Haha, it all started because it constantly blew my mind!! And then I figured I shouldn’t be the only one with my mind blown :))) thank you, Gunnar! That’s the best kind of comment.
I just signed up for Manus Basic and can't wait to see what miracles it will work. It's all miraculous to me. (Also, I want an "AI Blew My Mind" t-shirt. Seriously.)
I have used Manus last month for tracking some AI startups and it does a great job really. I liked its knowledge feature, where I kind of put some specific actions and credit optimization instructions in place. It generally does a good job of creating a plan based on whatever you say you want to do. Only once, toward the end of my subscription, a task just went out of my hands. I gave it one wrong instruction and asked it to stop, but it didn't after repeated attempts, lol. Finally it cost me over 2k credits. But besides that, I would say the system really optimizes for speed and credit usage, and does stuff well. I can see how people may use it more and more, and they are really keeping up the momentum with new features. I like their product overall, and honestly, much better than Operator, haha!
Thanks a lot for sharing your take, Chintan. I’ve found their support team to be super responsive via email. I reached out a few times and always got a same-day reply. Might be worth flagging your credit issue to them, they might be able to revert those. And fully agree, the way it structures and executes tasks is surprisingly strong. Curious to see where they take it next, since they’re still so early in the game.
Yeah they definitely are. I got some of my credits back today :) For sure they seem to be on to something. I am excited to see more kinds of tasks being tackled by Manus as well. I think they are one of the best demos of agentic AI until now!
I had never heard of Manus but I'm definitely trying it now, you should be getting some more daily credits! I'm already looking forward to your next breakdown.
Could you discuss a little bit about the cost to produce the ebook and the interactive courses? I've heard that Manus eats credits and can get costly to use.
Hi Robert! I spent 1795 credits for the website (though I played around quite a bit more than what actually made it into the post: reformatting text, tweaking layouts, bullet points, adding visuals, etc). So the version you see in the post used even less (but don't know how much). For the ebook, I used 4188 credits in total.
1900 credits normally cost $19, but Manus doubles your credits when you top up, which helps a lot. So all in, I’d say I spent less than $30, maybe even a bit less since you also get bonus credits when you rate tasks after completion & when you open the account.
I was wondering how much completion rate of your 318 ebook page that Manus created before you can sell or publish it to the public? Is it good enough for you to keep polishing it?
I tried to do it once but failed. Not sure why. Manus didn’t really tell the reason.
There’s another use case where I built a learning module on website, it worked fine and done the job.
I’m sure they are still early. But this kind of AI agent requires more robust experiment to assess its real value IMO.
Haven’t started polishing it yet, but I’d say the ebook is >60% there. Manus did a really solid job following my prompting guidelines and expanding the prompts. To make it fully publishable, I’d test each prompt, refine the phrasing, and add more branding polish. The 318 pages are mainly expanded prompts with some light context on when to use them. It's not a narrative book.
That said, even as-is, the quality is waaaaaaay above what most people get out of their regular prompts. If I wasn’t as picky about prompt quality, most of it could be used straight up.
Curious what happened in your case though, what failed?
The website part really surprised me, I found that part way stronger than I expected.
Your breakdown is super mind blowing, I've definitely heard of Manus being this good (wanted to try it in the early days but never got the credit to start :o). It's providing a complete work flow!
Today there is nothing you can't do, we just need more imagination!
I understand people might be skeptical about the content, but for a proof of concept and basic collection, that's more than enough. The point is, it makes the creation process much smoother.
Yes exactly, Jenny, that’s how I see it too. It’s not about skipping the work, but about getting a structured draft that removes most of the initial heavy lifting. The real work kicks in when you start editing and adding your expertise.
Can’t wait to see what you build with it, Orel. I can already imagine a few eBooks based on all your learnings around creating viral notes from WriteStack.
Interesting, I’ll try it with a chapter of a book I’m working on. But aren’t you worried about giving out a course that is massively AI written vs your own material?
How many pages would the ebook have been if you just merged all your various notes together. Curious how much it had to add
That’s exactly why I added a lot of disclaimers in the post, I wouldn’t publish something fully AI-generated without carefully reviewing and curating it.
The real value is starting from your own materials (notes, drafts, previous content), then letting Manus handle the heavy lifting to structure, format, and expand. Everything it generates stays fully editable, so you’re always in control of the final product.
The original ebook I gave it had 38 pages, so Manus added quite a bit on top of that (up to 318 pages). I wouldn’t count the prompting guidelines or my previous prompts here, as they were just used as examples to guide the generation.
For me, this was mostly about testing how far the tool can build from existing assets. You still need to bring your expertise to shape the final output.
Now I know why you call your Substack „AI blew my mind“… that‘s exactly that!
Haha, it all started because it constantly blew my mind!! And then I figured I shouldn’t be the only one with my mind blown :))) thank you, Gunnar! That’s the best kind of comment.
I just signed up for Manus Basic and can't wait to see what miracles it will work. It's all miraculous to me. (Also, I want an "AI Blew My Mind" t-shirt. Seriously.)
You might have just given me a merch idea with that T-shirt 😂
Can’t wait to see what you build with Manus. If I can help in any way as you start playing with it, just let me know!
Thank you, Daria. That’s very kind of you. I’ll likely take you up on that offer.
Printify.com - Tshirts, coffee cups, tons of merch ideas. All drop-shipped. I’d buy a t-shirt in a heartbeat.
Woaaa, thanks a ton for sharing the link, I didn’t know about Printify. I’ll definitely explore it and get back to you 👕
Thank you so much! It is really interesting and inspiring. Will definitely try.
Glad it was useful, Boyko. Let me know how it goes when you try it out.
Top notch post! Is it written by Manus AI? Who's to tell! Btw very helpful and definitely worth experimenting with such AI tools.
Haha, not written by Manus, but definitely polished with the help of GPT and Claude.
Super thorough article and filled with lots of info. 😎
Informative as always, thank you for always sharing Daria.
I have used Manus last month for tracking some AI startups and it does a great job really. I liked its knowledge feature, where I kind of put some specific actions and credit optimization instructions in place. It generally does a good job of creating a plan based on whatever you say you want to do. Only once, toward the end of my subscription, a task just went out of my hands. I gave it one wrong instruction and asked it to stop, but it didn't after repeated attempts, lol. Finally it cost me over 2k credits. But besides that, I would say the system really optimizes for speed and credit usage, and does stuff well. I can see how people may use it more and more, and they are really keeping up the momentum with new features. I like their product overall, and honestly, much better than Operator, haha!
Thanks a lot for sharing your take, Chintan. I’ve found their support team to be super responsive via email. I reached out a few times and always got a same-day reply. Might be worth flagging your credit issue to them, they might be able to revert those. And fully agree, the way it structures and executes tasks is surprisingly strong. Curious to see where they take it next, since they’re still so early in the game.
Yeah they definitely are. I got some of my credits back today :) For sure they seem to be on to something. I am excited to see more kinds of tasks being tackled by Manus as well. I think they are one of the best demos of agentic AI until now!
I had never heard of Manus but I'm definitely trying it now, you should be getting some more daily credits! I'm already looking forward to your next breakdown.
Love hearing that, Joel. Can't wait to see what you build with it. And yes, those extra credits definitely help fuel more experiments & more content
Could you discuss a little bit about the cost to produce the ebook and the interactive courses? I've heard that Manus eats credits and can get costly to use.
Hi Robert! I spent 1795 credits for the website (though I played around quite a bit more than what actually made it into the post: reformatting text, tweaking layouts, bullet points, adding visuals, etc). So the version you see in the post used even less (but don't know how much). For the ebook, I used 4188 credits in total.
1900 credits normally cost $19, but Manus doubles your credits when you top up, which helps a lot. So all in, I’d say I spent less than $30, maybe even a bit less since you also get bonus credits when you rate tasks after completion & when you open the account.
Cool experiment Daria!
I was wondering how much completion rate of your 318 ebook page that Manus created before you can sell or publish it to the public? Is it good enough for you to keep polishing it?
I tried to do it once but failed. Not sure why. Manus didn’t really tell the reason.
There’s another use case where I built a learning module on website, it worked fine and done the job.
I’m sure they are still early. But this kind of AI agent requires more robust experiment to assess its real value IMO.
Haven’t started polishing it yet, but I’d say the ebook is >60% there. Manus did a really solid job following my prompting guidelines and expanding the prompts. To make it fully publishable, I’d test each prompt, refine the phrasing, and add more branding polish. The 318 pages are mainly expanded prompts with some light context on when to use them. It's not a narrative book.
That said, even as-is, the quality is waaaaaaay above what most people get out of their regular prompts. If I wasn’t as picky about prompt quality, most of it could be used straight up.
Curious what happened in your case though, what failed?
The website part really surprised me, I found that part way stronger than I expected.
More than 60% is alrdy good enough to keep polishing it.
I guess investing on the prompt is the secret to ensure better quality from the start.
I’m not sure it just failed and no suggestion what to do. I tried to restart but kept failing.
I didn’t experience this error at all. Have you tried asking it why it failed or to pick up where it left off?
Your breakdown is super mind blowing, I've definitely heard of Manus being this good (wanted to try it in the early days but never got the credit to start :o). It's providing a complete work flow!
Today there is nothing you can't do, we just need more imagination!
I understand people might be skeptical about the content, but for a proof of concept and basic collection, that's more than enough. The point is, it makes the creation process much smoother.
Yes exactly, Jenny, that’s how I see it too. It’s not about skipping the work, but about getting a structured draft that removes most of the initial heavy lifting. The real work kicks in when you start editing and adding your expertise.
Very useful as always, thanks! Will try it as well soon!
Thanks, Rita! It’s pretty wild how far you can push it even with simple prompts.
AI Blew My Mind. Literally.
This is just crazy, going to give it a go right now!
Haha love these reactions!
Can’t wait to see what you build with it, Orel. I can already imagine a few eBooks based on all your learnings around creating viral notes from WriteStack.
Hahaha sent you one already :P
Interesting, I’ll try it with a chapter of a book I’m working on. But aren’t you worried about giving out a course that is massively AI written vs your own material?
How many pages would the ebook have been if you just merged all your various notes together. Curious how much it had to add
Good questions, Zach.
That’s exactly why I added a lot of disclaimers in the post, I wouldn’t publish something fully AI-generated without carefully reviewing and curating it.
The real value is starting from your own materials (notes, drafts, previous content), then letting Manus handle the heavy lifting to structure, format, and expand. Everything it generates stays fully editable, so you’re always in control of the final product.
The original ebook I gave it had 38 pages, so Manus added quite a bit on top of that (up to 318 pages). I wouldn’t count the prompting guidelines or my previous prompts here, as they were just used as examples to guide the generation.
For me, this was mostly about testing how far the tool can build from existing assets. You still need to bring your expertise to shape the final output.