Elon Musk throttles Grok Bot limits due to ‘unsustainably high’ costs

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Musk confirmed he is lowering Grok Bot's weekly usage limits, saying service costs are too high relative to revenue to sustain. Over Halloween weekend, some users reported their usage jumping from as low as 50% to 100% overnight. SpaceX's filing last month said AI already accounts for 52% of the company's revenue, and its rebranded 'superintelligence' division earned $431 million, with profit even higher excluding $1.2 billion in one-time costs related to the Cursor acquisition; Musk has not yet said how subscriber limits will change going forward.

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Over Halloween weekend, some Grok Bot users awoke to something especially spooky: their weekly usage limits were unexpectedly maxed out, even if they hadn’t been using SpaceX’s agentic AI overnight. Some users reported on X that their usage jumped from as low as 50% to 100%.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk confirmed in an X post on Sunday that this was not a glitch.

“The cost of serving Grok Bot was unsustainably high relative to revenue,” he wrote in a reply to a question from a user. He has not addressed the issue on his main feed, but has continued boasting that Grok Bot can help you buy gifts for your family.

The cost of serving Grok Bot was unsustainably high relative to revenue
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 1, 2026

Grok Bot has been positioned as a success story for the newly public SpaceX, which said in a filing last month that AI now makes up 52% of company income. Its renamed “Super Intelligence” division actually turned a profit of $431 million, which is a rarity in the AI industry. Its profit would’ve been higher if not for $1.2 billion of one-time costs related to its acquisition of Cursor. Musk recently referred to Grok Bot as having “the fastest growth of a product that I’ve ever seen in my life.”

Musk has not yet shared how subscribers’ usage limits will be impacted moving forward.

Source: TechCrunch · AI · techcrunch.com