Grok Upgrades This Feature, Achieves 135% MAU Growth Despite ChatGPT’s Dominance

According to Financial News, while OpenAI continues to hold a firm lead in the domestic generative AI rankings, Grok from xAI, led by Elon Musk, has seen a rapid surge in users after enhancing its video generation features. While top-ranked services such as A. (SKT), Wrtn (Wrtn Technologies), and Perplexity (Perplexity) have experienced slight declines in user numbers, Grok is the only one among the top five to show significant growth.
Data from Mobile Index by IGAWorks Inc. shows that last month, ChatGPT recorded 13,048,025 Monthly Active Users (MAU), up 247,575 (1.93%) from September’s 12,800,450. ChatGPT’s MAU, which stood at 3,140,229 in January, surpassed 10 million for the first time in April and reached 13 million last month. Notably, since May (10,171,126), the service has maintained consistent growth without any monthly declines.
Following ChatGPT’s dominance last month, A. (1,870,503), Wrtn (1,067,830), Perplexity (823,120), and Grok (484,288) trailed behind. While the MAU of A., Wrtn, and Perplexity fell by 95,501 (4.95%), 76,938 (6.72%), and 15,918 (2.96%) respectively compared to September, Grok experienced explosive growth. Grok’s MAU jumped from 205,690 in September to 484,288 in just one month, an increase of 278,598 (135.44%), more than doubling its user base. Compared to March (72,809), this marks an approximate 565% increase.
This sharp rise in Grok’s user base is attributed to the influence of its video generation service, Grok Imagine. Launched in August, Grok Imagine was upgraded to v0.9 on the 8th of last month, offering more natural video creation capabilities.
Any Grok user can access Grok Imagine for free and generate a six-second video in just 15 to 20 seconds with a simple prompt. Users can also upload a photo and convert it into a video in their desired style. The service automatically applies suitable soundtracks to videos, earning praise as a generative AI well-suited for the era of short-form content.
For example, by uploading a photo of a real person such as a politician or celebrity, or an animated character, and specifying actions and lines via prompt, users can create videos where the figure moves and speaks. Even dynamic movements, such as ski jumping, are rendered naturally.
Additionally, the latest Grok Imagine v0.9 initially gained significant attention for supporting the creation of adult content with fewer restrictions than other image-generating AI models. However, since mid-last month, when users attempt to create highly explicit adult videos, a message stating 'Content has been censored. Please try a different idea.' is displayed, and generation is restricted. With these tightening censorship measures, some predict that sustaining Grok’s MAU growth may become more challenging in the future.
psh@fnnews.com Park Sung-hyun Reporter