Manus, an AI agent platform, has launched a subscription plan named Manus Team, aimed at small businesses and organizations.

The plan is priced at US$39 per seat per month, with a minimum requirement of five seats, totaling US$195 monthly.

Subscribers to Manus Team will receive 19,500 credits in a shared pool, applicable for tasks such as data transfer between websites and spreadsheets.

The plan also offers access to beta features, dedicated infrastructure, and priority access during peak times.

Users can run up to two tasks simultaneously and choose a “high-effort mode” for improved reliability.

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🔗 Source: TechCrunch

🧠 Food for thought

1️⃣ The evolving economics of AI agents reflect a shift toward hybrid pricing models

Manus’ new Team plan represents a growing industry trend of combining traditional SaaS seat-based pricing ($39/seat) with usage-based models (19,500 shared credits) to balance predictability with flexibility 1.

This hybrid approach addresses a key challenge in AI agent pricing: businesses want cost predictability while vendors need to cover variable AI infrastructure costs that depend on task complexity and frequency 2.

The credit-pooling strategy (19,500 shared credits across a team) has emerged as a common solution for enterprise AI tools, allowing organizations to distribute computational resources across teams while maintaining budget control 1.

The pricing level ($195 minimum for small teams) positions Manus in the mid-tier enterprise market, above consumer-focused AI tools but below enterprise platforms with custom pricing, reflecting the ongoing market segmentation in AI productivity tools 2.

2️⃣ The rapid valuation growth of AI agent platforms mirrors historical AI investment cycles

Manus’ recent $75 million funding round at a $500 million valuation demonstrates the continued investor confidence in AI agent platforms despite the broader tech industry funding slowdown 3.

This pattern echoes earlier AI investment cycles, where breakthrough capabilities triggered waves of investment in technologies that could demonstrate practical business applications 4.

The company’s reported 2.6 million-person waiting list following their beta launch reflects the substantial market demand for autonomous AI agents capable of executing complex tasks independently 5.

Benchmark’s lead investment in Manus follows their historical pattern of early backing for transformative platforms, similar to their investments in other technology platforms that fundamentally changed work processes 3.

3️⃣ AI agents are evolving from conversational assistants to autonomous task executors

Manus represents a shift in AI tools from conversational assistants (like earlier chatbots) to autonomous agents that can execute complex, multi-step digital tasks with minimal human supervision 6.

This evolution follows a trajectory similar to earlier AI milestones, such as the progression from ELIZA’s simple text responses in 1966 to IBM Watson’s complex reasoning capabilities demonstrated in 2011 4.

The platform’s multi-agent architecture, which breaks down complex tasks into subtasks handled by specialized AI components, implements concepts discussed by MIT’s Thomas Malone about “superminds,” where multiple AI systems collaborate to outperform individual capabilities 7.

Manus’ feature allowing concurrent task execution (running two tasks simultaneously) addresses a key productivity limitation of earlier AI assistants, which typically processed requests sequentially rather than in parallel 6.

Recent Manus developments

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