Manus Review: Features, Pricing & Alternatives

What is Manus?

Manus is a general-purpose AI agent. Instead of just answering questions, it plans a task, works in its own cloud computer, browses the web, writes and runs code, and hands back finished work such as reports, slide decks, spreadsheets and live websites. It launched as an invite-only preview in March 2025 and quickly became one of the best-known agent products.

Its corporate story has been unusual. Manus was started by a team in China, moved its base to Singapore in 2025 and agreed to be acquired by Meta in December 2025 in a deal reported at over $2 billion. In April 2026 Chinese regulators blocked the deal and ordered it unwound, and Manus announced it had resumed independent operations in August and September 2026, with some users asked to back up and restore data during the separation.

Product work has continued at pace. Manus 2.0, released in September 2026, added a new agent harness called Cascade, dedicated Cloud Computers, event-triggered Automations and the Manus Studio desktop app with tools for documents, slides, websites, games and video. What sets Manus apart is how much it can finish end to end with little supervision.

Key features of Manus

• Autonomous task executionDescribe a goal and Manus breaks it into steps, uses a browser, code and files, and returns a finished deliverable you can review.
• Wide ResearchRuns many research threads in parallel, for example comparing dozens of companies or products, and compiles the results.
• Slides, documents and websitesCreates slide decks (including PowerPoint export), documents, spreadsheets and deployable websites or web apps.
• AutomationsSchedule tasks or trigger them from events such as new emails, calendar entries, Slack messages or Notion updates.
• Manus Studio and Cloud ComputerThe desktop app adds editors for video, games and code, while Cloud Computers keep long-running projects online.
• Integrations and Browser OperatorConnect tools such as Gmail, Google Calendar, Notion, Slack and others, and let Manus work in your own browser when a task needs your logged-in sites.

Who is Manus best for?

• Analysts and researchers who need broad web research turned into structured reports and tables.
• Founders and small teams that want slides, landing pages and prototypes without hiring for each task.
• Marketers and operators who can hand off repetitive research, reporting and monitoring to automations.

Popular ways to use Manus

• Market research: compare competitors and summarise pricing, features and positioning in a table.
• Presentations: turn a brief or document into a ready-to-edit slide deck.
• Web builds: create and deploy a landing page or small web app.
• Recurring reports: automate a weekly briefing triggered by new data or a schedule.
• Data tasks: clean, analyse and chart a spreadsheet you upload.

Manus pricing (October 2026)

Manus uses credits, and complex tasks can use far more credits than simple ones, so costs vary by task. Prices are from Manus’s help centre in 2026; larger credit tiers and add-on credits are available, and the live pricing page is authoritative.

Manus pros and cons

How to get started with Manus

1. Sign up at manus.im and use the free daily credits to test it.
2. Start with a clear, bounded task, such as a one-page competitor summary.
3. Watch the agent’s steps and step in if it goes off track.
4. Review and edit the output, then save prompts that worked well.
5. Upgrade to Pro once you know roughly how many credits your tasks use.

Tips to get better results from Manus

• Give a precise goal, format and sources to keep credit use down.
• Split big projects into smaller tasks.
• Connect only the apps a task needs, and review permissions.
• Keep backups of important files.

Manus vs alternatives

Manus competes most directly with Genspark, another all-in-one agent workspace, and with the agent mode in ChatGPT. ChatGPT is the better all-round assistant with predictable subscription pricing, while Manus usually goes further on long, autonomous tasks and deliverables such as websites and decks.

For research with citations only, Perplexity is simpler and cheaper to predict. If you want to build business workflows with agents that run inside your tools, Lindy is more focused on automation, and Claude is a strong choice for careful writing and analysis. See all best chatbots & assistants tools.

Our verdict: is Manus worth it?

Manus FAQs

Pricing and features change often. Details on this page were last reviewed in October 2026. Always confirm current plans on the official Manus website.