Manus

Last updated: 2026-07-07

Manus is Butterfly Effect Pte. Ltd.'s autonomous AI agent launched in 2022, scoring 86.5% on GAIA benchmark, delivering end-to-end task completion with free tier and paid plans.

About Manus

Manus is a general-purpose autonomous AI agent built by Singapore-based Butterfly Effect Pte. Ltd., launched on March 6, 2025. Unlike chatbots that answer questions, Manus executes entire tasks: give it a goal like "build a competitor analysis report" and it plans, researches, writes, and delivers a finished file without further input. In its first eight months, the platform processed 147 trillion tokens, powered 80 million virtual computers, and crossed $100M in annualized revenue. Manus runs on a multi-agent architecture powered by Anthropic's Claude 3.7 Sonnet, inside an isolated Linux sandbox with 29 tools (browser, Python interpreter, file system, external APIs). A Planner Agent breaks your request into sub-tasks, an Executor Agent runs them in parallel, and a Knowledge Agent handles research and synthesis. Tasks run asynchronously in the cloud: close your browser and Manus keeps working, notifying you when done. On the GAIA benchmark, the industry standard for real-world AI agent performance, Manus scored 86.5% at Level 1, 70.1% at Level 2, and 57.7% at Level 3, outperforming OpenAI's best agent at every tier. It is best suited for solo researchers, product teams prototyping web apps, freelancers producing client deliverables, and small agencies running content or data pipelines. Pricing starts at free (300 daily credits) and scales to Pro Standard at $20/month (4,000 credits), Pro Customizable at $40/month (8,000 credits), and Pro Extended at $200/month (40,000 credits). A Team plan runs $40 per seat per month. Credits are consumed per task: simple jobs cost tens of credits, complex agent runs cost 500-900 credits each, with no cost estimate shown before the task starts. In December 2025, Meta acquired Butterfly Effect for approximately $2-3 billion, its third-largest acquisition after WhatsApp and Scale AI. Manus had no SOC 2 or GDPR certification at time of acquisition, discontinued China operations, and relocated fully to Singapore. Manus 1.6 introduced a high-performance Max mode, native mobile app building, and Design View for interactive image creation.

Pricing

Free: 300 daily credits + 1,000 starter credits, 1 concurrent task, 2 scheduled tasks. Pro Standard $20/mo (4,000 credits). Pro Customizable $40/mo (8,000 credits). Pro Extended $200/mo (40,000 credits) — all three Pro tiers get 20 concurrent + 20 scheduled tasks and access to Manus 1.6 / 1.6 Max / 1.6 Lite. Team $40/seat/mo (min 2 seats). 17% discount with annual billing.

Key Features

• Autonomous End-to-End Task Execution: Manus takes a single natural-language goal and independently plans, executes, and delivers a finished result — building an 8-page market analysis with source citations in approximately 15 minutes.
• Async Cloud Operation: Tasks continue running in Manus's cloud environment after you close your browser or app, sending a notification when complete — eliminating the need for constant supervision.
• Manus's Computer Transparent Interface: A live view shows every step the agent takes in real time, letting users watch decision-making unfold and intervene at any point in the workflow.
• Wide Research Mode: Runs parallel searches across dozens of sources simultaneously, producing structured reports with citations that outperform ChatGPT on research depth in independent tests.
• Full-Stack App & Slide Builder: Generates deployable web apps, native iOS/Android apps, and structured presentations from a single prompt, producing downloadable Word, Excel, or code files.
• Mail Manus Email Automation: Users forward emails to trigger autonomous actions — resume screening, meeting prep, or custom workflows — using configurable prompt rules.
• Manus 1.6 / 1.6 Max Agent Line: The May 2026 Manus 1.6 update adds a Max tier with a stronger planning architecture (19.2% higher user satisfaction in double-blind tests) plus new Mobile Development and Design View modes for building native apps and editing images visually.
• Desktop App — My Computer: Launched March 16, 2026 for macOS (M-series) and Windows, My Computer lets the agent read local files, run terminal commands in Python/Node/Swift/Xcode, and act on your machine directly, with every command requiring explicit approval.
• Multi-Agent Architecture with 29 Tools: Routes tasks across specialized Planner, Executor, and Knowledge sub-agents running in an isolated Linux sandbox, reasoning on Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 4 / Opus 4.x line with a fine-tuned Qwen model handling cheaper sub-tasks.

Pros

• Leads the GAIA benchmark at 86.5% Level-1 accuracy, surpassing OpenAI's best agent by 12.2 percentage points across all three difficulty tiers
• Async cloud execution means multi-hour tasks complete without keeping your browser open — a workflow advantage no chatbot competitor offers
• Reached $100M+ ARR in 8 months from zero, demonstrating real enterprise adoption beyond hype
• Free tier with 300 daily credits gives meaningful access to core agent features without a credit card
• Downloadable output files (Word, Excel, code) make results immediately usable rather than copy-paste dependent

Cons

• Credit consumption is unpredictable — complex agent tasks burn 500-900 credits each with no cost preview, and unused monthly credits expire with no rollover
• SOC 2 Type 2 attestation is now published on Manus's trust center, but GDPR certification is still not confirmed — a gap for EU-regulated workloads.
• Server instability under peak load ('tasks cannot be created' errors) affects reliability for time-sensitive workflows
• Reasons on Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 4 / Opus 4.x line rather than a proprietary model, so Anthropic's API changes or pricing shifts still flow through to Manus's capabilities and costs.
• Production code quality is unreliable — architectural decisions (database schema, API design) are made autonomously and often need significant revision before deployment

Visit Manus Official Website