xAI quietly locks out free users from advanced Grok models after days of usage limit errors

Elon Musk’s xAI seems to have put the best parts of its Grok chatbot behind a paywall. Free users trying to access the tool today are finding their options severely restricted.

According to multiple user reports, the platform has completely grayed out its Auto and Expert models for non-paying accounts.

If you click on those advanced options, you just get pushed to a subscription page. It asks for a $30 monthly fee to unlock the full chat experience.

We have also been able to replicate the same behavior. Upon opening Grok without signing in or on an account that isn’t subscribed to X Premium or SuperGrok, the model picker is restricted to the Fast option.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with the Fast option, but it lacks the depth that made the Expert mode so popular.

This quiet lockdown follows a really messy week for the service. Over the past few days, the chatbot was practically unusable for many people.

As we reported a few days ago, Grok users were complaining about a constant high-demand error. Free users were suddenly hitting a hard limit after sending just five to ten messages. So people are obviously pretty annoyed about the sudden shift.

Reading through another thread on the Grok subreddit, it is clear that users feel blindsided by the lack of communication.

Many are calling it a deliberate move to force them into buying the SuperGrok subscription. But as you can expect, a $30 monthly fee is not even a question for people who only want to casually test out the AI.

Even SuperGrok Lite subscriptions are unlikely to give you access to Grok’s advanced models, since that subscription was primarily designed for users who wanted access to Imagine and longer chats with Grok. It doesn’t grant access to Expert mode on Grok.

That said, the Tech Dev Notes on X speculated that this might be xAI’s attempt at saving massive amounts of computing power for a smooth rollout of Grok Build.

Last week, Musk noted that it will go live in Beta this week, which might explain the sudden limit on free users. 

Others, however, point to the recent news about SpaceX and the AI coding startup Cursor working together. Training next-generation coding models requires a ridiculous amount of processing power. So it makes sense that if xAI is routing its supercomputer resources to fuel new business deals, the standard free users are going to get squeezed out.

The company has not put out an official statement to explain the new paywall. Free users are just stuck with what is left. Let’s just hope it’s a temporary restriction until xAI is able to manage the sudden increase in usage.

Featured image edited with AI

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