Screenshots reveal Grok integrating directly into X's web app

Elon Musk's rebellious AI chatbot is about to make its home on your feed.

New screenshots surfaced by app researcher Nima Owji reveal that xAI's Grok chatbot is actively being integrated into X's web application. The code was added yesterday, pointing to a dedicated URL at twitter.com/i/grok.

A front-row seat on the sidebar

The leaked screenshots show Grok sitting prominently on the web app's left navigation bar, slotted right beneath Home, Search, Notifications, and Messages.

The icon immediately jumps out: while regular X icons are simple outlined shapes, Grok gets a solid black square with a white diagonal slash.

Clicking the icon without a subscription surfaces a prompt urging users to "Subscribe to Premium+ to get access to Grok."

For paying members, the interface opens a clean chat window featuring an "Ask Grok" input bar and a history button in the top right to browse previous conversations.

While X's help center still lists Grok as "coming soon" for Premium+ users, this level of front-end integration suggests the wait won't be very long.

The $16 hook for X Premium+

Grok first rolled out to a small test group on November 4, with Musk pitching it as the marquee perk for X's highest subscription tier.

X recently split its subscriptions into three distinct tiers: Basic at $3 per month, standard Premium at $8 per month, and Premium+ at $16 per month or $168 per year.

Premium+ previously relied on zero ads and creator revenue sharing to justify its cost. Adding Grok turns it into a serious consumer AI bundle.

xAI designed Grok after "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," giving it a sarcastic, witty persona willing to answer edgy questions that ChatGPT or Claude outright refuse. Its main technical edge is real-time access to the firehose of X posts and live web browsing.

Why it matters

We think packaging Grok inside Premium+ is a clever way for Musk to turn X into an AI distribution machine.

Until now, paying $16 a month made sense almost exclusively for creators looking to monetize impressions. Tying an exclusive, real-time chatbot to the tier gives regular lurkers and power users an actual reason to upgrade.

At $16 a month, it also undercuts OpenAI's $20 ChatGPT Plus subscription while throwing in an ad-free social network on top.

However, there is an obvious catch. Grok's selling points—being witty, rebellious, and answering spicy questions—make for great viral screenshots, but not necessarily a dependable daily assistant.

If Grok turns out to be more of a party trick than a reliable productivity tool, it remains to be seen whether users will keep paying month after month just for a snarky bot.