In the realm of technology, every move by a giant can trigger massive waves.
On August 8, 2025, OpenAI launched GPT-5 with a heavyweight announcement, instantly igniting the passion of global tech enthusiasts and sending shockwaves through the entire AI industry.
Just three days later, on August 11, Musk swiftly responded by announcing that Grok 4 from his xAI company would be fully free for all users. This
back-and-forth exchange, what does it truly mean? Is it a coincidental time collision, or is there a deeper strategic game behind it? Today, let's dive into this exciting move between AI giants.
GPT-5 Makes a Shocking Debut, Redefining Industry Benchmarks
The release of GPT-5 can be described as a technological feast.
OpenAI's CEO Altman could hardly conceal his pride, claiming GPT-5 is "the greatest thing since sliced bread".
This assessment is not unfounded. GPT-5 has achieved a qualitative leap in performance. In fields such as mathematics, science, finance, and law, it performs like an experienced doctoral expert, capable of providing precise and in-depth answers for users.
In the AIME 2025 mathematical tools test, GPT-5 courageously scored 94.6%; in the real-world coding SWE-bench Verified test, it also achieved an impressive 74.9%.
Moreover, GPT-5 has truly shone in multimodal understanding, scoring 84.2% in the MMMU test.
This means it can easily understand and process information in various forms such as images, text, and audio, bringing users a richer and more comprehensive interactive experience.
The hallucination issues that once plagued models have been greatly improved in GPT-5, with the possibility of generating factual errors significantly reduced compared to previous models.
OpenAI generously announced that GPT-5 will be free for all users, whether free, Plus, Pro, or team users can fully enjoy the convenience brought by this cutting-edge technology.
This move undoubtedly declares to the market that OpenAI aims to consolidate its dominance in the AI field with absolute technological advantages.
Grok 4 Goes Free, Musk's Strategy to Break Through
Facing the momentum of GPT-5, Musk quickly countered by announcing Grok 4's free global access.
Previously, the Grok series was mainly for X Premium users and some enterprise API clients, requiring monthly fees.
Now, users only need to enable Automode in Grok, and the system will automatically handle complex queries and route them to Grok 4.
If users want to always use Grok 4, they can switch to Expert mode. Additionally, during a limited-time event, xAI has significantly relaxed usage quotas, allowing users to fully explore Grok 4's potential.
Grok 4 is no ordinary model. It has demonstrated excellent capabilities in reasoning, conversation depth, code generation, and multimodal understanding.
In the Humanity's Last Exam test, the standard Grok 4 achieved a 25.4% correct rate, surpassing Google Gemini 2.5 Pro and some OpenAI models, while the Grok 4 Heavy version further raised the correct rate to 44.4%, showing a clear advantage.
Musk confidently stated that Grok 4 is stronger than a PhD in all disciplines, with an evolution speed "far beyond any human".
This free access is Musk's attempt to expand the user base, collect massive interaction data, further optimize Grok 4, enhance its market competitiveness, and break the pressure brought by GPT-5.
Giants Clash, Industry Dynamics Shift
This round of competition between GPT-5 and Grok 4 has intensified the AI market competition.
OpenAI, with GPT-5's technological lead and free strategy, attempts to further expand its market share and consolidate its industry position. Musk, through Grok 4's free access, aims to attract more users and accumulate data to break through this fierce competition.
The confrontation between these two giants has also brought enormous pressure to other AI companies.
Whether OpenAI's free GPT-5 or Musk's path to free Grok 4, both hide commercial and technological considerations.
From a business perspective, free strategies can quickly attract a large user base.
In the internet era, users are traffic, and traffic is value. Through free services, companies can collect user data, understand user needs, and lay the foundation for future commercial monetization. For example, companies can generate revenue through advertising or value-added services.
From a technical standpoint, more users mean more data feedback.
These real user data are crucial for model optimization and improvement. Models can continuously enhance their performance and accuracy by analyzing user queries and interaction behaviors, forming a virtuous cycle of technological development.
However, free strategies are not without risks. With the surge in user numbers, companies face enormous computing power cost pressures. How to effectively control costs while ensuring service quality has become an urgent problem for companies.
The release of GPT-5 and free access to Grok 4 is just a wonderful episode in the AI development journey.
In this technological marathon, there is no finish line, only continuous transcendence and breakthrough.
This article is from the WeChat public account "XCJ-YY"（ID：xincaijing）, authored by Chuan Chuan, published by 36kr with authorization.
