August 1, 2025
5 min read
Carl Franzen
Chinese AI startup Manus introduces Wide Research, spinning up 100+ AI agents to perform large-scale parallel web research and creative tasks.
Chinese AI startup Manus has introduced an innovative feature called Wide Research. This new capability distinguishes itself from competitors like OpenAI, Google, and xAI, which offer "Deep Research" AI agents that conduct sequential, in-depth investigations to produce detailed reports. Manus's Wide Research, however, deploys over 100 AI subagents simultaneously, enabling it to tackle large-scale, high-volume tasks in parallel.
During a demonstration by Manus co-founder and Chief Scientist Yichao ‘Peak’ Ji, Wide Research was showcased by analyzing 100 sneaker models. Each subagent was tasked with evaluating a sneaker's design, pricing, and availability, resulting in a sortable matrix in spreadsheet and web formats within minutes. The feature is also adept at creative tasks, as demonstrated by its ability to generate poster designs in 50 distinct visual styles concurrently, delivering the assets in a downloadable ZIP file. This flexibility stems from Manus's system-level approach to parallel processing and agent-to-agent communication. Manus states that Wide Research is the first application of its optimized virtualization and agent architecture, scaling compute power 100 times beyond its previous offerings. The feature activates automatically for tasks requiring broad analysis, negating the need for manual configuration.
Wide Research is presently accessible to users on Manus's Pro plan and will be progressively rolled out to Plus and Basic plan subscribers. Manus offers the following subscription tiers: Free ($0/month), Basic ($19/month), Plus ($39/month), and Pro ($199/month), with discounts available for annual upfront payments.
The underlying architecture of Manus's platform involves running each user session on a dedicated virtual machine, leveraging orchestrated cloud compute via natural language commands. This foundation allows Wide Research to delegate tasks to numerous fully capable, independent Manus subagents. Unlike traditional multi-agent systems with predefined roles, each subagent in Manus's system is a complete Manus instance, capable of performing any general task, thereby offering flexible and scalable task management.
While Wide Research promises faster and more diverse outputs by utilizing parallel processing, Manus has yet to release benchmarks or detailed technical data to substantiate claims of superiority in speed, accuracy, cost, or resource efficiency compared to sequential approaches. The broader AI ecosystem has encountered challenges with subagent architectures, including performance issues, high token consumption, and coordination difficulties, which Manus acknowledges as potential experimental hurdles for Wide Research.
Manus's Wide Research signifies a continued commitment to scalable AI agent collaboration. By employing generalized, fully capable subagents, the company aims to redefine multi-agent AI workflows, provided it can successfully address coordination and reliability challenges. Manus suggests that this underlying infrastructure will support future advancements, positioning the company as a notable player in the evolving AI agent landscape.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: What is Manus's Wide Research feature? A: Wide Research is a new feature from Manus that utilizes over 100 AI subagents simultaneously to perform large-scale, high-volume research and creative tasks in parallel, unlike sequential "deep research" approaches. Q: How does Wide Research differ from "Deep Research" from competitors? A: While "Deep Research" AI agents conduct in-depth, sequential investigations for detailed reports, Wide Research spins up numerous AI subagents concurrently to tackle tasks in parallel, allowing for faster, large-scale processing. Q: What kind of tasks can Wide Research handle? A: Wide Research can be used for both data analysis, such as comparing product specifications, and creative tasks, like generating multiple design variations simultaneously. Q: Is Wide Research available to all Manus users? A: Currently, Wide Research is available to Manus Pro plan users, with plans to roll it out to Plus and Basic plans in the future. Q: What is the underlying technology that enables Wide Research? A: Wide Research is built on an optimized virtualization and agent architecture that significantly scales compute power and allows for robust agent-to-agent communication. Q: What are the potential challenges with Wide Research? A: Manus acknowledges that Wide Research is experimental and may face challenges similar to other multi-agent systems, such as performance, coordination, and reliability issues.Crypto Market AI's Take
The introduction of Manus's Wide Research feature highlights a significant advancement in the application of AI for large-scale data processing and creative generation. This parallel processing approach, leveraging hundreds of AI subagents, could dramatically accelerate research and content creation across various industries. In the realm of cryptocurrency, such capabilities could be invaluable for analyzing vast market data, identifying emerging trends, and even generating sophisticated trading strategies. Our platform, Crypto Market AI, is at the forefront of integrating AI into cryptocurrency analysis and trading. We leverage AI-driven tools to provide users with actionable insights, automated trading bots, and comprehensive market intelligence, aiming to democratize access to sophisticated financial technology.More to Read:
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