- Manus, a new agentic AI system from a Chinese startup, is starting to generate DeepSeek-like buzz.
- The AI agent is currently in closed beta, with limited invitations being distributed.
- Access codes are being listed on third-party reseller sites for a wide range of asking prices.
Resellers are testing the waters on how much people are willing to pay to score an invite to Manus, the latest buzzy agentic AI out of China.
Manus is currently in closed beta, which means the public can’t try it out without getting an invite code from an existing user. As a result, listings are cropping up on the Chinese reseller site Goofish, also known as Xianyu, claiming to offer invite codes.
Searching for “Manus” on the site brings up fifty pages of listings, both incredibly cheap, at about 1 to 2 Chinese yuan, or a little less than one USD, to the more exorbitant. Sorting from highest to lowest pricing on the site brings up listings in the equivalent of thousands of American dollars.
Steven Tweedie
The interest has spilled over onto eBay, where an unsold listing for an email and password to access Manus AI starts at $1,000.
It’s not clear how many, if any, of the listings on Goofish are actually selling, particularly the higher priced codes. But their presence alone highlights a growing international interest in exploring the AI’s purported capabilities.
An energy not unlike the hype that surrounded Deepseek’s initial entry into the marketplace now surrounds Manus — some early users claim it’s revolutionary, while others say it falls short of expectations.
The Butterly Effect, the Chinese company behind Manus, claims it’s capable of a variety of real-world tasks, from analyzing stocks to developing minigames and screenplays.
“This isn’t just another chatbot or workflow,” said Yichao “Peak” Ji, Manus cofounder, in a Youtube video announcing the AI. “It’s a truly autonomous agent that bridges the gap between conception and execution.”
The team behind Manus did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider prior to publication.
Ji goes on to add that the program has already proven itself capable of “solving real-world problems” on gig-work platforms like Fiverr and Upwork, as well as “proven its capabilities” in Kaggle Competitions, which challenges users to solve problems based off data sets.
Manus’ developers appear to be positioning it as the model to beat, in direct competition with other “chain-of-thought” offerings, such as ChatGPT’s “Deep Research,” and Claude’s “Extended Thinking” mode.
“We see it as the next paradigm of human-machine collaboration, and potentially a glimpse into AGI,” Ji said.
