News on November 1: According to feedback from multiple users and the latest information, Grok, the flagship AI assistant from Elon Musk's AI company xAI (also called SpaceXAI), now officially and fully supports payments via China UnionPay and Alipay. At the same time, in the region options on the subscription page, users can now directly select mainland China, Hong Kong (China), Macao (China), and Taiwan (China).

The expansion of payment methods did not come without warning. Looking back at the earlier development process, since Cursor first supported Alipay payments on April 9, 2025 and was acquired by SpaceXAI, users in the industry gradually noticed a beta-testing option for Alipay payments in Grok's subscription interface, and only recently has this feature been officially rolled out on a large scale. Because X (formerly Twitter) and Grok currently share the same underlying payment and account subscription system, users can now also subscribe to X Premium directly via Alipay and simultaneously enjoy Grok's powerful Plus-tier features.

In addition to opening new payment channels, the company has also launched a very generous promotion for new users: all users who subscribe to Grok for the first time can directly enjoy a 50% discount for the first month.

Besides Alipay and UnionPay, which are popular among users in China, the platform has also retained other diverse payment options. Users who need them can also choose Apple Pay or Google Pay to check out, and some users who pay with a linked bank account can also enjoy a $5 cashback. As the payment barrier has been significantly lowered and localization adaptations have been implemented, domestic developers and AI enthusiasts will find it much easier to experience cutting-edge large models.