Guide
Is Hermes Agent Free?
Short answer: yes. Hermes Agent is open-source software from Nous Research, released under the MIT license. What people usually mean by the question, though, is “what will running it cost me?” That has three separate parts, and only one of them is the software.
NousResearch/hermes-agent and openclaw/openclaw repositories both carry an MIT license. There is no paid edition of either framework.The three costs, separated
| Cost | Hermes Agent | OpenClaw |
|---|---|---|
| Software licence | Free (MIT) | Free (MIT) |
| AI model | Free with a local model; per-token with a paid API | Same |
| Machine to run it | Free on your own computer; a VPS or managed host costs a monthly fee | Same |
Only the first row is fixed at zero. The other two depend on choices you make, and they are where almost all of the real spend comes from.
1. The software: free
Hermes Agent is developed in the open by Nous Research. The MIT license lets you use it for personal or commercial work, fork it, and change it, with the only real condition being that the licence notice stays with the code. There is no paid “pro” edition of Hermes Agent that unlocks features — the open-source release is the product. If you want to know what it does before installing, start with What Is Hermes Agent?
2. The model: free or per token
Hermes Agent is the agent runtime; it calls a language model to plan and to answer. You choose that model, and that choice sets most of your bill:
- Local model. Run an open-weight model on your own hardware, for example through Ollama. No per-message cost, but you need enough RAM or GPU memory, and smaller models are less reliable at multi-step tool use.
- Paid API. Connect a provider or an aggregator such as OpenRouter with your own key. You pay the provider per token, at their published rates. An agent that runs tools and long sessions uses far more tokens than a single chat reply, so price a realistic session, not one message.
Some providers offer free tiers or promotional models from time to time. Treat those as temporary: rate limits and availability change without notice, so keep a fallback configured for anything that runs unattended.
3. The machine: free or monthly
An agent is only useful as a messaging bot or scheduler while it is running. Your options:
- Your own computer. Free, but the agent goes offline when the machine sleeps or shuts down.
- A VPS. A small always-on server, billed monthly by the provider. You handle installs, updates, security and restarts. See Hermes Agent with Docker for the self-hosted route.
- A managed host. Someone else runs the server and keeps it updated. This is what OpenClaw Launch does, and it is optional — it replaces your server work, not a licence.
What about OpenClaw?
OpenClaw is the other popular open-source agent framework, and its pricing story is identical in shape: MIT-licensed software, plus whatever model and machine you pick. The two differ in how they are configured and which channels and tools they ship with, not in whether they cost money. The OpenClaw-specific version of this page is Is OpenClaw Free?
So, which setup is cheapest?
If cost is the only thing that matters, self-host on a machine you already own with a local model: that is genuinely free. If you want the agent reachable around the clock on a strong model, you will pay for two things no matter where it runs — tokens and uptime. Decide which of those you want to manage yourself. OpenClaw Launch pricing is there if you would rather not manage the uptime part; the setup guide is there if you would.
Hermes Agent cost FAQ
Is Hermes Agent free?
Yes. Hermes Agent is published by Nous Research on GitHub (NousResearch/hermes-agent) under the MIT license. You can download it, run it, modify it, and use it commercially without paying a licence fee.
Then what does Hermes Agent actually cost to run?
Two things sit outside the software: the AI model that does the thinking, and a machine that keeps the agent online. A model can be a paid API billed per token, or a local model that costs nothing per message. The machine can be your own computer, a VPS, or a managed host.
Can I run Hermes Agent completely free?
Yes, if you run it on hardware you already own and point it at a local model, for example through Ollama. The trade-off is that local models are usually weaker at long tool-using tasks than frontier APIs, and the agent is only online while your machine is.
Is OpenClaw free too?
Yes. OpenClaw is also open source under the MIT license, and the same split applies: free software, with model and hosting costs on top. See Is OpenClaw Free? for the OpenClaw-specific breakdown.
Do I need OpenClaw Launch to use Hermes Agent?
No. OpenClaw Launch is an optional paid convenience that runs Hermes Agent or OpenClaw for you, with updates, uptime and messaging connections handled. Self-hosting the open-source release is fully supported upstream and costs nothing in licence fees.