Elon Musk said late Sunday US time, which was Monday morning Beijing time, that the operating costs of xAI's Grok chatbot have become too high to sustain relative to the revenue it generates. This highlights the funding pressure facing the AI business as demand for the service rises.
A user asked whether xAI could reset the service's weekly usage allowance, and Musk replied on the US social platform X: "The cost of running Grok Bot is unsustainable relative to revenue." The user reported that many subscribers were burning through Grok Bot allowances much faster than usual this week. Musk did not disclose specific figures for operating costs or revenue, nor did he say whether usage limits would be adjusted or reset.
xAI launched an early beta version of Grok Bot in August. It is an AI agent that can use a dedicated virtual computer to carry out tasks across apps and online services. Unlike traditional chatbots, it can perform multi-step tasks and supports continuous background operation. Grok Bot is included in several paid SuperGrok and Cursor subscription packages, with usage allowances separate from users' other Grok and Cursor quotas.
Many subscribers reported that Grok Bot allowances were being consumed far more quickly than usual this week, prompting questions about whether xAI would reset the weekly usage cap for the service.
Grok Bot differs from conventional chatbots in that it can execute multi-step tasks and keep running in the background, and it is bundled into multiple paid subscription tiers, including SuperGrok and Cursor, with usage limits that are independent of other Grok and Cursor allowances.
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