Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, has introduced its latest AI model, Grok 3, and in a parallel move, the social media platform X has significantly increased the cost of its Premium+ subscription.
This top-tier plan, which provides access to Grok 3, now carries a monthly fee of $50 in the United States, with the annual rate set at $350.
The recent price adjustment marks the second hike for the Premium+ plan in just a few months.
Previously, in December, X raised the subscription cost from $16 to $22 per month.
With the latest increase, Premium+ users are now paying more than twice their previous rates.
Additionally, some advanced features of Grok 3 have been placed behind an exclusive SuperGrok subscription tier, available through the Grok app.
Features such as “deep search” and “reasoning” will only be accessible to SuperGrok subscribers.
However, inconsistencies in pricing across X’s different pages have raised concerns.
Some users have reported varying rates when signing up for Premium+, with monthly charges fluctuating between $40 and $50, according ton reports.
Additionally, discrepancies between the listed annual fees—ranging from $350 to nearly $478—have led to confusion among potential subscribers.
Meanwhile, xAI is positioning Grok 3 as a major leap forward in AI technology.
Mr Musk has described it as the “Smartest AI on Earth,” with internal testing reportedly demonstrating its superiority over previous versions and rival AI models.
A key improvement in Grok 3 is its significantly increased compute power, speculated to be ten times greater than its predecessor, which could result in faster response times and improved accuracy.
There are also indications that Grok 3 may introduce new capabilities, such as text-to-video generation, further expanding its functionality.
The launch of Grok 3 places xAI in direct competition with other tech giants developing advanced AI models.
With companies like OpenAI and Google pushing forward with models such as the o1-series and Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking, xAI is making a bold statement with Grok 3’s unique approach to AI training.
Unlike many traditional models, Grok 3 is designed to refine its responses by learning from its own errors, a process that aims to enhance logical consistency and overall robustness.
The unveiling of Grok 3 also underscores the ongoing rivalry between Musk and OpenAI, a company he co-founded in 2015 before departing in 2018 over strategic disagreements.
Mr Musk has been an outspoken critic of OpenAI’s transition to a for-profit structure, a shift that secured billions in investment but sparked debates over the direction of artificial general intelligence (AGI).
In a recent high-profile move, Mr Musk led a consortium in an unsolicited bid to acquire OpenAI for $97.4 billion, an offer that was unanimously rejected by its board.
Beyond Grok 3, xAI has been expanding its footprint in AI innovation.
Initiatives such as granting free-tier users on X access to previous-generation chatbots and beta testing the Aurora image model highlight the company’s broader ambitions.
By challenging industry norms and emphasizing enhanced reasoning capabilities, Musk’s xAI is driving forward a new wave of AI-driven communication and automation.
