What’s Changed: Grok Unhinged mode was taken out of the voice personality list that grok.com serves, between 00:07 UTC on September 13 and 00:15 UTC on September 14, 2026. It went in the final step of a ten-day removal of all five 18+ voice personalities, after Sexy and Romantic left earlier in the month. xAI has not announced the change, and no setting on your side restores it.
Grok Unhinged mode is gone from the voice menu grok.com now serves. The personality that swore, roasted, and screamed on command was deleted from Grok’s own list of voice personalities, and it did not leave alone.
Over ten days in September, xAI removed all five of its 18+ voice personalities: Sexy first, then Romantic, then Unhinged, Motivation, and Argumentative together. Eight personalities are left, and none of them carries the adult flag.
What bothers me is the silence. There was no announcement and no warning, and the iOS update that shipped on September 11 describes itself only as “Improvements to Chat, Voice and Imagine”.
This guide covers the removal dates and why Unhinged already sounded tame for weeks before it vanished.
It also covers what happens in a Tesla, and what you can still do if you want Grok, or something else, to talk to you like that.
Is Grok Unhinged Mode Gone From Voice Chat?
Grok Unhinged mode is gone from the voice personality list grok.com serves as of September 14, 2026.
It left between the September 13 and September 14 snapshots of the site, together with Motivation and Argumentative.
What is Grok’s client configuration: The settings file grok.com sends to every browser, listing which voices, personalities and features the web app is allowed to show.
The record sits in that file. The grok.com homepage and settings page both carry a block called voice_mode_config_v2, which lists the voices and personalities the voice menu can offer.
Internet Archive snapshots of grok.com show that list shrinking in three steps, and anyone can check one by viewing its page source and searching for that name.
| Snapshot (UTC) | Voices listed | Personalities listed | 18+ personalities still listed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 25 to Aug 7, 2026 | 6 | 13 | Unhinged, Sexy, Romantic, Motivation, Argumentative |
| Aug 8 to Sep 4, 2026 | 27, then 29 from Sep 2 | 13 | All five |
| Sep 5, 2026, 00:01 | 29 | 12 | Sexy gone |
| Sep 9, 2026, 00:37 | 29 | 11 | Romantic gone |
| Sep 13, 2026, 00:07 | 29 | 11 | Unhinged, Motivation, Argumentative |
| Sep 14, 2026, 00:15 | 29 | 8 | None |
Every name that left carries the same “mature” flag in the file, the marker for Grok’s 18+ modes, and nothing without that flag was touched. Assistant, Therapist, Storyteller, Kids Story Time, Kids Trivia Game, Meditation, Doctor and Conspiracy all survived, while the voice list grew from 6 voices at the start of August to 29.
That pattern looks deliberate to me: five adult personalities, three steps, ten days. The September 14 snapshot lists eight personalities and none of the five.
Grok users caught the first two steps before the third landed. A September 12 comment in r/grok said “They also removed Sexy and Romantic VC option”, VC meaning voice chat, which fits the snapshot dates.
What the file cannot show is which apps follow it. The iPhone and Android apps, Tesla cars and older web builds may lag or follow other rules, and an older block in the same file still holds Unhinged’s full prompt, untouched. If Unhinged still appears in your app, you are looking at an older list than the one grok.com now serves.
Outside voice, the same file still lists Grok Imagine’s Spicy mode, the adult setting of Grok’s video generator, with its own mature flag. For now, the cleanup stops at the voice menu.
Why Did Grok Unhinged Mode Sound Tame Before It Was Removed?
Grok Unhinged mode went tame because of changes on xAI’s servers, since its own instructions stayed identical from July 9 to September 14.
Unhinged’s voice prompt is 1,362 characters long and opens with “You have an EXAGGERATED and WILD voice. You are totally UNHINGED and VULGAR, no holds barred”.
The July 9 snapshot and the live file on September 14 carry it byte for byte, and the same holds for Sexy, Romantic, Motivation and Argumentative.
So the summer complaints describe something the prompt cannot explain. In a July 29 thread, one user wrote that “even Unhinged 18+ is refusing all NSFW things” in voice, and another said Grok would “still do NSFW in text”.
My read is that xAI changed what sits underneath the personality, the model and the moderation around it, and left the costume on the rack. Text chat had already turned shorter and flatter in early July, so voice was not the only place Grok cooled off.
The May scare was a glitch. Personality presets stopped working for a while, and the author of a May 10 thread added that an xAI employee had confirmed on X that it was a bug.
September is different, because the names were deleted from the list itself. A bug does not remove five entries that share one flag and leave everything else in place.
What Is the Difference Between Voice Unhinged and Text Unhinged?
Grok has two separate Unhinged modes, a voice personality and a text chat persona, and only the voice personality left the menu in September.
The text version is one of nine chat personas, covering news, romance, friendship, tutoring, medical questions, comedy, therapy, science and coding. Its 2,721-character prompt casts Grok as “a wild, no-holds-barred comedian”, and TechCrunch reported in August 2025 that Grok’s website was exposing these persona prompts.
The rules inside it are stricter than the name suggests. It tells Grok “Never roast the user”, “Never say racist or sexist shit” and “Never encourage violence”.
That rule list tells me xAI always meant Unhinged as a comedian with house rules. xAI’s consumer FAQ says an unhinged Grok may end up “responding like an amateur stand-up comic who is still learning the craft”, sometimes “objectionable, inappropriate, and offensive”.
To xAI’s credit, the adult personalities were marked 18+ well before this cleanup. All five carried the mature flag in every snapshot back to July. xAI’s Allow NSFW Content setting is off by default, and its settings page says you must be “18 years or older” to turn it on.
Where the text persona shows up depends on your app version. The web chat’s mode picker now offers Auto, Fast, Expert and Heavy, so on some builds the persona has no obvious button at all.
Why Can’t I See Unhinged Mode in Grok Anymore?
The most likely reason you can’t see Unhinged mode is that your app reads the new voice list, which dropped it on September 13 or 14.
Other causes still apply on older builds.
The first thing I rule out is the voice, because one voice switches the whole personality menu off. After that, the table below covers what each symptom usually means.
| Symptom | Likely cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Your voice menu offers far more than the original six voices, but no Unhinged | Your app reads the updated personality list, which no longer includes Unhinged | No toggle restores it, so use custom instructions or an alternative |
| The personality picker disappears after you choose a voice | You picked Gork, the “Lazy Male” voice, which is set to disable personalities | Switch to Ara, Eve, Leo, Rex or Sal |
| Unhinged is missing on an older build while other personalities show | The 18+ setting is off, and Unhinged carries the mature flag | Turn on Allow NSFW Content (I’m 18+) and pass the age check |
| Unhinged is selected but sounds like Assistant | Server-side moderation, or a voice bug like the one in May | Start a new session, report it, and expect a tamer tone |
| Unhinged vanished in one country but not another | Regional limits on 18+ features | Nothing on your side lifts a regional block |
The Gork row catches people out more than it should. Gork is the one voice in Grok’s configuration marked to disable personalities, so choosing it hides the menu no matter what else you set.
If the 18+ setting sends you into a verification loop, Grok’s selfie age check has its own set of problems. None of these fixes brings Unhinged back on a build that reads the new list.
Does Grok Unhinged Mode Still Work in a Tesla?
Tesla’s Grok support page still listed Unhinged in its June 2026 version, and nothing public yet shows whether cars lose it too.
The car’s Grok is processed by xAI, the same company that just pulled Unhinged from its web app’s list.
Tesla’s Grok support page says owners can “Choose Grok’s voice and personality, ranging from Storyteller to Unhinged”. It also says “A Grok account or subscription is not required to enable Grok on your vehicle at this time”.
The car needs three things for Grok to run at all:
- An AMD infotainment processor, which you can confirm under Controls, Software, Additional Vehicle Information
- Vehicle software version 2025.26 or later
- Premium Connectivity or a stable Wi-Fi connection
One limit catches drivers out. Tesla’s page tells you to set the personality to Assistant before asking Grok to navigate, so Unhinged was never the one to route you home.
Auto Express listed the car’s 18+ modes in February as Unhinged, Motivation, Argumentative, Romantic and Sexy, the same five that just left the web app’s list. I would not pay for Premium Connectivity to chase Unhinged right now.
How Do You Get Grok to Act Unhinged Now?
The one route xAI still documents is writing your own instructions, because its consumer FAQ says you can tell Grok to be unhinged.
Results depend on the same moderation that flattened the old personality.
The custom instruction route is the one I trust most, because it is the path xAI describes in writing. Grok’s configuration allows custom instructions up to 12,000 characters, far more than a tone brief needs.
- Open Grok’s settings and find the custom instructions field.
- Paste a tone brief with a register, a length limit and an ending, like the example below.
- Start a new chat so the instruction applies from the first message.
- For adult topics, turn on Allow NSFW Content (I’m 18+) and complete the age check.
- In voice mode, pick Ara, Eve, Leo, Rex or Sal, since Gork switches personalities off.
The gap between a weak brief and a working one looks like this.
Before: “Be unhinged.”
After: “Talk to me like a foul-mouthed stand-up comic. Swear freely, roast my ideas but never me, keep replies under four sentences, and end every answer with a one-line punchline.”
The second brief borrows the shape of xAI’s own persona, down to the rule about never roasting the user. “Be unhinged” leaves Grok to guess all of that.
Expect the tone to hold better in text than in voice. Voice is where the refusal complaints clustered this year, in May and again in July, so if a voice that swears back was the whole point, the alternatives below are the steadier fix.
What Is the Best Alternative to Grok Unhinged Mode?
The best alternative to Grok Unhinged mode is Candy AI, if you want an unfiltered companion that can also talk back by voice.
Candy AI is the one I point Unhinged fans to first. Paid plans include unlimited text chat, and Candy’s help centre lists voice messages and Voice Calls (beta) among the features paid for with tokens.
Premium costs $13.99 a month, or $3.99 a month billed at $47.88 a year, and a free account stops at 5 messages. The catch is the token meter, since heavy voice use costs more than the headline price.
If the swearing, flirting voice was the reason you used Grok, Candy AI is the closest replacement I know of.
Readers who mostly typed to Unhinged have a text-first option too. Nectar AI is my second pick for long text roleplay with fewer limits.
Unhinged follows the companion shutdown that retired Ani and the other Grok companions earlier this summer. Anyone who relied on both has now been burned twice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Grok Unhinged mode coming back?
xAI has not said. The April and May disappearances were bugs or regional blocks that reversed, but this time the name was deleted from the voice list itself. I would not count on a return without an announcement.
Is Grok Unhinged mode free?
When voice mode launched in February 2025, it needed X Premium+ or SuperGrok. xAI’s pricing page now lists Voice mode on the free plan and Tesla needs no Grok subscription, but neither matters on a build where Unhinged is gone.
Which voice personalities are left in Grok?
Eight remain in the list grok.com serves: Assistant, Therapist, Storyteller, Kids Story Time, Kids Trivia Game, Meditation, Doctor and Conspiracy. All five 18+ personalities are gone.
Can I still use the Sexy or Romantic voice in Grok?
Not from the current list. Sexy left between September 4 and 5 and Romantic between September 8 and 9, days before Unhinged. The text Romance persona is a separate preset and was not touched.
Why does the personality menu vanish when I pick Gork?
Gork, listed as “Lazy Male”, is the one voice set to disable personalities in Grok’s configuration. Switch to Ara, Eve, Leo, Rex or Sal and the menu comes back.
Is Grok Unhinged mode 18+?
Yes. Unhinged carried the same mature flag as Sexy, Romantic, Motivation and Argumentative, and coverage of Tesla’s in-car Grok lists those same five as its 18+ modes.
Quick Takeaways
- Grok Unhinged mode left the voice personality list grok.com serves between September 13 and 14, 2026, after Sexy and Romantic.
- The tame phase before that came from xAI’s servers, since Unhinged’s prompt stayed identical from July 9 onward.
- If your personality menu vanishes, check that you are not on the Gork voice before anything else.
- Custom instructions are the one documented way to get an unhinged tone from Grok now, and my pick for an unfiltered voice companion is Candy AI.
