Manus Pricing (2026): $20 Buys 4,000 Credits, Not Unlimited Work

Manus costs $0 to $20,000 a month, and the practical paid starting point is $20 for 4,000 credits. On August 14, 2026, most new users should stay free through the temporary August 25 access window, then pay only after completed-task history proves 4,000 credits cover a recurring outcome. Those credits buy variable agent work, not a fixed number of tasks.

Every price, credit allocation, annual total, and add-on below was verified against Manus's live pricing page and its current first-party pricing configuration on August 14, 2026. Policy details were checked against Manus's current membership guide, Help Center, and API documentation on the same date. That timestamp matters because the public cards show only a few starting points, while the live tier selector contains a much larger price ladder.

Manus Pricing at a Glance (August 2026)

The $20 monthly plan is the right first paid plan for an individual. It includes 4,000 monthly credits, 300 daily refresh credits, 20 concurrent tasks, and 20 scheduled tasks. Moving higher through $200 adds capacity at the same half-cent-per-credit rate, so there is no reason to prepay for a large tier before usage proves the need.

Manus markets its visible entry cards as standard, customizable, and extended usage. The Help Center groups the paid individual offer under Pro. The complete live price selector exposes these breakpoints:

* The Free row describes the normal daily-credit policy. A temporary campaign changes access through August 25, as explained below.
** Team pricing is per seat, and the matching Team ladder ends at $5,000 per seat. Each billed seat adds its credits to a shared pool.

Annual totals are paid upfront. They equal ten monthly payments, but Manus still releases and resets the listed credit allowance every month. The page displays a 17% saving; the exact discount is 16.67%.

The $40 tier includes a seven-day trial. All paid individual tiers include Chat Mode plus Manus 1.6 Lite, Manus 1.6, and Manus 1.6 Max in Agent Mode, along with research, website creation, slides, Wide Research, and beta access. The $200 tier is the first public card to include a Cloud Computer.

The Free Plan Is Temporarily Better Than the Normal Free Plan

Manus Free is a permanent $0 plan, not merely a seven-day demo. Under the normal credit rules, a new account receives 1,000 signup credits, then 300 daily refresh credits that reset at midnight UTC instead of accumulating. Free daily credits have a 1,500-credit monthly consumption cap and work only with Manus 1.6 Lite. The documented operating limits are one concurrent task and two scheduled tasks.

That normal description is temporarily incomplete. Through August 25, 2026 at 11:59 PM SGT, Manus's current free-access campaign lets Free and paid users run Manus 1.6 Lite and Manus 1.6 without standard credit charges inside a limited daily allowance. Manus 1.6 Max remains outside the campaign. The company does not publish one fixed campaign-task count because queueing, fair-use controls, and separate generation limits still apply.

The temporary image and video limits are concrete. Free users can generate 20 images and one video a day. Paid users can generate 200 images and ten videos a day, and paid work receives priority in the queue. Free users cannot currently buy add-on credits during the campaign; paid users can.

The business consequence is simple: do not upgrade before August 25 just to use standard Manus 1.6. Pay now only if one of three boundaries has value this week: access to Manus 1.6 Max, paid queue priority, or the higher image and video limits. Otherwise, use the campaign to run the exact research, slide, website, or operator task that would justify a budget line later.

Who never needs to pay? Anyone whose normal work fits inside Free after the campaign ends. If Manus 1.6 Lite, the 1,500 monthly daily-credit cap, and the small concurrency allowance never delay a useful result, Pro adds spend without adding an outcome. A curious evaluator, an occasional researcher, or a senior operator who uses Manus for one bounded task at a time can remain at $0 indefinitely.

What Each Paid Manus Band Buys

Every paid individual tier buys the same core agent surface; the price mainly changes monthly capacity. That makes the plan decision easier than the 16 rows suggest.

$20 is the standard paid starting point

The $20 plan supplies 4,000 monthly credits. It is the right default for a solo user because it exposes the full paid model family and features without buying unused capacity. It is also the cleanest measurement month: divide the fee by accepted outputs, inspect the tasks that consumed the most credits, and decide whether Manus is replacing enough work to stay.

Skip it while Free still completes the representative task. A subscription is not proof that an agent fits the workflow.

$40 to $100 is a capacity slider

The $40, $60, $80, and $100 tiers supply 8,000, 12,000, 16,000, and 20,000 monthly credits. Each additional $20 buys another 4,000 credits, so all four retain the same $0.005 included-credit rate as the entry plan.

The $40 tier is the first sensible upgrade after a recurring 4,000-credit month, and its seven-day trial can reduce evaluation risk if it is canceled before charging. Skip the higher rows when the extra capacity would expire. These plans make Manus last longer; they do not make each unit cheaper.

$200 adds 40,000 credits and a Cloud Computer

The $200 tier raises monthly capacity to 40,000 credits and is the first visible plan to include a Cloud Computer. The included-credit rate is still $0.005, so the economic case comes from sustained volume and the value of the persistent environment, not a discount.

This is the point where Manus becomes an operating line rather than an experiment. The same caution applies to another quota-based agent subscription in the Antigravity pricing breakdown: capacity only matters when a blocked task has measurable value.

$300 and above finally improve unit economics

At $300, Manus supplies 63,000 credits, lowering the monthly rate to about $0.004762 per credit. It falls gradually to $0.004167 at the $2,000, $5,000, and $10,000 tiers, then $0.004 at $20,000 for 5 million credits.

Those are volume contracts delivered through a public selector. A funded company with measured, repeatable agent work can use them. A founder still discovering the workflow should not. Even the best unit rate is waste when monthly credits reset unused.

Team is pooled capacity plus governance

Manus Team starts at $20 per seat per month. Each billed user adds the selected credit allowance to one shared pool, so a heavy user can consume capacity that a lighter user leaves unused. Team also adds unified billing, usage analytics, internal access controls, training opt-out, SSO support, and shared templates.

Choose Team when pooled usage or administration changes the operating model. Do not buy it merely because several people want to try Manus. Individual Pro accounts are simpler until shared billing, permissions, or utilization data becomes necessary.

Manus Cost per Outcome

One Manus credit is not one token, prompt, minute, or task. Manus says consumption combines LLM tokens, virtual machines, and third-party APIs, and varies with task complexity and duration. Credits are deducted only while the agent is actively processing, so stored or completed outputs do not keep draining the balance.

The defensible unit economics begin with dollars per credit:

• Monthly tiers through $200 cost $0.005 per included credit, or 0.50 cents.
• Their annual versions cost $0.004167 per included credit after spreading ten monthly payments across twelve monthly refreshes, or about 0.42 cents.
• The live pricing configuration exposes auto top-up at 150 credits per $1 from the $200 tier, or about 0.67 cents per credit, subject to signed-in availability.
• Every published add-on pack costs $0.01 per credit, or one cent.

Manus publishes three completed-task examples on its own credit page. They are not forecasts, but they let a buyer translate the meter into outcome scenarios.

A data-analysis and visualization task used 200 credits. That costs $1.00 from an included monthly balance, about $0.83 on the annualized rate, or $2.00 from an add-on. A 4,000-credit month could hold 20 exact repeats.

A website design, code, and deployment example used 360 credits. The corresponding costs are $1.80 monthly, $1.50 annualized, or $3.60 from an add-on. A 4,000-credit balance holds 11 complete repeats with 40 credits left.

An app-development, data-integration, and interactive deployment example used 900 credits. That becomes $4.50 monthly, $3.75 annualized, or $9.00 from add-ons. Four complete repeats fit inside 4,000 credits, leaving 400.

The examples are useful boundaries, not a claim that every chart, website, or app costs the same. Manus explicitly warns against treating a conversational credit promise as accurate. Budget from completed task history.

The better business formula is cost per accepted outcome = subscription fee + add-ons + separate runtime charges, divided by accepted deliverables. A result that needs repair or a rerun belongs in the numerator but not the accepted-output count. That is how a nominally inexpensive task becomes an expensive workflow.

The Break-Even Between Manus Tiers

Recurring usage should move up the tier ladder before it moves into add-ons. The $20 plan plus the smallest $20 add-on costs $40 and supplies 6,000 credits. The $40 plan costs the same $40 and supplies 8,000. If demand above 4,000 recurs every month, the upgrade wins.

An add-on still has one advantage for a one-time spike: unused add-on credits can carry into later cycles while a paid subscription stays active. Monthly tier credits cannot. A project that needs 1,000 extra credits once may justify the smallest pack even though it has a worse unit rate, because the unused portion can survive the next refresh.

The gap widens at volume. Moving from $200 to $300 adds 23,000 recurring monthly credits for $100. Spending the same $100 on an add-on buys 10,000. Once monthly demand reliably exceeds 40,000, the higher tier gives more than twice the incremental capacity.

Annual billing has a different break-even. Every annual price equals ten monthly payments. If the subscription remains useful through month ten, annual and monthly cash outlay are equal; months eleven and twelve create the saving. The catch is that annual credits still reset monthly. Annual billing discounts commitment, not waste.

Stripe upgrades within the same billing cadence are prorated. Manus's own example moves a user halfway through the month from $20 to $40 for a $10 charge and 2,000 extra credits. Apple and Google apply different upgrade mechanics, which is another reason to buy and manage the subscription through one consistent channel.

Hidden Manus Costs the Pricing Cards Do Not Settle

The subscription is only one part of the Manus budget. Credit expiry, add-ons, persistent infrastructure, production runtime, SSO, taxes, and failed outcomes can all change the number that reaches the P&L.

Monthly credits expire even on annual plans

Monthly credits reset on the subscription date, and unused units do not roll forward. Manus consumes event credits first, then daily, monthly, add-on, and free credits. That order can leave a purchased balance untouched while a monthly balance expires.

Add-on credits behave differently. They can carry into later cycles, but only while a paid subscription remains active. Moving to Free or letting the subscription lapse makes them inactive. Renewing can reactivate unused add-ons, but monthly credits that reset to zero do not return.

A task may complete its final action with a slightly negative credit balance. The next refresh resolves it, but Manus blocks new tasks while the effective balance is at or below zero. The operational cost is the interruption, even if the displayed deficit is small.

Auto top-up is cheaper than add-ons but still an overage

Manus's live pricing configuration exposes auto top-up beginning at the $200 tier. It adds 150 credits per $1 when the balance falls below 300 credits, an effective $0.006667 per credit. That is cheaper than the one-cent packs but more expensive than included monthly credits.

Treat the signed-in billing screen as authoritative for availability and activation. If auto top-up is offered, set a cash boundary before enabling it. A low-balance trigger converts a finite subscription into a variable bill.

Cash refunds and credit refunds are separate

Manus can return credits after verifying a qualifying technical or output issue. The request needs a shareable task link so support can inspect consumption. A disappointing result is not automatically eligible, and user-caused or nontechnical problems may be declined.

Subscription refunds follow another route. Stripe and Google buyers can request one through Manus if they meet the policy conditions, and an approved refund can take 1 to 15 business days to reach the original account. Apple buyers must ask Apple. Canceling a charged seven-day trial stops the next renewal but does not refund the completed charge.

Cloud Computer can add $10 to $50 a month

Manus sells a persistent Ubuntu Cloud Computer separately at $10, $30, or $50 per month. The respective configurations are 2 vCPU with 1 GB RAM and 35 GB storage, 2 vCPU with 4 GB and 70 GB, or 2 vCPU with 8 GB and 120 GB. The $200 Pro card includes a Cloud Computer, but lower plans need a separate infrastructure decision.

Stopping a Cloud Computer subscription deletes the files, installed tools, and databases on that machine. Back up a production database or bot before canceling. That deletion risk is more consequential than the monthly sticker.

A deployed WebDev app creates a second usage bill

Manus subscription credits pay for the interaction that builds, researches, and creates. A deployed WebDev application is billed separately for its live hosting, database, AI features, and API integrations. In plain language, the subscription pays for construction; the WebDev balance pays for operation.

Do not present a $20 Manus plan as the full cost of a live app. Add its ongoing runtime to the accepted-outcome formula, then monitor the Website usage and billing view after deployment.

Team SSO changes small-team seat economics

SSO costs a flat $150 plus tax for Team accounts below 30 seats. It becomes free at 30 or more seats, beginning with the next SSO billing cycle. Five base $20 seats therefore cost $100, contribute 20,000 pooled credits, and become a $250 monthly bill with SSO, or $50 per seat before tax.

That does not make Team bad value. It means governance is a separate purchase at small scale. A mid-market CTO should compare the $150 to the security and identity work it replaces, not hide it inside the credit rate.

Checkout can exceed the advertised price

Manus says advertised prices exclude applicable taxes. VAT, GST, currency conversion, and foreign transaction fees can raise the card charge. Mobile and web list the same membership prices, but the payment processor, billing location, and bank still affect the final amount.

Manus API Pricing Uses the Same Credit Budget

Manus API v2 does not publish a separate per-token or per-call dollar price. Its usage endpoint records credit consumption by task, plus refunds, subscription grants, recurring issuance, upgrades, and credit-pack purchases. A Team API key can draw from the Team pool and expose collaborator-level consumption.

The practical API formula is the same as the app: account cost per credit multiplied by the credits the task consumes. The API changes how a task is started and monitored, not the underlying unit. A $20 subscription still begins with 4,000 monthly credits, and an add-on credit still costs one cent.

Rate limits form a separate wall. Manus allows 10 task.create and 10 task.sendMessage requests per minute, while task detail, list, and message-list endpoints allow 100 per minute. All API keys belonging to one user share the counters, and Manus says there is no subscription-tier differentiation. Paying for a higher credit tier increases fuel but does not increase the documented requests per minute.

That distinction matters in production. A high-volume automation can have ample credits and still hit a 429 rate-limit response. Use webhooks instead of aggressive polling, and model both credits and request cadence before moving a workflow out of the app.

For a system that needs explicit model-token rates instead of agent-task credits, the model routing price comparison shows the other billing model. It is a different product boundary, not a cheaper Manus plan.

Manus vs ChatGPT, Claude, and Genspark on Price

Raw credit counts cannot compare these products. A Manus credit and a Genspark credit do not buy the same computation, while ChatGPT and Claude sell a seat with usage limits rather than a fixed proprietary credit bundle. The honest normalization is price per seat-month plus the workflow that seat can finish.

ChatGPT Plus: $20 for a broad work surface

ChatGPT costs $20 a month for Plus, the same sticker as entry Manus Pro. Plus includes GPT-5.6 Sol, expanded reasoning access, Codex, projects, scheduled tasks, sites, browser use, files, data analysis, image generation, and deep research, with limits.

Choose ChatGPT when one person wants a broad interactive workspace for writing, analysis, research, coding, and media. Choose Manus when the valuable job is an autonomous, multi-step task and a credit meter is acceptable. At $20, the deciding question is whether the operator wants to work with an assistant or delegate a bounded outcome to an agent.

ChatGPT's candid limit is that usage caps still apply even though the Plus bill is not a credit pack. Manus's candid limit is the opposite: the unit is visible, but the number of units a future task will consume is not fixed.

Claude Pro: $20 monthly or $200 annually

Claude costs $20 a month or $200 paid upfront for Pro, an effective $16.67 per month. Pro includes Claude Code, Claude Cowork, Claude Design, Claude Science, Research, unlimited Projects, additional models, and Claude for Microsoft 365.

Claude usage resets on rolling five-hour windows, with weekly limits layered on paid plans. The amount of work varies with conversation length, model, and feature, and Claude can sell extra usage at API rates. That makes it predictable as a subscription line but not unlimited as an operating resource.

Choose Claude Pro when native Claude work, particularly Claude Code or Cowork, is the recurring job. Choose Manus when browser work, research, files, and execution should be orchestrated as one agent task. The annual sticker gives Claude a lower committed seat-month than entry Manus, but it does not settle the workflow choice.

Genspark Plus: $24.99 monthly for a multi-model creation suite

Genspark costs $24.99 a month or $239.99 a year for Plus, with 10,000 monthly credits. The annual total works out to $20 per month. Plus includes its model catalog, Slides, Sheets, Docs, Code, 50 GB of AI Drive, commercial use, and zero-credit core chat and image generation under session guardrails through December 31, 2026.

Genspark Pro costs $249.99 monthly or $2,399.99 annually and supplies 125,000 monthly credits plus 1 TB of AI Drive. It is the closest pricing shape to Manus, but dividing one vendor's dollars by another vendor's credits would still be false precision.

Choose Genspark when slides, images, video, documents, and multiple models form one creation workflow. Choose Manus when the center of gravity is autonomous execution. A source-first research subscription is another distinct job, which is why the current $20 research pricing breakdown reaches a different verdict.

The explicit decision rule is:

• Pick Manus Pro at $20 for delegated multi-step execution with a measurable credit budget.
• Pick ChatGPT Plus at $20 for the broadest mixed interactive work surface.
• Pick Claude Pro at $20 or $200/year for native Claude coding, projects, and Cowork.
• Pick Genspark Plus at $24.99 or $239.99/year for multi-model creation across slides, media, and documents.

Who Should Choose Which Manus Plan

The right Manus plan follows a completed month of useful work. Four buyer situations make the decision concrete.

A senior operator exploring agents should use the current free campaign, then remain Free if the normal Lite allowance covers the job. The Monday move is to run one representative task, save its consumed credits and accepted deliverable, and avoid converting curiosity into a subscription.

A solo technical builder should start at $20 monthly after Free becomes the bottleneck. The 4,000-credit month is large enough to price several completed outcomes without committing $200 upfront. Upgrade to $40 only when the history repeatedly crosses 4,000, not when one ambitious project appears.

A funded founder with repeatable research, slide, or website work should select the smallest tier above measured monthly demand. At 40,000 recurring credits, compare the $200 plan with the $300 tier before buying add-ons. Stay monthly while the workflow changes; annualize only after retention through month ten looks likely.

A mid-market CTO should choose Team when pooled credits, unified billing, access controls, training opt-out, analytics, or SSO replace real administrative work. Model the $150 SSO fee below 30 seats separately, and remember that a higher Team tier does not raise API requests per minute.

1. 1

   Run the representative outcome

   Use Free or one $20 monthly cycle for the task the business would repeat, not a showcase prompt. Keep the completed task and its credit history.

2. 2

   Count accepted deliverables

   Divide the full monthly cost by outputs that were usable without a rerun. Include add-ons, Cloud Computer, or WebDev runtime when they supported the result.

3. 3

   Move one budget line

   Stay, upgrade, or cancel from measured recurring credits. Move to annual billing only after the workflow has earned a place beyond month ten.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does Manus AI cost?

Manus Free costs $0. Individual Pro starts at $20/month or $200/year for 4,000 monthly credits and reaches $20,000/month or $200,000/year for 5 million monthly credits. Team starts at $20 per seat per month and uses a shared credit pool.

Is Manus AI free or paid?

It is both. The permanent Free plan normally includes 1,000 signup credits, 300 daily Lite credits, and a 1,500 monthly cap on those daily credits. Through August 25, 2026 at 11:59 PM SGT, a temporary campaign also makes Manus 1.6 Lite and Manus 1.6 free within daily campaign limits; Max is excluded.

Is Manus AI worth the money?

Manus is worth paying for when accepted agent outputs repay the subscription and Free is the constraint. The $20 plan is the sensible test because it gives 4,000 credits at the same unit rate as every tier through $200. Skip payment when the Free allowance still completes the recurring job.

Can Manus tell me how many credits a task will cost before it begins?

Do not treat a pre-task promise as a guaranteed bill. Manus says credit use changes with complexity and duration, and its Help Center warns that an agent's credit promise may be inaccurate. Use completed task history; Manus's 200, 360, and 900-credit examples are illustrations, not fixed prices.

Do Manus credits expire?

Monthly subscription credits reset on the renewal date and do not roll over, including on annual plans. Add-on credits can carry while a paid subscription remains active but become inactive after a lapse or move to Free. Free credits do not expire, while daily refresh credits reset at midnight UTC.

Does Manus offer a student discount?

Manus does not publish a universal student price. Students can search for an eligible school on the Campus page and verify an EDU email for a Campus pass. The available benefit depends on school eligibility rather than a blanket percentage discount.

What is the Manus refund policy?

Qualifying task problems can receive a credit refund after verification, and the request needs a shareable task link. Subscription cash refunds depend on policy and payment channel: Manus handles eligible Stripe and Google requests, while Apple buyers apply through Apple. Canceling after a trial charge stops renewal but does not reverse that charge.

How does Manus API pricing work?

Manus API v2 tasks debit the account's credit pool; the official docs publish no separate flat dollar or token rate. Task creation and follow-up messages are limited to 10 requests per minute per user, and higher subscription tiers do not receive different documented API rate limits.

Did Manus pricing change in 2026?

The current public offer uses the Pro name and starts at $20, $40, and $200 for its visible paid cards. Manus says the older Basic and Plus names were folded into Pro, while existing subscribers may keep unchanged legacy renewal prices until they move to a new plan.

Assign the subscription to one accepted business outcome before adding it to the stack. Get the AI Tools Map for Business Owners.