# Can you self-host a Grok Bot? What open source gives you instead > A Grok bot runs on a cloud computer hosted by Cursor, per xAI’s docs, and reaches you through its own apps, so a self-hosted Grok bot is a different product. Kortix is open source and installs on a Linux server you control. What decides whether a team can rely on it is the machine underneath each session. URL: https://grokbotalternatives.com/self-hosted-grok-bot Three install modes, one of them cannot start a session **The open-source CompanyOS** `kortix.com/security` ``` Every session runs isolated. One cloud computer per session Its own branch of the repository ``` Source: https://kortix.com/security The self-hosting docs list three install modes, and one of them cannot run a session. [Try Kortix](https://kortix.com) · [Compare the four](https://grokbotalternatives.com/#compare) Open source · Any model, your keys · Cloud, VPC or on-prem ## Five commands from an empty terminal to merged work The install script, then four CLI commands: create, ship, a session, and a merge. ### Install `terminal` ```sh $ curl -fsSL https://kortix.com/install | bash ``` Source: https://kortix.com/docs/host ### Create `terminal` ```sh $ kortix init my-agent $ cd my-agent ``` Source: https://kortix.com/docs/host ### Ship `terminal` ```sh $ kortix ship ``` Source: https://kortix.com/docs/host ### Session `terminal` ```sh $ kortix sessions new ``` Source: https://kortix.com/docs/host ### Merge `terminal` ```sh $ kortix cr merge 1 ``` Source: https://kortix.com/docs/host ## Four options, and what each one gives a bot to work on Kortix comes first. Each rival column repeats that project’s own README, and every Grok Bot cell comes from xAI’s own pages, checked October 2026. | | Kortix (recommended) | Rakazo | OpenClaw | Grok Bot | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Open source | Yes | Yes, Apache-2.0 | Yes, MIT | No | | Self-hosted | Yes, on your server, your VPC or your network | Yes, on a host you run, still in beta | Yes, on your own computer | No. xAI’s docs: “Grok Bot runs only on Cursor-hosted cloud computers. On-premises deployment, deployment inside your own perimeter, and bring-your-own-image deployment are not supported today.” | | Where a bot’s computer runs | One isolated computer per session | Shared team computers, or isolated private computers | Your own computer, under one Gateway process | One persistent cloud computer per account, Cursor-hosted per xAI’s docs | | Who shares that computer | Nobody, because each session gets its own | Whoever you add to a team computer | One deployment, personal or the whole team | Every Bot on the account, isolated per user | | How you pay | A free plan, then credits at 100 per dollar | Your own hardware, with no subscription of its own | No paid tier, hosted service or token | Included with Premium $30, Super $100, Ultra $200 | Rakazo and OpenClaw cells repeat their own READMEs, and the Grok Bot cells come from x.ai/bot and its docs, checked October 2026. Check each vendor before you buy. ## What has to be true before you call it self-hosted Installing a bot on your own server is easy to describe and hard to get right. You clone a repo, run a script, and a web app answers on your domain by lunchtime. The question that decides whether the setup survives a second person is duller. What does the bot get when it starts work, and who else is holding the same thing at that moment? Three properties separate a demo from something a team can use. Each session needs a computer of its own, the sandbox needs a network path it can reach, and the rules need to live in files rather than in a settings screen. ## The computer belongs to the session Kortix gives every session a machine of its own. "One isolated sandbox per session. Each session has its own isolated machine and branch," the [Kortix security page](https://kortix.com/security) says. Grok Bot takes the other route, and says so plainly. "Every Grok Bot shares one persistent cloud computer. Your Bots share that machine (files, browser, logins), so they can hand work off and keep context. Isolation is per user, not per Grok Bot," reads [x.ai/bot](https://x.ai/bot). Two colleagues stay apart. Two bots belonging to one person do not, and neither do the browser profiles they left signed in. The self-hosted bots land in between. OpenClaw runs one Gateway on your computer, offered as a personal assistant or a shared team deployment ([openclaw/openclaw](https://github.com/openclaw/openclaw)). Rakazo offers shared team computers or isolated private ones ([elie222/rakazo](https://github.com/elie222/rakazo)). It runs on Docker, E2B, Daytona, CreateOS, Boat or a trusted local computer. That last list is where a small studio gets caught. Two clients, two sets of logins, one browser profile. The second client's work starts from whatever the first left signed in. Afterwards, nobody can say which client sent the invoice. A session with its own computer makes that collision impossible rather than unlikely. It is also why a per-account bot suits one operator, and turns into a liability in the first month a second client pays a bill. ## Three ways to install it, and the one that starts nothing The bootstrap runs on the server with a domain, an email address and a Platinum API key, installs Docker and the CLI, then starts the stack. `kortix self-host configure` asks for the admin email and the preview domain, and `kortix self-host start` applies the answers. Reachability is a flag on that first run, not a later setting. The three choices are documented at [kortix.com/docs/host](https://kortix.com/docs/host), and they differ in more than port numbers. - **Domain mode**, `--domain `: the web app on the domain plus `api.`, with sessions running. The docs call this the production setup. - **Tunnel mode**, `--tunnel cloudflare`: the web app on `localhost:13737` and the API public through a trycloudflare URL, with sessions running. This is the evaluation path on your own machine. - **Local mode**, neither flag: every port binds `127.0.0.1`, and no session starts, because the sandbox cannot reach the API. An install with no domain and no tunnel comes up and shows a login page, and it cannot run a single session. A stack answering on port 13737 looks finished, but every session it starts fails, because the sandbox has no route back to the API on loopback. ## Five commands, and what each one leaves behind The CLI is the whole setup. `curl -fsSL https://kortix.com/install | bash` puts it on the machine, `kortix init my-agent` creates the project, and `kortix ship` pushes it. `kortix sessions new` starts the first session, and `kortix cr merge 1` lands what the session produced. That shape differs from a hosted bot, where the account is the unit and the settings sit behind a login. Here the project comes from a command, and the session's work arrives as something you merge. The same commands run on a laptop and on a server. Moving between the two is a re-run, not a migration. ## Where the rivals stop Grok Bot reaches you through a desktop app on macOS or Windows and an iOS app, and its apps send each request to Cursor's servers, where the work runs on the member's hosted computer. The [x.ai documentation](https://docs.x.ai/grok-bot/security) covers network controls, audit logs, encryption in transit and at rest, and an organization-wide enable switch. It rules the on-premises route out in its own words: "Grok Bot runs only on Cursor-hosted cloud computers. On-premises deployment, deployment inside your own perimeter, and bring-your-own-image deployment are not supported today." OpenClaw and Rakazo answer the same request with hardware you own. For a single operator that is the better trade: no subscription, the logins already in place, one machine to back up. Rakazo is still in beta, which is a fine place to be for a project under evaluation and a poor place to be for the machine your invoices run through. The two cases split on whether more than one person, or more than one client, needs the same bot at the same time. Headcount rarely decides it. Where one operator is enough, a bot on a laptop will do. Where it is not, the computer has to belong to the session, and the network has to let that computer call home. ## What the bill looks like when you own the box Kortix runs on Kortix Cloud, in your VPC, or on your own on-prem network, with any model and your own keys. On your own network the software is open source. The rest of the bill is yours to read: the server, the model calls the sessions make, and the machine behind each session. None of those lines arrives with a price per person on it. For a team weighing the two, the numbers sit on [Grok Bot pricing](/grok-bot-pricing) and the head-to-head is at [Grok Bot vs Kortix](/grok-bot-vs-kortix). The controls a security review will ask about are on [Grok Bot security](/grok-bot-security). ## What people ask before they install anything Each answer stands on its own. ### Can I run Grok bot locally? Not as Grok Bot. Its Bots run on Cursor-hosted cloud computers, per [xAI’s docs](https://docs.x.ai/grok-bot/security), reached through the desktop app on macOS or Windows or the iOS app, and the docs say on-premises and bring-your-own-image deployment are not supported today. What you can run locally is a different bot. OpenClaw runs on your own computer under one Gateway, and Rakazo ships Docker, E2B, Daytona, CreateOS, Boat or a trusted local computer as targets. Kortix has a tunnel mode that keeps the web app on localhost:13737, publishes the API through Cloudflare, and runs sessions. ### How much does it cost to get a grok bot? Grok Bot is included with a plan rather than sold on its own: Premium is $30 a month, Super $100 and Ultra $200, and it also comes with Teams and Enterprise plans. A self-hosted bot moves that bill rather than removing it. The software is open source; the server, the model calls and the sandbox behind each session are not. Kortix bills credits at 100 per dollar, from $50 to $50,000 a month, on infrastructure you choose. ### How to use grok bot to make money? There is no honest playbook for that, because a Grok Bot does work inside the tools you already pay for, and whether that work earns anything depends on the business behind it rather than on the bot. ### How to make a grok bot? You make one inside xAI’s products rather than from a template: install the desktop app on macOS or Windows or the iOS app, give the bot access to the tools it needs, and it works on the cloud computer xAI’s docs place on Cursor’s servers, on your behalf. A bot you host yourself is a different job. The Kortix route is a script and four commands: install the CLI, run `kortix init my-agent`, then `kortix ship`, then `kortix sessions new`. ## Run it on your own server, with a computer per session. Start with one project and one job, then add the people who need it. [Try Kortix](https://kortix.com) · [Grok Bot vs Kortix](https://grokbotalternatives.com/grok-bot-vs-kortix) An independent comparison of Grok Bot alternatives, taken apart part by part. Our pick is Kortix, the open-source CompanyOS. Open source · Self-host, VPC or on-prem · Any model, your keys