Blog · August 24, 2026 · 6 min read
How to Run Hermes Agent for Free (Which Models Work)
You can test Hermes Agent without paying for a model. Sign up for the free Nous Portal tier, pick a free model like OX Alpha, and build something real.
Watch the video: Run Hermes Agent for Free: Best Models Tested (OX ALPHA) Full Setup
You can run Hermes Agent for free by signing up for the free tier of the Nous Portal and picking one of its free models. There is no API key to manage. You open the desktop app settings, connect the portal, choose the free plan, and the free models appear in your model list. OX Alpha is the strongest of them right now, and it built a complete dealership website for me in one pass.
If you would rather see the clicks, watch the full walkthrough. Otherwise, here is the setup.
What you need before you start
Hermes Agent is free and open source. You can run it on your own computer or in the cloud. What normally costs money is the model behind it: the large language model the agent uses to think. Most people connect a paid model through an API key, which means signing up somewhere else, adding a card, and watching usage.
The Nous Portal removes that step. Nous Research, the team behind Hermes, runs its own portal with a free plan and paid plans at $20, $100 and $200 a month. The paid plans give access to every model, similar to how OpenRouter works, and Nous has been partnering with model providers to get discounts. The free plan gives you a set of free models, which is all you need to try the agent.
If you have not chosen an agent platform yet, my agent setup guide explains where Hermes fits next to Claude, Gemini and ChatGPT.
How to turn on free models in the Hermes desktop app
- Open the Hermes desktop app and click Open settings at the top.
- Scroll down to Providers, then Accounts.
- Click the button labeled Nous Portal (recommended). The Nous Research portal opens in your browser.
- Choose the free plan. You will answer a few questions and it will ask for a credit card, even though the plan is free. Complete the sign-up.
- Sign in from the desktop app. At the bottom of the model list you will now see OX Alpha (free) selected.
- To see the other free models, click the models button and scroll. Every free model has "free" next to its name.
That is the whole setup. No API keys, no separate billing dashboard.
Which free models are available on the Nous Portal
At the time of recording, these were the free models:
- OX Alpha, the one everyone has been talking about. It is open source, nobody is quite sure who built it, and it is genuinely good for a free model. This is the one to start with. It may become a paid model later.
- LongCat 2.0 (the medium size)
- Laguna S 2.1 and Laguna XS 2.1
- Hy2
- Solar Pro 4
- Stepfun 3.7 Flash
Paid models such as Kimi and MiniMax sit in the same list, so if you later upgrade, you switch models without changing anything else.
What a free model can actually do: a real test
A free tier only matters if the models can do work. So I tested OX Alpha on its highest setting, Ultra, with this prompt:
"Design us a beautiful landing page for a luxury car dealership with some images of exotic cars. The dealership is called Prestige Motor Cars, and it is located in New York."
Here is what happened.
- The agent started by generating images: six of them, for the hero section, four collections, and a showroom.
- It built the landing page around those images, then said it would verify the page in the browser on desktop and mobile and fix issues before showing me a preview.
- The first preview had a problem. The page rendered, but the generated images were missing and the local server was not running. I took a screenshot, pasted it into the chat, and said: "This is what I see. I don't see images of the car."
- The agent found a few HTML issues and a local server issue, fixed them, and served the finished site.
The result was a working site called Prestige Motors: black and gold design, a fitting font, four concept cars in the background, a New York address, phone numbers, hours of operation, and a request-an-appointment section. It essentially one-shotted the whole thing.
Two things to know. The cars are made up because the model will not use real brand names like Ferrari or Lamborghini for legal reasons. That is fine; the dealership would replace them with photos of its actual inventory. And the fix step is normal. A screenshot plus one sentence was enough for the agent to correct itself.
What this means for your business
A free model changes who can try this. You do not need a budget line to find out whether an agent is useful to you.
- Try before you commit. Set up Hermes with the free plan, give it one real task from your week, and see how it does. If it earns a paid model, you will know why.
- Draft a website or landing page. If you are a dealership, a contractor, or any business without a site, a free model can produce a first version you can hand to whoever finishes it. I have done this for a dealership site in my own work.
- Run cheap, low-stakes jobs on a free model. Not every task needs the best model. Summaries, drafts and research can run free while the important work uses a paid one.
- Learn the tool without the meter running. Most of the friction with agents is learning how to talk to them. That is easier when a mistake costs nothing.
When you are ready to go past experiments, the six use cases show what the same agent does with phone, email and content once it has real tools connected.
Getting started today
Create your account on the Nous Research website with the $0 a month subscription, download the Hermes desktop app, connect the portal from Providers, and pick OX Alpha. You will be chatting with a working agent in a few minutes, at no cost.
If you would like an agent set up for your business and tuned to a specific job, get in touch and tell me what you want it to handle.
FAQ
Is Hermes Agent free to use?
Hermes Agent itself is free and open source. The model behind it usually costs money, but the Nous Portal has a free plan with free models, so you can run the whole system without paying.
Do I need an API key for the free models?
No. Connecting the Nous Portal from the desktop app's Providers settings and choosing the free plan is enough. The free models appear in your model list.
Which free model is best for Hermes Agent?
OX Alpha was the strongest free model at the time of recording and is the one I recommend starting with. It built and fixed a complete landing page in my test.
Why does the free plan ask for a credit card?
The sign-up asks for card details even on the $0 plan. You are not charged for the free tier.
Can I switch to a paid model later?
Yes. The Nous Portal's paid plans at $20, $100 and $200 a month give access to all models, and they show up in the same list, so switching is one click.