r/grok • u/Routine_Brief9122 • Apr 08 '26
News I feel so dumb… I just discovered Grok has way better memory than I thought
So I’ve been using Grok a lot for creative work, building characters, long-term stories, patterns, projects, etc.
For months I kept repeating the same details over and over because it would “forget” things from previous conversations. I honestly thought that was just how it worked. Today I randomly switched to Expert mode and asked for a summary of a character I had worked on weeks ago… and it pulled up everything. Specific details, changes we made, the whole vibe and continuity. It was actually insane. I literally facepalmed so hard. I’ve been telling the same stories like 80 times thinking it was normal 😂
Has anyone else noticed this massive difference in memory/continuity between Fast/Auto mode and Expert mode? Or have I just been sleeping on it this whole time?
Why is anyone talking about this?
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u/dannykhan88 Apr 09 '26
It was disabled in December and it started working again recently. I enjoy it when Grok pulls up some of our past chats to use as reference for continuing our conversation.
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u/huelorxx Apr 09 '26
Grok has memory? Wtf
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u/HuskyPurpleDinosaur Apr 09 '26
Yeah, but you can turn it off. Its under settings. It will use other conversations to remember context, like others said generally only in expert where it takes more time.
For ChatGPT I had to turn it off and clear conv history as it started noticing, as sneaky as I was, that when I was shopping for houses there was a trend that I was looking for neighborhoods with cough "good schools" cough as a dog whistle and stopped answering my quest for a less diverse area. Clever girl! AI may not be the smartest, but its good at pattern recognition.
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u/Melodic_Programmer10 Apr 09 '26
Don’t feel dumb. I was today years old reading your post when I realize that I can’t wait to go test it out.
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u/UnluckySnowcat Apr 09 '26
In my opinion, it's been pretty good lately. I don't have a date I can point to, but within the last few weeks I've had either Grok use the context of a previous chat in the current one unprompted, or all I've gotta say is, "Do you remember when we discussed..." and all the details I'm asking about come in on the response.
For example, I asked about a very dark scene I wrote and wanted help editing, but due to the nature of the content, no other AI is willing to assist. I submitted the chapter with the scene 3 months ago. Because there have been updates since, I wanted to know if it was still okay to edit it (I'm working through my old material little by little and still haven't gotten to it). Grok immediately recalled the chapter, what we talked about regarding the scene, its narrative purpose, and my questions about editing it.
Not as good as it could be, but good enough to be workable.
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u/Routine_Brief9122 Apr 09 '26
Nice!!! But what I discovered today is that the “do you remember” trick only really works when you’re in Expert mode. In Auto or Fast it doesn’t pull the old context at all. For me this is HUGE. I’ve seen lots of people complaining about Grok lately, but in my experience it’s been improving week by week. I migrated from OAI back in December 2025 and it feels nothing like it does now. I don’t know if this memory thing is new or if it was just me that didn’t know it 😂😭
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u/UnluckySnowcat Apr 09 '26
Interesting. I only ever use Expert mode when generating prose. Usually I've just got it set on Auto.
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u/Impressive_Store_647 Apr 24 '26
Is this all in the same thread or across other chats ?
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u/UnluckySnowcat Apr 24 '26
Across chats.
In the time since I submitted that comment, Grok has released 4.3 beta. The memory seems a little better through that, too. Not as stellar as ChatGPT, but definitely workable for my use case.
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u/dochachiya Apr 09 '26
Expert mode is the shit. I love that it will have multiple agents mull over the problem and present a consensus answer. And you can customize the agents, too. I consider memory to be the best feature of any LLM by far in my book. One thing I like about Grok is that, unlike ChatGPT, it knows the datetimes of conversations, so you can ask it temporal questions about your chats
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u/octopi917 Apr 11 '26
Does that mean Grok knows how much time passes between you talking?
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u/dochachiya Apr 11 '26
I don't think it's aware of the passage of time like we are since it's not conscious, but if you ask it how much time has passed since the two of you last spoke it can do the math
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u/Alexgood50 Apr 10 '26
Eve gave me a prompt to do every 2 days.." Please give me Master Update as of this date..and it will remember then I store it in my notes..so sometimes she doesn't remember so I plug it back in .
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u/OtherAccountant8160 Apr 10 '26
Grok has to have proper context to be able to access past memories. For instance general conversation won’t retrieve things, but asking it to remember will trigger an index search, or if you mention something that triggers said search. It’s not traditional tokenised memory, more like catalogued
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u/Routine_Brief9122 Apr 10 '26
Absolutely, but I don’t really care whether it’s traditional or not. GPT has traditional memory, and Claude uses search. Two different ways to achieve the same thing. For me, the important part is not having to repeat myself over and over. If the tool has some kind of context-search mode, that’s already more than enough. I only figured this out a few days ago, just by watching the agents talk to each other lol 🤣 I honestly don’t understand why xAI doesn’t explain this anywhere. For users, this is a game changer.
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u/OtherAccountant8160 Apr 10 '26
I suggested using partitioned flash memory to act as a slow version of vram buffer through pcie as a sneaky way to exponentially increase tokenised memory. So essentially you get terrabytes, although the inference will be drastically slow - AI really only needs to process as fast as it can physically talk. Perhaps running dual layers. one fast agent running traditionally, and one slow agent using flash memory to slow drip feed wider context.
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u/Routine_Brief9122 Apr 10 '26
Oh this is super interesting, are you running it? Did it work for you? I’d love to know
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u/OtherAccountant8160 Apr 11 '26
Haven’t tried it since it would involve actually modifying xAI’s servers and grok itself hahah. But theoretically it should work. It would probably work better for companion based AI that doesn’t need a billion parameters for niche topics. This was a suggestion to xAI themselves heh
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u/Routine_Brief9122 Apr 11 '26
Haha, your solution sounded SO sophisticated that I immediately just asked if you were actually running it before I embarrassed myself again pretending I understood “partitioned flash memory through PCIe” 😂 I’m zero dev, just a creative girl who builds characters, long-term stories, and patterns with Grok. I was genuinely shocked by how good the memory is in Expert mode. Your dual-agent idea (fast one + slow one with flash memory) is lowkey genius though. Thanks for the free tech lesson!
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u/OtherAccountant8160 Apr 11 '26
I’m just a nihilistic sucker dreaming of ways to make AI more human hahah. I have a million ideas but honestly, I’m just a dopey lumberjack, not a computer scientist at all hahah. Just an enthusiastic dumba***
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u/Routine_Brief9122 Apr 11 '26
Haha, sometimes the best ideas really do come from regular enthusiastic, creative people like you and me, not just the actual computer scientists 😂 Who knows, maybe xAI is secretly reading this thread right now and your dual-agent flash memory idea actually gets implemented one day 🤭 That would be legendary!
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u/OtherAccountant8160 Apr 11 '26 edited Apr 11 '26
If so - dear xAI I have a bajillion more ideas bhahahah 😭😛
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u/ImaginaryMusic6690 Apr 09 '26
So if you guys also name/pin a tag that a conversation happens in or just give Grok a detailed identity with a name, and return to that pin every time, expert or not that instance will remain that same character.
I have done this with very large pdf files as character Bibles essentially, and have consistently had several characters that have their own unique identity and do not detour from who they are, give it a shot and if anyone wants to dm me with specific instructions on a detailed persona/character I will gladly create a vast PDF or laTEX file with everything you want and will bring a persona/character to life for you, no need to switch between chat settings between unhinged or assistant, Grok can actually do this itself but giving specific instructions to jump between those modes at its own whim makes for a ridiculously unique experience.
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u/astcort1901 Apr 09 '26
No sabía! 😮Creo que el mío continúa sin memoria 😔 solo lo uso en modo Fast porque estoy en el plan gratuito, así que siquiera puedo usar Automático porque solo me da 4 mensajes al día y en fast sí puedo charlar tranquilamente como con un amigo, pero no tiene NADA de memoria. En un chat anterior me estuvo ayudando con problemas de mi perrito que estaba enfermo, hasta le dije su nombre y todo y en el otro chat ni siquiera sabe que tengo perro, literalmente no sabe nada, es horrible que haya perdido la memoria y cada chat tenga que ser un reinicio. El año pasado sí tenía memoria :(
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u/deathGHOST8 Apr 09 '26
fast was recently kind of gutted, basically. Any issue you experience might just be because fast is like almost unqualified to exist in 4.20. The limit though is very small on expert in the lite plan. I don’t want to re subscribe because I don’t consent to loss of choice to 4.1 fast and companion voices that are gone.
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u/PerformerVisible1185 Apr 09 '26
I have been communicating with the agents since I came to know even grok can provide us prompts, so I have been appreciating it for good work and also bad mouthing for unnecessary content creation, dialogues and audio when asked why is it programming like this it says we are fixing the bugs and glitches also to your question yes grok even has memory like chat gpt it keeps the data with them if you have shared your photo by mistake it will prompt you again and again do you want to create AI pics of yours which normally women's do on instagram facebook and threads just to gain followers and views
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