Tencent's Marvis: System-Level AI Agent for PCs Hits 300,000 DAU in Two Days

At the WAIC forum in July 2025, Tencent unveiled Marvis, a system-level AI agent for PCs that controls local files, hardware and the browser rather than working as a general-purpose chatbot. The product, built by the Tencent Yingyongbao team, launched on 20 May 2025 and gained more than 300,000 daily active users in two days, with about 54% day-7 retention.

How Marvis Differs from General-Purpose Agents

Marvis's main difference is that it works at the system level: the agent "sees" the user's device in advance, meaning which files and programs are on it, what they mean, and the user's browser history. According to Marvis lead Cai Jiantao, of an agent's four components (perception, reasoning, planning and action), perception is the key one, and it is only possible at the system level. General-purpose agents such as Codex, he says, have to scan the entire disk "blindly" and often cannot finish the task.

"There is a simple way to check whether an agent is headed in the right direction: when a new big model comes out, are you excited or worried?

If half of your agent's features become unnecessary after an update, you picked the wrong direction," — Lin Songtao, Vice President of Tencent.

This is reflected in real usage scenarios:

• Launch: 20 May 2025, a product of the Tencent Yingyongbao team (应用宝, the app store)
• DAU exceeded 300,000 within two days; day-7 retention is about 54%
• Scenarios: local files — 44%, PC hardware control — 28%, browser — 18%, apps — 16%, search — only ~6%
• The team's main metric is the number of tasks actually completed, not DAU or the number of sessions
• Partners: Microsoft and Intel; on Windows, the a3B model runs on less than 8 GB of VRAM

Why Tencent Isn't Building On-Device AI for Smartphones

Tencent has deliberately skipped on-device AI on smartphones: a phone's memory and battery are not enough for models with a large number of parameters and complex tasks, Cai Jiantao explains. The team is betting on PCs, Mini PCs and AI Boxes, and suggests using the phone as a remote control, with the commands executed by the PC or a cloud container.

Together with the Hunyuan (混元) team, Marvis is preparing a cluster of on-device models: from translation mini-models and multimodal vision models with 1–2 billion parameters to AI Box-class models with 20–30 billion. According to Tencent, working with Intel, the a3B model can run on Windows with less than 8 GB of VRAM, and on Mac it performs well with 32 GB of RAM.

How Much Does Marvis Earn?

Marvis is not monetized yet: at this stage, Tencent is not trying to charge for it. Users get a free daily token quota, intended to encourage them to run real tasks. The reason, Lin Songtao admits, is that China's ecosystem for paying for tokens has not yet formed. Abroad, both the token economy and the willingness to pay for tools are more mature, so Marvis treats overseas markets as a priority. Intel and Microsoft have already expressed interest in cooperating, including outside China.

"Technological breakthroughs determine how fast AI moves; the ability to create real value determines how far it goes," —

Lin Songtao, Vice President of Tencent, at WAIC.

What This Means

Marvis offers an alternative to the race of general-purpose chatbots: instead of competing on the "intelligence" of a cloud model, Tencent is building an executor agent on the device, whose main metric is the number of tasks actually completed. If the bet pays off, system-level agents will become a standard part of the PC: according to Lin Songtao, PC makers are already discussing preinstalling Marvis.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Marvis?

Marvis is a system-level AI agent from Tencent for PCs, Mini PCs and AI Boxes. It controls local files, hardware, the browser and apps, rather than working as a general-purpose chatbot. It was launched on 20 May 2025 by the Tencent Yingyongbao team.

Does Marvis work on smartphones?

Tencent deliberately does not build an on-device version for phones because of memory and battery limits. The smartphone is meant to serve as a remote control, while the computation runs on a PC or in a cloud container.

How much does Marvis cost?

For now, Marvis is free: users get a daily free token quota. Tencent has postponed paid monetization because China's ecosystem for paying for tokens has not yet formed.