Manus and the Rise of Browser Use

Introduction

Manus, the AI “agent” platform developed by Chinese startup Butterfly Effect, has had an unforeseen consequence: it has significantly boosted the popularity of another AI tool called Browser Use.

Explosive Growth of Browser Use

Browser Use, designed to enhance website accessibility for agentic applications that perform tasks on behalf of users, has experienced a remarkable surge in growth over the past week. Daily downloads have increased more than fivefold, from approximately 5,000 on March 3 to 28,000 on March 10, according to co-creator Gregor Zunic.

Reaction from the Co-creator

“The past few days have been really wild,” Zunic stated via DM. “We are the biggest trending repository [on GitHub], received loads of downloads, and all that translates to significant usage numbers.”

Cause of the Uptick

The reason behind this surge can be attributed to a post about how Manus utilizes Browser Use, which garnered over 2.4 million views and hundreds of reshares on X. Browser Use is a key component Manus uses to execute various tasks, such as navigating site menus and filling out forms.

Background of Browser Use

Zunic launched the company behind Browser Use with Magnus Müller last year out of ETH Zurich’s Student Project House accelerator. The pair believed web agents — agents that navigate websites and web apps autonomously — would be the “big thing” in 2025.

Development of Browser Use

“What began as casual brainstorming over a few lunches turned into a challenge: Let’s build something small, throw it on Hacker News, and see what happens,” Zunic said. “We put together an MVP in four days, launched it, and boom — it reached number one. From there, it’s been an absolute rocket.”

Functionality of Browser Use

Browser Use extracts a website’s elements — such as buttons and widgets — to allow AI models to interact with them more easily. The tool can manage multiple browser tabs, set up actions like saving files and performing database operations, and handle mouse and keyboard inputs.

Business Model of Browser Use

Browser Use, the company, offers managed plans for a fee but also provides a free, self-hosted version of its software. It’s the free version that has seen a significant spike in usage since Manus was unveiled.

Strategy and Predictions

Zunic says he and Magnus are trying to “sell a shovel” to developers chasing after the gold rush of web agents.

“We aimed to create a foundation layer that everyone will build browser agents on,” Zunic said. “In our minds, there will be more agents on the web than humans by the end of the year.”

Market Predictions

This prediction may seem overly optimistic, but several analysts foresee that the broader market for AI agents will indeed experience enormous growth in the coming months. According to Research and Markets, the sector is expected to reach $42 billion by 2029. Deloitte anticipates that half of the companies using AI will deploy AI agents by 2027.

Conclusion

The Manus effect aside, Browser Use’s timing appears to have been fortuitous.

Updated 12:45 p.m. Pacific: An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to “Browser Use” as “Browser User” in the headline. We regret the error.