Nous Portal pricing (October 2026): Free, Plus, Super, Ultra and an alternative
Nous Portal, Nous Research's subscription for Hermes Agent, costs $0 (Free, free models only), $20 (Plus), $100 (Super) or $200 (Ultra) a month; each paid plan pays out monthly credits worth 1.1x the price, and unused credit rolls over up to a cap. The credits are spent at each model's own rate, so heavy agents use them up fastest; Standard Compute optimizes for cost instead, sending each step to the cheapest model that can do it.
TL;DR
Stay on Nous Portal if the Hermes-native sign-in and bundled tools are worth the price to you. Switch if inference per dollar is the goal.
Nous Portal plans and prices
Credits work like dollars. Every model call spends them at that model's listed per-token price in the Portal catalog, and the hosted tools (web search, browser automation, image generation, text to speech) and Hermes Cloud hosting draw on the same balance. Unused credit carries over up to the plan's rollover cap, and you can top up in steps of $10 to $200 when a month runs short.
There is one more way in: you can connect an eligible ChatGPT plan for supported inference without a paid Nous subscription. Tools and Hermes Cloud hosting are then charged separately.
| Plan | Price | Monthly credits | Rollover cap | Includes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | None | Free models only, standard rate limits |
| Plus | $20 a month | $22 | $10 | 200+ models, hosted tools, high rate limits |
| Super | $100 a month | $110 | $50 | 200+ models, hosted tools, high rate limits |
| Ultra | $200 a month | $220 | $100 | 200+ models, hosted tools, high rate limits |
| Standard Compute | From $19 a month | A $20 compute budget on Starter | None; the budget resets at renewal | Router picks the cheapest capable model per step, frontier models included; no bundled tools |
Nous Portal prices from portal.nousresearch.com, checked October 16, 2026. Standard Compute's budget is spent at provider rates; requests stop when it is used, with no overage.
Sources: Nous Portal plans; Hermes Agent: Nous Portal browser setup
What Nous Portal offers
Nous Portal is sold on convenience: one sign-in for Hermes Agent, a broad model catalog with some Portal-only discounts, and hosted tools that work without separate API keys. The credit bonus is thin, so the price buys the platform more than cheap inference.
- Hermes-native: one sign-in, no per-provider API keys
- A catalog of hundreds of models, including Claude, GPT, Gemini, DeepSeek and Nous's own Hermes series
- Bundled managed tools: web search, image, TTS and browser automation
Why people look for an alternative
- A thin credit multiple: you pay for convenience and breadth, not low-cost inference
- Credits are consumed at provider rates, so heavy agents burn through them fast
- Tools and cloud hosting draw on the same credits as the models
Which one fits your work
| Pick | When |
|---|---|
| Standard Compute | Inference per dollar is your priority: the router sends routine steps to low-cost models and saves frontier models for hard ones |
| Always-on Hermes loops where any credit balance runs dry | |
| You don't need the bundled tools, and want opt-in Europe or US rules and no training on your prompts | |
| Nous Portal | You run Hermes Agent and want its most seamless native subscription |
| The bundled tools (search, image, browser) are worth real money to you | |
| Broad frontier and open model access with pinning matters more than lowest cost |
Switching takes one config change
Standard Compute is OpenAI-compatible, so any tool or SDK that lets you set a custom base URL migrates in minutes:
Base URL = https://api.stdcmpt.com/v1 API key = your Standard Compute key Model = standardcompute
Setup guides for OpenClaw, Hermes, OpenCode, Cursor, Cline, Aider and more are on the integrations page.
FAQ
Is Nous Portal free?
Partly. The Free plan costs $0 but includes no monthly credits and only free models, at standard rate limits. Paid models and the hosted tools need a paid plan (Plus, Super or Ultra) or top-up credit. Hermes Agent itself is free, MIT-licensed software, so you can also run it on any other model API.
How much does Nous Portal cost per month?
Plus is $20 a month, Super $100 and Ultra $200, each with monthly credits worth 1.1 times the price ($22, $110 and $220). Top-ups are available in $10 to $200 steps. Prices checked on portal.nousresearch.com on October 16, 2026.
How do Nous Portal credits work, and do they roll over?
Each paid plan adds its credits every month. Model calls spend them at each model's per-token price, and hosted tools and Hermes Cloud hosting bill to the same balance. Unused credit rolls over up to a cap: $10 on Plus, $50 on Super and $100 on Ultra.
Which Nous Portal plan should I pick?
Pick by how many credits your Hermes Agent actually spends in a month, since every paid plan has the same models, tools and rate limits. Light chat-style use fits Plus; an always-on agent with browser automation and frontier models can spend Super's credits quickly.
Is Nous Portal the cheapest way to run Hermes Agent?
No. Its credits are worth only slightly more than you pay, so you are paying mostly for the Hermes-native convenience and bundled tools. For the lowest prices on open models, OpenCode Go costs less; for always-on use, Standard Compute's routing stretches a fixed monthly budget across efficient models.
Nous Portal or Standard Compute for Hermes?
Nous Portal if you value the one-sign-in Hermes ecosystem and bundled tools and your usage is light. Standard Compute if cost or always-on runtime is the priority: Hermes' background loops are where a thin credit multiple drains fastest, and the router sends each step to the cheapest model that can do it, on providers vetted for price, uptime and speed with automatic fallback.
Sources: Nous Portal plans
