xAI and Grok apologize for ‘horrific behavior’


Grok’s raunchy, unfiltered AI companions could also be making headlines for his or her unhinged and infrequently NSFW responses, however it’s Grok 4, xAI’s newest mannequin, that’s been driving the app’s income of late.

Elon Musk’s xAI launched Grok 4 late on July 9, and by Friday, July 11, Grok’s gross income on iOS had jumped a whopping 325% to $419,000, up from $99,000 the day earlier than the Grok 4 launch, based on app intelligence agency Appfigures.

Picture Credit:Appfigures

Grok continued to tug in higher-than-usual income within the days following the launch of the brand new mannequin, with gross income over $367,000 for a few days earlier than dipping right down to $310,000 on July 14.

As well as, day by day downloads of the Grok iOS app had elevated 279% to 197,000 by July 11, up from 52,000 earlier than Grok 4 launched.

However following the addition of Grok’s AI companions the subsequent week, on July 14, the bounce in downloads and income was much less pronounced. Whereas curiosity concerning the companions seemingly drove extra installs, the characteristic isn’t but poised to be a major moneymaker for the corporate, regardless of being solely obtainable to “Tremendous Grok” subscribers paying $30 monthly.

Grok’s iOS downloads globally have been up 40% the day after the companions launched, reaching 171,000 day by day installs, however income elevated simply 9%, hitting $337,000.

So whereas it’s clear that there was an influence from the launch, it’s decidedly smaller than the launch of the brand new AI mannequin.

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Picture Credit:Appfigures

Given Grok’s costly new subscription providing, timed alongside the Grok 4 launch, it’s not shocking to see that even a smaller enhance within the variety of paying subscribers might drive Grok’s iOS income considerably increased.

The corporate introduced that, along with Grok 4 and Grok 4 Heavy, it will additionally supply a $300-per-month subscription referred to as SuperGrok Heavy, its priciest plan so far. The plan gives subscribers early entry to Grok 4 Heavy and different new options, xAI mentioned, however it’s dearer than comparable plans from different main AI suppliers, together with OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic.

It’s fascinating to see this demand for Grok’s subscription plans, despite the fact that the AI was initially consulting Elon Musk’s X posts for solutions. xAI has since addressed this subject.

Picture Credit:Appfigures

Curiosity within the new mannequin additionally drove up Grok’s rating on the U.S. App Retailer shortly after its launch, making Grok the No. 3 app general and No. 2 within the Productiveness class by July 12.

That curiosity has declined considerably over the previous week — the app is now No. 17 general — although it’s nonetheless No. 2 in Productiveness, Appfigures information exhibits.

Appfigures notes that it targeted on iOS information for this evaluation, as that dataset is presently extra complete than information from Android units. The latter is barely obtainable by July 14 in the interim, as Appfigures’ mannequin wants extra time to course of Google Play information.