Challenge

Shortly after Manus AI launched in March 2025, it went viral as AI influencers shared invite codes across social platforms. The sudden surge in demand created an immediate challenge—Manus needed to quickly set up payment infrastructure to capture the viral momentum. Over the past six months, as the company has continued to scale, this initial challenge of rapid deployment has evolved into ongoing needs for global payment capabilities.

The autonomous AI agent represented a fundamental shift from the company’s previous product, Monica—a chatbot browser extension. Manus could independently execute complex workflows, requiring a more sophisticated monetization strategy that combined subscription and credit-based pricing to match Manus’s enhanced capabilities and higher value proposition.

Monica had relied on a few other merchant of record payment service providers, but support tickets often went unresolved for days due to time zone differences, and technical issues required complex work-arounds. With Manus, the company needed a more responsive payment partner that could provide real-time support and eliminate operational bottlenecks. As a lean startup competing against more established AI companies, Manus didn’t want to build payments infrastructure internally—the company saw more opportunity in developing its core product.

The company needed to implement a complete payment stack, including subscription billing, fraud prevention, global tax compliance, and invoicing. And it needed to happen quickly to capitalize on viral demand.

Solution

For a small team developing cutting‑edge AI, spending limited engineering time building payments infrastructure that companies such as OpenAI already trust Stripe to handle wasn’t a strategic use of resources. Manus relied on Stripe professional services, a dedicated implementation service, for proactive integration guidance and faster deployment. The team combines payments and financial expertise with experience integrating Stripe technology into thousands of projects.

“What impressed us most was how Stripe’s team understood both our technical needs and our business goals,” said Tao Zhang, cofounder and chief product officer of Manus. “Their daily engagement through Slack and collaborative Zoom sessions helped us navigate complex payment infrastructure decisions quickly. They weren’t just a vendor; they were strategic partners during our critical growth phase.”

Manus began by implementing Stripe’s Optimized Checkout Suite to tailor the payment experience to each customer. The company turned on card payments, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Alipay, and Link—a digital wallet built by Stripe—to serve its global customer base. AI models built into the Optimized Checkout Suite personalize which payment methods appear and in what order. In addition, Adaptive Pricing allows users to automatically pay in their local currency, as Stripe calculates the localized price and handles currency conversion. Manus now charges customers in 31 currencies, including GBP, USD, AUD, EUR, and SAR.

Manus implemented Stripe Billing to manage its subscription-based revenue model. Going forward, the company can take advantage of Billing’s flexibility to adjust pricing as the product changes. To maximize revenue from existing customers, Manus uses Smart Retries to automatically retry failed payments at optimal times. It also uses card account updater to reduce involuntary churn by keeping customer card information current when cards expire or are replaced. The company also implemented Stripe Invoicing to streamline billing operations and track customer payments, integrating seamlessly into Manus’s billing flow.

When fraud issues emerged during rapid scaling, Manus deployed Stripe Radar for Fraud Teams, which uses AI-powered fraud detection to help prevent card testing and other fraud attacks. Radar for Fraud Teams also enables users to create and apply custom rules. Over time, as Manus’s fraud patterns changed, the company expanded and refined its rule set to address emerging issues more effectively.

Manus chose Stripe Tax to automate global tax compliance. Stripe Tax processes complex cross-border tax requirements without requiring the team to build internal tax expertise.

Results

From launch to full monetization in under 30 days

Manus implemented a full Stripe integration in less than one month after launch. With Stripe’s professional services team, APIs, and accessible documentation, hurdles that could have stalled progress for weeks were removed quickly and efficiently. The rapid deployment allowed Manus to capitalize on peak user interest, establishing a foundation for continued growth.

Manus achieved $90 million run rate 4 months after launching paid plans

The company achieved a $90 million run rate just 4 months after launching its paid plans, monetizing rapid user growth without payments infrastructure becoming a bottleneck.

Using the Optimized Checkout Suite, Manus was able to accept payments in more than 200 countries—including major markets such as the US, EU, UK, Japan, and Australia—within a month of launch and without building region-specific integrations.

“Stripe’s built-in global payment capabilities eliminated what would have been months of work for our team,” said Zhang. “The complete solution meant we could deploy globally on day one without building any market-specific payment infrastructure.”

With Stripe managing payments infrastructure, the small Manus team can now focus entirely on advancing its autonomous AI technology.

Over 50% of Manus’s transactions are now processed through Link

Over half of Manus’s payment volume now flows through Link, Stripe’s digital wallet that securely stores and autofills payment details across more than one million businesses. Link helps businesses increase conversion by tapping into a network of more than 200 million customers who use Link to accelerate checkout. For a viral product where checkout friction could mean lost revenue, Link’s one-click experience helps convert interest into paying customers.