Grok Bot Marketplace: a new MCP growth channel
The Grok Bot Marketplace is xAI’s new way to get a plugin or MCP server in front of Grok Bot and Cursor users, with Grok itself listed as coming soon. One form on xAI’s site covers all three. In this article I explain what the marketplace is, why xAI and Cursor share it, why I see it as a new MCP distribution channel, and how it compares with ChatGPT, Claude, Muse, Perplexity, Gemini and the official MCP Registry.
Key takeaways
- xAI’s submission form offers to “distribute your plugin or MCP server to Grok (coming soon), Grok Bot, and Cursor users” after a review.
- Grok Bot is xAI’s product for Bots that do work on a cloud computer. It signs in with a Cursor account and runs on Cursor-hosted infrastructure.
- Cursor became part of SpaceX in August 2026, which explains the shared marketplace: the form is on x.ai, and the Publisher Terms you accept are Cursor’s.
- One submission can reach two audiences, developers in Cursor and business teams in Grok Bot, with Grok to follow.
- Review is manual, and neither xAI nor Cursor publishes how long it takes. In my view, prompt injection is a big part of why reviews like this are strict.
- Neither company documents a usage dashboard for publishers, so you need your own MCP analytics to see what the listing brings.
What is the Grok Bot Marketplace?
The submission page says it in one sentence: “Distribute your plugin or MCP server to Grok (coming soon), Grok Bot, and Cursor users. Submit it below and we’ll review it for the marketplace.” The form asks where you want to be listed and gives three checkboxes: Grok (marked coming soon), Grok Bot and Cursor.
ChatGPT and Grok call these integrations “plugins”, while Claude and Muse call them “connectors”. The idea is the same: a remote MCP server (Model Context Protocol), reviewed and listed, that an agent calls for the user.
The public marketplace page currently shows Bot templates, grouped into categories such as Engineering, Sales, Marketing and Operations. Plugins appear inside the apps. In Grok Bot, members find the connectors they may use under Connect apps, per the teams documentation. In Cursor, they appear in the Cursor Marketplace, which groups plugins into sections such as Infrastructure, Data & Analytics and Productivity.
What is Grok Bot?
xAI’s getting started guide describes Bots you create, chat with and assign tasks to, working on a cloud computer. Grok Bot has desktop apps for macOS, Windows and Linux, and phone apps for iPhone and Android. Cursor’s own announcement calls this kind of product “AI teammates that you can give real work to”.
Grok Bot leans on Cursor at every layer:
- “Grok Bot uses your Cursor account, and there is no separate Grok Bot login.”
- Eligible plans include Premium, Super and Ultra on The X Subscription, and every paid individual plan and Cursor Teams on a legacy Cursor plan.
- Per the security page, the apps send each request to Cursor’s servers, and “Grok Bot runs only on Cursor-hosted cloud computers.”
Grok Bot reaches third-party services through connected apps, which the security page describes as MCP servers. A plugin listed for Grok Bot is one of those connected apps.
Why xAI and Cursor share one marketplace
Cursor’s post Cursor is now a part of SpaceX, dated August 14, 2026, says the acquisition completed a process that started in April, when Cursor announced a partnership with SpaceXAI. The post introduces Grok 4.6 as “an early look at what we can now build together”.
The marketplace reflects that. The form lives on x.ai, but the link next to the submit button goes to the Cursor Marketplace Publisher Terms of Anysphere, Inc., the company behind Cursor. On the Grok Bot side, the teams documentation says “Grok Bot inherits your team’s Cursor connector policy. There is no separate Grok Bot connector list.”
So a plugin approved for this marketplace can serve two products that already share accounts, infrastructure and connector policy. Cursor also has its own publish page, linked from the Cursor Marketplace. I could not confirm whether it leads to the same review as the xAI form, so I treat the xAI form as the entry point when you want Grok Bot as well.
Why the Grok Bot Marketplace is an MCP distribution channel
Most software reaches people through search, ads and word of mouth. A listed plugin can also reach them inside the tool they already work in. This marketplace gives you three ways in:
- Cursor users. Cursor’s plugin docs say plugins “package rules, skills, agents, commands, MCP servers, and hooks”. A server for developers can ship with the skills and rules that teach the agent to use it well.
- Grok Bot teams. The Bot templates on the marketplace page cover engineering, sales, marketing, design and operations work, so this audience reaches well beyond developers. A team’s admin decides which connectors members may use, and “pushing connectors to members, whether mandatory or default-on, is not available”. Each member still connects your plugin, so the listing and its description have to persuade them.
- Grok, later. Grok’s listing option is marked coming soon. Grok already accepts connectors, including your own MCP server, and the xAI API supports remote MCP tools. What is still to come is the listing, not MCP support.
That is what made app stores a growth channel for mobile apps: a catalog inside a product people already use. Neither xAI nor Cursor publishes user numbers for Grok Bot or the marketplace, so treat the size of the opportunity as unknown until you see your own traffic.
How it compares with the other AI directories
Each assistant has its own directory and its own way in. Here is the short version, from my other articles in this series.
| Channel | Who it reaches | How you get in |
|---|---|---|
| Grok Bot Marketplace | Grok Bot and Cursor users, Grok later | One form at x.ai, reviewed under Cursor’s terms |
| ChatGPT plugin directory | ChatGPT and Codex users | ZIP upload with positive and negative test cases |
| Claude Marketplace | claude.ai, Claude Desktop, mobile and Claude Code | Developer portal, any paid Claude plan |
| Muse connectors | Users of Meta’s Muse agent | Muse Connector Platform, after business verification |
| Perplexity connectors | Perplexity users and Perplexity Computer | A connector proposal that Perplexity’s team reviews |
| Gemini Connected Apps | The Gemini app and Search | Google Connected Console, in preview |
| Official MCP Registry | Developer catalogs that pull from it | server.json and the mcp-publisher CLI |
The Grok form asks for less than most of these. You give a description, testing instructions and test credentials, but no tool labels, test cases or business documents. The reviewer learns the rest from your server, so the server has to explain itself.
Why the review is strict, and how to pass it the first time
Cursor’s plugin docs say “every plugin is manually reviewed before it’s listed”, and that each update is reviewed before it is published. The Publisher Terms let Anysphere approve or reject “for any reason, in our sole discretion” without giving reasons. Neither company publishes a review time.
In my view, prompt injection is the main reason AI directories review this carefully. A tool’s name and description go straight into the model’s context. Grok Bot’s security page says outside content, app results included, “can try to steer” a Bot, and that its controls “reduce, but do not eliminate, risk from malicious content”. A Bot that runs commands on a cloud computer raises the stakes.
Fix what a reviewer would flag before they see it. When you add your server to MCP Tower, its Inspect module validates every tool and its description and gives you recommendations. Fix them on your server, or change a tool’s title and description in Inspect with an override, without waiting for a developer or a deploy.
Test sign-in too. The form asks for test credentials and a confirmation that you tested the plugin
“locally and in-app”, and a reviewer who cannot sign in cannot run a single tool. MCP Tower runs your
OAuth flow as 18 checks, from the 401 challenge and discovery documents to token
exchange and refresh, and reports where it broke and what to change.
For the steps, field by field, see how to submit a plugin to Grok.
Measure what the Grok Bot Marketplace brings you
SEO specialists rely on tools that show which queries bring visitors, which pages convert and what breaks. A marketplace listing deserves the same loop, and neither xAI nor Cursor documents a usage dashboard for publishers.
The MCP Tower setup you used to test before submission keeps working after approval. It sits in front of your server as a proxy: you point a hostname you own at it with a DNS change, so the “MCP Server URL” you submit can stay the same (onboarding), and every request is recorded on the way through. That gives you:
- Every call, from every agent. Each call carries the agent it came from, when MCP Tower can tell, and how far that label can be trusted. MCP Tower does not yet name Grok Bot or Cursor as agents, but their calls are still recorded and measured.
- Per-tool usage and reliability. Which tools get called, how often, how fast and with which errors.
- What happens after the call. Clicks on the links your tools return and interactions inside widgets.
- Uptime from outside. Scheduled checks record latency and errors, even when nobody is using the server.
Because the URL you submit is the one you keep, set up MCP Tower before you submit. Then the first day of traffic is already measured. See pricing for plans.
Conclusion
The Grok Bot Marketplace puts one form in front of two products that already share accounts and infrastructure, with Grok to come. The form is short, but the review is manual and Anysphere’s terms give it the final word. The teams that do well will test sign-in and tool descriptions before they submit, then watch what agents and users do once the listing is live.
Open MCP Tower to test your MCP server before you submit to the Grok Bot Marketplace, then measure its traffic from the first call.
