Manus vs other AI agents comparison 2026: features, pricing and our verdict

Manus is the best fit of the big AI agents if you want a website, a slide deck, a short video or a small game built from one prompt and then edited by hand. For everyday office work, ChatGPT Work and Claude Cowork are probably the safer buys, and Perplexity Computer is the stronger pick for cited research. That's the short answer to the "Manus vs other AI agents comparison 2026" question, based on official product pages, published reviews and user feedback, checked in late October 2026.

Nobody at The AI Future ran these agents for this piece. Any test results below come from named reviewers, and they're linked.

Two things changed this autumn. Manus launched Manus 2.0 on 28 September 2026, and OpenAI added always-on agents called dots to ChatGPT a day later. Most comparisons written before October are out of date on both counts.

Quick verdict: who wins for which use case

• Building sites, slides, games and short videos you can tweak afterwards: Manus, whose new Studio app hands you a timeline and an edit panel instead of a finished file.
• General office work on a $20 plan: ChatGPT Work, which connects to Slack, Gmail, Google Drive, Salesforce and other workplace apps.
• Work inside your own folders and documents: Claude Cowork, which works directly in the folders you choose.
• Research that ends in a cited table or memo: Perplexity Computer.
• A personal agent that runs around the clock: ChatGPT dots, if you're on Pro and outside Europe.

Our take: I'd choose by the shape of the output you need. Manus makes the most sense when the deliverable is something visual you'll keep editing, and the least sense when you just need a spreadsheet filled in.

Side-by-side comparison table

	Manus	ChatGPT Work and dots	Claude Cowork	Perplexity Computer
Maker	Manus (independent again since September 2026)	OpenAI	Anthropic	Perplexity
Latest big update	Manus 2.0, 28 September 2026	Dots, 29 September 2026	Now built into Claude	Launched February 2026
Strongest at	Websites, slides, video, games	Office tasks across connected apps	Local files and recurring reports	Multi-source research
Where it runs	Cloud, plus computer use on your own machine and a paid Cloud Computer	Cloud virtual machine; desktop app adds a browser and computer use	Web, desktop and mobile, with a built-in browser	Cloud sandbox
Billing	Subscription plus credits	Bundled into ChatGPT plans	Bundled into Claude plans	Subscription plus credits
Free way in	Yes, 300 credits a day	No dots on Free; Work starts at Plus	No task hand-off on Free	Paid plans

Details and sources for each row are in the sections below.

Features compared

Manus

The headline change in Manus 2.0 is Cascade, a new in-house agent system. Manus says that "in one tested configuration" it used 23.2% fewer tokens, finished tasks in 28.2% less time and cost 32% less to run. Those are vendor numbers, and Airmore's Manus 2.0 review points out that "No independent reproduction is established."

The desktop app is now Manus Studio. It covers documents, spreadsheets, slides, websites and code, and it adds two new environments: a timeline-based Video Editor aimed at 30 to 60 second product ads, and Game Dev, which can publish multiplayer games. Automations can now start from a new email, a Slack message, a calendar event or a Notion update, not just a schedule. There's also computer use, so Manus can work in the files and apps you approve on your own machine while you watch from your phone.

Manus also launched Cue, a separate app where each personal agent gets "its own email, phone number, wallet, and computer." According to Preuve AI's review, Cue is free during early access but needs an invite code. (I'd be cautious about giving any agent a wallet this early, for what it's worth.)

Ownership trips people up. Meta announced it was buying Manus in December 2025, but Beijing blocked the deal, and TechCrunch reported in September that Manus had resumed independent operations under its founding team. The same report says it was in talks to raise $500 million at a $4 billion valuation.

ChatGPT Work and dots

OpenAI's agent comes in two layers now. ChatGPT Work, powered by GPT-5.6, breaks big goals into steps and uses plugins for Slack, Microsoft Teams, Gmail, Google Drive, SharePoint and Salesforce, TestingCatalog reported. On desktop it gets a built-in browser and computer use, and Sites (shareable web apps) launched in beta alongside it.

Dots arrived at DevDay. Each dot "has its own cloud computer and browser," runs on GPT-6 Astra and can connect to more than 4,000 apps, The Next Web reported. When it works on its own in the background, it can only read connected apps, not send or change anything. There's a big catch for European readers: Pro users in the EEA, Switzerland and the UK don't get dots for now.

Claude Cowork

Anthropic has folded Cowork into Claude itself. Going by the Cowork page, Claude pulls in Cowork "automatically" when a task involves your files, works directly in folders you pick, splits big jobs into parallel chunks and opens its own browser in a side panel for web tasks. The page also says "Close your laptop, it keeps going," which is newer: in August, DataCamp still described unattended cloud runs as a beta feature.

The trade-off is the model choice. Cowork uses Claude models only, much as ChatGPT Work sticks to GPT.

Perplexity Computer

Perplexity launched Computer in February as "a general-purpose digital worker that operates the same interfaces you do." It routes each part of a job to a different model (19 at launch, from several labs) inside a secure sandbox. That multi-model setup is its biggest difference from ChatGPT and Claude. We compare it with Manus in more depth in our Perplexity Computer vs other AI agents piece.

Quality of output: what published tests show

The brief for this article asked for the same three prompts run in every tool. We didn't run them, so we can't honestly show those outputs. Instead, here's how published hands-on results line up across three common jobs.

Task 1: research across many items

This is where Manus gets its best reviews. Preuve AI cites Lindy describing Wide Research turning a list of 200 startups into a cited spreadsheet, and notes that NxCode's January 2026 review also rated sourced research highest. Lindy sells a competing agent, so Preuve tells readers to "take this with a grain of salt." Perplexity Computer is the main rival here, and product manager Karo Zieminski logs research-heavy runs at 50 to 70 credits on her own account.

Task 2: building a website or app

Manus can build and publish a site, but the cost is hard to predict. Preuve quotes an April 2026 App Store review: "One prompt to build a website used over 6000 credits." That's 75% of a month on the $40 plan. Preuve also says the app Lindy built in its test "was still very basic, even after two rounds of feedback," and that NxCode found too many bugs in production apps. My read is that Manus is fine for prototypes and risky for anything customers rely on.

Task 3: recurring office work across apps

ChatGPT Work and Claude Cowork have the edge here, mostly because of connectors. DataCamp calls ChatGPT Work "the closest thing to a drop-in replacement for Cowork," though it says runs are "fairly opaque." Manus's new Automations cover similar ground (an email arrives, a task starts), but they're only a few weeks old, so I'd expect rough edges.

Pricing compared

Manus and Perplexity charge a subscription and then bill agent work in credits. OpenAI and Anthropic fold agent use into plan limits instead, which makes a monthly bill easier to predict.

Agent	Free plan	Entry paid plan	Heavy-use plan	How agent work is billed
Manus	300 credits a day	$20/month (4,000 credits)	$200/month (40,000 credits)	Credits; Cloud Computer from $30/month extra
ChatGPT Work and dots	No dots	Plus, $20/month (Work)	Pro 100, 200 or 500 ($100 to $500/month)	Plan allowance; first dot included on Pro
Claude Cowork	No task hand-off	Pro, $20/month	Max, $100 or $200/month	Plan usage limits
Perplexity Computer	Paid plans	Pro, $20/month (one-time bonus credits)	Max, $200/month (10,000 credits)	Credits
Genspark	Basic access	Plus, $24.99/month (10,000 credits)	Business, $30/seat	Credits

Prices checked October 2026, billed monthly in US dollars.

On the Manus side, the membership help page lists a free plan with 300 daily credits and one task at a time, a $20 plan with 4,000 monthly credits, a $40 plan with 8,000 credits and a seven-day trial, and Team from $20 a seat. Annual billing saves 17%. PricingSaaS also tracks a $200 Extended tier with 40,000 credits and top-up packs from $20 for 2,000 credits. Preuve adds that free credits are capped at 1,500 a month, and that monthly credits reset each cycle without rolling over.

Watch the extras. The always-on Cloud Computer, which hosts game servers and automations, now starts at $30 a month after Manus dropped its $10 tier, UsagePricing found. On the $20 plan that takes the bill to $50. Honestly, that jump surprised me more than the plan prices.

For the rivals, ChatGPT Plus costs $20 a month and OpenAI's Pro tiers page lists Pro 100, Pro 200 and Pro 500 at $100, $200 and $500 a month. The first dot comes with Pro and Business Premium at no extra cost, The Next Web reported, and dot conversations don't count toward usage limits. DataCamp puts Claude Pro at $20 a month, with heavy users moving to Max at $100 or $200, and Claude's plans page shows Ultra with 10 times Pro's weekly limit. Perplexity's Pro is $20 and Max $200, with 10,000 monthly credits on Max only, per Zieminski. Genspark's figures come from Preuve AI's comparison table.

Reviewer and user verdicts on each agent

Manus: Preuve AI's founder, who discloses a commercial interest, wrote that "the credits run out faster than the plan price suggests." The review also notes a split in ratings: 4.7 from 39K ratings on the App Store, but 1.2 from 209 reviews on Trustpilot, where most complaints are about billing, refunds and support handled by bots. Preuve also reports that TechRadar covered a Salt Labs finding in October: hidden commands in a Gmail message got Manus to run code before warning the user. It's been fixed, but I'd connect only the accounts a task really needs.

ChatGPT Work and dots: DataCamp's comparison says of ChatGPT Work, "You get the GPT family and nothing else." On dots, OpenAI itself warns that "Dots can still make mistakes, so always review consequential work," as quoted by The Next Web. Tom's Guide AI editor Amanda Caswell wrote that giving ChatGPT its own computer "sounds a little terrifying," though she credits the read-only mode for background work.

Claude Cowork: DataCamp's guide opens with "Claude Cowork is a strong tool profiting from capable models, and it would be dishonest to pretend otherwise," then lists model lock-in and the cloud beta as reasons people look elsewhere.

Perplexity Computer: Zieminski, who's run it daily since launch, found the same SEO audit cost about 40 credits in a fresh thread but 200 to 320 credits at message 50 of a long one. That's a lesson I think applies to Manus credits too.

Which one should you choose?

Pick Manus if your work ends in something visual: a landing page, a pitch deck, a product ad or a playable prototype. Start on the free tier, then the $20 plan, and check the credit count after every task. If a build starts going in circles, stop it.

Already paying for ChatGPT Plus? Then ChatGPT Work is likely the cheapest way to see whether an agent fits your week. Claude Cowork suits people whose work lives in local folders and recurring reports, and our Claude AI review covers its plans. If you mostly want cited research, Perplexity Computer is the one I'd try first (our Perplexity AI vs ChatGPT comparison explains the wider differences). Slide-heavy users might also look at our Genspark AI review.

I wouldn't pay $200 a month for any of these before trying the cheapest tier. None of them produces work you can send without checking it. For more options, see our list of Manus AI alternatives, and for background on how these systems plan and act, our agentic AI explainer.

What happens next: Manus is reportedly preparing for a possible Hong Kong IPO, per TechCrunch, and OpenAI says texting a dot is "coming soon." I'd expect pricing for all of these agents to shift again before spring.

FAQ

Is Manus better than ChatGPT agent?

ChatGPT agent no longer exists; OpenAI replaced it with ChatGPT Work and, for Pro users, dots. Manus has more dedicated tools for building websites, video and games after its 2.0 update. ChatGPT Work is probably stronger for office tasks across Slack, Gmail and Google Drive, and it's included from Plus at $20 a month.

Is Manus free?

Yes, there's a free plan. It gives 300 credits a day, capped at 1,500 a month according to Preuve AI, runs one task at a time and allows two scheduled automations. Paid plans start at $20 a month for 4,000 credits. Monthly credits don't roll over.

Is Manus owned by Meta?

No. Meta announced a deal reportedly worth about $2 billion in December 2025, but China blocked it. TechCrunch reported in September 2026 that Manus had resumed independent operations, with its founding team still in charge.

What's new in Manus 2.0?

Manus 2.0 launched on 28 September 2026. It added the Cascade agent system, Manus Studio with a Video Editor and Game Dev mode, event-triggered Automations, computer use on your own machine, a paid Cloud Computer and a separate personal-agent app called Cue.

Which AI agent is cheapest?

Manus has the most generous free way in, with 300 credits a day. Among paid options, Manus, ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro and Perplexity Pro all start at $20 a month. Credit-based agents like Manus can cost more in practice if big builds burn through credits.