Grok AI in October 2026: The App, Models, Plans and Privacy

Grok AI is the chatbot made by Elon Musk’s AI company, formerly xAI and now operating as SpaceXAI after its merger with SpaceX. You can use it free at grok.com, in the official iOS and Android apps, or inside X, and paid SuperGrok plans add higher limits and the newest models. Its app is back in the App Store’s top charts this week, shortly after a run of releases that included Grok 4.7 in September and Grok Voice 3.0 on October 14, 2026.

Below is what Grok does today, how to get it safely, what it costs, and which settings are worth checking. Everything here reflects what we could confirm as of October 2026, and Grok changes fast.

What Grok AI actually is

Grok started as an assistant built into X (formerly Twitter). In January 2025 it became a standalone iOS app, followed by Android and a full web version at grok.com.

Its main selling point compared with ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude is real-time access to posts on X alongside web search. That makes it quick at answering “what’s happening right now” questions, but it also means answers can repeat whatever is circulating on X, so check anything important against primary sources.

Who owns it

This trips people up because the branding has changed twice in a year:

• February 2026: SpaceX acquired xAI in an all-stock deal, making it a SpaceX subsidiary.
• Mid-2026: xAI was rebranded as SpaceXAI. Most reports put the name change in July, though at least one says August.

Grok, the app and the X integration all carried on unchanged. Recent coverage uses “xAI”, “SpaceXAI” and “SpaceX” more or less interchangeably for the same team.

What’s new in Grok (as of October 2026)

Grok 4.7

Grok 4.7 launched on September 21, 2026 and went live straight away in the Grok app, Grok Build (xAI’s coding tool), Cursor and the API. The company describes it as built on a larger base model with a longer reinforcement-learning run, and pitches it at professional work such as legal, medical and financial analysis.

Independent verdicts are mixed. Decrypt’s coverage framed it as bigger but late to the frontier, and benchmark reports disagree on whether it leads or trails rival models. Some outlets reported a parameter count that the company has not confirmed. Our advice is to try it on your own tasks rather than rely on leaderboard claims.

Imagine (images and video)

Imagine is Grok’s image and video generator. According to xAI’s announcement, Imagine Video 1.5 generates sound effects, ambience and dialogue alongside the video and comes with a “Fast” mode in the web and mobile apps. xAI says that mode can make a 6-second 720p clip in about 25 seconds. That’s the vendor’s figure, and in practice speed depends on demand. Later updates reportedly added 1080p output and text-to-video, and Musk posted Grok-made music videos on October 14.

Voice and companions

The app’s Voice Mode lets you talk to Grok out loud. A Live Camera option lets it see through your phone’s camera, and a June 2026 update added screen sharing during voice chats on iOS and Android. The App Store listing also advertises animated “companions” (characters called Ani, Rudi and Valentine) and selectable personalities.

Grok Voice 3.0, released October 14, is the new speech model behind the developer Voice Agent API. It topped Artificial Analysis’s speech-to-speech index at launch. xAI’s release notes list it as available and mark the older version as deprecated. We haven’t confirmed whether, or when, the consumer app’s voice mode switches to it.

How to get the official Grok app

Grok has a lot of lookalike apps with similar names and icons in both app stores. To make sure you get the real one:

1. Open the App Store (iPhone/iPad) or Google Play (Android).
2. Search for Grok. On iOS the official listing is currently named “Grok - AI Chat & Video”.
3. Check the developer name. It should be the company behind Grok (listed as xAI/SpaceXAI), not an unknown publisher.
4. Install it and sign in. When the standalone app launched, it accepted Apple, Google, X or email accounts, so you don’t need an X account.
5. Or skip the app entirely and use grok.com in any browser.

Don’t install Grok from APK sites or “Grok Pro unlocked” downloads. Those aren’t official, and you’d be handing an unknown app access to your device and accounts.

Grok plans and pricing

xAI’s own pricing pages are the authority here, and they’ve changed several times this year. The figures below are what third-party trackers such as AI Toolbox reported from grok.com in September and October 2026. Treat them as indicative and check the live price at checkout.

A few caveats:

• Free limits aren’t published. xAI doesn’t state a fixed cap, and it appears to shift with demand.
• SuperGrok Plus shows up in only some recent sources, so we can’t fully confirm it yet.
• Annual billing is reported to work out cheaper than paying monthly.
• X Premium and Premium+ subscriptions also include Grok access inside X, though at different limits.
• App store prices can differ from web prices because of Apple’s and Google’s billing.

Privacy settings worth checking

Grok’s privacy controls are split between grok.com/the app and X, and menu labels move between versions. Here’s what to look for:

1. Training opt-out: In Grok, go to Settings → Data Controls and turn off the option that lets your conversations improve the model. On X, the equivalent Grok setting is under Settings → Privacy and safety. X’s help page explains how Grok uses X data.
2. Feedback caveat: Giving a thumbs up or down on a reply can still let that conversation be used for training, even if you’ve opted out.
3. Private Chat: For one-off sensitive questions, start a private chat (the ghost icon on a new chat, where available). These chats are reported to stay out of your history and out of training.
4. Delete history: Data Controls lets you delete single chats or everything. X says deleted conversations are removed within 30 days unless they must be kept for legal or security reasons.
5. Memory: Memory, where Grok remembers details across chats, is a separate toggle from training. Turn it off if you don’t want past chats shaping new answers.

Opting out only affects data from that point on. It doesn’t remove anything already used in training.

Is Grok worth trying?

If you mostly want fast answers about breaking news and what people are saying on X, Grok is well suited to that, and the free tier is enough to find out. Imagine is one of the more capable consumer video tools if you want quick clips with sound. For long-form writing, coding and research, Grok 4.7 is competitive but not a clear winner, so compare it with the assistant you already use on your real work before paying $30 a month.

If you plan to use it at work or let teenagers use it, review its content settings and your organisation’s AI policies first.