Hermes Agent: What It Is and How to Run Your Own (2026 Guide)

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Short answer: Hermes Agent is a free, open-source AI assistant from Nous Research that you run yourself. You chat with it in Telegram, WhatsApp, Discord or your terminal, and it can search the web, run tasks on a schedule and remember you between chats. It also learns: after a hard task, it saves the steps as a skill and gets better at that task over time. The software is free. You pay for the AI model and, if you want it on all day, a server.

Get a server with Hermes installed

Hermes Agent is a popular open-source AI assistant. This guide explains what it is, what it’s good for, what it really costs, and the easiest way to run your own. No coding background needed.

Facts checked against the official Hermes Agent site, GitHub page (version 0.23.0, “The Hearth Release”) and Nous Portal on November 8, 2026. Hermes updates often, so details can change.

What is Hermes Agent?

Hermes Agent is an AI agent. An agent is an AI that can take actions as well as answer questions. Hermes can open websites, run commands, write files and send you messages, all on its own.

Here are the basics:

Made by: Nous Research, an AI research company
Price of the software: free
License: MIT, a license that lets anyone use, change and share it
Runs on: Mac, Windows, Linux, Android, or a server in the cloud
Talks to you through: Telegram, Discord, Slack, WhatsApp, Signal, email, a desktop app or the terminal
Thinks with: almost any AI model, including Claude, GPT, Gemini, Llama and free open models

Nous Research calls it “the agent that grows with you.” That’s because of its learning loop, explained below.

Hermes Agent is not the same as the Hermes AI models. Nous Research also makes a family of AI models called Hermes. Hermes Agent is the assistant program. It can use those models or any other.

How does Hermes Agent work?

Hermes sits in the middle. You send it a message. It asks an AI model what to do, uses its tools to do it, then reports back. Along the way, it saves what it learned.

You message Hermes. Hermes asks an AI model, uses tools, saves what it learned, and replies.

The learning loop is what makes Hermes different:

Memory. Hermes keeps notes about you and your projects, so you don’t repeat yourself.
Skills. After a hard task, Hermes writes down the steps as a “skill.” Next time, it follows its own skill and gets it done faster. It improves the skill each time it uses it.
Search its past. Hermes can search your old conversations to recall what you did before.

What can Hermes Agent do?

Hermes can do most jobs you could do at a computer, if you give it the right tools. Real examples from its features:

Send you a daily briefing. “Every morning at 7, send me the weather, my top 3 tasks and tech news.” Hermes has a built-in scheduler and posts to the app you choose.
Research for you. It searches the web, reads pages and sums up what it found.
Write and fix code. It can run commands, edit files and test its work.
Handle voice notes. Send a voice memo in Telegram and it turns it into text it can act on.
Split up big jobs. It can start helper agents (called subagents) that work on parts of a task at the same time.
Make images and speak. With the right tools, it can create pictures and read answers aloud.

It also follows the agentskills.io standard, so you can add skills other people have shared.

Hermes Agent vs ChatGPT and Claude

Hermes is not a rival to ChatGPT or Claude. It’s a different kind of tool that can use their models as its brain.

	Hermes Agent	ChatGPT or Claude app
What it is	An agent you run yourself	A chat app run by a company
Takes actions on its own	Yes, with your tools	Some, inside the app
Runs on a schedule	Yes, built in	Limited
Lives in Telegram, WhatsApp, Slack	Yes	No
Remembers you	Yes, stored on your machine	Yes, stored by the company
AI model	Any model you pick	Its own models
Cost	Free software plus model costs	Monthly plan

Trying to choose between self-hosted agents? See Hermes Agent vs OpenClaw.

Is Hermes Agent free?

Yes, the software is free. There are two other costs:

The AI model. Hermes needs a model to think with. You can use a free model, pay per use with your own API key (a password that lets Hermes use a paid model), or buy a Nous Portal plan.
A computer to run it on. Your own computer is free, but Hermes stops when it sleeps. To keep Hermes on all day, you need a server.

Nous Portal plans

Nous Portal is the official account from Nous Research. One plan covers models, built-in tools and cloud hosting.

Plan	Price	What you get
Free	$0	Free models only
Plus	$20/mo	Paid and free models (usage limits apply), web search, image and speech tools, and one cloud agent with 4 GB memory
Super	$100/mo	5 times Plus usage, cloud agent with 100 GB disk
Ultra	$200/mo	10 times Plus usage, cloud agent with 8 GB memory

Nous Portal also lets you connect an eligible ChatGPT plan for model use, with tools and hosting charged separately.

The 4 ways to run Hermes Agent

Option	Cost	Stays on 24/7?	Best for
Hermes Desktop app on your Mac or Windows PC	Free, plus model costs	No, stops when your computer sleeps	Trying Hermes
Hermes Cloud through Nous Portal	From $20/mo, model usage included	Yes	One simple bill, no server to manage
Your own VPS with a one-click Hermes template	About $7/mo for 8 GB at Hostinger, plus model costs	Yes	Most control for the money
Your own VPS, installed by hand	From about $6/mo, plus model costs	Yes	People who know Linux

A VPS (virtual private server) is a computer you rent that stays online all day.

Our take: Try the free Desktop app first. If you like Hermes and want it running all the time, pick between Hermes Cloud and a VPS:

Pick Hermes Cloud if you want one bill that includes the AI model, and 4 GB of memory is enough.
Pick a VPS if you want more memory for the money (8 GB), want to run other apps beside Hermes, or already pay for an AI model.

Get a Hostinger server with Hermes installed

DreamHost also offers a one-click Hermes Agent VPS. See Hostinger vs DreamHost to compare.

How to get started in 3 steps

Pick where it runs. Download Hermes Desktop, sign up for Nous Portal, or rent a VPS with the Hermes template. Our step-by-step Hermes install guide shows every click on Hostinger, with screenshots. It takes about 10 minutes.
Pick a model. Sign in to Nous Portal, or paste an API key from a provider like OpenRouter or Anthropic. Hermes walks you through it.
Connect a chat app. Telegram is the easiest. You create a bot, give Hermes its token, and start chatting from your phone.

Which AI model should you use?

Start with a low-cost model and move up only if Hermes struggles. Hard tasks, like coding or long research, go better with stronger models. Simple jobs, like reminders and briefings, run fine on cheap or free ones. You can switch any time with one command, so you’re never locked in.

How much computer does Hermes Agent need?

Hermes doesn’t need a powerful computer when the AI model runs in the cloud. Nous Research says it runs on a $5 VPS. We recommend 4 GB of memory as a minimum and 8 GB for room to grow. You only need a graphics card (GPU) if you want to run AI models on your own machine.

Is Hermes Agent safe?

Hermes is as safe as you set it up to be. It can run commands and hold your API keys, so the two big risks are strangers messaging your bot and the agent running a harmful command. Five steps cover most of it:

Allow only yourself. Set your bot to answer only your account. Hermes supports an allow list and one-time pairing codes.
Use a sandbox. Run its commands inside Docker (a sealed-off box) instead of directly on the server.
Approve risky commands. Hermes can ask before running anything dangerous.
Keep keys secret. Store API keys only in Hermes’ secrets file, never in shared settings.
Update often. Hermes ships new versions frequently. Updating is one command.

Running Hermes on a VPS keeps it off the computer where your personal files live, which is safer too.

FAQ

Who makes Hermes Agent? Nous Research. It’s open source, and the code is on GitHub.

Is there a Hermes Agent desktop app? Yes. Hermes Desktop is available for macOS 12 and newer and for Windows 10 and 11. Linux users install it from the terminal.

Does Hermes Agent work on Windows? Yes. It runs natively on Windows, through WSL2, or with the desktop app.

Can Hermes Agent run 24/7? Yes, on a VPS or with Hermes Cloud. On a laptop, it stops when the laptop sleeps.

Is Hermes Agent better than OpenClaw? It depends on what you want. Hermes learns and builds its own skills. OpenClaw has a bigger library of ready-made skills. Read Hermes Agent vs OpenClaw.

Do I need to know how to code? No. The desktop app, Hermes Cloud and one-click VPS templates all skip the command line.

Sources

Hermes Agent official site, Nous Research, checked Nov 8, 2026
NousResearch/hermes-agent on GitHub, version 0.23.0, checked Nov 8, 2026
Nous Portal plans, Nous Research, checked Nov 8, 2026
Hermes Agent documentation, Nous Research