A free, open-source assistant you run yourself and message on WhatsApp or Telegram.
AI Browsers & Agents
Hermes Agent
Free, open-source personal agent from Nous Research that remembers and learns as it works.
3.5our rating
FreeOpen sourceFrom $20/moWorks with Claude Code
Quick take
- A free agent you run yourself and chat to on Telegram, WhatsApp, Slack, email or its desktop app. It remembers you between conversations.
- It writes its own skills after hard tasks and improves them over time, which is its main edge over OpenClaw.
- The software is free. You pay for the AI model, through your own key or a Nous Portal plan from $20 a month.
- A desktop app now makes installing easier, but keeping it running around the clock still needs a server and some terminal work.
What is Hermes Agent?
Hermes Agent is a free, open-source personal agent made by Nous Research, an AI lab known for its open models. You run it on your own computer or a cheap server and talk to it through its desktop app, the terminal, or chat apps like Telegram, WhatsApp, Slack, Discord, Signal and email. It can search and browse the web, run commands, write files, make images and work on a schedule, like a daily report at 7am or a weekly check of your website.
What sets it apart is memory. It keeps notes on you and your projects, searches its own past conversations, and writes itself a new skill (a saved set of instructions) after it works out how to do something hard, then improves that skill each time it's used. It works with almost any AI model, including Claude, GPT and free open models, and Nous Portal plans bundle models, web search and a cloud browser under one bill. It took off in 2026 and now has about 260,000 GitHub stars. Pick it over OpenClaw if you want an agent that learns your way of working. Pick OpenClaw if you want the bigger library of community skills.
The catch: it's still a tinkerer's tool. The desktop app for Mac and Windows makes installing easier, but connecting chat apps, running it on a server so it's always on, and choosing models still take technical confidence. Its memory runs on its own and is hard to inspect. And an agent with access to your email and files can do real damage if it gets things wrong, so give it its own accounts, not your main ones.
Who's using it, and who it's for
- Developers
- Tech-savvy founders
- Tinkerers
- Researchers
Technically confident founders and tinkerers who want a personal agent on their own hardware that gets better the more they use it.
Key features
Memory that grows
Keeps notes on you and your projects, and searches its past conversations so you don't repeat yourself.
Writes its own skills
After working out a hard task, it saves the method as a skill and improves it each time.
Chat where you are
Talk to it in the desktop app, the terminal, Telegram, WhatsApp, Slack, Discord, Signal or email.
Scheduled jobs
Set daily reports, backups and briefings in your own words, and they run unattended.
Any model
Use Claude, GPT, open models or 300+ others through Nous Portal or OpenRouter, and switch with one command.
Runs anywhere
On your Mac or Windows PC, a $5 server, or Nous's cloud hosting that bills to your credits.
How we rate it
3.5 / 5
Our rating
From using the tool ourselves. The average of the five scores.
- Ease of use
- 2.5
- Features
- 4.5
- Output quality
- 3.5
- Value for money
- 4.0
- Speed & reliability
- 3.0
How quickly someone non-technical gets value from it.
How completely it covers its own job, and how well the pieces fit together.
How good the results are before you fix them.
What you get for the price, including the free plan.
How fast it is and how often it falls over.
Hermes Agent pricing
- Our pick
Self-hosted
Free
Anyone happy to bring their own AI model key.
- The full agent, MIT licence
- Desktop app for Mac and Windows, terminal on Linux
- All chat channels and skills
- You pay your AI provider separately
Nous Portal Plus
$20/mo
People who want one bill for models and tools.
- $22 of monthly credits
- 200+ models and hosted tools like web search and a cloud browser
- Up to $10 of unused credit rolls over
Nous Portal Super
$100/mo
Heavy users or an agent hosted around the clock.
- $110 of monthly credits
- Up to $50 rolls over
- Cloud hosting billed to your credits
Nous Portal Ultra
$200/mo
Agents running big jobs all day.
- $220 of monthly credits
- Up to $100 rolls over
Which plan should you pick?
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.
Prices in USD unless noted, checked 3 November 2026. Vendors change plans often, so confirm on their site before you buy.
Best use cases
Ways Hermes Agent can slot into your week.
- 1
Morning briefing on Telegram
Get a message each morning with your meetings, urgent emails and anything it finished overnight.
- 2
Weekly website check
Schedule it to check your site for broken links and slow pages every Monday and send you a short report.
- 3
Research that remembers
Ask it to keep tracking a market or competitor, building on what it found last time.
- 4
Repeat admin it gets better at
Walk it through a job like tidying a folder once, and it saves a skill to do it faster next time.
How it fits your tech stack
Hermes connects your chat apps to the AI model and tools you choose, so it sits across your digital life like OpenClaw does. Run it on a spare computer or small server with its own accounts, and treat it like a new staff member you're still getting to know.
Connects to
- Telegram
- Slack
- Discord
- Signal
- Browser Use
- OpenRouter
Pros and cons
Pros
- Free and open source under the MIT licence
- Built-in memory and self-improving skills
- Desktop app for Mac and Windows makes setup easier than most
- Works with almost any AI model, including free ones
- Optional cloud hosting through Nous Portal if you don't want your own server
Cons
- Being always on still needs a server and technical setup
- Its memory works on its own and is hard to check or correct
- Smaller library of community skills than OpenClaw
- AI costs are unpredictable when it runs all day
- An agent with your email and files can do damage if it gets things wrong
Hermes Agent alternatives
The closest alternatives to Hermes Agent in the library, best rated first.
Best for weekly reports built from several sources
Compare with Hermes AgentBest for pulling numbers out of dashboards and portals with no export
Compare with Hermes AgentBest for summarising pages and YouTube videos
Compare with Hermes Agent
ChatGPT Work
4.0
Best for sorting inbox and calendar admin across connected apps
Compare with Hermes Agent
Why it made the list
It's the main open-source rival to OpenClaw, with built-in memory and self-made skills, and it's now one of the most-starred projects on GitHub.
Hermes Agent FAQ
How much does Hermes Agent cost?
There's a free plan, and paid plans start at $20/mo. Prices checked 3 November 2026 against Hermes Agent's pricing page.
Is Hermes Agent free?
Yes, Hermes Agent has a free option. 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.
What is Hermes Agent best for?
Hermes Agent is best for A personal assistant you message on Telegram or WhatsApp, scheduled reports and briefings that run unattended and repeat jobs it learns to do better each time. Technically confident founders and tinkerers who want a personal agent on their own hardware that gets better the more they use it.
What are the best Hermes Agent alternatives?
The closest alternatives are Claude Cowork, Claude in Chrome, Google Chrome and ChatGPT Work. Claude Cowork is best for weekly reports built from several sources.
More tools in AI Browsers & Agents
Open-source AI agent that uses websites for you, with a pay-as-you-go cloud version.
A general-purpose agent that takes a goal and works through it in its own browser.
An AI agent that works inside your project: it reads, writes and runs the code for you.