Manus, the general artificial intelligence agent developed by the Wuhan-based Butterfly Effect startup and debuted in early March 2025, has gained global attention with praise from influential tech personalities such as Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey and Victor Mustar, Head of Product at Hugging Face.
The platform, which describes itself as "the world's first general AI-agent," utilises multiple AI models (including Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet and fine-tuned versions of Alibaba’s Qwen) as autonomous agents capable of performing a wide range of tasks independently. Manus offers exceptional value for money: according to a report by Chinese media outlet 36Kr, the cost per task for Manus is approximately $2, just one-tenth of the cost of ChatGPT DeepResearch. The system’s most significant technical innovation is the “Manus's Computer” feature, which allows users not only to observe the AI agent’s activities but also to intervene in the process at any time.
The system excels in various online research tasks, but it often encounters obstacles due to paywalls and CAPTCHA blocks. According to a MIT Technology Review test, Manus outperforms ChatGPT DeepResearch in specific tasks, though it requires more time to complete its operations. Based on user tests, the platform is best suited for analytical tasks requiring extensive internet research within a limited scope, highlighting its specialisation in complex yet well-defined online research tasks.
The service is currently quite limited in availability—fewer than 1% of those on the waiting list have received an invitation code—and faces challenges such as frequent crashes and system instability, particularly when processing large blocks of text. Manus’s pricing model offers two tiers: the starter package provides 3,900 credits per month for $39, while the professional version offers 19,900 credits per month for $199.
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Caiwei Chen
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The Economist
