Over the Halloween weekend, some Grok Bot users discovered their weekly usage allowances had been unexpectedly depleted, even without actively using SpaceX’s agentic AI. Reports on X indicated users saw their usage levels jump from as low as 50% to 100%.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk verified in an X post on Sunday that this was not a technical error.
“The cost of serving Grok Bot was unsustainably high relative to revenue,” he commented in response to a user’s query. While he hasn’t directly addressed the matter on his primary feed, he has continued to promote Grok Bot’s capabilities, such as helping users purchase gifts for their families.
Grok Bot has been highlighted as a notable achievement for the recently public SpaceX, which reported in a filing last month that its AI sector now contributes 52% of the company’s total income. The rebranded “Super Intelligence” division posted a profit of $431 million, a rare feat in the AI industry. Its profitability would have been even greater if not for $1.2 billion in one-time expenses associated with its acquisition of Cursor. Musk recently described Grok Bot as exhibiting “the fastest growth of a product that I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Musk has yet to provide information regarding how subscriber usage limits will be adjusted moving forward.