ChatGPT and Grok need little introduction. ChatGPT shook the globe the moment the public became aware of the power of generative AI. Grok, Elon Musk’s answer with an X integration, offers a unique experience for users looking to have more fun with AI.

These two AI chatbots are now emerging as rivals in the battle at the top of the AI chatbot pyramid. The good news is that while their underlying technology is similar, they both offer features that set them far apart.

In this comparison, we’ll cover both of these AI chatbots’ unique features. We’ll also compare their knowledge in critical areas so you know what to expect when you use them.

If you want, you can also start using both of them for free! But we’ll go over the intricacies of both so you can decide if you want to use one or the other of the paid subscriptions.

What Is Grok?

Grok is an AI chatbot using Natural Language Processing to understand and engage with text. The generative AI chatbot was released in November 2023, quickly outperforming many other AI models in key benchmarks (more on that soon!).

The most unique aspect of Grok is its integration with X (formerly Twitter). Grok has live access to all of the information on X. This makes it better able to engage in discussions and writing tasks regarding breaking news and ongoing events. It doesn’t always make Grok’s output more accurate, but in some cases, it does. It also almost always adds relevance to Grok’s output on issues regarding current events.

Grok also takes a much more hands-off approach to content controls. As the company’s website puts it, Grok is more open to “spicy” content. It can be a humorous tool to use if you want it to be, and there are fewer guardrails used to maintain the very safe and reluctant language that other chatbots use when presented with potentially controversial inputs.

Grok even has a “Fun Mode” that you can switch to. That switch turns on Grok’s sense of humor, making it provide sassy responses depending on your prompts. This feature makes it more fun as a recreational device in many cases but also contributes to Grok’s outputs in some text-based tasks.

This entertainment value and integration with one of the largest social media platforms sets Grok apart from the rest of the AI platforms. Especially ChatGPT.

What Is ChatGPT?

Image

Image credit: ChatGPT

ChatGPT is an AI chatbot released by OpenAI. As a Large Language Model (LLM), it “understands” human language at a deep level. As such, it can interact with users through conversations that can seem very human at times.

Users engage with ChatGPT in an instructor–instructed relationship. That means you, as the user, can ask ChatGPT questions or give it a task to complete through text prompts. ChatGPT’s job is to provide answers and complete whatever tasks you give it.

This all probably sounds similar to what Grok can do. In most fundamental ways, both Grok and ChatGPT are similar. Both were trained on massive databases of text and use neural networks to process language in a way that makes deep, detailed responses possible.

Like Grok, ChatGPT can perform tasks appropriate for generative AI LLMs. It’s normally fed text inputs and then provides a wide range of possible outputs. Its strength and the feature that made it so famous was its ability to process complex instructions and provide text output that sounds human.

As the largest AI platform, ChatGPT has a lot of information to work with. A massive number of users continue to interact with ChatGPT, and this is how it gets “smarter.” Reinforcement learning, aided by human feedback, helps prepare future models for even better performance.

From the start, ChatGPT models have continuously performed well on AI testing benchmarks. They’re known for speed and high accuracy, making them the go-to assistants for writers, coders, editors, and many other professionals working with text or code.

Grok vs. ChatGPT

At a glance, users interact with Grok in basically the same way they do with ChatGPT. You can provide text inputs to get similar types of responses or perform similar tasks. However, the significant differences between the two models are:

  • The breadth of information available.

  • Factual accuracy—overall and when broken down by subject

  • Safeguards and levels of censorship

Grok is a younger model that’s risen quickly to compete with Grok and other mega-popular AI chatbots.

For a fair comparison, we’ll compare the most up-to-date models used by Grok and ChatGPT at the time of writing:

  • Grok-2

  • ChatGPT-4/GPT-4o

These two versions of their respective AI parents are not necessarily the best AI models. However, they are the highest performers when it comes to knowledge and accuracy.

After we look at those factors, we need to consider other use cases where one option is clearly better than the other.

Grok vs. ChatGPT on Accuracy

Grok tends to perform very well when it comes to mathematical problems, whether communicated numerically or through text. ChatGPT models, including but certainly not limited to the original GPT-4 model, perform well at all tasks. Newer models, such as GPT-4o, outperform Grok-2 across the board.

That being said, both Grok and ChatGPT are among the leaders in informational breadth and factual accuracy. Here’s a quick comparison between Grok-2 (August 2024) and GPT-4 (March 2023).

Grok-2*

GPT-4**

GPT-4o

MMLU

87.5%

86.4%

88.7%

MATH

76.1%

42.5%

N/A

GSM8k

N/A

94.8%

94.8%

HumanEval

88.4%

76.5%

90.2%

* Information provided by xAI (August 13, 2024); Only refers to Grok-2 performance

** Information provided by Papers With Code (September 2024)

The newest ChatGPT model is the most accurate AI chatbot overall, with GPT-4o scoring 88.7% on the MMLU benchmark to edge out Grok-2’s 87.5% from August 2024.

It would become overly complicated to compare every ChatGPT model one by one or even Grok-mini models against other ChatGPT models. Overall, Grok-1 beat GPT-3, but then newer GPT-4 models outperformed Grok-2. However, for text purposes, we can summarize by saying that both Grok and ChatGPT perform with a very high degree of accuracy. 

The MMLU benchmark tests both models in 57 academic subjects, including math, sciences, humanities, and social sciences. Both score above 85%, meaning both should be accurate the vast majority of the time.

These findings don’t mean that either ChatGPT or Grok should be regarded as authoritative sources of information. They’re impressive, but both come with disclaimers stating clearly that the information they provide may be inaccurate. Users of both platforms are encouraged to fact-check the information they’re given. Likewise, users of both platforms are responsible for any content produced with any chatbot.

Grok vs. ChatGPT on Features

First, we should mention that both Grok and ChatGPT now offer the essential features that make a complete AI chatbot service:

  • Text generation and textual tasks like summarization

  • Image generation

  • Code generation

Where Grok and ChatGPT differ more is in their additional built-in features. There are certain use cases where one may be better than the other.

Grok Advantages:

  • Less censorship and a humorous tone that’s more difficult to pull out of ChatGPT.

  • Not nearly as reluctant to deal with controversial topics.

  • Real-time knowledge pulled from X.

ChatGPT Advantages:

  • The newest GPT-4o and other models excel in all benchmarks.

  • A much more extensive and better-established online community, particularly for developers.

  • Answers that are still fast but generally avoidant of potentially inflammatory content.

The Main Differences Between Grok & ChatGPT 

The most significant differences between Grok and ChatGPT stem from their missions.

ChatGPT is the result of OpenAI’s extensive research. They’ve attempted, and to a large extent succeeded, in making AI available to everyone. Specifically, OpenAI’s stated mission of making AI benefit all of humanity has been backed up by a dynamic platform that’s centered around chatbots but includes a massive online movement and community.

Grok carries many of the same benefits, offering an alternative to ChatGPT. It’s worth noting that Grok was trained in a similar way with the similar goal of facilitating human-like interactions with AI models. Grok was launched by Elon Musk’s X just 8 years after Musk’s co-founding of OpenAI. 

GPT-4 was released in June 2023. Just a few months later, George Hotz stated at one point that GPT-4 comprises over 1.8 trillion parameters. When Grok-2 came out in August, it contained 314 billion parameters. It should be no surprise then that GPT-4 and the newer models can handle a wider range of tasks. However, Grok-2 is still massive and can still carry out nuanced, complex tasks. However, Grok-2 may even perform better at tasks requiring high quantities at lower latencies.

Looking at what rests under the surface and comparing it to the benchmark results, it’s clear that ChatGPT has an overall edge in tasks across disciplines. But that competition has become fierce and will likely become even more intense.

Now, both chatbots offer some level of internet access. But some of the biggest differences lie in user experiences. Grok still stands out for having among the most liberal NSFW filters, delving into topics too hot for GPT-4 and other chatbots. In many cases, it’s a more interesting and, arguably, human experience. However, Grok doesn’t lack in personalization and adapts to demonstrated user needs. 

Over time, we’ll see how these two chatbots become more distinct. In breaking news in October 2024, Grok-2 is bringing AI image generation to X. At the same time, there’s a lot of speculation surrounding the new Orion model from OpenAI, including when it may be released.

For now:

  • Grok allows more controversial prompts than ChatGPT does

  • ChatGPT performs very well across the board, but Grok is highly competitive in dynamic tasks

  • Grok has a sense of humor and provides up-to-date context in conversations

  • ChatGPT is excellent at maintaining existing context in long, continuous chats


Beyond these points, both Grok and ChatGPT:

  • Offer crisp interfaces that are easy to use

  • Tailor interactions to individual users

  • Can be verbose but still offer a lot of utility

Common Issues

While some key differences set Grok and ChatGPT apart, there are some common rules you should be aware of with both.

Originality

You may see arguments that are favorable to Grok here. Because ChatGPT is the more popular AI chatbot, which means it’s getting much more attention, people are more aware of its problems and the issues that come with the content it generates. 

People are certainly better at spotting the tell-tale signs that a piece of content, whether a school essay or fictional short story, was written with ChatGPT. There are even arguments that because it’s so much more popular than Grok, ChatGPT’s content is easier for AI detectors to flag.

However, both ChatGPT and Grok may produce content that’s unoriginal and detectable by human eyes and AI detectors. Why is this?

LLMs like ChatGPT and Grok were trained on massive quantities of information across the web. This mixed bag of information inevitably carries some mix of “common knowledge” and unique, copyright-protected work. Of course, you can expect a lot of content that falls between these extremes. In any case, this is why plagiarism is such a big issue with AI chatbots. Both OpenAI and xAI have faced copyright lawsuits over allegations that their AI models were trained on copyrighted work without consent or compensation.

So, what are the chances that Grok or ChatGPT will produce plagiarized work? It’s hard to say because this issue is harder to study than the issue of factual accuracy. But it’s probably a risk that, while small, carries huge consequences. This is why leading AI detection tools like AI Detector simultaneously scan for AI production and plagiarism. The two often come together.

Accuracy

We’ve already established that the most recent xAI and OpenAI chatbots were accurate on multidisciplinary academic testing over 85% of the time. But what about the rest of the time? What about the other 10% to 15%?

Again, there’s the issue of poor writing that’s easily detectable by professors and the top AI detectors. However, there’s also the risk that the chatbot will provide information that’s simply incorrect. And ChatGPT is much more likely than Grok to generate bland, shallow, and “safe” content that won’t impress educated readers.

Every school year, professors prepare for the flood of AI-generated essays. Now, they’re increasingly using AI detectors to make the search for such cheating easier. But even without that step, while the information produced is mostly factually accurate, it’s likely to be so shallow or bland that academic work generated by chatbots doesn’t always have to be verified with an AI detector.

Grok vs. ChatGPT: The Last Word

Grok and ChatGPT are very different, but they come from a similar place. With either, you can expect a useful yet entertaining experience. Both tools offer most users something they’re looking for. Better yet, both companies that developed these chatbots have improved their models substantially in a very short time. They both perform well in benchmarks and best other, less robust chatbots. In some cases, ChatGPT and Grok can allegedly beat human experts.

If you want to use either Grok or ChatGPT, there’s nothing to stop you from trying both! They both make it easy to set up an account in seconds. You can then test both of them on the same assignment simultaneously.

Just remember to follow their terms of service and pay attention to the disclaimers they leave; they’re there for a reason.