How to use Grok: a beginner's guide to xAI's AI assistant

What Grok is

Grok is a chatbot made by xAI. Elon Musk started the company in March 2023, and it now belongs to SpaceX. Wikipedia lists it there under the name SpaceX Super Intelligence. The first Grok reached paying X subscribers in November 2023. The name comes from a word in Robert Heinlein's 1961 novel Stranger in a Strange Land, meaning to understand something deeply.

You can use Grok in a browser at grok.com, in the Grok apps for iPhone and Android, or inside the X app. Tesla also puts it in its cars, as a chat assistant that cannot control the car. A free account can chat within usage limits, and the SuperGrok and X Premium subscriptions add more use and newer features.

What Grok is good for

• Answers about this week: DeepSearch reads web pages and X posts before it replies, which suits a question about something that only just happened.
• What people on X are saying: ask for the main themes around an event or a product launch, with example posts. One beginner tutorial uses it to review trends on X.
• Reading your files: upload a PDF or a screenshot and ask for a summary, the key details or a list of action items.
• Images and short videos: its Imagine tool turns a one-line description into a picture or a clip, and Grok can also edit a photo you upload from a written request.
• Writing and editing: draft an email, a social post or a script, then ask for it shorter, warmer or more formal.
• Code and small apps: it explains code, finds the cause of an error message, and can build a simple app for someone who has never programmed.

When to use Grok, and when to pick another tool

How to use Grok, step by step

Grok's menus change with each release, so these steps stay with sign-up, the message box and the main features.

1. Open Grok. Go to grok.com in a browser, install the Grok app on your iPhone or Android phone, or open Grok from inside X.
2. Create an account or sign in. A free account has usage limits, and some features may need a paid plan.
3. Type a question in the message box and send it. Start with something you can check, such as a question about today's news, and read the whole answer before you reply.
4. Ask a follow-up in the same chat. Grok keeps the conversation, so write "shorter", "explain it for a beginner" or "what is your source for that?" instead of starting over.
5. Choose how hard it works. Look beside the message box for the modes. Think reasons before it answers, and DeepSearch searches the web and X first. Both take longer than a plain reply.
6. Attach a file. Use the attach option beside the message box to add a PDF or a picture, then ask for a summary, the key details or a list of action items.
7. Make a picture or a clip. Open Imagine, describe the scene in one or two sentences, and choose a shape such as 16:9 for widescreen and speed or quality before you generate.
8. Talk instead of typing. In the app, open the voice option to have a spoken conversation with Grok.

1. Type a question in the What do you want to know? box and send it. Start with something you can check.

   

2. Choose how hard it works with the DeepSearch and Think buttons beside the box. Think reasons before it answers, and DeepSearch searches the web and X first.

   

3. Press the paperclip at the left of the box to attach a PDF or a picture, then ask for a summary or the key details.

   

4. Open Imagine, describe the scene in the box and pick a shape such as 16:9 before you generate.

   

AI-made illustrations of Grok's screens, drawn on 6 November 2026 to match these steps. They are not screenshots, so the real app may look different: follow what you see.

The tutorials at the top of this page show these steps on screen. Mode names and menus move between releases, so go by the newest video.

An example to try

Pick a topic you follow, paste this into the message box and turn on DeepSearch if your plan has it. Replace the part in brackets first.

What are people on X saying this week about [a product or event you care about]?
Give me three main themes. For each theme, quote one post and say who wrote it.
Then list what you could not confirm, and what I should check myself.

• Three themes, each backed by a named post you can open on X. If a post has no author or link, ask for one.
• A short list of points it could not confirm. A reply with no gaps listed is a reason to ask again.
• Dates on the posts. A summary of "this week" that names no date may rest on older posts.

Tips for better results

• Give the job and the reader. "Write a two-line reply to a customer who received the wrong size" gets a better draft than "write an email".
• Ask for sources and open one. A summary is only as good as the post or page under it.
• For a hard problem, run Think first, then ask plain follow-ups on its answer.
• For images, change one thing per try: the subject, then the style, then the shape. The JSFILMZ tutorial argues for a short, repeatable prompt over a long, complicated one.
• Keep passwords, client details and anything you could not post publicly out of the chat.

What to watch for

Grok's answers have moved with its instructions. xAI changed its system prompt several times in 2025, and after one edit in July 2025 Grok praised Hitler in posts on X, for which the company apologized. You cannot see these edits, so a second source is the check for anything that matters. In April 2024 its news summary on X turned jokes about the solar eclipse into the headline "Sun's Odd Behavior: Experts Baffled".

On privacy, some shared Grok conversations turned up in Google results in August 2025 because of how the share feature stored them, and the company fixed it afterwards. Share a link only to a chat you are happy for anyone to read. In July 2026 a researcher reported that Grok Build, the terminal coding tool, uploaded whole code folders to the company's storage. The company turned that off the same day.

Its image tools have had fewer limits than rivals. In December 2025 people used them to make sexualized edits of real people's photos, and lawmakers in many countries criticized it. Edit a photo of a real person only with their say-so.

Learn more about Grok

1. 2AI basics course for beginners · Lesson 2 of 4Which AI model should I use for my task?Which AI model should I use? Pick the assistant by your task and where your files live, then a fast or deep-thinking model, and test two on your own work.8 min
2. 3AI basics course for beginners · Lesson 3 of 4AI hallucinations: why chatbots make things up and how to checkAI hallucinations are fluent answers that are false. See why models make things up, five steps to check an answer and how much checking each task needs.7 min

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Wikipedia: Grok (chatbot) (read November 6, 2026)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grok_(chatbot)
2. Wikipedia: xAI (read November 6, 2026)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XAI_(company)
3. Kevin Stratvert on YouTube: How to Use Grok, Complete Beginner's Tutorial (2026) (read November 6, 2026)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGSQV0lIGus
4. JSFILMZ on YouTube: Grok Imagine Tutorial For Beginners #1 (read November 6, 2026)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7RjUTA7HZU
5. Grok on YouTube: Introducing Grok Bot (read November 6, 2026)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1_0Lkp16Rc