Browser Use, a Key Tool in Manus, Goes Viral

Manus, the viral AI "agent" platform developed by the Chinese startup Butterfly Effect, has inadvertently boosted the visibility of another AI tool named Browser Use. This tool, designed to enhance website accessibility for agentic applications that act on behalf of users, has seen a dramatic surge in popularity over the past week. According to co-creator Gregor Zunic, daily downloads skyrocketed from approximately 5,000 on March 3 to 28,000 by March 10.

"The past few days have been really wild," Zunic shared via direct message. "We are the biggest trending repository on GitHub, got loads of downloads, and all that actually converts to big usage numbers."

The spike in interest can be traced back to a viral post on X about how Manus utilizes Browser Use, which amassed over 2.4 million views and was shared hundreds of times. Browser Use plays a crucial role in Manus by enabling it to perform tasks such as navigating site menus and completing forms.

Gregor Zunic and Magnus Müller, who launched the company behind Browser Use last year from ETH Zurich’s Student Project House accelerator, initially saw web agents as the next big trend for 2025. "What started 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 recounted. "We put together an MVP in four days, launched it, and boom — number one. From there, it’s been an absolute rocket."

Browser Use works by extracting elements from websites, such as buttons and widgets, making it easier for AI models to interact with them. The tool supports multiple browser tabs, can set up actions like saving files and performing database operations, and manages mouse and keyboard inputs.

While Browser Use the company offers managed plans for a fee, it also provides a free, self-hosted version of its software, which has seen a significant increase in downloads following Manus' launch.

Zunic and Müller aim to provide developers with the tools they need during the burgeoning web agent "gold rush." "We wanted to create a foundation layer that everyone will build browser agents on," Zunic explained. "In our minds, there will be more agents on the web than humans by the end of the year."

While this prediction might seem ambitious, several analysts forecast a substantial growth in the AI agent market. Research and Markets predicts the sector will reach $42 billion by 2029, and Deloitte expects that by 2027, half of companies using AI will deploy AI agents.

Browser Use's rise in popularity seems to have been perfectly timed, even without the Manus effect.

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.