# Is Manus AI Free? The $0 Plan, Daily Credits and Their Limits

> Manus AI's Free plan costs $0 a month: 1,000 sign-up credits plus 300 a day, capped at 1,500 a month and usable only in Manus 2.0 Lite. What it lacks.

_Source: https://professionalstoolkit.com/articles/is-manus-ai-free — The Professional's Toolkit · updated November 2026_

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Yes, but only partly. Manus AI has a Free plan at $0 a month, and it works as a small, metered taste of the agent rather than a free edition of the whole product. You get 1,000 credits once when you register and 300 refresh credits a day, and on Free those daily credits stop after 1,500 in a month.[1] Every refresh credit runs only in Manus 2.0 Lite, the lightest agent mode. That covers short research, small documents and quick edits. It does not cover Wide Research, video generation or a website on your own domain. Those need a paid plan.


**1,500** — Refresh credits a month at most on the Free plan, usable only in Manus 2.0 Lite.



- **1,000 once** — Credits granted at registration on Free
- **2 schedules** — Scheduled tasks on Free; paid plans allow 20
- **7-day trial** — Offered on some paid subscriptions, per the help center


## What the $0 plan puts in your account

Start with an oddity. The pricing page shows no Free card at all; it opens straight on the paid cards, and the Free plan lives only in the help center.[2] There it is listed at $0 a month with 300 daily refresh credits and 2 scheduled automations,[3] while a separate help page adds the 1,000 credits granted once at registration.[4] Our reading of these pages took place in November 2026, after the Manus 2.0 launch in September 2026, so older posts describing free access under Manus 1.6 no longer apply.

The mode menu is the real boundary. Free users get **Manus 2.0 Lite in Agent mode** plus Chat mode, while Manus 2.0 and 2.0 Max are reserved for Pro.[5] Agent mode plans and finishes a task on its own inside a cloud virtual machine. Chat mode reads images, PDFs and text files and searches online. Chat is not a free side door, though. The help center says conversations are no longer credit-free, so both modes draw on the same balance. You can also move a conversation from Chat to Agent, but never back.

| What you get | Free | Paid Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Agent modes | 2.0 Lite, plus Chat | 2.0 Max, 2.0, 2.0 Lite, plus Chat |
| Refresh credits | 300 a day, capped at 1,500 a month | 300 a day, no cap |
| Plan credits | none (1,000 once at sign-up) | 4,000 a month on the entry tier, more above |
| Scheduled tasks | 2 | 20 |
| Tasks running at once | fewer than paid | 20 |
| Wide Research, video generation | no | yes |
| Custom domain, advanced SEO | no | yes |
| Knowledge base entries | 50 | 100 |
| Mail Manus workflow emails | 3 | 30 |
| Sleeping sandbox kept | 7 days | 21 days |

The table shows the shape of the gap. Free keeps the core agent, with its own sandbox per task, but trims every lever that multiplies work: parallel tasks, schedules, research fan-out and media. The credit side matters just as much, because Free has no monthly plan credits at all. Once the sign-up credits are gone, the daily refresh allowance is the whole budget, and it runs in one mode only.

## How far 1,500 refresh credits stretch

The daily credits arrive when you log in, reset at 00:00 UTC, last only that day and never stack up. **Miss a day and its 300 are gone.** On Free the month's refresh total stops at 1,500, which by our arithmetic is five full days of 300. After that the daily credits pause until the next cycle begins, and paid users have no such cap. The daily balance also stays out of the Usage details list, so the log will not show what you spent from it.


> 💡 **Log in daily to claim credits:** The 300 refresh credits are granted on login and expire at 00:00 UTC. A day you skip adds nothing to later days.


Order matters too. Manus spends event credits first, then daily credits, then monthly, add-on and free credits, in that sequence. Add-on credits are not something a Free account can buy: fixed packs are sold only on the highest personal plan, pay-as-you-go top-ups need a personal plan of $200 a month or more (the $167-a-month annual plan qualifies), and on Team, Owners and Super Admins buy them in Team settings. On a Free account that means each day's refresh allowance goes before the rest of your balance, unless you hold credits from an event. The 1,000 sign-up credits are the cushion for days when the refresh allowance runs dry or the cap is reached.

What a credit pays for is less tidy. Credits cover model tokens, the task's virtual machine and any third-party services it calls, and the amount rises with complexity and duration. Credits burn only while a task is actively working; storing or deploying a finished output costs nothing. The hard part is planning. **Manus cannot estimate a task's credit cost in advance**, and a pre-task estimate is only described as planned.


> ⚠ **No cost preview before a task:** Manus cannot estimate a task's credit cost in advance, and it says any credit figure the agent itself offers should be treated as a hallucination.


That leaves the vendor's own habits as your best tool. Be specific, because vague requests cost more. Split a large job into smaller tasks, use Chat for simple questions, and check Settings, then Usage, after each run to learn your own rates. If a task fails through a verifiable bug or platform fault, Manus refunds its credits in full after a review, and the request needs a shareable link to that task. Manus's help pages disagree on whether a poor result qualifies; confirm with Manus in writing.


> 💡 **Keep requests small and specific:** Manus says vague requests cost more credits. Split big jobs into smaller tasks and check Settings, then Usage, after each run.


## What stays locked, and what Free still runs

Four gates decide most upgrades. Wide Research, the feature that splits a job across many parallel sub-agents, is for paid users only. Video generation is paid only as well. The Video Editor timeline itself is available on every plan with generation limited on some, but editing there also uses credits. Connecting a custom domain or changing a site's subdomain needs a paid plan, and so does the advanced SEO toolkit for websites. Free also runs fewer tasks at once than paid plans, which allow 20, and caps schedules at 2.

Plenty still works at $0 a month. Projects are open to every tier with no limit on how many you create. Skills, Design View and Browser Operator, which drives your own Chrome or Edge with your logged-in sessions, are open to all users. Under the Privacy Policy, Browser Operator sends page content from the sites you authorize, its clicks, form input and your existing logged-in sessions to Manus servers; only your passwords are not seen or stored by Manus. Meeting Minutes records for free, though the analysis afterwards costs credits. The Telegram agent is on every tier. Manus says its slide exports to PPTX and PDF are on every plan including Free; our guide to [Manus slides](/articles/manus-ai-slides) covers the decks themselves.

Websites need care. A site already published on a manus.space address can stay online without a subscription on the free WebDev allowance, but Manus lists website deployment among its Pro features. The smaller Free limits are 50 knowledge base entries, 3 workflow email addresses in Mail Manus, and a sandbox recycled after 7 days asleep rather than 21. Manus's pages disagree on what survives a sandbox reset. Download anything you need to keep.

## Trials, invitation codes and other free routes

The help center says Manus offers a seven-day free trial for some subscriptions, and canceling before the first charge means you pay nothing. The pricing page itself advertises no trial, so look for the offer at checkout. One payment detail: Alipay cannot pay for a trial subscription, only for a direct upgrade or once the trial ends. Timing matters: canceling after the first charge does not refund it and only stops the next renewal.

Searching for an invitation code usually leads to Cue. Cue is a separate app for personal agents, each with its own email, phone number, wallet and computer, and it is in early access, free with an invite code. It shares one account with Manus, so deleting one deletes both. Cue phone usage counts toward a Cue weekly allowance, not Manus credits.

Students can check whether their school qualifies for a campus pass and verify a campus edu email on the Manus campus page. In Singapore, the SkillsFuture AI Subscription gives eligible learners on selected courses six months of premium AI tools including Manus, and Singtel AI Pass offers three months of a tool suite followed by three months of one tool. Manus Academy is free to take; in December 2025 Manus offered 8,000 credits to the first 500 people who completed a course.

Beyond those, the door is mostly shut. Manus says it cannot give extra free credits to individual users, and it publishes no promo codes. Users affected by the August 2026 data deletion can still claim a Welcome Back Bonus until late November 2026; affected free users get 50% off the first month of a monthly plan priced $20 to $200. The Free Access campaign that waived charges for 2.0 Lite and 2.0 ended in August 2026.

## When the free plan stops being enough

Two signals say it is time to pay. One is a locked feature you need, such as Wide Research or video. The other is hitting the 1,500 cap early in most months, since the remaining days then run only on whatever is left of the sign-up credits. **The entry paid step is Pro at $20 a month (4,000 credits)**, or $17 a month billed yearly, charged as $200 a year, plus any sales tax or VAT. By our arithmetic those plan credits cost $5 per 1,000, and yearly billing saves $40 a year. Pro also opens Manus 2.0 and 2.0 Max for harder tasks, while the 300 daily credits continue without a cap but still only in Lite.

Two rules shape that decision. Unused monthly plan credits do not roll over, and payments are final except where law requires, so size the plan to steady use rather than one busy week. The $20 card has no add-on credits either: running out means waiting for the monthly refresh or moving up a tier. Our [Manus AI pricing guide](/articles/manus-ai-pricing) covers higher tiers and the add-on packs that only the highest personal plans can buy. If you are still learning which mode fits which job, the [Manus AI playbook](/articles/manus-ai-ai-playbook) maps the modes before you spend.


## FAQ

**Can I open a second free account to get more credits?**

Manus does not recommend multiple accounts, and its Terms treat multiple accounts used to collect promotional rewards as abuse that can cost you credits or the account itself. Email sign-ups must also verify a phone number, and each phone number can verify only one registered account once; Google, Apple or Microsoft logins skip phone verification.

**Does the Manus Studio desktop app cost extra on the Free plan?**

No. Manus Studio is a free download with no separate credit bundle: it uses the same credits as the web app, at the same rate as cloud tasks, and none while idle.

**How do I cancel a trial or paid plan and go back to Free?**

Web subscribers go to Account, then Upgrade or Manage, then Downgrade to Free; Apple and Google subscribers cancel in their app store, and the Terms also allow canceling by emailing support. Cancel a trial before its first charge to pay nothing; canceling later does not refund the current period. Uninstalling the app does not cancel anything.

**What happens to my credits if I drop from Pro back to Free?**

Unused monthly plan credits go to zero and are not reinstated. Add-on credits, which only the highest personal plans, top-up-eligible plans or Team Owners and Super Admins can buy, become inactive while you are on Free and reactivate if you subscribe again.


## The bottom line

Manus AI is free in the narrow sense: $0 a month buys a one-time 1,000 credits and up to 1,500 refresh credits a month, all daily credits confined to Manus 2.0 Lite. That is enough to judge whether the agent handles your everyday research and drafts. It is not enough for parallel research, video or a branded website. Treat Free as an audition. If the Lite results earn their keep and the cap keeps biting, the entry Pro plan is the next step; if not, you have spent nothing.



## Sources

[1] Manus Help Center: What should I do if my daily refresh credits have not refreshed? — https://help.manus.im/en/articles/11985189-what-should-i-do-if-my-daily-refresh-credits-have-not-refreshed (2026-11)
[2] Manus: pricing — https://manus.im/pricing (2026-11)
[3] Manus Help Center: What is the current membership pricing for Manus? — https://help.manus.im/en/articles/11711111-what-is-the-current-membership-pricing-for-manus (2026-11)
[4] Manus Help Center: Are there any discounts or special offers? — https://help.manus.im/en/articles/11813668-are-there-any-discounts-or-special-offers (2026-11)
[5] Manus Help Center: What are the differences between Chat mode and Agent mode? — https://help.manus.im/en/articles/17768086-what-are-the-differences-between-chat-mode-and-agent-mode (2026-11)
[6] Manus Help Center — https://help.manus.im/en/
[7] Manus documentation — https://manus.im/docs/introduction/welcome
[8] Manus Terms of Use — https://manus.im/terms