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How To Use Grok for Free Automated Research

This guide teaches you how to use Grok’s Tasks feature to create free automated research briefings from live X data.

beginner 4 steps

Introduction

This guide teaches you how to use Grok’s Tasks feature to create free automated research briefings from live X data. With a free X.com account, you can set up two automated daily tasks that research topics you care about and deliver the results to your email and phone.

You can include multiple keywords in one task. If you are tracking your industry, ask Grok to search for news on several terms in a single prompt so one well-written task can cover more ground.

Step-by-step 4 steps

Instructions

  1. Step 1 of 4

    Open Grok Tasks

    Go to grok.com and sign in with your X account. On desktop, you have two ways to find Tasks:

    • Go directly to grok.com/tasks.
    • Click your profile picture in the bottom-left corner, then click Tasks in the popup menu.
    image-2123
  2. Step 2 of 4

    Create Your First Scheduled Research Task

    Click Create Task. You will see schedule options: daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly.

    Pick daily for your first task, then write a prompt based on what you want Grok to research. Here are a few examples you can copy and adapt:

    Prompt 
    Search X for the top trends in [your niche] from the last 24 hours. Summarize the top 3 and flag anything gaining traction.
    Prompt 
    Search X for any news, product updates, or mentions about [competitor name] from the past 24 hours. Summarize the key findings.
    Prompt 
    Give me a daily update on local news, events, and weather forecasts in [your city].
    Prompt 
    Search X for injury updates and any roster changes for [your team or league]. Flag anything that happened in the last 24 hours.

    Focus on topics where X has an edge: timely, breaking, real-time information that traditional search engines may be slower to pick up.

  3. Step 3 of 4

    Test and Refine the Task

    Before you let the task run on schedule, click into it and hit Test. This runs it once so you can see what the output looks like.

    • Test results will not show up in your sidebar automatically. Go back to the tasks screen, click the task, then click Chat to see the output.
    • If the results are too broad or too narrow, tweak your prompt and test again.
    image-2124
  4. Step 4 of 4

    Choose How You Receive Your Briefings

    Once your task is running, Grok will deliver results in two ways:

    • Email to the address tied to your X account.
    • Push notifications through the Grok mobile app, if you have it installed.

    You can toggle email and app notifications on or off depending on how you want to receive your briefings. If you do not want another app on your phone, email works fine on its own.

    To view results on desktop anytime, navigate back to grok.com/tasks and click into the task.

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Overview Back to the steps

Background and context

Who This Is Useful For

  • Anyone with an X account who wants free automated research without paying for another AI subscription.
  • Marketers and founders who want daily or weekly competitor and industry monitoring.
  • Sports fans, news junkies, and hobbyists who want timely updates on topics X is good at tracking.

What You Will Build

You will build one or two scheduled Grok tasks that automatically research topics you care about and deliver the results to your email and phone.

  • A daily research briefing task.
  • An optional second daily task for another topic.
  • Email delivery and optional phone push notifications for the results.
image-2122

What You Need

  • A free X.com account.
  • Optional: the Grok mobile app if you want push notifications on your phone.

Going Further

  • Use your weekly and monthly limits. You get two daily tasks for free, but you can also schedule up to 10 weekly or monthly tasks. For example, you could set up a weekly competitor roundup on Mondays, a monthly industry trends summary, or a weekly research brief on a topic you are learning about.
  • Stack keywords across tasks. Use your two daily tasks for topics that change fast, like breaking news, sports, or market moves, and use weekly tasks for slower-burn research like industry trends, competitor deep dives, or product launches.
  • If you need more tasks, the source notes that unlimited tasks require SuperGrok or X Premium+. Most people can still get a lot done with the free limits.