Grok AI Chat

Apple’s Shortcuts app finally got a native way to call ChatGPT, but there’s still nothing built in for Grok. This shortcut closes that gap. It wires xAI’s Grok 4.3 into a menu-driven chat you run straight from your iPhone, with a rich HTML view for the replies instead of a plain text bubble.

Inside the shortcut

There are two ways to connect, and you pick one on first launch. Free mode uses the official Grok app’s “Ask Grok” action for plain text chats with no key required. The other route uses an xAI API key, which unlocks the parts that make this feel like a real client: saving and reloading chats, switching models per conversation, vision chatting with uploaded images, generating images, video, and audio, plus exact token and USD cost tracking. API chats can also pull live answers from the web and X with citations.

What you’ll need

• Shortcuts — Apple’s app that runs the whole thing. Pre-installed on modern iPhones.
• Files — used to store and read your saved chats and media in iCloud Drive.
• Grok — only needed for the free text-only mode via the “Ask Grok” action. Skip it if you’re going the API route.

How to install

1. Tap Add Shortcut on this page to open it in the Shortcuts app.
2. Shortcuts shows a preview of every action.
3. Scroll to the bottom and tap Add Shortcut to confirm.
4. Find Grok AI Chat in your library and run it once to begin onboarding.

First-run setup

A guided onboarding handles the first run rather than dropping you into a blank screen. You choose your connection method, and if you go with the API you paste your key, pick default models, and choose where messages live: on xAI’s servers (cheaper, read-only after 30 days) or locally in iCloud so you can keep older threads going.

1. Pick App or API when prompted.
2. For API mode, generate a key at the xAI console and paste it in. Your key is stored securely on-device.
3. Set your default text model, then your image and video models.
4. Choose server-side or local iCloud storage for chat messages.

If juggling keys across several AI services sounds tedious, the author points to Onai, a separate credentials-manager shortcut you can sync your xAI config from.

How to use it

Day to day, you launch the shortcut and either start a fresh chat or load a saved one from the menu. Type a question, or attach images from Photos, Files, Camera, a URL, or your clipboard for vision chats. Replies render in a formatted HTML preview with clear labels for you and Grok, so longer answers stay readable.

The media tools live in the same menus. You can spin up images, edit them, turn a prompt or still into video, or generate spoken mp3 clips with the Text-to-Speech voices. Every API call updates the token counter, so the cost stays visible.

Tips

Server storage keeps prices down but locks old threads after 30 days, so switch a chat to local iCloud storage before you plan to revisit it later. Reasoning depth is adjustable per chat too; drop it to Low for quick lookups and save High for the gnarly problems. Don’t hand-edit the files in the Grok AI Chat folder, since the shortcut reads its own structure.

FAQ

Do I have to pay to use this at all?

Not necessarily. Free Grok app mode costs nothing beyond installing the app, though it’s text-only with no saving. The full feature set runs on an xAI API key, which is pay-per-token through your own xAI account.

Why does the free “Ask Grok” mode feel flakier than the API?

By the author’s own note, the “Ask Grok” action can be less reliable than going through the API directly. If text chats keep failing or formatting looks off, the API route is the smoother experience.

What’s actually new in Grok 4.3 here?

It’s selectable as a chat model with adjustable reasoning, a one-million-token context window, and a December 2025 knowledge cutoff. xAI also dropped the older Grok 4.20 pricing to match.

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