Billed as a “no-holds-barred” chatbot to rival its more mainstream contemporaries, Grok was launched in 2023 by xAI, the Elon-Musk helmed AI startup. Upon its release, Musk referred to Grok as the “best [chatbot] that currently exists,” but it has since been eclipsed by the likes of DeepSeek and Manus.
By contrast, ChatGPT is heralded as the AI model that kickstarted the current revolution. Landing to great acclaim in November 2022, it remains the de facto chatbot among consumers and businesses alike, with the largest market share by far.
With the newest iteration of Grok landing in February and ChatGPT 5 on the horizon, there’s never been a better time to compare the two. In this guide, you’ll learn how the two models compare in terms of availability, pricing, language models, responses, data sources, and more.
Grok vs ChatGPT: At a Glance
In the table below, you’ll find a quick rundown of the key differences between these two chatbots. Read on for a more detailed breakdown, and use the links above to navigate to your preferred section, if you like.
| Chatbot | Company | Best | Free Version? | Paid Plans From | Language model | Sign in | Languages | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |  | |||||||
| ChatGPT | Grok | |||||||
| OpenAI | xAI | |||||||
| Overall | For entertaining conversations | |||||||
| | | |||||||
| $20/month | $7/month | |||||||
| Grok-1 | |||||||
| Requires any email address. No waitlist at present. | Requires X account and X Premium+ subscription for access. | |||||||
| 95+ languages | 200+ languages |
Grok vs ChatGPT Pricing
Since the release of Grok 3 in February, Grok is now free to use for all X users. If you do pay for X, however, you’ll unlock more advanced functionality, such as increased usage limits and early access to Voice Mode. If you want those advanced features, you can expect to pay $7 per month for X Premium or $32.92 per month for X Premium+.
ChatGPT pricing starts with a free tier, which gets you access to a version of the chatbot running the older GPT-4o mini large language model (LLM).
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Pony up $20 a month and you’ll get access to ChatGPT Plus. Primarily, this lets you use the chatbot with the latest version of OpenAI’s LLM, GPT-4, which means the responses you get will be better. It also lets you create your own AI chatbot, and gets you advanced functionality including the ability to install ChatGPT plugins, standard and advanced voice mode, and access to a research preview of GPT-4.5.
Above this, ChatGPT has Pro tier that starts at $200 per month, a Team plan for collaborating ($25 per user, per month), and an Enterprise tier with on-demand pricing.
Grok vs ChatGPT: Data Sources and Language Models
ChatGPT trains its language model using data and information that’s publicly available on the internet. In less flattering terms, this is sometimes called “scraping” and means that ChatGPT essentially ingests all the books, news articles, social media posts and Wikipedia pages that are published online. This knowledge then becomes the large language model, or LLM, that’s responsible for the responses outputted to users who ask ChatGPT questions.
The GPT-3.5 model used on the free-to-all version of ChatGPT was trained on information available up to September 2021. ChatGPT 4, meanwhile, includes information up to April 2023, and in general is better able to learn and respond to current information provided through ChatGPT prompts.
Grok’s prototype is running a language model called Grok-1 that’s trained partly using real-time data from the X social media platform. This up-to-the-minute knowledge is designed to make Grok the most current AI chatbot around.
Grok vs ChatGPT: Responses
Beyond the technicalities of large language models, a final key difference between Grok and ChatGPT is that Grok is being hyped for its sense of humor.
Musk promises witty, sarcastic responses from Grok, which he hopes will serve as an antidote to ChatGPT’s sometimes dry responses. Musk has also criticized ChatGPT and its parent company, OpenAI, for an alleged left-wing bias in the past.
However, the launch of Grok was a light-hearted rather than an overly political one. To highlight his new AI chatbot’s capacity for wisecracks, Musk shared how it helps users find out how to make cocaine.
xAI’s Grok system is designed to have a little humor in its responses pic.twitter.com/WqXxlwI6ef
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 4, 2023
Grok vs ChatGPT: Pros and Cons
Both of these platforms have their respective strengths and weaknesses. In this section, I’ll outline some of the biggest examples of each, to help you make an informed decision about which chatbot is better for your needs.
Pros of Grok
- Real-time data access – While other models depend on pre-trained datasets, Grok has real-time data sourcing for up-to-the-minute information.
- Adaptive learning – Grok analyzes past interactions to gain a deeper understanding of user preferences, yielding more personalized results over time.
- Integrates with other Elon Musk platforms – Musk is on a mission to consolidate all of his properties under one banner, and Grok is no exception. The platform is compatible with Tesla, X, and more.
Cons of Grok
- Relatively limited adoption – Compared to some of the other chatbots on the market, Grok has pretty limited user uptake. Other providers have had more time to make an imprint, thus allowing them to build up developer communities and commercial applications.
- Data privacy concerns – Due to its real-time data harvesting, Grok is much more likely to fall foul of data privacy practices. Used on a corporate scale, this could create data protection issues.
- High operating costs – Because Grok has such sophisticated architecture, it commands high computational costs to operate.
Pros of ChatGPT
- Great value for money – ChatGPT has a great free plan that will satisfy most users. Its paid plans start at just $20 per month, meaning you’ll get some really robust functionality for a relatively low fee.
- Feature-rich – You get a lot of bang for your buck with ChatGPT. For example, subscribers will get access to Canvas, a workspace that resembles Google Docs and allows users to carry out AI-enhanced writing and coding tasks.
- Dedicated apps for different platforms – You can access ChatGPT on Windows, Mac, Android, iOS, and Web, rather than just a blanket app for all programs.
Cons of ChatGPT
- Poor at producing long responses – At present, ChatGPT isn’t particularly effective at producing long, complex answers. Because it has to solve so many queries every day, it has to distribute its computational power across an extremely wide network.
- Lacks creativity – One of the big criticisms of ChatGPT is its lack of creativity. Detractors have pointed out that its responses can often be bland and unoriginal.
- Issues when switching between languages – While ChatGPT boasts a comprehensive array of languages, users have complained that it can take a while to adjust when switching between them.
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Grok vs ChatGPT: Who Owns Them?
Grok is owned by Elon Musk’s AI startup, xAI, which was founded in March 2023 with the modest aim of understanding “the true nature of the universe.” As its name would suggest, it’s closely linked to X Corp (and X Holdings Corp), which is Musk’s larger company that owns social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
A statement on the xAI website reads: “[xAI is a] separate company from X Corp, but will work closely with X (Twitter), Tesla, and other companies to make progress towards our mission.”
When it comes to who owns ChatGPT, that’s a company called OpenAI. It was founded back in 2015 and is currently helmed by CEO Sam Altman. Like Musk, Altman is one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world and regularly speaks out on hot-button tech issues such as AI ethics.
Both of these companies are headquartered in the San Francisco area. A final wrinkle in the Grok vs ChatGPT rivalry is that Elon Musk plowed as much as $1 billion into OpenAI in the past, before a failed bid to take over management of the company in 2018 saw him step down from its board.
Relations between the two CEOs have not thawed in recent months. In February, Altman rejected Musk’s $97 billion bid for OpenAI, largely seen as an attempt to block OpenAI’s plans to pivot to a for-profit business model.
Verdict: Which is Better – Grok or ChatGPT?
This is a bit of a trick question. Whether or not Grok or ChatGPT is better depends largely on personal preference. Some users prefer the more lighthearted responses provided by Grok, whereas others prefer ChatGPT’s more straightforward approach.
What is for certain is that there are better chatbots out there than both of these models. DeepSeek, which exploded onto the scene at the end of January, is a better solution for users with technical requirements, such as coding or data analysis.
Meanwhile, the emergence of Manus – the so-called first “fully autonomous” AI chatbot in the world – promises to upend the sector once again. That model can perform complex tasks independently of human input, and while it is only currently available to a select number of users, it will be fascinating to see how it unfolds over the coming weeks and months.
