reason to choose Grok over a general chatbot for news and public reaction. Ask "What are people on X saying about today's launch? Show both sides" and you get something no training-data chatbot can give you. For coding help in chat, paste the error and the code and ask what is wrong and why; for real projects, switch to Grok Build or Cursor, as the Cursor AI beginner guide explains.

Is Grok free? What the free tier actually gives you

Yes, Grok has a free tier that costs $0 a month, and it covers the core of the product: chat, some image generation through Imagine, and some use of Grok Build. What it does not include is video generation, API access, or Grok Bot, and xAI describes its chat and agent requests only as "limited". The company publishes no free-tier message count anywhere, so any article quoting one is guessing. Treat the free tier as a real trial: use it for a week, and upgrade only when you hit a limit more than once.

On October 12, 2026, xAI replaced the old SuperGrok and X Premium plans with a single subscription called The X Subscription, which bundles Grok, Grok Bot, Cursor, and X Premium together. The prices below were checked on x.ai/pricing on October 28, 2026, with the Ultra tier confirmed by AI Toolbox's read of xAI's plan pages on October 25, 2026.

Plus also adds the Premium checkmark on X, fewer timeline ads, and Cursor. Premium is the most popular tier and the first one that includes Grok Bot, the latest Grok models, faster chat responses, image and video generation, code hosting with AI code reviews, and cloud agents and automations. Super adds priority model access at peak times. Prices do not include taxes, and you can cancel any time at least 24 hours before renewal. Existing SuperGrok and X Premium subscribers can keep their old plans and features.

Which Grok model are you using? Grok 4.7, explained

As of October 2026, the model behind Grok is Grok 4.7. xAI released it on September 21, 2026, replacing Grok 4.6 as the flagship, and since October 3 it also powers the consumer Expert and Heavy modes, so the app and the API run the same model again. It has a 500,000-token context window, which means you can paste whole reports into a chat and ask about them, and its knowledge cutoff is May 2026. On the API it costs $2 per million input tokens and $6 per million output tokens.

Four modes sit on top of the model, and picking the right one matters more than picking the model itself. Think mode spends longer reasoning step by step and suits multi-step problems. DeepSearch searches the web and X and returns cited research, taking 15 to 60 seconds instead of a near-instant answer, so use it when accuracy and sources matter rather than for quick facts. Voice mode lets you talk to Grok out loud in the app, hands free, and the newest voice model, Grok Voice 3.0, arrived on October 14, 2026. Imagine is the image and video maker, covered in the next section but one. Grok also has personality settings and animated companions in the app; they change the tone, not the facts.

Expert and Heavy are the two consumer modes worth knowing by name. Expert is the knowledge-work mode for long documents and hard questions, while Heavy is the multi-step agent mode for tasks that run for hours. If you are comparing research assistants, the Perplexity beginner guide covers the other major cited-research tool, and the Google Gemini beginner guide covers Google's equivalent assistant.

How do you ask Grok a good question?

Give Grok the same four things you would give a person: the goal, the context, the format, and the tone. That one habit is most of the difference between a useless answer and a good one.

Two more habits pay off fast. First, ask Grok for sources, then open them; Grok can be confidently wrong about recent events, numbers, quotes, and anything medical, legal, or financial, and it sometimes invents sources. Second, never paste passwords, card numbers, or private health details into a chat. For decisions that matter, use Grok to prepare questions for a professional, not to replace one.

What is Grok Imagine, and what can it make?

Grok Imagine is Grok's image and video maker, built into the same app and website. It makes still images and short videos with sound, and it is the feature most beginners discover second, right after chat.

For images, Imagine Image 2.0 generates and edits pictures at 1K or 2K quality, and since August 28, 2026, you can edit with up to five source images at once. For video, Imagine Video 1.5 turns text, an image, or a reference video into a clip of about 15 seconds, at up to 1080p, with native audio. Start in the Imagine tab, describe what you want in plain words, and refine with follow-ups the same way you refine a chat answer. One video mode, Spicy, is gated behind a paid plan, age verification, and two content toggles, and it only appears in the mobile app.

The plan line matters here. The free tier includes limited Imagine use but no video generation at all, and Plus still has no video. Video starts at Premium, $30 a month, and Super adds 1080p video. If your main reason to pay is video, Premium is the entry point, not Plus.

What is Grok Bot, and how is it different from Grok?

Grok Bot is not a mode inside Grok. It is a separate agent app that lives at x.ai/bot, it signs in with a Cursor account rather than inside grok.com, and it is included from the $30 Premium plan. The beta launched on August 11, 2026, and enterprise access with organizational controls followed on September 3, 2026.

The difference is simple: chat stops when you stop typing, while a bot keeps working in the background. Give a bot one clear job, such as watching your inbox, filing receipts, or checking a page every morning, and it does the work on a routine and brings you the result. Each bot has its own name, job title, and description, plus a "brain file" of what it knows about you, and routines you can set for recurring tasks. The rule to set on day one is that a bot may research, draft, and prepare, but nothing goes out and no money moves until you say yes.

Start with one bot and one simple job, get comfortable with it, and only then add a second. Specialists are easier to manage than one bot trying to do everything, and checking the work before you grow is what keeps an agent useful instead of messy.

Grok vs ChatGPT: which one should you start with?

Start with Grok if your questions are about what is happening on X right now, because real-time X data is the one thing Grok does that no other assistant can match. Start with ChatGPT if you want the assistant most people already know, with the widest set of guides and integrations around it. For most beginners the honest answer is to try both free tiers for a week: ask each the same three questions, one about today's news, one that needs a long document summarized, and one that needs an image, and keep the one whose answers you trust more. The Claude beginner guide covers the third major option in the same beginner format, so the whole comparison takes one afternoon.

7 mistakes beginners make with Grok

Most Grok frustration comes from the same few misunderstandings. Avoid these and the first week goes smoothly.

1. Quoting a free-tier message limit. xAI publishes no free-tier message count. Anyone quoting one is guessing, and counting on it will mislead you.
2. Treating Grok Bot as a chat mode. It is a separate app at x.ai/bot that signs in with a Cursor account. Looking for it inside grok.com wastes an afternoon.
3. Paying before hitting a limit. Use the free tier for a few days first. Upgrade to Plus when you hit limits often, and to Premium when you actually want Grok Bot or video.
4. Trusting answers about recent events without sources. Ask for sources and open them. Grok can state wrong facts with confidence, especially about numbers and quotes.
5. Pasting private details into a chat. Passwords, card numbers, and private health details do not belong in any AI chat, Grok included.
6. Using the old plan names. SuperGrok and X Premium were replaced by The X Subscription on October 12, 2026. Guides that still teach those tiers are out of date.
7. Asking vague one-line questions. "Write about dogs" gets a generic answer. Goal, context, format, and tone get a useful one.

Sources

• xAI, "Pricing: Compare Plans" — https://x.ai/pricing (prices and plan features checked October 28, 2026)
• GrokMag, "How to Use Grok AI: A Simple Beginner Guide" — https://grokmag.com/how-to-use-grok-ai/ (checked October 18, 2026)
• GrokMag, "Grok 4.7: Specs, Price, Benchmarks and Fast Mode" — https://grokmag.com/grok-models/grok-4-7/ (checked October 18, 2026)
• AI Toolbox, "Grok Models Explained: Grok 4.7, 4.6, 4.5 and 4.3 (2026)" — https://www.ai-toolbox.co/grok-models/grok-models-explained-2026 (plan details read October 25, 2026)
• FelloAI, "Grok 5: Release Date & All We Know So Far" — https://felloai.com/all-we-know-so-far-about-grok-5/ (Grok 4.7 release and consumer-mode dates)
• ScriptByAI, "Grok Timeline: xAI Model Releases and Product Milestones" — https://www.scriptbyai.com/spacexai-timeline-grok/ (X Subscription launch October 12, 2026; Grok Voice 3.0 October 14, 2026)
• UsageBox, "Grok API Pricing 2026: Grok 4.7, Grok Bot, X Subscription" — https://usagebox.com/articles/grok-api-pricing-2026 (October 2026 changes)
• CJTravels, "Grok Bot Changed Everything: A Beginner's Guide to AI Agents" — https://cjtravels.net/grok-bot-changed-everything-beginners-guide-to-ai-agents/ (Grok Bot setup, routines, and safety rules)
• SurgeGraph, "How to Use Grok: The Complete Beginner's Guide" — https://surgegraph.io/ai/how-to-use-grok (the exact-title guide that still teaches the old tiers)

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Grok free to use?

Yes. Grok has a free tier at $0 a month that covers chat, limited image generation through Imagine, and limited use of Grok Build. It does not include video generation, API access, or Grok Bot, and xAI publishes no free-tier message count, so the limit is described only as "limited". Paid plans start at Plus, $8 a month.

Do I need an X account to use Grok?

You need an X account to sign in, because Grok signs in through X. You do not need to post on X, follow anyone, or use the X timeline at all; grok.com and the standalone Grok app work on their own once you are signed in.

What is the difference between Grok and Grok Bot?

Grok is the chatbot you talk to at grok.com, in the app, or in the X tab. Grok Bot is a separate agent app at x.ai/bot that signs in with a Cursor account and does background jobs on routines, such as watching an inbox or checking a page every morning. Grok Bot is included from the Premium plan at $30 a month and is not available on the free tier.

Can Grok make videos?

Yes, through Grok Imagine Video 1.5, which turns text, an image, or a reference video into a clip of about 15 seconds at up to 1080p with native audio. Video generation starts at the Premium plan, $30 a month; the free tier and Plus do not include it.

Is Grok better than ChatGPT?

It depends on the job. Grok's clear edge is real-time data from X, which no other assistant has, so it wins for "what are people saying right now" questions. For general writing, coding help, and document work, both assistants do the job well, so the practical test is to try both free tiers for a week on the same questions and keep the one whose answers you trust more.