Grok’s AI companions drove downloads, but its latest model is the one making money

Grok’s raunchy, unfiltered AI companions could also be making headlines for his or her unhinged and sometimes 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, in keeping with app intelligence agency Appfigures.

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

As well as, every 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 leap in downloads and income was much less pronounced. Whereas curiosity in regards to the companions doubtless drove extra installs, the characteristic isn’t but poised to be a major money-maker for the corporate, regardless of being solely accessible to “Tremendous Grok” subscribers paying $30 per 30 days.

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

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

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

The corporate introduced that, along with Grok 4 and Grok 4 Heavy, it will additionally provide a $300-per-month subscription known as SuperGrok Heavy, its priciest plan up to now. The plan provides 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 attention-grabbing to see this demand for Grok’s subscription plans, although the AI was initially consulting Elon Musk’s X posts for solutions. xAI has since addressed this difficulty.

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 high 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 reveals.

Appfigures notes that it targeted on iOS information for this evaluation, as that information set is at present extra complete than information from Android units. The latter is just accessible by means of July 14 in the intervening time, as Appfigures’ mannequin wants extra time to course of Google Play information.