Comparison · Data as of 30 July 2026

Else vs Manus:
every job, priced in dollars.

Manus sells a monthly plan and meters your work in credits — a unit it publishes no dollar value for. Else sells the job: no plan, a balance in US dollars, and an itemized receipt the moment a run ends.

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The difference in one line

Manus tells you a task took credits.
Else tells you it cost $0.260554.

Both halves are checkable. Manus's help centre defines a credit as covering model tokens, virtual machines and third-party APIs together. The figure on the right came off a real Else receipt.

Manus · metered in credits
− 30 credits

One unit for three different things — model tokens, a virtual machine, and any third-party service the task called. No dollar value for a credit is published, so the number cannot be turned back into money.

Else · metered in dollars
$0.260554
Smart tier · 90 s · real run you can replay

The price follows the tier you picked, which is why an amount never appears without its tier beside it. See real receipts →

The ledger · figures as published, 30 July 2026

Put both on one page
and read down the right column.

Every figure here is quoted from a page its owner publishes. Where a cell is a dash, the figure was absent from Manus’s own pages when we checked — a statement about what is published, not about what exists.

 ElseManus
To startWhat you hand over before anything runs
$0.00no card
$0.00300 credits a day
Cheapest paid entryThe smallest recurring commitment on offer
$0.00no plan to buy
$20.00a month · “starting from”
A month you hand off nothingWhat the quiet months cost
$0.00balance never expires
$20.00the plan renews regardless
One real taskA run we published, unedited
$0.260554Smart tier · 90 s
—not published
What one unit of the meter is worthThe conversion between the number you are shown and money
$1.00the meter is dollars
—not published
Ceiling you can set on one runChecked after the money is spent, so a run ends past it
$5.00Default on work you hand off; set your own
—not published
Manus’s plan prices carry the words “starting from” on the page they are quoted from, and that page was last updated 2026-03-16; Manus’s own pricing page publishes no figures at all.

Price depends on the tier — Auto, Fast, Smart, or Max.

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What makes Else different

Four things a credit balance
cannot do for you.

01
Money, not a second currency
ManusWork is drawn down from a credit balance, and no dollar value for one credit is published.
ElseThe meter is US dollars from the start. Nothing to convert, nothing to top up in a second unit — the number on the receipt is the number that left your balance.
02
One line for each thing you bought
ManusBy its own documentation a single credit bundles model tokens, virtual machines and third-party APIs, so two jobs with the same credit total may have spent it on entirely different resources.
ElseThe receipt itemizes where the money went, so you can see which part of a job was the expensive part — and change that part next time.
03
A ceiling you set before it starts
ManusNo per-task spending cap appears on the pages we checked.
ElseWork you hand off carries a dollar ceiling before it begins — $5 unless you set your own — and the run stops once it has gone a little past that figure, then asks whether to keep going, on your phone if you have already closed the tab.
04
A quiet month costs nothing
ManusThe plan renews whether you handed off forty jobs or none.
ElseThere is no plan to renew. Your balance sits there, never expires, and only moves when something actually runs — so the months you do not need it are free.
What Else does better

Six things, all checkable today.

01A receipt for every jobEvery run ends with an itemized receipt in US dollars: the total, the ceiling that was set, how much of it was used, and the lines underneath it. Real receipts are published unedited.
02You pick the engine, by nameFour named tiers — Auto, Fast, Smart, Max — changeable whenever you like, even mid-task, or point a single request at one named model. Leave it on Auto and Else picks per job.
03Price and engine come as a pairBecause the price follows the tier you chose, no amount is ever shown without its tier beside it. You always know which engine produced the number you are reading.
04It asks before it actsSending, publishing, buying and changing things ask you first, out of the box. Connected apps read only what you allow — Gmail, Drive, Slack, Notion, GitHub and Airtable among them.
05It keeps going without youHand a job off with a repeat — every 30 minutes through weekly — and it runs on its own, accounting for itself in dollars every single time.
06Free to startNo card to enter and no plan to cancel. Hand over one real job, read the receipt, and decide from that rather than from a page like this one.
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Feature comparison · Data as of 30 July 2026

The rest of the account.

Every Manus cell is quoted from a page Manus publishes; every Else cell is checkable in the product. Read each row as true on the date above, not for ever.

What you are comparingElseManus
Pricing model
Pay per task — top up a balance in US dollars, spend only what runs
Monthly plan with a credit allowance
What a job is measured in
US dollars
Credits — one unit covering model tokens, virtual machines and third-party APIs
What you get after it finishes
An itemized receipt in dollars, beside the tier that ran
That task’s consumption, in credits
Per-task spending cap
In dollars — $5 by default on work you hand off, set before the run starts, checked after the money is spent
— none published
Choosing the engine
Four named tiers, changeable mid-task, or one named model per request
An agent version is selectable; the underlying model is not published
Recurring work
Any handed-off job can repeat, every 30 minutes through weekly
Scheduled and recurring tasks
Long autonomous open-web research
Supported
The capability it has published the most work in
Team accounts
Individual accounts
Multi-seat, admin dashboard, SSO, audit logs, SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001
Public API
Not yet
A REST API for developers
Apps
Browser, installable as a web app
iOS and iPadOS, Android, macOS, Windows
Best for
People who hand off work now and then and want each job priced in money
Teams wanting one monthly bill, an API, native apps and long autonomous research

Where a cell reads “none published”, that means it was absent from Manus's own pages when we checked them on 30 July 2026 — a statement about what is published, not about what exists.

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When to use each

They are not the same purchase.

Plenty of people should buy Manus. This is the short list of when.

Two different jobs
Reach for Manus when…

You want one predictable monthly number rather than a per-job amount. Several people need to work in the same place, with an admin view, SSO and audit logs. You are building on top of an agent and need an API. You want it on a phone or in a desktop app. Or the job is long, wide, open-web research — the capability it has published the most work in.

Reach for Else when…

You want to see, in dollars, what each job cost — and which engine tier that price came from. You would rather pay for four jobs this month than carry a plan you might not use. You want a dollar ceiling on a run and to be asked before anything is sent or published. Or you want a job to keep repeating without you, accounting for itself every time.

Frequently asked

Questions people actually ask.

Is there a Manus alternative that is pay as you go?
Else is one. There is no subscription and no credit bundle: you top up a balance in US dollars, each run spends from it, and each run ends with an itemized receipt showing the total, the spending limit that was set, how much of it was used, and the lines underneath. The balance never expires, and a month you hand off nothing costs you nothing. What a run costs follows from the engine tier you picked — Auto, Fast, Smart or Max.
Is there a Manus alternative with per-task pricing?
Else prices by the task rather than by the month. One real run on the Smart tier came to $0.260554 in 90 seconds, its receipt shows that figure beside the tier that produced it, and you can replay the run yourself. There is no plan to buy first, no credits to convert and no monthly minimum. Every price Else shows names the tier it came from, because the tier is what the price follows.
How much do Manus credits cost?
Manus publishes plan prices, not a price per credit. Its help centre lists a free plan with 300 credits a day, and paid plans described as starting from $20 a month for starting from 4,000 credits, and starting from $40 a month for 8,000 — figures we captured on 30 July 2026 from a page last updated 2026-03-16. It publishes no dollar value for a single credit, so what one task costs in money cannot be worked out from what is published. Else has no credits: you top up a balance in US dollars, and each run's receipt shows the dollar amount beside the engine tier that produced it.
What is a Manus credit actually made of?
By Manus's own documentation, one credit covers three different things at once: model tokens, virtual machines, and any third-party API the task called. That is why a credit total is hard to reason about — two tasks that burn the same number of credits may have spent that budget on completely different resources. Else meters in US dollars and itemizes what the money went to, so you can see which part of a job was the expensive part and change that part.
Can I set a spending limit on a single task?
On Else, yes. Work you hand off carries a dollar ceiling — $5 unless you set your own before it starts — and the task stops and asks you whether to keep going, on your phone if you have closed the tab. The check runs after money has already been spent rather than before, so a run ends past the figure rather than exactly on it, by however much had gone out before the check came round. On a single message you type the ceiling yourself, and leaving the field blank means that message carries no dollar ceiling at all. On the Manus-owned pages we checked on 30 July 2026, no per-task spending cap was published.
Which is better, Else or Manus?
They are different purchases. Manus is the better buy if you want one predictable monthly bill, a multi-seat team account with SSO and audit logs, a public REST API to build on, apps on iOS, Android, macOS and Windows, or long autonomous open-web research — that last one is the capability it has published the most work in. Else is the better buy if you want to know in dollars what each job cost, to set a ceiling on a run before it starts, and to pay nothing at all in a month you hand off nothing.

Stop counting credits.
Start reading receipts.

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One job, one receipt, no plan to cancel · Price depends on the tier — Auto, Fast, Smart, or Max.

Manus is a trademark of its owner. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners; their use here is for identification and comparison only and does not imply endorsement or affiliation. Comparison based on publicly available information as of 30 July 2026. Spot an inaccuracy? Email hello@elsedoes.com and we'll fix it.

Last updated 11 August 2026.

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