Manus is an autonomous AI agent launched in March 2025 by the Chinese startup Monica (also known as Butterfly Effect AI). It bridges the gap between ideas and actions—understanding your high-level requests and executing complex multi-step tasks independently. Unlike chatbots that wait for constant prompts, Manus plans, acts, and adapts on its own.
Multi-modal tool integration – Works with browsers, code editors, spreadsheets, and more—able to fetch data, run code, and present results.
Cloud-based asynchronous operation – Runs tasks in the background—even if you're offline—and provides progress logs in real time.
GAIA benchmark leader – Claimed to outperform GPT‑4 and DeepResearch on GAIA multitask benchmarks.
Use Cases
All-in-one research & reporting: Create dashboards, analyze stock correlations, do resume sorting, and generate structured reports—all autonomously.
Code writing & deployment: Users report Manus built a React.js dashboard in minutes and even deployed it.
Content generation & process automation: Automatically crafting outreach campaigns—finding prospects, writing emails, and designing landing pages—has been achieved in one go.
Technical Specifications
Autonomous agent architecture – Uses large language models (like Claude Sonnet and Alibaba Qwen) to plan, reason, act, and adapt.
Multimodal & tool execution – Interacts with web pages, executes code, processes documents, and generates outputs like dashboards or apps.
Cloud backend & sandboxing – Operations occur securely in isolated environments; you monitor progress through a detailed task panel.