Elon Musk says Grok Bot usage limits were tightened due to costs

In short: Grok Bot users hit their weekly limits faster, and Elon Musk said it was because running the bot was costing too much.

The details

Over the Halloween weekend, some people using Grok Bot reported that their weekly usage limits suddenly showed as maxed out. A few users said their usage jumped from about 50% to 100%, even though they had not been using the service overnight.

Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, replied to a user on X and said it was not a glitch. He wrote that “the cost of serving Grok Bot was unsustainably high relative to revenue.” In simple terms, that means it cost more money to run the bot than the company was making back from it, like a popular all-you-can-eat buffet where too many people show up and the owner loses money.

The change comes as SpaceX has been pointing to its AI business as a growing part of the company. In a recent filing, SpaceX said AI makes up 52% of its income, and that its “Super Intelligence” division made a $431 million profit. The filing also said profits would have been higher without $1.2 billion in one-time costs tied to SpaceX’s acquisition of Cursor.

Musk has also said Grok Bot has had “the fastest growth of a product” he has ever seen. He has not said yet whether the tighter weekly limits will continue, or how they will affect subscribers going forward.

Source: TechCrunch AI