Google Workspace users who do not pay for a Gemini subscription can run Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot inside Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides for free, though an Engadget hands-on review by reporter Luke James on Saturday warns that the tool demands broad file permissions and delivers uneven writing results. Released in July 2026 by SpaceXAI, which also operates as SpaceX Super Intelligence LLC (SpaceXSI), the extension places an AI assistant in the right-hand side panel of all three editors without requiring a paid Google plan.
A single installation from the Google Workspace Marketplace, where the listing was updated on November 5, activates the side panel across Docs, Sheets, and Slides at once. Users can install it directly from the marketplace page by clicking Install, selecting a Google account, and clicking Continue, or add it from inside an open document by going to Extensions, selecting Add-ons, and clicking Get add-ons. Organization administrators can also install the tool across an entire company domain. Once added, users open any file, go to Extensions, select Grok, click Open Grok, and sign in at the Get Started prompt.
Permissions and privacy trade-offs in Google Drive
Installing the add-on triggers a Google account permission prompt with broad access requirements for text documents and presentations. Even if a user installs Grok from inside a single document, the extension asks for permission to see, edit, create, and delete every Google Docs file and every Google Slides presentation in that Google account. It also requests permission to connect to an external service so it can transmit the content it reads back to SpaceXAI servers.
Access to spreadsheets and cloud storage is narrower. In Google Sheets, Grok only accesses the individual spreadsheets where the user enables the add-on, and its general Google Drive permissions cover only the specific files opened with Grok. Users can switch on optional connectors that let Grok pull context from recent Gmail messages and Drive files, a step James avoided on his primary account.
“I personally wasn’t willing to give it that level of access to my emails or files and hooked it up to my secondary spam Gmail and Workspace account instead,” James wrote in Engadget.
What Grok does in Docs, Slides, and Sheets
In its July 24 launch announcement, the company stated, “Today we’re bringing Grok into Google Workspace. One add-on puts Grok beside the file you have open in Sheets, Slides, and Docs.” The company also offers a companion add-on for Microsoft 365 that runs in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook.
Across Google’s three editors, the side panel handles different tasks:
- In Google Docs, Grok writes directly on the page, turns rough notes into formatted sections with document headings and lists, and logs its edits as visible entries in Google Docs version history. Testing that capability for Engadget, James wrote, “However, when I asked it to turn notes on installation instructions into a draft, the results were AI slop.”
- In Google Slides, the chatbot builds presentation decks from an outline and inserts new slides matched to the file’s existing visual theme. It can pull research from the web or from posts on X, a sourcing option that James said “doesn’t seem like a great idea, in my opinion,” though he noted that SpaceXAI’s use cases page offers useful sample prompts.
- In Google Sheets, Grok reads selected cell ranges, answers questions with cell citations, writes formulas directly into the formula bar, inserts charts, and reruns scenario calculations when assumptions change. Every spreadsheet change is applied as a standard edit that can be reversed with undo.
How the free add-on compares with Google’s paid Gemini plans
The arrival of a free third-party side panel targets a gap left by Google’s pricing structure. Elon Musk’s AI company xAI merged with X in March 2025, was acquired by SpaceX in February 2026 in an all-stock deal valuing xAI at $250 billion, took the name SpaceXAI in July 2026, and began transitioning to the name SpaceXSI in October 2026.
Google’s native Gemini assistant opens from the Ask Gemini button at the top right of Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drive, and Chat, covering three more apps than Grok supports directly. However, Google requires a qualifying commercial Workspace plan for business users or a paid Google AI Plus, Pro, or Ultra subscription for personal accounts.
On January 16, 2025, Google folded Gemini into its Workspace Business and Enterprise tiers, discontinuing a separate add-on that had pushed the total price of a Business Standard seat to $32 per user per month. When Google expanded its Gemini Spark agentic AI assistant in late July 2026, it restricted the rollout to US subscribers on the $20-per-month Google AI Pro tier and the $100-per-month Ultra tier, leaving free personal accounts without native side-panel access.
“If you already have a Gemini subscription or access via work, there’s little point using Grok unless you especially want it to cite information from the cesspit that is X.com,” James concluded in his review.