Browser Use is gaining attention thanks to Manus, the trending AI agent platform developed by Chinese startup, Butterfly Effect. The browser, designed to enhance website accessibility for AI-driven agentic applications, has seen explosive growth over the past week. According to co-creator Gregor Zunic, daily downloads skyrocketed from 5,000 on March 3 to 28,000 on March 10.
“The past few days have been really wild,” Zunic shared via DM with TechCrunch. “We are the biggest trending repository on GitHub, with massive downloads translating into significant usage.”
The Viral Boost: How Manus Propelled Browser Use
The surge in popularity can be traced back to a viral post explaining how Manus utilizes Browser Use for web navigation tasks like clicking through site menus and filling out forms. The post amassed over 2.4 million views and was reshared hundreds of times on X (formerly Twitter).
Zunic and Magnus Müller co-founded the company behind Browser Use last year at ETH Zurich’s Student Project House accelerator. They anticipated that AI-powered web agents—software capable of navigating websites and applications autonomously—would be a major trend by 2025.
From Idea to Industry Game-Changer
“What started as casual brainstorming over lunch turned into a challenge: let’s build something small, launch it on Hacker News, and see what happens,” Zunic recalled. In just four days, they developed a minimum viable product (MVP) and launched it. The response? A viral success, hitting the number one spot.
Browser Use enables AI models to seamlessly interact with website elements—buttons, widgets, and forms—while managing multiple browser tabs, saving files, and even handling mouse and keyboard inputs.
Business Model: Free and Paid Versions Drive Adoption
While Browser Use offers a self-hosted free version, the company also provides managed plans for enterprise clients. The free version, in particular, has gained massive traction since Manus’ viral rise.
Zunic and Müller compare their business model to selling tools in a gold rush. “We’re providing the foundation that all future browser agents will build upon,” Zunic explained. “We believe there will be more AI agents on the web than humans by the end of the year.”
While that might seem ambitious, industry analysts predict significant growth for AI agents. Research and Markets forecasts the sector will reach $42 billion by 2029, while Deloitte projects that half of AI-using companies will deploy AI agents by 2027.
The Perfect Timing for Browser Use
Beyond the Manus effect, the timing for Browser Use’s rise appears to be strategic and fortunate. With AI agents becoming increasingly integral to web interactions, tools that optimize their efficiency will continue to gain momentum.
Final Thoughts
The AI agent revolution is well underway, and Browser Use’s rapid adoption signals a growing demand for agentic web navigation tools. Whether the prediction of AI agents outnumbering humans online by year-end comes true, one thing is certain—the future of web automation is unfolding fast.
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