Verdict: 6.0/10 (provisional)
Manus can turn one instruction into a finished research report, website or slide deck, which is genuinely useful when you're starting out. But its ownership saga and the 2026 deletion of some users' data mean you shouldn't trust it with anything you can't afford to lose.
| Criterion | Score |
|---|---|
| Ease for beginners | 7 |
| Value for money | 6 |
| Usefulness for building a business | 7 |
| Reliability | 6 (provisional, not yet tested) |
| Privacy and data handling | 4 |
| Support | 6 |
| Overall (average) | 6.0 |
- Who it's for: beginners who want market research, a quick launch website or a pitch deck without learning several tools.
- Who should skip it: anyone handling sensitive customer or financial data, or who needs certainty about where their data lives.
- Best thing: you describe the outcome you want and it plans and does the steps itself.
- Biggest worry: stability. In 12 months it has been bought, ordered to be un-bought, and has deleted some users' data as part of the split.
- Bottom line: Fine on the free plan for non-sensitive tasks. Keep your own copies of everything it makes.
What it does, in plain English
Manus is a "general AI agent". You give it a job ("research five competitors for a vegan bakery in Leeds and put the findings in a slide deck") and it works through the steps on its own in a cloud computer.
The 2025–26 ownership dispute, and the data deletion
Here's what happened, in order:
- March 2025: Manus launches and goes viral.
- 29 December 2025: Meta announces it is buying Manus (Singapore-based, Chinese-founded) in a deal reported at over $2 billion.
- April 2026: Reuters reports that Beijing ordered Meta to unwind the acquisition.
- May–June 2026: Bloomberg reports that Meta and Manus completed an operational split and stopped sharing data with each other.
- 11 August 2026: Manus announces it will return to independent operation and that "data generated by certain users on/after December 29, 2025" will be deleted to comply with "regulatory requirements in specific jurisdictions".
- 23–24 August 2026: The deletion takes place. Affected users were warned by email and in the app, offered a backup tool, not charged during the backup window, and could restore their backups from 25 August.
- October 2026: CNBC reports that Manus's parent company raised more than $500 million as an independent company.
To be fair to Manus: it says plainly that this was "not the result of any security incident", it gave users about 12 days' notice, and it provided backup and restore tools. Our concern: anyone who missed the emails could have lost work, and Manus hasn't said publicly which jurisdictions or users were affected. Its September 2026 privacy policy also still mentions promoting "Meta products" in its California section, which we'd like to see explained.
Pricing
Converted at £0.7492 per US$1 (ECB reference rates, 26 Oct 2026). Manus charges in USD, so your bank may add conversion fees, and VAT may be added. Checked 27 Oct 2026. The pricing page itself only shows the three paid Pro options. The free plan is described in Manus's help centre.
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | £0 | 300 refresh credits a day, 1 task at a time, 2 scheduled tasks (per Manus's help centre, which says it suits users who want "to experience Manus's basic features") |
| Pro | ~£14.98/month ($20) | 4,000 credits a month plus 300 a day, 20 tasks at a time, 20 scheduled tasks |
| Pro | ~£29.97/month ($40) | 8,000 credits a month. The help centre mentions a 7-day free trial on this option. |
| Pro | ~£149.84/month ($200) | 40,000 credits a month |
| Team | from ~£14.98 per seat a month ($20) | Adds SSO and a data-training opt-out |
Annual billing saves 17%. We'll measure how far credits go when we test it.
Pros and cons
Pros
- You describe the outcome, not the steps.
- It produces finished files: reports, websites and slides.
- It has a free plan, a cheap entry plan and scheduled tasks.
Cons
- Its ownership and data history in 2026 is unsettled.
- Credit use is hard to predict.
- The data-training opt-out is listed as a Team plan feature.
Ease for beginners
The idea couldn't be simpler: type a goal and watch. The hard part is judging the result. Agents can confidently get things wrong, so check facts and figures.
Privacy and data handling
- Who holds your data: Butterfly Effect (Singapore), which has a data protection officer and a UK GDPR representative.
- Data transfers: data may go to the US and elsewhere. Prompts are sent to third-party AI providers.
- AI training: the policy refers to using your content to improve models "when you allow us to", and to using de-identified data for model development. A clear opt-out for individual accounts is unverified.
- Deletion: deleted data is removed within 30 days, unless already de-identified.
How to start in 15 minutes
- (2 min) Sign up free at manus.im with your email.
- (3 min) Check the privacy and ad settings and switch off what you don't want.
- (8 min) Give it one non-sensitive task: "Find five competitors to [your idea] in [your town] and summarise their prices."
- (2 min) Download the result and keep your own copy.
Sources
- Manus pricing: https://manus.im/pricing
- Manus help centre, membership pricing: https://help.manus.im/en/articles/11711111-what-is-the-current-membership-pricing-for-manus
- Manus, "A Note to Our Users": https://manus.im/blog/a-note-to-our-users
- Manus help centre, backup guide: https://help.manus.im/en/articles/16147892-service-change-overview-how-to-back-up-your-data
- Manus privacy policy: https://manus.im/privacy
- Reuters, Meta deal (Dec 2025): https://www.reuters.com/world/china/meta-acquire-chinese-startup-manus-boost-advanced-ai-features-2025-12-29/
- CNBC, Meta deal (Dec 2025): https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/30/meta-acquires-singapore-ai-agent-firm-manus-china-butterfly-effect-monicai.html
- Reuters, China orders the deal unwound (Apr 2026): https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/china-blocks-foreign-acquisition-ai-startup-manus-2026-04-27/
- Bloomberg, operational split (Jun 2026): https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-06-11/meta-severs-manus-data-access-after-china-orders-buyout-unwound
- Reuters, independence and data deletion (Aug 2026): https://www.reuters.com/world/china/ai-startup-manus-resume-independent-operations-deal-with-meta-unwinds-2026-08-11/
- CNBC, $500M raise (Oct 2026): https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/08/manus-fund-raise-meta-muse-tencent.html
- Manus affiliate sign-up: https://manus.tapfiliate.com/
- ECB euro reference rates: https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/policy_and_exchange_rates/euro_reference_exchange_rates/html/index.en.html