Manus 2.0: the agent that now starts working on its own, and how to use it in your business

What you get from this article

• Manus 2.0 shipped on 28 September 2026, a month and a half after Manus announced it would become independent from Meta again.
• The new engine, Cascade, loads only the tools each project needs. In Manus's own test: 23.2% fewer tokens, 28.2% less time and 32% lower cost.
• Automations now fire on events: a new email, a Slack message, a Notion page, a calendar event or a change in an ad's performance.
• Manus Studio works with the files on your computer and brings a video editor with a timeline, built for 30 to 60 second ads.
• Cue is a separate app: each agent gets its own email, phone, wallet and computer. It is in early access, with an invite code.
• Plans cost US$ 20, US$ 40 and US$ 200 a month, with 4,000, 8,000 and 40,000 credits. Annual billing saves 17%.
• The best use today is repetitive, well-described work, with the agent delivering a draft and a person approving what goes out.

What Manus is, in one sentence

Manus is an AI agent that carries a task from start to finish. Instead of replying with text for you to copy, it opens a browser, researches, writes code, builds the spreadsheet or the slide deck and hands back the finished file. It is the difference between asking for a recipe and asking for dinner.

The company was founded in China in 2022 by Xiao Hong, Ji Yichao and Zhang Tao, moved its headquarters to Singapore in 2025 and became known with the launch of its first agent in March 2025. In December of that year, Manus itself said it had passed US$ 100 million in annual recurring revenue, nine months after launch. That number is what caught Meta's attention.

If the agent concept is new to you, the article on what agentic AI is explains the difference between an assistant that talks and an agent that works.

Meta bought it, China undid it, and Manus came back on its own

Manus 2.0 only makes sense with the recent history on the table, because it touches customer data and who decides the product's future.

From the Meta acquisition to Manus 2.0

	What happened
29 December 2025 Meta	Meta announces the purchase of Manus, valued by the US press at US$ 2 billion to US$ 3 billion, to bring the agents into Meta AI.
8 January 2026 China's Ministry of Commerce	China says it will review the deal under its rules on technology exports and outbound investment.
27 April 2026 National Development and Reform Commission	The Chinese government orders the acquisition fully unwound, citing foreign investment rules.
11 August 2026 Manus	Manus announces it will operate independently again. Founders and early investors such as Tencent, ZhenFund and HongShan buy back Meta's stake.
23 and 24 August 2026 Manus	Part of the data generated from 29 December 2025 onward is deleted to comply with rules in certain jurisdictions. Affected users were given time to back it up.
28 September 2026 Manus	Launch of Manus 2.0 and the Cue app.
8 October 2026 Manus	The company raises more than US$ 500 million in its first round since the split, led by Boyu Capital and IDG Capital.

For anyone who uses or will use the tool, two practical facts stand out. First: according to Manus's own note, user data is stored in the United States and Singapore. Second: the separation already deleted data for some users, with notice and time to back it up. An agent that touches your email, spreadsheets and online store holds a lot of your information; it is worth knowing where.

On the business side, Manus came out of the crisis bigger than it went in. It raised more than US$ 500 million in October, and the US press reports talks at a US$ 4 billion valuation, a figure the company has not confirmed. To compare it with the agent Meta launched afterwards, Muse, our analysis of it is worth a read.

What changed in Manus 2.0

Manus called 2.0 a rebuild from the ground up, made for what comes after the first result: adjusting, fixing and publishing without generating everything again. There are eight new pieces, and the official video goes through all of them in under three minutes. The buttons below the video play only the clip for each feature.

Watch: Introducing Manus 2.0

0:00 Cascade, the new engine 0:12 Studio and video editor 0:32 Games and multiplayer 1:06 Event-triggered automations 1:14 Cloud Computer 1:37 Remote computer control 1:52 Cue, the personal agents

The eight new pieces of Manus 2.0

	What it does
Cascade the engine	Starts each project light and only brings in specialized tools when needed. It is what makes tasks cheaper.
Manus Studio desktop app	A workspace for documents, spreadsheets, PDFs, slides, websites, code, games and video, connected to the files on your machine.
Video Editor inside Studio	Manus makes the first cut and hands over an editable timeline, piece by piece.
Game Dev inside Studio	Builds games from playable templates, with editing of art, code and movement, and publishes them as a link.
Cloud Computer paid add-on	An always-on cloud computer, for multiplayer game servers and permanent automations.
Remote Control from your phone	You talk to the app on your phone and Manus operates your computer.
Automations scheduled or event-based	Work starts when something happens, not only at a set time.
Cue separate app	Personal agents with their own email, phone, wallet and computer.

Cascade: why tasks got cheaper

In an agent, nearly all the cost sits in what it carries at every step: instructions, available tools, project history. The previous version of Manus carried a lot into every task. Cascade flips the logic: the project starts light and specialized capabilities come in only when the task calls for them, like a team that calls in the specialist at the right moment instead of keeping them in the meeting all day.

In a test configuration run by Manus itself, Cascade used 23.2% fewer tokens, finished tasks in 28.2% less time and cost 32% less to run than the previous system. These are vendor numbers, in a scenario the vendor chose, and there is no independent measurement yet. For anyone paying by credit, the expected practical effect is the same plan covering more tasks, but that only shows up when you measure your own.

In practice, Cascade is invisible: there is no button or setting. You notice it in credit consumption and in how long a task takes. If the link between tokens and cost is still fuzzy, the article on what a token and a context window are walks through the math.

Anyone paying by credit feels Cascade on the bill: the agent stops carrying tools the task does not use.

Manus Studio and the video editor

The desktop app became Manus Studio, a workspace where you and the AI work on the same project. The difference from the web version is access to the files and programs on your machine, with your permission. The flow is always the same: Manus makes the first version, you adjust it with direct controls, and you can ask for the next round by speaking or by editing by hand.

The most concrete feature for marketing is the video editor. Manus builds the first cut from your footage or from an idea, and returns a timeline with every piece separate: clips, images, text, motion graphics and audio. Swapping the music, fixing a caption or trimming a pause no longer means regenerating the whole video. Manus itself says the editor was built for 30 to 60 second product ads, UGC-style content, data motion graphics, tutorials and vlogs.

The official editor video shows the details: Manus organizes the footage folder, generates supporting shots with the Seedance 2.5 video model, adds captions, follows an object you circle on screen, builds motion graphics by writing code and ducks the music when a sound effect comes in. There is also Alchemy mode, where the AI takes creative direction from an idea.

Watch: Introducing Manus Video Editor

0:00 Footage, generated shots and captions 0:20 Layers, code and sound effects 0:36 Edit by hand or ask Manus

For an agency or a retailer that produces a short ad every week, the math changes: the first cut comes out in minutes and the fine editing stays with whoever knows the brand. What does not change is who answers for the piece. AI-generated footage needs a review for image rights, trademarks and product claims before it goes live.

Games: from template to multiplayer

Game Dev starts from a playable template, such as a scrolling, jumping or block-puzzle game. You play the first version and adjust it in the edit panel: art, scenery, movement, assets and code, each one separately, without restarting the game.

To have several people playing at once, the help center path is Configure, Multiplayer, choose a Cloud Computer and, if you do not have one, buy one. Manus handles the server and the networking. The finished game is published as a link anyone can open in a browser.

Watch: Introducing Manus Game Developer

It sounds like a niche feature, and for most companies it is. But simple games have become a marketing tool: event activations, product quizzes, a year-end campaign with a leaderboard. What used to require hiring a studio can now be tested in an afternoon.

Automations: the change that matters most for a business

Until 2.0, Manus worked when you asked or at a set time. Now it also starts when something happens. The triggers named in the announcement are a new email, a Slack message, an updated Notion page, a calendar event and a change in an ad's performance. On the Automations page, the list of connectable apps includes Gmail, Outlook, Google Calendar, Google Workspace, GitHub, Shopify, Slack, Notion, RSS and webhooks.

What this allows, in Manus's own examples: logging every invoice that lands in Gmail into a spreadsheet, posting a summary of yesterday's sales to Slack at 8 a.m., writing a meeting brief an hour before the meeting, reviewing every pull request or, when a refund is issued in the store, preparing a follow-up email without sending it.

• 1. Pick the trigger. In the sidebar, click create and choose Schedule, Triggered task or Advanced automation (in beta). The trigger can be a time, an app event or a condition you describe.
• 2. Authorize the services. Connect the Gmail account, calendar, Slack or store the task will use, once.
• 3. Say what should happen. One sentence is enough, for example: "When a quote request arrives by email, extract name, city and service, add a row to the leads sheet and leave a draft reply ready."
• 4. Test before switching it on. Manus runs a test with real data so you can see the result before activating it.
• 5. Keep approval on. For anything that sends or publishes, confirmation stays active: nothing goes out without your OK. Every run shows up under Updates, with what was done.

This is where the agent stops being a curiosity and becomes a process. The gain is not one spectacular task, it is twenty small tasks nobody has to remember anymore. The care also lives here: each connection gives the agent real access to your inbox and your store. Start with read and draft permissions, and only allow sending after a few weeks of watching what it does.

Cloud Computer and voice control

Cloud Computer is a cloud machine dedicated to your projects, always on. It is for what cannot depend on your laptop being open: a game server, a bot that answers messages, an automation that runs at night. It is a separately paid service, and the price is not on the public plans page.

Remote control works the other way. From the Manus app on your phone, you turn on voice command and ask your computer for something, such as finding the latest deck in a folder and sending it to you. You can change the instruction mid-task.

The two features make sense together: work keeps running when you leave, and you keep giving orders when you are away from your desk. For a small business, it is what allows an assistant that keeps working outside business hours.

Cue: agents with their own email, phone and wallet

Cue is an app separate from Manus. If Manus is where you build, Cue is the crew that handles the rest. Each agent gets its own email, phone number, wallet and computer. It sends messages from its own address, answers the calls you forward to it and gives you a summary afterwards, and pays within a limit you set. You can put several agents in a group with a shared goal, for example one that researches, another that builds the list and another that makes the presentation.

Access is still early and requires an invite code. In the announcement, Manus published the code MEETCUE, with limited spots on a first-come basis; the invite also shows up in the agents tab in Manus. During early access the app is free. There are desktop, web and mobile versions, with the iPhone app pending App Store review.

Before signing up, two caveats. The examples on the Cue site are all from the United States, with services like Taskrabbit and US health plans, and Manus does not say in which countries the agent's phone works. And an agent with a wallet is, in practice, someone holding your card: set a low limit, use it only for small spending and check the statement every week.

An agent with a wallet has access to your card. It deserves the limit and the oversight you would give a new employee.

What it costs

Manus charges in credits. Each task consumes an amount that varies with the size of the job, and plans differ in how many credits you get per month. All of them include 300 daily refresh credits, 20 concurrent tasks and 20 scheduled tasks.

Manus plans on 10 October 2026

	Standard use	Customizable use	Extended use
Monthly price in dollars, billed monthly	US$ 20	US$ 40	US$ 200
Credits per month	4,000	8,000	40,000
Daily credits refresh every day	300	300	300
Concurrent tasks	20	20	20
Scheduled tasks	20	20	20

There is no public table of how many credits each kind of task uses, and that is where the bill can surprise you. A short research task costs little; a video with generated shots or a full website costs much more. That is why the first month should be about measuring: log the consumption of the five tasks you will repeat most, and only then pick a plan.

Getting started: your first day with Manus 2.0

To get going without wasting credits, follow this order.

• Download the desktop app at manus.im/download, for macOS or Windows. Studio features such as the video editor, games and file access require a connected, authorized desktop session.
• Pick a real, repetitive task that takes someone an hour every week today. Sales reports, competitor price checks and lead triage are good starting points.
• Describe the outcome, not the steps. "I want a spreadsheet with the name, price and link of the top 10 competitors in my city, updated every Monday" works better than a list of instructions.
• Review the first delivery closely. Check every number and every link. Agents make mistakes with confidence, and the first mistake says a lot about where they will go wrong again.
• Only then turn it into an automation, testing before you switch it on and keeping approval active for anything that sends or publishes.
• Measure. Log credits spent and time saved per task for a month. That number tells you whether the plan is worth it.

If the first month shows hours saved and usage that fits the US$ 20 plan, you have a case to grow. If it does not, the list helps you find the problem: a poorly described task, a request too big for an agent, or a process that needed fixing before it was automated.

Who Manus 2.0 makes sense for

The test is simple: the agent pays off when the task is repetitive, the result is easy to check and it currently takes time from someone who could be selling or serving customers.

• Agencies and marketing teams: short video ads with fine editing, campaign reports, competitor research, first drafts of client presentations.
• Retail and services: automations triggered by email, calendar or Slack. A quote request that arrives by email becomes a spreadsheet row and a draft reply; a store refund becomes a follow-up email waiting for approval.
• Small businesses without an operations team: a weekly summary of customer emails, a daily sales report, meeting prep. The kind of work nobody has time for and everybody misses.
• Creators and developers: websites, apps and games published as a link, with direct editing of the result.

It does not make sense yet for work that cannot have errors without review: contracts, medical reports, tax calculations, patient care. Nor is it the choice if your data must stay in your country, since Manus itself states storage in the United States and Singapore. If your company handles sensitive customer data, the privacy question comes before the test, and the article on data protection and AI helps frame that conversation.

How it can actually help your business

Every agent promises to "work while you sleep". What separates the promise from the result is choosing the first task well. Three examples that work for small and mid-sized companies, with what to measure in each:

• Leads that arrive after hours. A quote request at 10 p.m. becomes a spreadsheet row, with the data extracted, and a draft reply ready for the first hour of the next day. Measure time to first response before and after.
• The report nobody writes. Every Monday at 8 a.m., a summary of the week's sales, ads and pending emails lands in the owner's Slack or inbox. Measure how many decisions came out of it in a month.
• An ad video every week. Manus makes the first cut of a 30-second ad from product photos; the marketing person only adjusts it. Measure editing hours per piece and the ad's cost per result.

In all three cases, the real gain shows up when the agent is connected to the rest of the operation: the CRM that receives the lead, the support team that replies on WhatsApp, the ad that measures the result. That fit is what ROO3 builds for small and mid-sized companies. If you want to know which tasks in your operation an agent like Manus can handle, with an estimated cost before you sign up for any plan, ROO3's AI for business starts with that map.

What we cannot say yet

First, whether Cascade saves as much on your tasks as in Manus's test. The 32% savings come from a configuration chosen by the company itself, and there is no independent measurement yet.

Second, how Cue works outside the United States. Phone and payments depend on the country, and Manus has not published that list.

Third, the price of Cloud Computer and how many credits each kind of task consumes. Without those two numbers, the only way to predict the bill is to measure your own usage in the first month.

Frequently asked questions

What is Manus 2.0?

It is the new version of the Manus AI agent, released on 28 September 2026. The agent carries out tasks from start to finish, such as research, spreadsheets, slide decks, websites, videos and games. Version 2.0 brought a new engine, Cascade, the Manus Studio desktop app with a video editor and game creation, event-triggered automations, a cloud computer, remote voice control and the Cue app for personal agents.

How much does Manus cost?

On 10 October 2026, plans cost US$ 20, US$ 40 and US$ 200 a month, with 4,000, 8,000 and 40,000 monthly credits, plus 300 daily refresh credits on all of them. Annual billing saves 17%. Cloud Computer is billed separately and there are team plans.

What is Cascade?

It is the new engine in Manus 2.0. It starts each project with few resources and only loads specialized tools when the task needs them. In a test by Manus itself, it used 23.2% fewer tokens, finished tasks in 28.2% less time and cost 32% less to run than the previous system.

How do Manus automations work?

You pick a trigger, which can be a time, an event in a connected app or a condition described in text, authorize the services involved and say in one sentence what should happen. Triggers include a new email, a Slack message, a Notion page, a calendar event and a change in an ad's performance. You can test before activating and keep approval on for anything that sends or publishes.

What is Cue and how do I get access?

Cue is a separate Manus app for personal agents. Each agent has its own email, phone, wallet and computer and can work in a group with other agents. It is in free early access, with an invite code; at launch, Manus published the code MEETCUE, with limited spots on a first-come basis.

Does Meta still own Manus?

No. Meta announced the purchase on 29 December 2025, but the Chinese government ordered the deal undone on 27 April 2026. On 11 August 2026, Manus announced its return to independent operations, with founders and early investors buying back the stake. In October, it raised more than US$ 500 million.

Where is my data stored at Manus?

According to Manus's official note to users, data is stored in the United States and Singapore. During the separation from Meta, part of the data generated from 29 December 2025 onward was deleted to comply with rules in certain jurisdictions, with time for affected users to back it up.

Is Manus a good fit for a small business?

It fits repetitive tasks that are easy to check and currently take someone's time, such as sales reports, triaging leads that arrive by email, meeting prep and first cuts of ad videos. It does not replace human review of anything that goes to a customer, and anyone handling sensitive data should assess privacy rules first, because the data is stored outside most countries.

Sources

• Manus, Introducing Manus 2.0 (official announcement, 28 September 2026)
• Manus Help Center, What is new in Manus 2.0
• Manus Help Center, How can I use Game Dev in Manus
• Manus, Automations (official feature page)
• Manus, plans and pricing
• Manus, A note to our users (on the Meta separation and user data)
• Cue by Manus, official page
• Manus AI on YouTube, Introducing Manus 2.0
• Manus AI on YouTube, Introducing Manus Video Editor
• Manus AI on YouTube, Introducing Manus Game Developer
• TechCrunch, Meta just bought Manus (29 December 2025)
• Caixin Global, China to review Meta's acquisition of AI startup Manus (8 January 2026)
• TechCrunch, China vetoes Meta's $2B Manus deal (27 April 2026)
• CNBC, Manus to return as independent company (11 August 2026)
• TechCrunch, Manus raises over $500M in first funding round since split with Meta (8 October 2026)
• Bloomberg, Manus says sales hit $125 million annual run rate (17 December 2025)

Rodrigo Fávaro

Founder of ROO3, a marketing and technology agency in São José do Rio Preto, Brazil. Builds AI products running in production (Tobia, gerar.app, Pense Mercado) and maintains the AI Benchmark, a public ranking of AI models. See ROO3 AI consulting.

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