A Manus alternative that hands you the sourced report or the live page.
Give an octo the job in plain words. It works on a cloud machine of your own with any model in the catalog, sends back a report with its sources or a page on a public link, and pays from one balance in dollars: your plan’s usage, then only credits you bought in advance, then it stops.
Verdict: stay with Manus or switch to octomind
Stay with Manus if
- You want finished slides. Manus Slides exports editable .pptx, PDF and web slides with speaker notes; octomind has no slide tool.
- You want a full-stack web app built and hosted for you, with a backend, a database and user sign-in, from a prompt.
- You want a native app on your phone, or an agent that works inside your own Chrome or Edge with the logins you already have (Browser Operator).
- You want to try it free first. Manus Free gives 300 credits a day; octomind’s cloud starts on a paid plan.
Switch to octomind if
- You want each job priced in dollars you can read: models at the provider’s price plus 5%, machine time at $0.04 per vCPU-hour, and every octo showing what it cost.
- You want to pick the model yourself (Claude, GPT, GLM, Qwen and the rest of the catalog), and a different one per octo.
- You want recurring jobs with a spending cap per run, reporting back in Telegram, Slack or Discord.
- You want a real Linux machine with sudo, Docker and files that stay between runs, on an open-source engine (Apache 2.0) you can also run on your laptop.
Manus vs octomind
| Aspect | Manus | octomind |
|---|---|---|
| Price to start | Free: 300 credits a day, 1 task at a time. Pro from $20 a month for 4,000 credits, or $40 for 8,000; 17% off billed yearly (as of October 2026). help.manus.im | Pro is $50 a month, $20 your first month, with $50 of usage included. The Free plan is the model hub only, with no octos. src/routes/pricing/+page.svelte:19-35 |
| How a job is charged | In credits. Each task uses credits by its complexity and the resources it needs; the dashboard shows an estimate before you start. manus.im | In dollars: models at the provider’s price plus 5%, machine time at $0.04 per vCPU-hour and $0.012 per GB-hour while awake. Every octo shows its cost. src/routes/pricing/+page.svelte:302-313 |
| When the balance runs out | Plan credits reset monthly. You are told when the balance is low, then buy add-on credit packs (they never expire) or upgrade to keep going. manus.im | After the plan’s usage it spends only credits you bought in advance, then stops. No overage rate, no automatic top-up; credits never expire. src/routes/cloud/+page.svelte:699-710 |
| Models you can use | Manus 2.0 Max, Manus 2.0 and Manus 2.0 Lite in Agent Mode on Pro; Free gets Manus 2.0 Lite. help.manus.im | Every model in the catalog, including Claude, GPT, GLM and Qwen, through the built-in gateway with no API keys. Each octo can run a different one. src/routes/cloud/+page.svelte:261 |
| Where the work runs | In a cloud browser, one isolated instance per user, or in your own browser on your device (My Browser). manus.im | On a Linux machine of your own with sudo, Docker, a browser and a disk that keeps its files. After an hour idle by default it suspends and bills storage only. src/routes/cloud/+page.svelte:245-249 |
| Scheduled jobs | Scheduled Automations: 2 on Free, 20 on Pro, alongside 20 tasks at a time on Pro. help.manus.im | Routines run on a timer or when their private URL is called, each with a spending cap per run and an optional check that skips the run at no cost. src/routes/cloud/+page.svelte:277 |
| Slides and documents | Manus Slides: editable .pptx, print-ready PDF, web slides and speaker notes. manus.im | No slide tool. It writes files on its machine, such as a report.md with sources, downloadable from the Files tab. src/lib/data/cloud-results.ts:76-88 |
| Websites | Full-stack apps with backends, databases and user sign-in, with hosting and infrastructure managed by Manus. manus.im | It builds the site and serves it from its machine on a live URL: 5 on Pro, 20 on Max. A one-page site for a pottery studio cost $0.04. src/routes/pricing/+page.svelte:159-163 |
| On your phone | Apps for macOS, Windows, iOS and Android. manus.im | No native app. Results reach you in Telegram, WhatsApp, Slack, Discord or the panel in your browser. src/lib/data/cloud-pages/personal-ai-agent.ts:110-113 |
A sourced report for $0.06, a live page for $0.04
Both ran on a demo account on 10 October 2026. Asked to compare Stripe and Paddle for a two-person startup, an octo wrote report.md with seven cited sources (Stripe’s and Paddle’s pricing pages, Paddle’s agreement, Stripe’s payout and tax docs) and sent the short version in the chat. That conversation cost $0.06; we spot-checked its figures against paddle.com and Stripe’s docs the same day. Asked for a landing page for Clay Hours, a pottery studio in Lisbon, it put the page below on a public link, checked that it answered with HTTP 200, and said plainly that the contact form does not send or store inquiries yet. That one cost $0.04.
Read the full Stripe vs Paddle report →
How to switch from Manus
Start an octo with your first job
Open the panel at octomind.run/app and take Pro: $20 for the first month, then $50, with $50 of usage included. Type the job in plain words. Your first job creates your first octo, with its own folder and a machine picked for you.
Bring your Manus instructions and logins over
There is no Manus importer. Copy your project’s instructions into the chat and ask the octo to keep them in its AGENTS.md, the file it reads at the start of every conversation. For a site behind a login, the octo opens a private browser window where you sign in yourself; it keeps that session and never sees your password.
Run the job you used to give Manus, then schedule it
Paste a job you ran on Manus, for example “Research Stripe vs Paddle for a two-person startup and write report.md with sources, then give me the short version.” Check what it cost on the octo’s page. If you want it again, add “every Monday at 9” and it becomes a routine with a spending cap per run.
Other options worth a look
Claude Cowork
Suits you if you already pay for Claude: it runs on web and mobile, and its desktop app works in folders on your own computer.
OpenManus
An MIT-licensed, Manus-style agent you run yourself in Python with your own model API key; suits tinkerers more than people who want a finished product.
Where Manus is better
There is no slide tool.
An octo writes files on its machine, such as a markdown report with sources. For a finished deck with speaker notes, exported to .pptx or PDF, Manus Slides is the better tool today. Read more →
No managed database, sign-in or payments for sites.
Manus’s website builder sets up backends, databases and user sign-in and runs the hosting. An octo serves what it builds from your machine on a live URL, and you decide what runs there. The Clay Hours page’s contact form, for one, checks what you type but does not send or store it.
No phone app, and it does not work in your own browser.
Manus has iOS and Android apps and a Browser Operator extension that acts in your Chrome or Edge. Octos use a browser on their cloud machine; you sign in to a site once in a private window, and on a phone you reach them through Telegram, WhatsApp, Slack, Discord or the panel.
No free cloud tier.
Manus Free gives 300 credits a day. Octomind’s Free plan is the model hub on its own, with no octos; the cloud starts on Pro, $20 for the first month. Read more →
Octos sleep between jobs.
After an hour idle by default, the machine suspends and costs only storage. It is not watching anything between runs, so put recurring checks on a routine. Read more →
Questions
What is the best Manus alternative?
It depends on what you use Manus for. For finished slides, hosted full-stack sites and a phone app, Manus is hard to replace. If you want dollar-priced jobs on any model, scheduled runs with a cap per run, and a balance that stops when your prepaid credits are spent, Octomind Cloud fits. For work on your own computer, Claude Cowork has a desktop app, and OpenManus is an open-source Manus-style agent you run in Python.
Is there a Manus AI alternative that charges in dollars instead of credits?
Octomind Cloud bills one balance in dollars: models at the provider’s price plus 5%, machine time at $0.04 per vCPU-hour and memory at $0.012 per GB-hour while awake, plus storage and media. Pro includes $50 of usage a month. The Stripe vs Paddle report above cost $0.06 and the Clay Hours page $0.04.
What happens when my credits run out?
Your plan’s usage is spent first, then only credits you bought in advance (from $5, and they never expire). When those are gone, it stops: there is no overage rate and no automatic top-up. On Manus, plan credits reset monthly, and you buy add-on packs or upgrade to keep going.
Can I schedule jobs like Manus automations?
Yes. Add “every Monday at 9” to a job and it becomes a routine. A routine can also start when its private URL is called, has a spending cap per run, and can skip a run at no cost when there is nothing to do. Results go to Telegram, Slack, Discord or the panel.
Can I move my Manus projects over?
Not automatically: there is no Manus importer. Copy your project instructions into the octo’s AGENTS.md and sign in to the sites it needs in its private browser window. ChatGPT memories can be pasted in, and exports from Claude Code, Codex, OpenClaw and Hermes imported directly.
Which models can it use?
Every model in the catalog, such as Claude, GPT, GLM and Qwen, through the built-in gateway with no API keys of your own. Each octo can run a different model.
More comparisons
- Claude Code alternative The same terminal agent loop on any model, open ones included, under Apache-2.0.
- OpenClaw alternative A personal agent you self-host as one binary, or hand to octos on Cloud
- opencode alternative Same open model as opencode: 24 of 25 tasks solved to its 19, at about half the cost.
- Hermes Agent alternative Lessons only from your corrections, as plain files you can edit, on your box or on Cloud
- Claude Cowork alternative Hand off the job once or daily, on any model; the result lands in Telegram, Slack or email
- Codex alternative Keep your ChatGPT plan, add any other model, and stop a request at a dollar limit.
- Cursor alternative The agent without the editor: any model, your own keys, open source, next to any IDE.
- GitHub Copilot alternative The open-source agent for terminal and CI, on any model, billed by your own provider.
- Antigravity alternative An open-source terminal agent for Gemini, Claude or local models, no Google sign-in.
- DeepSeek Harness alternative DeepSeek models in a terminal and CI agent with tagged releases and a spend stop.
Reading
Try it on the job Manus does for you now.
Subscribe and hand it the job: $20 your first month, cancel anytime. Nothing to install.