The X Subscription puts Grok, Cursor and X Premium in one plan, but other models now cost extra
SpaceXSI bundles Grok, Grok Bot, Cursor and X Premium into one plan from $8 to $200 a month. Premium replaces $90 in separate plans, but Claude and GPT in Cursor are billed at API prices from the first request.
For a long time, the AI tools most people pay for lived on separate bills. One subscription for a chatbot, one for a coding assistant, one for a social network checkmark. On Monday, October 12, 2026, SpaceX Super Intelligence, the company behind Grok, tried to end that. It introduced The X Subscription, a single plan that brings together Grok, Grok Bot, the coding app Cursor and X Premium.
The company, which Engadget notes was known as SpaceXAI until a recent rename, calls it the first AI subscription that covers the full path from thinking and creating to building and sharing. It is available to new customers now and is rolling out globally over the next few days. Existing SuperGrok, Cursor and X Premium subscribers can keep what they have or switch.
On paper it sounds like a simple deal: more products for roughly the price of one. In practice, the details matter a lot, especially for developers who spend their days in Cursor. Here is what is new, what it costs, and where the catch is.
The three things you need to know
- What is new. The X Subscription bundles Grok (chat, voice, image and video generation), Grok Bot (AI teammates that get work done), Cursor (local and cloud coding agents) and X Premium (checkmark, creator tools and fewer ads). Paid plans share one pool of Grok model usage across the Grok apps, the Grok tab on X and Cursor, and that pool refreshes every week.
- The prices. There are five tiers: Free at $0, Plus at $8, Premium at $30, Super at $100 and Ultra at $200 per month. According to the company, Premium covers what SuperGrok, Cursor Pro and X Premium+ used to cost together: $90 per month.
- The catch. Third party models such as Claude and GPT are still available in Cursor, but only on Premium and above, and they are not part of the included usage. They are billed at API list prices through top ups from the very first request. Some long time Cursor users are not happy about that.
What is actually in the bundle
The launch post lists four products under one account. Grok is the consumer assistant with chat, voice and image and video generation. Grok Bot is pitched as a set of AI teammates that take on real tasks. Cursor is the coding environment the company acquired in August, according to Engadget, with local and cloud coding agents. And X adds a verification checkmark, creator tools and fewer ads, with higher tiers removing ads from the timeline entirely.
The most important change sits underneath the prices. Instead of separate quotas per product, every paid tier includes one pool of Grok model usage that is shared across Grok and Cursor. If you chat with Grok on your phone in the morning and let a Cursor agent refactor code in the afternoon, both draw from the same allowance. The company says the allowance refreshes weekly, so one heavy day does not wipe out your whole month. If you run out, you can buy top ups or wait for the next refresh.
For coders, the headline promise is volume. Each X Subscription plan includes at least twice as much coding usage with Grok models as the comparable Cursor plan, and each new tier is supposed to give more usage per dollar than the plan it replaces. Engadget adds that the Premium tier includes Cursor features such as code hosting, cloud agents and automations, plus ad free scrolling on X and the option to secure a preferred handle.
The prices, tier by tier
Here is how the official pricing page lays it out. Included usage is shown as a multiple of the Plus tier.
- Free, $0: daily access to Grok, a starter allowance for Cursor coding agents, and standard X. Usage is limited.
- Plus, $8 per month ($80 per year): more AI usage in Grok and Cursor, plus a checkmark, creator tools and fewer ads on X. This is the base usage level. Plus does not include Grok Bot.
- Premium, $30 per month ($300 per year): four times the Plus usage, Grok Bot, and the benefits of SuperGrok, Cursor Pro and X Premium+.
- Super, $100 per month ($1,000 per year): fifteen times the Plus usage. Engadget reports priority access to Grok models at peak times.
- Ultra, $200 per month ($2,000 per year): fifty times the Plus usage, according to the official pricing table.
The chart shows the logic. Price and usage do not grow at the same rate. Going from Plus to Ultra multiplies the price by 25, but the included usage by 50. Heavy users get a better rate per dollar, which is a common pattern in AI subscriptions and an obvious nudge toward the bigger plans.
One small warning on the numbers: Engadget wrote that Ultra gives 20 times the usage of Plus, while the company's own launch post and pricing documentation say 50 times. We use the official figure here, but it is a good reminder to check the pricing page before you buy.
Teams get Premium, Super and Ultra at the same per seat prices as individuals: $30, $100 and $200. The company says that is cheaper per seat than the older Cursor Teams plan and includes three times more coding usage, together with single sign on, admin controls, consolidated billing, usage analytics and SOC 2 compliance. Enterprise customers can manage Grok and Cursor from one dashboard with a single usage pool.
The catch: other models now cost extra
This is where the reaction gets heated. Cursor built its reputation as an editor where you can pick the best model for the job, whether that is Claude, GPT or something else. Under The X Subscription, that freedom still exists, but it is priced differently.
According to the pricing documentation, third party models in Cursor are not part of the included usage. They are available on Premium and above, and they use additional usage credits from the first request, billed at API list prices through top ups. You can set spending caps, so a runaway agent does not empty your wallet, but the monthly fee itself goes toward Grok usage, not toward Claude or GPT.
In the official Cursor forum thread announcing the change, a self described long time Cursor Ultra subscriber put it bluntly: on the new plans, the monthly fee only buys Grok usage, while Claude and GPT are billed at API list price from the very first request. The same user called the move self sabotage, arguing that Cursor won its users through model neutrality. Other posts in the thread ask what people on the old $20 and $60 Cursor plans should switch to, how the weekly limit is calculated, and why the shared pool seems to drain faster now that Grok Bot and Cursor agents use the same allowance. One user wrote that they had not received an email about the change before their renewal date.
To be fair, the company also gives existing customers room. Nothing changes today for current SuperGrok, Cursor or X Premium subscribers. If you are on a current Cursor plan, your included third party usage continues until you decide to switch. The old plans are closed to new sign ups, though, and the launch FAQ says the company will eventually move remaining customers to the new plans, with no timeline yet and advance notice before anything changes.
How switching works
If you want to move, the process depends on where you start. The documentation says Cursor customers should begin at cursor.com/unify so that the Cursor account is linked with X and, if there is one, a Grok account. People who start from X or Grok can switch through their billing settings. When you switch, eligible monthly and annual plans are cancelled and you get a prorated refund for the unused time. The refund goes back separately, so the new plan is charged at full price first.
There are a few traps. If you pay for Cursor through the Apple App Store, switching does not cancel that subscription and the company cannot refund it, so you have to cancel it yourself in your iPhone or iPad settings. Annual subscribers keep every day they paid for unless they choose to upgrade. And the company advertises limited time offers for people who switch now, which you can only see in your own billing settings.
Why it matters
This launch is bigger than a price list. It is the clearest sign yet that the AI industry is moving toward bundles that tie a model, an app and a distribution channel together. Grok gets the reach of X and the daily habit of developers inside Cursor. Cursor users get more included usage, as long as they use Grok. And X gets one more reason for people to pay every month.
It also changes the economics of AI coding tools. Until now, many developers treated their coding editor as neutral ground and paid for whichever model was strongest that week. With included usage tied to one vendor's models and outside models billed at list price, that neutral ground gets smaller. Other companies are building their own stacks too, and the result could be fewer truly independent tools and higher switching costs for users.
For casual users, the math is simpler. If you already pay for X Premium+ and use Grok, Premium at $30 replaces bills that the company says cost $90 together. That is a real saving. For developers who rely mainly on Claude or GPT inside Cursor, the same plan may end up costing more once API charges are added on top.
Dany's take
I like bundles when they save money and keep things simple, and for people who already live in Grok and X, this one probably does. Thirty dollars for what used to be ninety is hard to argue with. But I would read the fine print before switching anything. The part that worries me is not the price, it is the shift in what Cursor stands for. A coding editor that charges list price for every outside model from the first request is no longer neutral, even if those models are still on the menu. My advice: if you mostly code with Claude or GPT, stay on your current plan for now, set a spending cap if you test the new one, and watch how the weekly limits feel in real work. If you mainly use Grok, the upgrade looks like a good deal. Would you switch to one plan for Grok, Cursor and X? I am curious what you think.
Sources
Source: x.ai