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Nous Research

Open AI research lab; makers of Hermes models and Hermes Agent.

Visit nousresearch.com ↗@NousResearch on X ↗

What Nous Research does

Open AI research lab; makers of Hermes models and Hermes Agent. Trains open models, builds agents and infrastructure for open-access intelligence. Hermes Agent is an open-source (MIT) self-improving agent harness that creates and refines skills from experience. Nous Portal is an optional gateway for model access, hosted tools and cloud hosting.

Good for

  • Run a capable open-source agent locally or in your cloud
  • Use open-weight models to avoid vendor lock-in
  • Build internal automations on Hermes Agent
  • Access models via Nous Portal with per-token pricing

Try this in 10 minutes

  1. Run a capable open-source agent locally or in your cloud. Use the free plan: pick one real example from your own business and try just that.
  2. Use open-weight models to avoid vendor lock-in. Put the result next to how you do it today. Is it faster, cheaper or better?
  3. Build internal automations on Hermes Agent. Note what you had to fix by hand before you'd show it to a customer.

Mini-tasks based on common small-business uses for this tool.

Honest take

No red flags in our notes so far

We have not written a detailed take on this tool yet. The summary above is based on the maker’s own website.

Compare

Personal AI agents compared: UK and EU availability, open source or hosted, bring your own model, approvals and price.

Pricing

Open source (Hermes Agent, MIT); Nous Portal subscription/usage-based (per-token).

Prices as listed by the maker when we last checked (2026-10-28); usually in US dollars. Check the website for current prices.

Latest update

  • 2026-10-27: Hermes Agent subscriptions revamped: cloud agent in every plan, all models, daily/weekly limits instead of one monthly credit block.
  • : Hermes Agent subscriptions revamped (27 Oct): every new plan includes a cloud agent, all plans access every model, and usage now has daily and weekly limits plus a monthly allowance instead of one monthly credit block.
  • : Hermes Agent Advanced Delegation modes plugin (26 Oct): the orchestrator can pick a different model or profile for each subagent from routes you set up (delegation.backend: model_map), e.g. a cheap model for simple subtasks and a stronger one for hard ones.
  • : Hermes Agent got an official Meshy plugin: ask it for a game-ready 3D asset (e.g. a 70m-poly treasure chest for Godot) or to turn a photo of a mug into a printable model, done through Meshy's MCP server; models render and animate in Hermes Desktop, and messaging apps get a preview video.
  • : Hermes Agent got a Cua Spaces plugin: Hermes gets its own Linux, macOS or Windows Space on hardware you own, and teammates can open it, watch live, step in and hand it back while Hermes keeps working.

Is Nous Research worth it? Quick answers

Is Nous Research worth it?

Nous Research is worth a look if it matches a job you already do (Frontier lab / LLM). There is a free tier, so you can test it before paying.

How much does Nous Research cost?

Open source (Hermes Agent, MIT); Nous Portal subscription/usage-based (per-token).

What is Nous Research used for?

Open AI research lab; makers of Hermes models and Hermes Agent. Typical uses: run a capable open-source agent locally or in your cloud; use open-weight models to avoid vendor lock-in; build internal automations on Hermes Agent.