The short answer
ChatGPT vs Grok: pick OpenAI's ChatGPT for writing, research reports, files, spreadsheets and the stronger free plan, with GPT-6 Sol on Plus and higher plans since 7 October 2026. Pick Grok, from SpaceX Super Intelligence (formerly xAI), if you need live search of X posts, video generation or the X Subscription bundle, whose Premium tier includes Cursor Pro and X Premium+. For most professionals, ChatGPT is the better daily tool.
| ChatGPT | Grok | |
|---|---|---|
| Made by | OpenAI, United States | SpaceX Super Intelligence LLC (formerly xAI), United States |
| Free plan | GPT-6 Luna, unlimited text chats within guardrails, limited uploads, images and deep research | Daily access with limited chat and agent requests, starter Cursor allowance |
| Paid plans | Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise | Plus, Premium, Super, Ultra, Teams, Enterprise (The X Subscription) |
| Models | GPT-6 Sol (Plus and up), GPT-6 Luna (Free and Go), GPT-6.1 Sol and Terra in Work and Codex | Grok 4.7 flagship; consumer model per tier not named |
| Live X search | No | Yes, with X Search on |
| Coding | Codex on every plan | Cursor in the bundle, Grok Build |
| Images and video | Image generation on every plan, with limits | Grok Imagine images and video; 1080p 15-second videos on Super |
| Office integrations | Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Google Sheets; Microsoft 365 on Business | Few; Google apps connection |
| Personal data | Improve the model for everyone, plus a separate voice control | Two switches: grok.com or app, and X |
| Our pick for | Most professionals | Social, comms and daily Cursor users |
ChatGPT vs Grok in November 2026: what changed
Both tools changed shape this autumn, so older comparisons are out of date.
ChatGPT, made by OpenAI, moved to the GPT-6 family in the Chat tab on 7 October 2026. Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise users get GPT-6 Sol, Free and Go users get GPT-6 Luna, and the newer GPT-6.1 Sol and GPT-6.1 Terra run in ChatGPT Work and Codex on Plus and higher plans. The same October release added Intelligent UI, so answers can include comparisons, diagrams and small tools such as calculators.
Grok is made by SpaceX Super Intelligence LLC (SpaceXSI), the company formerly called xAI. SpaceX acquired xAI in February 2026, renamed it SpaceXAI in July and announced products as SpaceXSI from October. The flagship model, Grok 4.7, arrived on 21 September 2026 in the Grok API, Grok Build and Cursor. On 12 October Grok became part of The X Subscription, which bundles Grok, Grok Bot, Cursor and X Premium in Free, Plus, Premium, Super and Ultra tiers. SpaceXSI's pricing page says Premium and higher get the "latest Grok models", but no page names the model on Free or Plus. OpenAI says exactly which model each plan gets, and that transparency is worth something when you decide what to pay for.
Writing and editing: ChatGPT wins
For drafts, rewrites and editing, ChatGPT is the better tool. It turns messy notes, transcripts and email threads into structured drafts, takes audio recordings on paid plans, and its free plan gives unlimited text chats with GPT-6 Luna within abuse guardrails. ChatGPT Work can hand back the result as a document, presentation or spreadsheet.
Grok has the basics: memory across chats, custom instructions, a canvas for writing and support for more than 30 languages. That covers casual writing, but it has nothing like ChatGPT's file-producing agent or its Word, Excel and PowerPoint extensions. ChatGPT wins clearly. For the most careful editing, read ChatGPT vs Claude.
Live news and what people are saying on X: Grok wins
This is Grok's real advantage. With X Search switched on, Grok can search public X posts as well as the web, so it can tell you what people are saying about a product launch, an outage or a news story right now. No other major assistant can do that with X. Grok's documentation is clear that it has real-time knowledge only when the search tools are on, so turn them on for anything current.
The weakness is the source itself. Answers built from X posts are only as reliable as those posts, and a trending claim is not a confirmed one. Ask Grok to separate posts from named, verifiable accounts from everything else, and to link each post it relies on. ChatGPT searches the web with source links, which is the better habit for facts, but for the live conversation on X, Grok wins.
Research reports with sources: ChatGPT wins
For a structured report on a topic, ChatGPT's deep research reads many pages and writes a longer answer with source links. It is limited on Free, expanded on Plus and at its maximum on Pro.
Grok's answer is multi-agent mode, tied to SuperGrok, in which several agents work on a hard question in parallel and merge their reasoning into one cited answer. That is a strong feature, but it sits on a paid tier, while ChatGPT's deep research is available in some form on every plan. For most research jobs, ChatGPT wins. See also our best AI for research guide.
Coding: Grok wins on value for daily coders, ChatGPT for everyone else
This is the closest category. ChatGPT includes Codex, OpenAI's coding agent, on every plan with limits on Free and GPT-6.1 Sol and GPT-6.1 Terra on Plus and higher plans. It is the simpler choice for professionals who code now and then.
The X Subscription changed the maths for people who code every day. SpaceXAI, as the company was then called, acquired Cursor in August 2026, and the Premium tier bundles SuperGrok, Cursor Pro and X Premium+ benefits, while even the Free tier includes a starter allowance for Cursor's coding agents. Grok 4.7 is available in Cursor and in Grok Build, SpaceXSI's coding agent. The catch: third-party models in Cursor are billed separately at API list prices. If you would pay for Cursor anyway, Grok Premium is the better deal. Developers comparing editors should read Cursor vs GitHub Copilot.
Images and video: Grok wins
Both make images. ChatGPT lists image generation on every plan with plan-dependent limits. Grok uses its Grok Imagine models, with Grok Imagine Image 2.0 and Grok Imagine Video 1.5 as the recommended models in SpaceXSI's API, and the Super tier lists 1080p videos of 15 seconds. Because SpaceXSI's plans sell video generation alongside images, while OpenAI's plan comparison lists image generation, Grok wins for people who make short clips.
Files, spreadsheets and office work: ChatGPT wins
Upload a spreadsheet to ChatGPT and it runs code to calculate, compare and chart, with interactive charts in the answer since October. It has extensions for Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Google Sheets, iCloud Mail and Calendar plugins on every plan since 27 October, and Business connects Google Workspace, Slack, GitHub and Microsoft 365.
Grok analyses uploaded files and PDFs, and SpaceXSI's privacy policy describes connecting Google apps. It has far fewer office integrations than ChatGPT. For work that touches documents and spreadsheets every day, ChatGPT wins without much contest.
Privacy and your data: ChatGPT wins
Both train on personal chats by default, so the difference is how many places you must check. On ChatGPT Free, Plus and Pro, turn off Improve the model for everyone on the web under your account menu, then Settings, then Data controls. Voice mode has its own training control, and temporary chats are not used for training. Everything sits in ChatGPT's own settings.
Grok has two. On grok.com go to Settings, then Data, then Improve the Model; in the apps it is Settings, then Data Controls, then Improve the model. On X, public posts and Grok interactions are shared for training by default until you go to Privacy and safety, then Data sharing and personalization, then Grok & Third-party Collaborators. Grok's Private Chat, behind the ghost icon, is not kept in history, not used for training and deleted within 30 days. Because ChatGPT's controls all live in its own settings and are not tied to a social network, it wins for personal use.
On company plans both protect your data. ChatGPT Business and Enterprise content is not used for training by default. SpaceXSI says business and enterprise content is not used to improve models, and its Teams plans add SSO, admin controls, team-wide privacy settings, custom chat data retention and SOC 2.
Price and value: ChatGPT for most people, Grok if you use X and Cursor
Free: ChatGPT, because unlimited text chats with GPT-6 Luna within guardrails is more useful than Grok Free's daily access with limited chat and agent requests. Paid: ChatGPT Plus is the better single AI subscription, with GPT-6 Sol, GPT-6.1 models in Work and Codex, projects and expanded deep research. Grok's X Subscription is better value only if you would pay for X Premium and Cursor anyway, because Premium bundles all three. Grok's usage pools refresh weekly, and beyond them you buy top-ups or wait. Check OpenAI's pricing page and SpaceXSI's pricing page.
Same task, both tools: a launch-day reaction report
Here is how each tool approaches one realistic job, based on what OpenAI and SpaceXSI document. It describes the products, not test results. The task: a competitor launched a product this morning, and your manager wants a one-page note by 3 p.m. on what was announced and how people are reacting.
How Grok handles it
With Web Search and X Search on, you ask Grok what the competitor announced, then what people on X are saying about it, grouped into praise, complaints and questions with links to the posts. It can show the reaction as it happens, which is the part of the brief no other assistant covers well. The weak point is reliability: you need to check the posts behind each theme and treat volume as noise rather than evidence.
How ChatGPT handles it
You ask ChatGPT to search the web for the announcement and coverage, with a source and date next to every point, then paste in a sample of social reactions you collected yourself. It writes the one-page note in your format, and ChatGPT Work can hand it back as a document. The weak point is the live reaction: ChatGPT cannot search X the way Grok can, so that part depends on what you give it.
Verdict for this task: use Grok for the reaction and ChatGPT for the note. If you can only use one, pick Grok for this job, because the reaction is the part you cannot easily get elsewhere.
Who should pick ChatGPT and who should pick Grok
- Pick ChatGPT if you want one assistant for writing, research, files, spreadsheets and occasional coding, or the strongest free plan for text. It is the right default for most professionals.
- Pick Grok if your job depends on what people are saying on X right now: social media managers, communications teams, journalists tracking a story, and investors in fast-moving consumer brands.
- Pick Grok Premium if you already pay for X Premium and code daily in Cursor, because the bundle covers all three.
- Not for you: skip Grok for confidential work on a personal account, and skip ChatGPT if live social listening is the whole job.
Compare more options on our comparison tool, or read Grok vs Claude and ChatGPT alternatives.
Prompts to copy
Live reaction on X
Search X and the web for reactions to [announcement or event] since [time]. Group them into praise, complaints and questions, give two linked example posts per group, and say which claims come from named, verifiable accounts and which are unconfirmed.
You get: A grouped, linked reaction summary that separates evidence from noise
One-page launch note
Search the web for [competitor]'s announcement of [product] and the main coverage. Write a one-page note for [audience]: what was announced, what it means for us, three questions we should answer this week. Put a source and date next to every fact and mark anything unconfirmed.
You get: A sourced briefing note ready to send
Fix my script
Here is my [language] script: [paste code]. It should [expected behaviour] but instead [what happens]. Explain the cause in two sentences, give me the corrected code, and list one test I can run to confirm the fix.
You get: A diagnosis, corrected code and a way to check it