On November 4, 2023, SpaceX reportedly announced the early beta release of its Grok AI bot. Built by xAI, the Nevada-based startup Elon Musk founded in March 2023, the model reportedly required an X Premium+ subscription costing $16 a month.
That marked the beginning of a rapid shift from paywalled experiment to open-source tool. Details of the beta rollout come from early release reports and are not all officially confirmed. Here is how the picture changed, and how anyone can try the model today.
Before: A Chatbot Behind a Paywall
In late 2023, Grok existed as a closed experiment. You could not download it, self-host it, or inspect its weights. The only route in was paying for X Premium+, and the bot was positioned as a perk for subscribers rather than a standalone product.
That gatekeeping defined the first phase. Developers who wanted to test Grok’s reasoning had no API path, no local install, and no licence to build on. The model ran on xAI’s infrastructure, reportedly trained on a cluster of NVIDIA H100 GPUs, and users saw only the chat window. The same tension over who controls access surfaced when Security Claude: Researchers pressed major vendors on default protections for the models they ship.
The Catalyst: March 17, 2024
Everything shifted on March 17, 2024, when xAI released Grok-1 under an open-source MIT licence. That single decision turned a subscriber perk into downloadable software.
The published architecture carries 314 billion parameters, a mixture-of-experts design that activates only part of the network per token. Worth noting: the MIT licence is the permissive kind. It allows commercial use, modification, and redistribution with minimal conditions. For a model of that size, released by a company still selling subscriptions, it was an unusual move.
After: How to Actually Try Grok
Three practical routes exist now. Each suits a different user, and none requires the original $16 monthly commitment. Route 1 — The hosted bot. Sign in to X and use Grok inside the app. This is the fastest path and needs no hardware. Tier limits vary by subscription level.
Route 2 — Run the open weights. Download the Grok-1 weights from a public repository and load them on your own machine. Be realistic about requirements: a 314-billion-parameter model demands serious GPU memory, so this route is for teams with hardware, not laptops. Route 3 — Build on the API. Developers integBeacon Buys Wrong, and the reason safety researchers keep arguing for hard limits. If you are wiring a bot into anything consequential, read up on the Kill Switch, Hard debate first. For more detail, see OpenAI Blog.
Before vs After, Side by Side
| Dimension | Before (Nov 2023) | After (2024 onward) |
|---|---|---|
| Access | X Premium+, $16/month | Open weights plus hosted bot |
| Licence | Proprietary | MIT, commercial use allowed |
| Parameters | 314 billion | 314 billion, unchanged |
| Cost to try | $16/month | Free weights, your compute bill |
The beta is history. What remains is a model you can download, audit, and run yourself — and that is the real change.
FAQs
Is Grok still in beta?
The original November 4, 2023 beta phase has ended, and Grok-1 has been publicly available under an MIT licence since March 17, 2024. For more detail, see VentureBeat AI.
Do I need an X Premium+ subscription to try Grok?
No, not for the open weights, though the hosted in-app version still sits behind subscription tiers.
Can I run Grok-1 on a normal laptop?
No, a 314-billion-parameter model needs substantial GPU memory, so most individuals should use the hosted bot or API instead.
Source: Engadget
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