Is Grok Bot Worth It? My Honest Review After One Week

All right, folks, you know me, I'm all about the flavor of the month club. So, this month we're talking about Grok Bot. It's basically a brand new tool, so let's get into it. Let's talk about what is Grok. Grok and Grok Bot are different things. Grok is the new frontier model from X or Twitter, I like to call it still, and it's a cloud-based tool. It doesn't run on your computer, but it is a model that you can query from things that do run on your computer, similar to how Claude and Codex and ChatGPT work.

You don't run it on your computer, you run that app, and then the app talks to the model. Model gives you a response. Grok Bot is a cloud-based worker management tool that allows you to set up individual bots that can talk to each other, and it's more like a group message. It's in a chat interface, and it lets you continue to work even if your computer is closed because the bots themselves are running in the cloud, just like the model runs in the cloud.

It's really not quite the same as when you're working with Claude or ChatGPT cuz you're typing in a thread, and when you're done with that thread, you basically close it down, and you start something new. Or if you're working in Claude code, you're spinning up a session, doing your work in that session, and then it basically goes away unless you keep that context somewhere else or write it down or put it in your GitHub readme or whatever.

The way that these bots work, they're more like group messages or iMessage, really, where you're just chatting with the bot, and there's a list of bots in the sidebar. Now, the big key distinction here is that you're talking more about jobs than tasks. So, instead of spinning up a single thread or a single session to work on a task, then you're really talking to the bot who has a job, like a project manager or a developer, etc.

And I've always said that these robots are not people. We shouldn't be thinking of them as people, so they're more like specialist or like individual pre-scoped AI runners that understand what's happening. So, if you've ever heard of anything like OpenClaw or Hermes, they're more like agents that you can empower and give them credentials or give them tools like log into this thing and do this work for me, research things for me.

Hermes is kind of like that, and Grok Bot is an even better version of that same and I've kind of been thinking of it as Apple versus Linux. Apple is the GrokBot tool. It's very clean, very easy to use and Hermes and OpenClaw are more like Linux where you're basically always messing with stuff. Stuff isn't quite configured right. There's always context compaction limits and whatever you run into all these issues.

People like Linux because it's more customizable and OpenClaw and Hermes are definitely going to be more customizable, but GrokBot is really more smooth and more like Apple which I'm really enjoying so far. So, let's talk about how I actually use this tool today. It's literally been out for a week, so I'm aware that this is sort of a brand new thing, but things are moving quickly and I'm always open to new tools, so let's figure out how it could work for your workflow as well.

I'm not a huge fan of this idea of a fake org chart where you say, I now have a chief of staff or a CFO that tells me how to run my business. I think that's basically psychosis that you're really you don't need any of that fanfare. I'm thinking of them as more specialist tools or specialized bots that are going to be prepared properly with the right context. I name them funny things like a droid or a robot that tells me what it's doing and I think of it a little bit more contextually, but it's already pre-prepared with everything that it needs.

So, for example, I have a project manager bot for each person that I work with, but I see that bot as sort of the command center. It knows what is in its domain for each specific client. It knows what I'm working on. It knows what's coming up next. It's already synced properly to the right tools and I don't have to re-initialize the context every single time. Like if I'm opening up Codex session or a Claude session, I'll tell Claude, make sure to read these docs.

Here's this website. Look at this file. You have to kind of give it all the context that it needs again, whereas the GrokBot just knows exactly what you're talking about. It knows where it needs to go and it remembers things a lot better pretty much seamlessly. So, I'm really enjoying that so far. Of course, I'm using it for things like building in Webflow and writing code just like you would with all the other tools and I have found that it's really quite smart at all these things.

It doesn't seem to need nearly as much internal thinking or internal words in its own brain. I'm actually even going the other direction. I'm telling it, "What do you mean by this?" It'll give me just a really short snippet and I'll say, "Can you expand on that for me?" And it's really a nice feeling compared to Claude where every single thing it says is just riddled with nonsense words and you have to say, "Simplify this.

Don't speak in such flowery worthless language." I'm almost going the other way with this Grok bot. It's really nice. So, let's talk about the pros and cons. Pros, of course, is that it's always on. It's running in the cloud and you don't have to worry about tmux or your remote servers or anything like that. It has its own cloud server built right in and it comes with the tool and the settings for your account.

So, it's always on and it can still connect to your computer, but it's also got like a seamless back end. It doesn't even have to be managed. It's very nice. I found that it is extremely accurate and it's good at running on its own. It's running on a heavy high-powered frontier model. It doesn't need a ton of coaching and it doesn't need a ton of fixing the results as long as you give it good context.

It's smart. Just like the new ChatGPT models and the new Anthropic models. I don't know how it compares to Fable specifically because I've only used Fable a little bit cuz it's so expensive, but this feels to me like another one of those frontier models that is very, very strong in just knowing what you actually want and knowing what to think about a little harder, knowing what to decide if it needs to work without you sometimes.

One of my favorite features is that it manages multiple accounts to the same type of connection. So, for emails you can add multiple inboxes and then the big one for me is for Webflow you can add multiple projects and multiple OAuth connections without any issues. And I've had tons of struggles with that, especially with Codex. It seems like every time I picked up one project and set down another, it wouldn't have saved any of the old connections.

And even though Codex it says that it could do that, even though I've set up multiple types of different tools or workflows to try to fix that problem, Codex really never had the ability to connect to multiple sites and remember those connections. With Claude you can set up a specific folder that has specific credentials. Codex is more integrated into the entire desktop app, and it didn't respect those individual folder permissions quite as well, meaning that every time it connected to one thing, it had to disconnect from the other thing.

Claude worked okay. Codex didn't really work hardly at all, but this Grok tool is really just seamless, very easy UX, works better than anything I've seen for multiple accounts, really of any type of connector. So, it's not just limited to Webflow or email. You can have multiple accounts underneath that, and it's super nice. My issues with the Webflow OAuth are completely gone at this point. One of the other great things about this tool is that because SpaceX bought Cursor really recently, Cursor has done all this work, and they're already a really established tool, battle tested, well connected to all the tech industry stuff that I use all the time.

I'm assuming this tool was almost already built because it feels very polished, even though it has the Grok branding on it. A lot of the back end is run with Cursor, and it says it's run with Cursor. You can see the things where Cursor settings apply, or where the Cursor connection is named Cursor. And I really like that, actually, because it means it's battle tested, and it's trusted because Cursor has built a great reputation for doing the right work and integrating properly.

So, that's a huge benefit because it's not just a brand new team and a brand new tool. It's using really established connections already. Another thing I really like is that the bots can talk to each other, and you can tell a bot to talk to one of the other bots. What I use this for is to say, "Talk to the tech expert to make sure you're getting these classes right." Or, "Talk to this project management bot to make sure you understand the exact deliverable that's due." Anytime you need context, you can just tell the bot to talk to the bot that has the context, and it'll get it really quickly, just sort of like you would to another person.

Again, I don't think these are people, but there's really a benefit to just telling the bot to go get what it needs, and it'll talk in natural language. You can even inspect that conversation, and it'll get the right information back. So, it's really nice. Scheduled tasks are done right in the app without any sort of manual setup or anything else beyond, "Hey, remind me every week to do this thing." Or, you can even say, "Do this thing for me every week and give me this output." And Codex was getting there and it is sort of there, but again, because it runs on a desktop, if you ever close your computer or your computer's off at the time where that task was going to run, it wouldn't run.

Or you'd have to set up another manual back end or a cloud server for yourself. This is all just built right in, it's very nice. Let's talk about the cons. The first big con is that this is a super expensive subscription. It's either coming with the $200 Cursor plan or the $300 Grok Heavy plan and that's some of the highest cost of these monthly subscriptions. So, you really do expect it to be doing all of your heavy lifting.

The way I run my business is I have a couple of tools maybe at the $20 a month plan. Like I'll have a Claude and a Codex at the 20 and then I'll bump one of them up to the $200 plan. I really am expecting quite a lot out of this tool because I'm not willing to tolerate multiple $200 a month subscriptions for a daily driver type of work. It's only been about a week and so far this tool has been doing a great job as a daily driver.

So, I'm willing to test it out for this month. Like I said, flavor of the month. Willing to test it out to see if this can be the new $200, you know, heavy plan that I'm using. And I did get a three-month discount on my subscription to Grok Heavy. So, that's part of why I'm tolerating this for now, but I really am expecting quite a lot out of it. One of the next things I don't like is that it seems to be pretty hard to do multiple tasks at once with one bot.

So, I've split up the bots into a couple different things, but if I'm ever trying to work on multiple tasks for a client, I either have to have another bot or I have to wait till one thing's done or I have to talk to the bot and say, "Hey, we're going to try to do two things at once." That's a little tricky, it's not my favorite. So, it's hard to do those threaded messages for now. I believe they're probably working on this.

I think they've heard that feedback. And I hope that gets better over time. One of the other things is that it's better at cloud connections and it has a cloud machine, but therefore it's slightly worse at the local work and it doesn't have quite the same computer use or browser use skills as Codex or Claude. Claude first and then Cursor later, they both started to come up with the ability to actually control your browser or control your computer if you're logged into a specific thing.

And I think that might get better over time, but Codex can literally use your cursor on your computer and click around and do all these things. So, that's useful if you ever need that. Also, this is a brand new tool and the team is moving fast, but they've really just been acquired. They're integrating tons of different things and there's a lot of new features coming out. So, the Cursor integration is not quite complete.

You can clearly see where some things rely on the Cursor back end, like pushing to GitHub or making pull requests. It'll send you to the Cursor app to check out the full changes and that seems to be the app that's actually making those changes sometimes. So, some of the stuff seems to be split between multiple places because it's a brand new tool, brand new stack. So, I'm assuming they'll be integrating more soon.

And again, this really is like a flavor of the month. I'm always switching back and forth, like I said, my subscriptions to high, medium, low, you know, there's a real chance that this thing just doesn't stay on top forever. I'm hesitant to continue to spend the top subscription if it's really not going to be the thing that I want. Let me know if you have tried Grok Bot and if you are enjoying it, if you've got any specific workflows that you like.

I think this has been a great tool for me so far. I'm willing to continue to use it as a daily driver. Let me know your experience and let me know how you like it.