Manus, the highly hyped Chinese AI that some of some like ‘Next Deepseek’ has opened for public access, giving you 1,000 credits to try it for free.
Manus is the latest Chinese AI that is capable of deep research and agent use so that it can perform the tasks you have set while you are free to step down and do something else. The original users reported problems with registration and for most people were access to limited.
I had been on the waiting list since Manus was announced and gained access last Friday, but it also seems that public access is now available to anyone downloading iOS or Android app or signing up on his website.
Many people have described the script as the best experience of AI they have had so far, and I can see why – the reports it produce are incredibly detailed and feel like they are well investigated.
Not enough credits
Manus does not offer anything special new that you can’t get chatgpt to do, but it feels like its research is really thorough and the selection of things it can do is impressive, from making games out of current news scenarios for data analysis and educational applications.
The bad news is that 1,000 credits don’t last very long and that you will need to sign up for a paid for account if you want more credits.
When I got the script to answer two queries, I had spent about 500 points. The first question I asked (“What does the future look like for Tesla?”) Was far from trivial and demanded a lot of research, but in its honor, the manus did all the necessary research, where I told me what it did at each step and produced four different reports for me.
When Deepseek was noticed to refuse to answer questions regarding events that the Chinese government is sensitive to, I took advantage of the free access to the script to ask it to prepare a report to what happened in the Tiananmen Square Protesters in 1989.
Deepseek simply refuses to recognize the protests, but the manus seems to have no censorship problems at all. It produced a full report on the protests from several different sources that disagree with the official verdict on things like the death toll, including the Red Cross.
Paid options
So it looks like you can get about four queries out of the manus for free with your 1,000 credits until you have to sign up for a paid plan to use it further.
Manus starts costing $ 39 a month (about £ 30 / AU $ 65) and gives you 3,900 points, the ability to run two tasks simultaneously, while Manus Pro costs $ 199 a month (about £ 156 / AU $ 334) and gives you 19,000 credits a month and the ability to run five tasks at the same time.
