SpaceX apparently cuts Grok Bot quotas weeks after Musk touted its growth
SpaceX is apparently cutting usage limits on Grok Bot, according to The Decoder, which relies on a Telegraph report. The Telegraph says several users saw their quotas slashed in half over the weekend.
Elon Musk responded to complaints on X on Sunday. He said that "the cost of running Grok Bot was unsustainably high relative to revenue." The Decoder notes that he did not confirm a cut outright, but adds that the statement speaks for itself. One user reported waiting days for a fresh quota. Musk asked that user whether a bigger subscription would be too expensive.
Grok Bot browses websites, answers emails and logs into accounts, similar to Meta's Muse, OpenAI's Dot or Anthropic's Claude Duet. It shares its quota with Grok and with the coding platform Cursor.
The timing stands out. Less than two weeks ago, Musk called Grok Bot his fastest-growing product, according to Forbes. SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell cited 800,000 paying users per week in early October, more than double the previous month's figure.
The Decoder places the move in a wider pattern: OpenAI and Anthropic are tightening their flat-rate plans too. OpenAI is merging Codex and Chat quotas starting in December and cracking down on account-hopping. Anthropic says an agent costs four to 15 times as much as a simple chat.
Key facts
- Per the Telegraph as cited by The Decoder, several users (not all) saw their Grok Bot quotas cut in half over the weekend.
- Elon Musk said on X on Sunday that the cost of running Grok Bot was unsustainably high relative to revenue, but did not confirm a cut outright.
- Less than two weeks earlier, Musk had called Grok Bot his fastest-growing product, according to Forbes; SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell cited 800,000 paying users per week in early October, more than double the previous month.
- Grok Bot shares its quota with Grok and the coding platform Cursor.
- OpenAI is merging Codex and Chat quotas from December, and Anthropic says an agent costs four to 15 times as much as a simple chat.
Why it matters
Grok Bot is an agent product that browses websites, answers emails and logs into accounts, and it was recently presented as a growth story. Musk's own words, that running it costs too much relative to revenue, point to the economics of agent products. The Decoder sets this beside other providers: OpenAI is merging Codex and Chat quotas from December and cracking down on account-hopping, and Anthropic says an agent costs four to 15 times as much as a simple chat. The shared pressure is that flat-rate plans meet the cost of agents.
Who it affects
Users of Grok Bot are the ones named, and the Telegraph says several of them saw quotas halved. Because Grok Bot shares its quota with Grok and the coding platform Cursor, the limit applies across those products too. One user reported waiting days for a fresh quota. The source does not say how many users were affected.
How to use it
The source gives no new quota numbers and no pricing for Grok Bot subscription tiers, so there is nothing concrete to configure. The one hint is Musk's reply to a user waiting for a fresh quota: he asked whether a bigger subscription would be too expensive. Users who rely on Grok Bot may want to check their own current limits, keeping in mind that the quota is shared with Grok and Cursor.
How solid is it
This is a secondhand account: The Decoder reports what the Telegraph reported, and its own headline hedges with "apparently". The Musk quote is real and on the record, but it is not a confirmation of a cut; The Decoder says he did not confirm one outright. The source does not say whether the Telegraph named the users or how it verified the cuts. The claim that Musk called Grok Bot his fastest-growing product comes from Forbes, via The Decoder.
Risks and caveats
No exact date for the cut or for Musk's reply is given beyond "over the weekend" and "Sunday". The source does not say what the new quota numbers are. It also does not say whether the 800,000 paying-user figure counts Grok Bot users only or a wider set of products, so it should not be read as a Grok Bot subscriber count. The reported halving applies to several users, and cannot be assumed for everyone.
“the cost of running Grok Bot was unsustainably high relative to revenue.”
— Elon Musk, on X, as quoted by The Decoder