Side-by-side comparison · AI Browsers & Agents
Claude in Chrome vs Hermes Agent vs Microsoft Edge
Everything that matters when choosing between them, in one place: our rating, what each can do, what they cost, and the trade-offs.
Comparing 3 tools, the maximum.
At a glance
Pick it if: Claude subscribers who spend their day in web apps and want the repetitive clicking done for them.
Pick it if: Technically confident founders and tinkerers who want a personal agent on their own hardware that gets better the more they use it.
Pick it if: Windows and Microsoft 365 users who want AI help with reading, comparing and researching in the browser they already have.
Overview
| Attribute | Claude in Chrome | Hermes Agent | Microsoft Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| In one line | Anthropic's Chrome extension that lets Claude click, type and fill in forms for you. | Free, open-source personal agent from Nous Research that remembers and learns as it works. | Microsoft's free browser with Copilot built in to read pages, compare tabs and do tasks. |
| Pricing model | Paid | Free | Freemium |
| Starting price | $20/mo | $20/mo | $19.99/mo |
| Free plan | No | Yes | Yes |
| Works with Claude Code | Yes | Yes | No |
Rating breakdown
Our scores out of 5. The higher bar in each row is highlighted.
| Attribute | Claude in Chrome | Hermes Agent | Microsoft Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall rating | 4.1Winner | 3.5 | 3.9 |
| Ease of useHow quickly someone non-technical gets value from it. | 4.5 | 2.5 | 4.5 |
| FeaturesHow completely it covers its own job, and how well the pieces fit together. | 4.0 | 4.5 | 3.5 |
| Output qualityHow good the results are before you fix them. | 4.5 | 3.5 | 3.5 |
| Value for moneyWhat you get for the price, including the free plan. | 4.0 | 4.0 | 4.0 |
| Speed & reliabilityHow fast it is and how often it falls over. | 3.5 | 3.0 | 4.0 |
Feature comparison
A tick means it does this today. A dash means we haven't checked.
| Attribute | Claude in Chrome | Hermes Agent | Microsoft Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access & platform | |||
| Free plan | No | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile app | No | No | Yes |
| Desktop app | No | Yes | Yes |
| Browser extension | Yes | No | Yes |
| API access | No | No | No |
| Teams & business | |||
| Team workspace | Yes | No | Yes |
| Enterprise plan or SSO | Yes | – | Yes |
| Connects to other apps | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Open source or self-hosted | No | Yes | No |
| AI abilities | |||
| Works with your files | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Understands images | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Makes images | No | Yes | Yes |
| Makes video | No | No | No |
| Writes code | Yes | Yes | No |
| Runs agents or automations | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Learns your brand or style | Yes | Yes | No |
| Works in many languages | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Capabilities score | 10/ 17 | 11/ 17 | 12/ 17 |
Pricing
Plans as listed on each vendor's site when we last checked. Confirm before you buy.
| Attribute | Claude in Chrome | Hermes Agent | Microsoft Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plans | ProOur pick $20/mo, or $17/mo billed yearly Anyone trying browser tasks for the first time. | Self-hostedOur pick Free Anyone happy to bring their own AI model key. | FreeOur pick Free Most people: summaries, tab comparisons and Journeys. |
Max $100/mo People running browser tasks most days. | Nous Portal Plus $20/mo People who want one bill for models and tools. | Microsoft 365 Premium $19.99/mo, or $199.99/yr US households and sole traders who want the agent and Office apps in one bill. | |
Ultra $200/mo All-day agent users. | Nous Portal Super $100/mo Heavy users or an agent hosted around the clock. | Microsoft 365 Copilot (business) See website Companies on Microsoft 365 business plans. | |
Team From $20/seat/mo billed yearly, or $25 monthly Teams of 2 to 150 who want admin control. | Nous Portal Ultra $200/mo Agents running big jobs all day. | ||
Enterprise From $20/seat/mo yearly plus usage, 20-seat minimum Larger companies with security rules. | |||
| Which plan to pick | Pro is enough to see what it can do for you. Browser tasks use your limits faster than chat, so if you hand it real work every day you'll likely need Max. Teams should use the Team plan so an admin can control which sites Claude can use. | Hermes itself costs nothing. If you already pay for an AI model's API, plug that in. If you'd rather not collect separate keys for models, search and browsing, Nous Portal Plus at $20 a month covers light use. There's also a free Portal tier limited to free models. | Stay on free. The side panel, tab comparisons and Journeys cover what most business owners need, and they cost nothing. Microsoft 365 Premium is only worth it if you're in the US and already want Office for the household; don't buy it just for the browser agent, which Microsoft still calls experimental. |
Key features
| Attribute | Claude in Chrome | Hermes Agent | Microsoft Edge |
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Pros and cons
| Attribute | Claude in Chrome | Hermes Agent | Microsoft Edge |
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Who each one is for
| Attribute | Claude in Chrome | Hermes Agent | Microsoft Edge |
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Questions people ask
Which is better, Claude in Chrome, Hermes Agent or Microsoft Edge?
Claude in Chrome scores highest overall in our ratings (Claude in Chrome 4.1/5, Hermes Agent 3.5/5 and Microsoft Edge 3.9/5). Claude in Chrome is best for pulling numbers out of dashboards and portals with no export and Tidying Google Drive, Gmail and other web apps. Hermes Agent is best for A personal assistant you message on Telegram or WhatsApp and scheduled reports and briefings that run unattended. Microsoft Edge is best for summarising long pages and PDFs and comparing products or quotes across open tabs.
Which is cheaper, Claude in Chrome, Hermes Agent or Microsoft Edge?
Claude in Chrome: There's no free plan. Paid plans start at $20/mo. Hermes Agent: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $20/mo. Microsoft Edge: There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $19.99/mo.
How we compare
Ratings are our own, from using each tool, across ease of use, features, output quality, value for money, speed & reliability.
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