ChatGPT vs Grok

Two catalogue entries side by side. Not a benchmark: we have not tested these products against each other.

Catalogue checked September 23, 2026.

ChatGPT

Plan price reference: Plus $20/month; API usage is billed separately

Can produce confident but wrong answers
Available models and limits depend on the plan

Grok

Plan price reference: Free tier; SuperGrok $30/month (USD)

Paid consumer usage is metered by compute, so a fixed number of messages is not published
Uploaded long documents are chunked or summarised, and PDFs over 100 pages focus on text and key visuals

Monthly and annual billing are different commitments: the annual figure is a prepayment, and an annual equivalent is not a monthly price. Nothing on this page is a test of output quality, and the list below names the official sources this entry uses with the date each was read - check them against the plan and the use you have in mind.

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Side-by-side comparison of the selected products. An empty cell means we have not verified that fact here - it is not a statement that the product lacks it, nor that the vendor has not disclosed it.
What you are deciding	ChatGPTOpenAI	GrokxAI
What it is for	OpenAI's conversational assistant	Assistant with Web and X search
Typical tasks	Drafting emails, essays and reports Writing and debugging code Brainstorming and research Summarizing documents and data	Checking public Web and X discussion on a current topic Analysing uploaded documents and files Creating images and short video through Imagine Building on the developer API with separate billing
Pricing model	Freemium	Freemium
Plan pricing referenceFrom the vendor page listed, for the plan named. Not the lowest price worldwide: billing cycle, region and taxes change it.	Plus $20/month; API usage is billed separately	Free tier; SuperGrok $30/month (USD)
Where it stops	Can produce confident but wrong answers Available models and limits depend on the plan Knowledge cutoff without browsing	Paid consumer usage is metered by compute, so a fixed number of messages is not published Uploaded long documents are chunked or summarised, and PDFs over 100 pages focus on text and key visuals Generated images and video carry a watermark with no toggle, and 720p can drop to 480p after a plan cap Lite, Heavy, Business and Enterprise plan details and annual totals were not verified in this round
Price	DocumentedPlus is US$20 per month billed monthly. OpenAI lists Go, Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise as paid plans and states that they are priced per user per month, with monthly billing for Go, Plus and Business and annual billing for Business and Enterprise; the pricing page we read did not show the plan amounts.Source: OpenAI Help Center - What is ChatGPT Plus? · ChatGPT plans and pricing	Not establishedThe pricing page lists subscription amounts and billing cadence, and the FAQ distinguishes web/Apple/Google purchase channels. Complete regional currencies, prices and account/channel purchase eligibility remain unestablished.Source: xAI - pricing · Grok - consumer FAQ
Availability	DocumentedOpenAI publishes a supported-country and territory list for ChatGPT on web and mobile. It includes the United States, United Kingdom, Japan and Singapore; access from outside listed regions may lead to an account being blocked or suspended. This is a declared support policy, not a per-plan sales guarantee or a test of local network access.Source: OpenAI Help - ChatGPT supported countries	Not establishedWeb/mobile entry points and legal-use restrictions are documented, but a current consumer-product country-distribution and plan eligibility matrix is not established; no worldwide access or reachability is inferred.Source: Grok - overview · Grok - consumer FAQ · grok official grok-terms
Commercial use	DocumentedThe ChatGPT FAQ permits commercial use of outputs, including reprinting, selling and merchandising, for both free and paid plans, subject to OpenAI’s Content Policy and Terms. That permission does not remove the user’s obligations under those policies or establish rights in third-party material.Source: OpenAI Help - ChatGPT commercial outputs	Not establishedThe consumer terms preserve content ownership subject to law and require permission/attribution for using Output under the Brand Guidelines. They do not provide blanket commercial-output permission for all plans or actual material; ownership alone is insufficient.Source: grok official grok-terms
Training on your data	DocumentedOpenAI states that content from ChatGPT and Codex may be used to train its models; training can be turned off under Data controls or through the Privacy Portal and stops applying to later conversations; temporary chats are not used to train models; submitted feedback may still be used; and Business, Enterprise, Edu and API inputs and outputs are not used for training by default.Source: OpenAI Help Center - how your data is used	DocumentedWithout explicit permission, API input and output are not used to train models, and requests and responses are encrypted and retained by default for 30 days for audit before deletion; zero data retention is a separate condition. Consumer data may be used for service improvement and model training, unlike the API FAQ position; this is why the consumer and developer training statements are kept apart on this page. Provides training opt-out, access and deletion controls. Private Chat is not kept in history and is usually deleted within 30 days, with legal, compliance and security exceptions.Source: xAI - API security FAQ · xAI - consumer privacy policy · xAI - privacy portal
API billing	DocumentedThe API is a separate product with its own billing and is not part of a ChatGPT subscription.Source: OpenAI Help Center - What is ChatGPT Plus?	DocumentedThe developer API has its own wallet and budget rules, separate from any consumer subscription; the amount a chat plan includes does not transfer into API spend.Source: xAI - console billing
Export formats	DocumentedCompleted Deep Research reports in ChatGPT can be downloaded as Markdown, Word or PDF. Deep Research availability and usage depend on the plan, supported country or territory, and workspace permissions. The Word label does not establish a particular filename extension here; the evidence does not cover every ChatGPT surface or verify the correctness of exported reports.Source: OpenAI help — Deep research in ChatGPT	Not establishedThe current consumer FAQ describes files/data and billing, but does not establish stable downloadable report/chat file formats and plan/surface eligibility. Data-access controls are not a finished-report export matrix.Source: Grok - consumer FAQ
Usage limits	DocumentedPlus subscriptions may include usage limits such as message caps, and those limits may vary with system conditions; because model availability and limits change over time, OpenAI directs readers to the model picker for the options on their account.Source: OpenAI Help Center - What is ChatGPT Plus?	DocumentedPaid use is metered by compute into a shared weekly allowance rather than fixed message counts, with web top-ups from $5. Files: about 100 per message on web and 20 on Android, most single files 150MB, long documents chunked or summarised, and PDFs over 100 pages focusing on text and key visuals. Images and video carry a watermark with no toggle, and 720p can fall back to 480p at the plan cap. iOS counts, per-tier generation counts and report exports were not obtained as stable public figures.Source: Grok - consumer FAQ
Facts	Category Chat Assistants Launched November 30, 2022	Category Chat Assistants Launched November 3, 2023
Where to check	Official site ↗ OpenAI Help Center - What is ChatGPT Plus? ↗ What this source supports Plus is $20/month billed monthly, available on the ChatGPT website and supported apps; API usage is billed separately. Also states that Plus subscriptions may include usage limits such as message caps, that those limits may vary with system conditions, and that model availability and limits change over time - the page directs readers to the model picker for the options on their account. Read on 14 October 2026 through a Wayback snapshot of this same help page because the live host blocks our requests (HTTP 403). Read on October 14, 2026 OpenAI Help Center - ChatGPT release notes ↗ What this source supports The September 2026 entries describe connecting external accounts to plugins, and record the retirement of GPT-4.5 (June 2026) and o3 (August 2026). Read on September 23, 2026 OpenAI Help Center - how your data is used ↗ What this source supports Read on 12 October 2026 through a Wayback snapshot of this same help page because the live host blocks our requests (HTTP 403). States that ChatGPT and Codex content may be used to train models, that training can be turned off in Data controls or the Privacy Portal and stops applying to later conversations, that temporary chats are not used to train models, that submitted feedback may still be used, and that Business, Enterprise, Edu and API inputs and outputs are not used for training by default. Read on October 12, 2026 ChatGPT plans and pricing ↗ What this source supports Lists the plans as Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise, and states that the paid plans (Go, Plus, Business, Enterprise) are priced per user per month, with monthly plans for Go, Plus and Business and annual plans for Business and Enterprise. Its comparison table marks the advanced models as unavailable on Free and on Go. Read on 14 October 2026 through a Wayback snapshot of this page because the live host blocks our requests (HTTP 403); no plan amount appeared in the text we read, so none is recorded here. Read on October 14, 2026 OpenAI Help - ChatGPT supported countries ↗ What this source supports OpenAI publishes a supported-country and territory list for ChatGPT on web and mobile. It includes the United States, United Kingdom, Japan and Singapore; access from outside listed regions may lead to an account being blocked or suspended. This is a declared support policy, not a per-plan sales guarantee or a test of local network access. Read on October 15, 2026 OpenAI Help - ChatGPT commercial outputs ↗ What this source supports The ChatGPT FAQ permits commercial use of outputs, including reprinting, selling and merchandising, for both free and paid plans, subject to OpenAI’s Content Policy and Terms. That permission does not remove the user’s obligations under those policies or establish rights in third-party material. Read on October 15, 2026 OpenAI help — Deep research in ChatGPT ↗ What this source supports Completed Deep Research reports in ChatGPT can be downloaded as Markdown, Word or PDF. Deep Research availability and usage depend on the plan, supported country or territory, and workspace permissions. The Word label does not establish a particular filename extension here; the evidence does not cover every ChatGPT surface or verify the correctness of exported reports. Read on October 15, 2026 Read the full entry Entry read against its sources on September 23, 2026.	Official site ↗ xAI - pricing ↗ What this source supports The pricing body lists The X Subscription plans and monthly/annual figures, but a complete country-specific purchasable quote and all web/App Store/Google Play eligibility are not established. Historical registered scope read on 2026-09-23, not rechecked in full on 2026-10-15: Free $0 a month with Web and X search, voice and connectors on restricted use; SuperGrok $30 a month and Plus $100 a month, with Plus listing 1080p video and higher usage and the page listing Grok 4.6. Lite, Heavy, Business and Enterprise columns are present but their current prices and entitlements did not parse, so no annual total and no minimum paid price are published here. Read on October 15, 2026 Grok - overview ↗ What this source supports The official overview describes Grok products and web/app entry points, not country-by-country service distribution. Historical registered scope read on 2026-09-23, not rechecked in full on 2026-10-15: The consumer entry points are grok.com and the iOS and Android apps, covering chat, voice, file upload and image or video creation through Imagine. The API and Grok Build or Bot are separate workflows and their abilities should not be attributed to the free chat by default. Read on October 15, 2026 Grok - consumer FAQ ↗ What this source supports The FAQ lists billing channels, shared weekly usage and files/data help, but not stable consumer report-download file types by plan. Its API-in-weekly-pool wording is not silently reconciled with the separate Cursor pricing API statement. Historical registered scope read on 2026-09-23, not rechecked in full on 2026-10-15: Paid use is metered by compute into a shared weekly allowance rather than fixed message counts, with web top-ups from $5. Files: about 100 per message on web and 20 on Android, most single files 150MB, long documents chunked or summarised, and PDFs over 100 pages focusing on text and key visuals. Images and video carry a watermark with no toggle, and 720p can fall back to 480p at the plan cap. iOS counts, per-tier generation counts and report exports were not obtained as stable public figures. Read on October 15, 2026 xAI - developer models ↗ What this source supports The catalogue dated 21 September lists Grok 4.7 with a 500k token context at $2 per million input and $6 per million output tokens, knowledge cutoff May 2026; live events require the Web and X tools to be enabled. The 500k context is an API model specification, not the PDF capacity of the free chat. Read on September 23, 2026 xAI - developer tool pricing ↗ What this source supports Web Search at $5 per thousand calls, and X Search billed per returned item - posts at $5 per thousand and profiles at $10 per thousand - alongside token costs, so a single per-search price does not exist and a chat subscription does not make API calls unlimited. Read on September 23, 2026 xAI - API security FAQ ↗ What this source supports Without explicit permission, API input and output are not used to train models, and requests and responses are encrypted and retained by default for 30 days for audit before deletion; zero data retention is a separate condition. Read on September 23, 2026 xAI - consumer privacy policy ↗ What this source supports Consumer data may be used for service improvement and model training, unlike the API FAQ position; this is why the consumer and developer training statements are kept apart on this page. Read on September 23, 2026 xAI - privacy portal ↗ What this source supports Provides training opt-out, access and deletion controls. Private Chat is not kept in history and is usually deleted within 30 days, with legal, compliance and security exceptions. Read on September 23, 2026 xAI - console billing ↗ What this source supports The developer API has its own wallet and budget rules, separate from any consumer subscription; the amount a chat plan includes does not transfer into API spend. Read on September 23, 2026 grok official grok-terms ↗ What this source supports Consumer terms retain user content ownership subject to law but require permission and attribution when using Output under Brand Guidelines, plus use restrictions. A blanket free/paid commercial-output permission is not stated. Read on October 15, 2026 Read the full entry Entry read against its sources on September 23, 2026.

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What the listings already say

Taken from this site's own entries, so the wording follows the vendors' terms rather than ours; it is our summary of their published material, not their text.

How is Grok different from ChatGPT?

Both are assistants with a free tier and a developer API billed separately from the subscription. What these two listings establish: Grok builds Web and X search into the assistant and publishes upload limits - about 100 files per message on the web and 20 on Android, most single files up to 150MB, and PDFs over 100 pages focused on text and key visuals - while ChatGPT documents file uploads and analysis without those figures. Paid consumer use is metered differently as far as each page states it: Grok is metered by compute into a shared weekly allowance rather than a fixed number of messages, and ChatGPT says free access limits vary by model, tool and plan. On price, the current Grok cards list SuperGrok at $30 a month and Plus at $100, against ChatGPT Plus at $20 a month billed monthly, and ChatGPT plan names and prices vary by region. Both state that consumer activity may be used to train models and both provide an opt-out, but the carve-outs differ: ChatGPT adds that Business, Enterprise, Edu and API inputs and outputs are not used for training by default. Compare the plan you are buying rather than the product name.

Read the Grok listing