Beijing-based Chinese startup Manus has launched a paid subscription model for its popular AI agent, just weeks after its public release. The service, which is still in beta, is now available in two tiers: $39 per month and $199 for a premium subscription, putting it on par with OpenAI’s ChatGPT Pro, Bloomberg reports.
Unlike conventional chatbots, Manus positions itself as an autonomous agent capable of independently performing complex tasks for the user — from planning to analysis, without the need for constant requests.
The $199 premium plan allows you to run up to five tasks simultaneously and provides more compute credits. Manus has left limited free access for now, but it is not known for sure how long, as the AI agent is built on third-party language models, including Claude from Anthropic.
Manus went viral after the release of a spectacular video demo, which sparked a wave of comparisons to DeepSeek, another Chinese AI project that shook up the industry earlier this year with performance approaching systems from OpenAI and Meta.
The decision to quickly monetize Manus contrasts with the approach of most players in the Chinese market, which are waging a real price war to win users. In January, DeepSeek released the R1 model, after which Alibaba, Tencent and others rushed to announce new AI services. In February, Baidu made its chatbot Ernie free.
Meanwhile, Butterfly Effect, the company behind Manus, is in talks with potential investors to raise funding at a valuation of at least $500 million, The Information reported, citing anonymous sources. The startup’s investors include ZhenFund and HSG (formerly known as Sequoia China).