Manus
Manus is a hosted autonomous agent that plans and runs multi-step work (research, slides, spreadsheets, web apps) in its own sandboxed virtual computer, free with 300 daily-refresh credits and paid plans from $20 a month.
Verified against: manus.imaiproductivity.ai as of 2026-10-02
Quick verdict: Manus is the pick when you want to hand an entire multi-step task to an agent that works it end-to-end in its own sandbox. The $20 Starter tier is the cheapest capable entry, and the free daily credits make it easy to judge output quality before committing. Choose Meta Muse for a free consumer agent inside Meta's apps, Perplexity Computer for research-and-code agents with recurring monthly credits, Claude Code for terminal-first coding, or Codex for cloud coding — Manus stands out for fully autonomous, deliverable-grade task runs.
- Our rating: 4.0/5
- Strongest dimension: Functionality (4/5, research only)
- Weakest dimension: Stability (3/5, research only)
- Pricing: Free plan · $20/mo (Starter)
- Verification: Research-only pass over official sources, last checked 2026-10-02. Sources: manus.im, aiproductivity.ai
Manus pricing details
- Free plan available
- 7 days
- paid plans from $20/mo (Starter)
- free (300 daily-refresh credits + 1,000 one-time starter credits) · Starter $20/mo (4,000 credits/mo) · Pro $40/mo (8,000) · Pro Max $200/mo (40,000) · Team from $20/seat/mo
- annual billing saves ~15% (Starter ~$17/mo, Pro ~$34/mo, Pro Max ~$167/mo); Team $200/seat/year
Credits are the single billing unit and do not roll over; complex or re-run tasks consume more, so the real bill depends on task difficulty rather than a fixed per-task price
In our index: Free (300/day + 1,000 one-time) · Starter $20/mo (4,000) · Pro $40/mo (8,000) · Pro Max $200/mo (40,000) · Team $20/seat · annual ~15% off · credits do not roll over
How Manus scores across our 6 index dimensions
- Functionality: 4/5 (research only)
- Usability: 4/5 (research only)
- Stability: 3/5 (research only)
- Collaboration: 4/5 (research only)
- Localization: 3/5 (research only)
- Value: 4/5 (research only)
Score rationale: The most capable hands-off agent in this cluster for delegating entire multi-step tasks (deep research, data analysis, app prototyping), priced from $20 with a usable free tier. The trade-off is credit-based billing: credits do not roll over and error re-runs burn them, so heavy use demands careful budgeting. A separate caveat is corporate continuity — June 2026 reporting said Meta cut Manus off from internal systems and is sunsetting the platform, which is a real risk for anyone building a durable workflow on it.
What Manus does well
- Genuinely autonomous multi-step execution — it browses, writes and runs code, and parses files with minimal supervision
- Broad output range from one prompt: research, slides, spreadsheets, websites, images, and deployable web apps
- Useful free tier (300 daily-refresh credits plus a 1,000 one-time starter pack) to test the agent's style
- Scheduled, background tasks that run while you sleep and land results in the morning
Where Manus falls short
- Credits do not roll over and error re-runs consume them, so the real bill varies with task difficulty
- Free tier is a daily trickle (300/day, capped around 1,500/month), not a usable monthly budget for recurring work
- Billing complaints are common enough that careful credit management is essential
- June 2026 reporting said Meta is separating from and sunsetting Manus — a continuity risk for durable workflows
How Manus compares to other Personal AI Agents tools
Our index tracks 4 Personal AI Agents tools. Manus sits at 4.0/5, with annual billing saves ~15% (starter ~$17/mo, pro ~$34/mo, pro max ~$167/mo); team $200/seat/year. Here are the 3 closest alternatives we hold pricing and scoring evidence for.
- Codex — 4.4/5 · Free plan · Custom/quote
OpenAI's always-on coding agent, bundled into ChatGPT with no separate subscription — CLI, IDE, cloud tasks and automatic code review across GPT-5.x model tiers. - Perplexity Computer — 4.3/5 · No free plan · $200/mo (Max, for recurring Computer credits)
Perplexity Computer is an always-on digital worker that executes multi-step workflows (research, coding, documents, app actions) across 19 frontier models in an isolated cloud sandbox, billed through Perplexity Max at $200 a month. - Meta Muse — 4.2/5 · Free plan · $20/mo (Power)
Meta Muse is the consumer personal agent: it plans and executes real work (email, travel, forms, purchases) on Meta's own Muse Spark model, free up to 100M tokens a week, Power $20 and Maximum $100 for more weekly budget.
Frequently asked questions about Manus
How much does Manus cost?
Free plan available; 7 days; paid plans from $20/mo (Starter); free (300 daily-refresh credits + 1,000 one-time starter credits) · Starter $20/mo (4,000 credits/mo) · Pro $40/mo (8,000) · Pro Max $200/mo (40,000) · Team from $20/seat/mo; annual billing saves ~15% (Starter ~$17/mo, Pro ~$34/mo, Pro Max ~$167/mo); Team $200/seat/year. Billing detail: Credits are the single billing unit and do not roll over; complex or re-run tasks consume more, so the real bill depends on task difficulty rather than a fixed per-task price. Figures verified 2026-10-02.
Does Manus have a free plan?
Yes. Manus has a free tier; paid plans start at $20/mo (Starter).
What is Manus rated in our index?
Manus sits at 4.0/5 in our index, strongest on functionality (4/5, research only) and weakest on stability (3/5, research only). Manus is the pick when you want to hand an entire multi-step task to an agent that works it end-to-end in its own sandbox. The $20 Starter tier is the cheapest capable entry, and the free daily credits make it easy to judge output quality before committing. Choose Meta Muse for a free consumer agent inside Meta's apps, Perplexity Computer for research-and-code agents with recurring monthly credits, Claude Code for terminal-first coding, or Codex for cloud coding — Manus stands out for fully autonomous, deliverable-grade task runs.
What are the drawbacks of Manus?
Credits do not roll over and error re-runs consume them, so the real bill varies with task difficulty Free tier is a daily trickle (300/day, capped around 1,500/month), not a usable monthly budget for recurring work Billing complaints are common enough that careful credit management is essential June 2026 reporting said Meta is separating from and sunsetting Manus — a continuity risk for durable workflows.
What does Manus do well?
Genuinely autonomous multi-step execution — it browses, writes and runs code, and parses files with minimal supervision Broad output range from one prompt: research, slides, spreadsheets, websites, images, and deployable web apps Useful free tier (300 daily-refresh credits plus a 1,000 one-time starter pack) to test the agent's style Scheduled, background tasks that run while you sleep and land results in the morning.
How was Manus verified?
Research-only pass over official sources, last checked 2026-10-02. Sources: manus.im, aiproductivity.ai.
What are the alternatives to Manus?
We track Meta Muse, Perplexity Computer, Claude Code (Anthropic), Codex as the closest alternatives in our Personal AI Agents index, and 4 head-to-head comparisons against Manus are available.