Nous Research · Beginner · 3 lessons · about 20 minutes · updated 2026-09-13
Hermes 101: The Model, the Agent, and the Portal Aren't the Same Thing
"Hermes" from Nous Research names three different products with three different price stories. Three lessons on telling them apart, pricing the model, and running the free agent.
For anyone who's seen "Hermes" mentioned as an open-source AI model or agent and isn't sure if it's one thing or several. No prior coding required, though the agent setup lesson uses a terminal.
Course outline
- 1Wait, which Hermes do you mean?Nous Research ships three things under the Hermes name: an open-weight model family, a free autonomous-agent framework, and a paid hosted subscription. Confusing them leads to pricing the wrong thing.6 min · 3 objectives
- 2Pricing the Hermes model: three ways to access the same weightsThe same Hermes 4 model can cost you nothing but electricity, a metered per-token rate, or a flat monthly subscription — depending entirely on how you choose to access it.7 min · 3 objectives
- 3Running Hermes Agent, the free self-improving coworkerHermes Agent installs with a single command and runs entirely on your own machine, no cloud dependency. This lesson walks the setup and what makes it different from a plain chatbot.7 min · 3 objectives
Frequently asked
What is Hermes?
Nous Research's name for three distinct things: the Hermes open-weight model family, Hermes Agent (a free, self-hosted autonomous agent framework and successor to OpenClaw), and Nous Portal (a paid hosted subscription service).
Is Hermes free?
The model and Hermes Agent are both free and open-source. Nous Portal is a paid subscription, reported at Free/$20/$100/$200 per month tiers — verify current pricing on Nous Research's own site before subscribing.
How much does the Hermes model cost through an API?
This site's own catalogue verifies Hermes 4 405B at $1.00 input / $3.00 output per 1M tokens through OpenRouter — self-hosting removes that per-token charge in exchange for your own compute cost.