SpaceX CEO Elon Musk stated that the cost of serving Grok Bot is unsustainably high relative to revenue following reports of users hitting weekly usage limits faster.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk stated on Sunday that the cost of serving Grok Bot is "unsustainably high relative to revenue," according to reports from TechCrunch, The Economic Times, and Anadolu Agency.
Over Halloween weekend, users reported on X that their weekly Grok Bot usage limits were being reached unexpectedly. Some users reported that their usage jumped from as low as 50% to 100% without significant activity. One user reported their usage reached 100% before the next reset, even though they typically did not hit their limit.
In response to a user asking for a usage reset, Musk stated, "The cost of serving Grok Bot was unsustainably high relative to revenue," according to TechCrunch. Musk has not addressed the issue on his main feed but has described reducing allowances and communicating the change as "just being sensible," according to The Economic Times.
Grok Bot is an AI agent launched by SpaceX in August that can use a virtual computer to perform multi-step tasks on behalf of users. According to The Economic Times, the service offers several subscription tiers, including free access and plans costing up to $200 a month.
In a filing last month, SpaceX stated that AI now makes up 52% of company income. The company's renamed "Super Intelligence" division reported a profit of $431 million, though this figure would have been higher if not for $1.2 billion in one-time costs related to the acquisition of Cursor, according to TechCrunch.
SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell stated there were 800,000 paying weekly Grok Bot users in early October, which was double the number of users from the previous month, according to TechSpot.
High operating costs are a noted challenge across the AI industry. According to TechSpot, OpenAI's cost of revenue reached $7.5 billion in 2025. Additionally, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg told investors last month that Meta's Muse AI agent was "very compute-intensive" and not yet profitable, according to The Economic Times.
Sources
This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.
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