In a post on social platform X, Manus described the tool as one that “transforms your prompts into complete stories — structured, sequenced and ready to watch.”
With a single prompt, users can generate fully storyboarded and animated video content, the post said. The tool plans each scene, crafts visuals and animates concepts in minutes.
The feature is available to early access users on Basic, Plus and Pro tiers, and Manus plans to release it for free to the wider public, the post said.
The move puts Manus in direct competition with OpenAI’s Sora, which is available only to paid ChatGPT subscribers, as well as Google’s Veo, Runway, Synthesia and others. The evolving space has seen Western tech giants and Chinese firms race to push the limits of generative AI video.
Sora and Google’s video tools rely on proprietary models, but Chinese players like Alibaba’s Wan and Tencent’s Hunyuan are championing open-source approaches, broadening access and experimentation across the developer community.
While these text-to-video platforms often generate standalone clips from user prompts, Manus emphasizes storytelling by organizing scenes in a logical sequence, adding visual coherence and narrative flow that goes beyond one-shot generation. The company is positioning itself not only as a technical innovator but also as a user-centric platform aimed at democratizing creative production.
Manus, which is owned by Chinese startup Butterfly Effect and incorporated in the Cayman Islands, made headlines earlier this year with its general-purpose AI agent capable of handling multistep tasks with minimal interaction. In a demo video that went viral, the AI agent handled resume screening, property research and stock analysis with minimal user input.
The startup received $75 million in funding led by Benchmark Capital, Bloomberg reported April 24.
In March, Manus launched a mobile app and unveiled subscription plans.
For all PYMNTS AI coverage, subscribe to the daily AI Newsletter.
Read more:
