X Platform quietly restricted the Ask Grok feature to premium subscribers, free users no longer receive replies when mentioning @Grok in a post

According to 1M AI News monitoring, the X platform recently quietly adjusted Grok's usage permissions. Free users no longer receive an AI response when they @grok in post replies, but instead receive the message: "Ask Grok is currently available to Premium and Premium+ subscribers only. Subscribe to unlock this feature." Several tech media outlets have confirmed that this change is not a bug and only accounts without a subscription badge are being blocked.

Ask Grok is a feature within the X platform that allows users to @mention Grok in any post to directly receive an AI response in the thread, without leaving the timeline. This restriction now means that this feature requires an X Premium ($8/month) or Premium+ ($40/month) subscription. It is worth noting that Grok's standalone website grok.com and the standalone subscription SuperGrok are not affected by this change, and free users can still use basic functionality through grok.com.

This is the second time this year that X has tightened the free use of Grok. In January of this year, after the Grok image generation feature was widely abused to create non-consensual deepfake pornographic images, X restricted the image generation and editing feature to exclusive use by paying subscribers. X and xAI have not issued an official statement regarding this adjustment to the Ask Grok feature.