My Early Adventures with Manus AI: Powerful, Promising, and Occasionally Painful - Paid for Tiers Now Available

Sunday, March 30, 2025

If you’ve been keeping your finger on the pulse of AI developments lately, you’ve probably heard whispers, or rather, shouts - about Manus AI. Launched just this March by the Chinese startup Monica, Manus is an example of something called “agentic AI.” Don’t let the fancy phrase scare you; it simply means that Manus can think, plan, and act independently, completing multiple task, all without needing you to guide every step. Exciting, right?

What Makes Manus Stand Out?

Manus isn’t your standard chat assistant that waits around for instructions—think of it more as your digital project manager or personal assistant with a PhD. It independently handles complex, multi-step tasks like:

• Data Analysis and Visualisation: Crunching numbers and creating detailed, creating interactive dashboards - perfect for spotting investment opportunities or market trends.
• Educational Content Creation: Designing video lessons, interactive courses, and teaching materials.
• Personalised Travel Planning: Crafting custom itineraries with accommodations, local gems, and neatly scheduled activities.
• Insurance Policy Comparison: Sifting through policy options and suggesting the best coverage for your needs.
• Daily Task Management: Organising your schedules, setting smart reminders, and keeping your productivity on point.

It’s clear Manus is built to be versatile, intuitive, and proactive - exactly what an AI enthusiast like me dreams of.

You can see Manus in action here

My Manus Experiment: High Hopes Meet Reality

A couple of weeks ago, I was beyond excited to receive an invite granting me early access to Manus. Due to Manus’ initial limits, I could only choose three tasks. After careful deliberation, I chose a hefty one: asking Manus to create an entire Learning Management Platform (LMS) for our AI Skills Bootcamp. This meant digesting countless tasks from our “Business” module, sorting, categorising, and then generating a usable HTML interface. Ambitious, yes, but well within what Manus seemed capable of - at least according to its impressive promotional videos.

At first, things looked promising. Manus started impressively: creating its own detailed to-do lists, sorting through tasks, and asking for my feedback. But then things began to wobble. Manus missed some categories, misfiled others, and needed careful nudges to get back on track. After a couple of hours of intense processing (with me checking in periodically), disaster struck. An error flashed: “Manus has stopped working because the context is too long, please start a new chat.”

Frustrating? Absolutely. But I wasn’t ready to give up. I started fresh, copying the progress made, only to run headlong into another obstacle: “High system load has caused an internal server error.” Third time lucky? Nope—“Manus’s computer has encountered a critical issue.” Hours invested, and still no usable result. Ouch.

A Silver Lining: Real Conversations About AI’s Future

Despite my initial frustration, the experience wasn’t wasted. I shared this saga with our 24 learners nearing the end of their 10-week Generative AI Skills Bootcamp, sparking a powerful discussion. We explored intriguing questions like:

• What should autonomous AI be worth if it can replace one, or even ten people? 
• How should we price AI capabilities as they scale?
• What responsibilities come with deploying AI at this level of autonomy?

These aren’t easy questions, but they’re crucial as we stand on the threshold of significant technological shifts.

Manus AI: Pricing and Plans—Worth the Investment?

Just today, Manus announced their beta subscription plans and a mobile app:

• Starter Plan: $39/month, 3,900 credits, extended context, two tasks concurrently.
• Pro Plan: $199/month, 19,900 credits, extended context, five tasks concurrently, and beta features like “high-effort mode.”

Manus uses a credit-based system: the more complex the task, the more credits consumed. For perspective, creating a luxurious web invitation might cost around 360 credits. As an early adopter, I’ve been gifted 1,000 non-expiring credits - enough to experiment further.

Will credits expire? There are three types of credits:

• Free credits: Received upon registration and never expire.
• Monthly credits: Obtained through membership subscription and reset automatically at the end of each subscription cycle.
• Add-on credits: Available for purchase by members only and never expire. Add-on credits can only be used during membership period. Credits are consumed in the following order: monthly credits, add-on credits, and free credits.

You can find out more about Credits here

What’s Next?

I’ve decided to test Manus again - this time with a slightly simpler (but still creative) task: designing a webpage showcasing case studies and feedback from our Bootcamp participants. I’ll keep you updated on how Manus performs this time around.

Final Thoughts: Not Quite There, but Promising

Manus AI is undoubtedly a powerful glimpse into the future, albeit a slightly bumpy one at present. While my initial experience wasn’t seamless, Manus still showcased remarkable potential. Early-stage tech always has growing pains while it is being tuned and refined. 

For now, I’ll continue experimenting, learning, and most importantly, keeping the conversation open. After all, as tech evolves, so should we. And Manus AI, despite its hiccups, seems poised to evolve rapidly.

Stay tuned - there’s definitely more to come.