Agentic Index

Agentic Index

Browser Use vs Manus (2026)

Browser Use and Manus sit at opposite ends of the browser agent stack: Browser Use is the open source framework developers embed to give their own agents a browser, free to self host with usage based cloud at about two cents a browser hour plus model tokens, while Manus is a finished consumer and prosumer agent that takes a whole task and executes it, with plans at 20, 40 and 200 dollars a month. That verdict is the Agentic Index coverage score, graded from each vendor's own published materials.

The split is who does the building: choose Browser Use to build browser automation into your product, Manus to hand tasks to an agent today.

This comparison is published by Agentic Index, an independent agentic AI vendor research platform. Browser Use and Manus are each graded against the same 14 capability Agentic Index taxonomy, from the vendor's own public materials under the Agentic Index verification standard, alongside 955 researched vendors. No vendor pays for placement and no vendor has reviewed this page. How this evidence is graded

Choose Browser Use if

  • You are a developer embedding browser control into your own agent or product.
  • Open source self hosting and usage based cloud pricing fit your architecture.
  • You need programmatic control, not a finished consumer agent.

Choose Manus if

  • You want a finished agent that takes a task and completes it end to end.
  • Published plans from 20 dollars a month fit how you buy.
  • Browser work is one part of broader tasks including research, design, and app building.
Feature
B
Browser Use
M
Manus
Action & orchestration

Integrations & Tool Calling

Ability to connect agents to real systems through native integrations, OAuth-authenticated actions, custom tools, APIs, webhooks, or MCP-compatible tools.

Workflow Orchestration

Ability to sequence, branch, retry, route, and combine deterministic workflow nodes with autonomous agent steps.

Triggers & Channel Coverage

How agents wake up and where they work: schedules, webhooks, message events, CRM events, inbox events, chat, email, voice, and collaboration tools.
Knowledge & context

Knowledge Grounding & RAG

Ability to ground agent behavior in company data through document ingestion, retrieval, external knowledge APIs, semantic search, or RAG layers.

Memory & State Persistence

Ability to persist context across a run, conversation, workflow, user, team, or longer-term memory layer.
Control & trust

Human Oversight & Guardrails

Approval steps, consent checkpoints, escalation rules, structured guardrails, policy constraints, and pause/resume controls.

Security, Identity & Governance

RBAC, SSO, auditability, encryption, least-privilege tool access, compliance posture, and data handling policy.

Observability & Auditability

Traces, logs, execution histories, metrics, audit events, and debugging detail for production agent behavior.

Deployment & Data Residency

Deployment modes and options, including SaaS, dedicated cloud, VPC, on-prem, hybrid, local runtime, and self-hosting.
Solution readiness

Prebuilt Agents, Templates & Packs

Ready-made workflows, packaged employees, templates, blueprints, industry solutions, and role-specific agents that reduce time-to-value.
Platform extensibility

Model Flexibility & Routing

Ability to work across multiple foundation models, route tasks to different models, or let buyers bring their own providers and keys.

APIs, SDKs & MCP Extensibility

Composability layer: stable APIs, SDKs, MCP tool consumption/serving, custom tools, and integration into internal systems.

Testing, Debugging & Optimization

Testing, debugging, scoring, retries, fallbacks, quality gates, and optimization loops for improving agent workflows before and after deployment.
Specialist automation

Browser & Computer Use

Browser, desktop, or remote/local computer control for workflows that cannot be handled through stable APIs alone.

Pricing snapshot

Sourced from the Index pricing dataset · open each vendor's profile for full detail.

Pricing
B
Browser Use
M
Manus

Entry price

Lowest public entry point

 Usage based, at $0.02 per browser hour plus traffic and model tokens. New accounts get a one time $1 credit, and the open source library is free. Paid from $20 a month for 4,000 credits, $40 for 8,000 and $200 for 40,000, each with 300 daily refresh credits. Team is $20 a seat a month, and a free account runs the lite agent.

Pricing confidence

How public the numbers are

 Public, exact Public, exact

Billing

Primary billing axis

 Usage based, from a single credit balance in dollars that covers browser time, proxy traffic and model tokens. There are no subscriptions. A credit based subscription. Every action consumes credits, and complex tasks consume many.

Variable cost

Workload / overage exposure

 High variable cost High variable cost

Free tier / trial

Try before you buy
Free tier
Free tierTrial

Buying motion

Self-serve vs sales call

 Mixed Self-serve

Meta acquired Manus for about 2 billion dollars in December 2025; Chinese regulators blocked the deal in April 2026 and Meta began unwinding it in June 2026. The subscription service continues operating, but ownership and roadmap are genuinely uncertain until the separation completes.

Browser Use profileManus profileCompare the full categorySee browser and computer-use agents rankedBuild a custom comparison

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