Nous Portal Subscription: Plans, Credits, and Hermes Agent Setup

Quick decision

• Free ($0/mo) is an eval-only tier: free models only, no hosted tool usage, no monthly credits. Use it to try the Portal, not for real Hermes work.
• Plus ($20/mo) is the individual-developer default — mixed-model chat, occasional tool use, $10 rollover cap. Usually the right starting point unless you already know you have a high-volume workload.
• Super ($100/mo) offers 5× the Plus credits and a $50 rollover cap — likely the better fit if you regularly run several agents or long jobs in parallel, or want headroom for image generation and voice mode.
• Ultra ($200/mo) only if your observed Super usage is consistently burning through the credits. Same catalog, same gateway, larger buffer.
• One login replaces a key stack. The Portal is OAuth-based: no OpenAI key, Anthropic key, Firecrawl account, or FAL account required for the core path.

Last verified: July 31, 2026 against Nous Portal pricing, Hermes Agent Nous Portal integration, and Run Hermes with Nous Portal. Pricing, credit bonuses, and the model catalog drift — re-check the live pages before paying or debugging.

Already subscribed? Jump to Five-step Hermes quick setup.

Nous Portal is the easiest way to run Hermes Agent: one OAuth login, one subscription, and the same Portal routes your chat completions, web search, image generation, text-to-speech, and cloud browser through one bill. No per-vendor API keys to juggle.

The useful framing is precise. You are buying monthly Portal credits plus access to the Tool Gateway, not a per-model API balance. Every paid tier — Plus, Super, Ultra — gives you the same model catalog and the same Tool Gateway. The price changes how many credits you start with and the rate-limit tier, not which models or tools you can reach. If you run out of credits, Portal also supports custom credit top-ups, so you are not locked to the four base tiers. Nous Portal pricing, verified July 31, 2026

Contents

1. The plans at a glance
2. What the credits and rollover caps really mean
3. Models, modalities, and exclusions
4. The Tool Gateway: what your credits actually buy
5. Which tier should you buy?
6. Limits to understand before subscribing
7. Five-step Hermes quick setup
8. Before you set up Hermes Agent
9. Detailed setup and configuration
10. Check usage and remaining credits
11. Troubleshooting
12. Security and cost controls
13. Keep this setup current

The plans at a glance

The Portal publishes four public tiers. The credit figures are monthly allowances, not stockpile balances: they reset at the start of each billing cycle, and any unused credits are capped at the rollover amount shown for that tier. The pricing page was checked on July 31, 2026; treat the live page as authoritative because prices and bonuses can change. Nous Portal pricing, verified July 31, 2026

Every paid tier advertises the same model catalog and the same Tool Gateway. What you are paying for, beyond the credits, is the rate-limit tier (standard vs. high), the monthly credit volume, and the rollover cap for unused credits. Nous Portal pricing, verified July 31, 2026

Comparison estimate — not a spendable token bank. The $22 / $110 / $220 figures are your monthly starting credits after the 10% bonus, not a balance you draw down independently of usage. Each model and tool call debits your Portal balance per the partner’s published rate. The Portal’s own usage page is the source of truth, not these headline numbers.

The Hermes docs describe the broader catalog as 300+ frontier agentic models routed through the Portal — Claude, GPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, Qwen, Kimi, GLM, MiniMax, Grok, and others — with per-model backend routing that may change over time. Everything bills against your subscription regardless of which backend serves the request. Hermes Agent Nous Portal integration, verified July 31, 2026

What the credits and rollover caps really mean

The headline numbers — $22, $110, $220 — are what you start each month with after the 10% bonus, not a hard cap on usage. Three controls govern how those credits behave:

1. Credit deduction per request. Each tool call and model call debits your Portal balance according to the partner’s published rate. A short text chat costs cents; a long-context agent loop, an image generation, or a cloud-browser session can cost materially more. The credit balance is the source of truth, not the “monthly equivalent” alone. Nous Portal pricing, verified July 31, 2026
2. Rollover cap. Unused credits carry forward month to month, but only up to the cap listed for your tier — $10 for Plus, $50 for Super, $100 for Ultra. Anything beyond the cap is forfeited when the new billing cycle starts. Treat this as a buffer for a slow month, not a savings account.
3. Rate limits. Free uses standard rate limits; every paid tier advertises “high rate limits.” The live Portal is the source of truth for RPM/TPM ceilings, which may shift with cluster load. Nous Portal pricing, verified July 31, 2026

The Free tier is the only tier with no monthly credits and no hosted tool usage. It exists to evaluate the Portal and try a handful of free models; the Hermes docs and the Portal UI both describe it as such. If you intend to use Hermes Agent for real work, plan to subscribe. Hermes Agent installation page, verified July 31, 2026

Models, modalities, and exclusions

Every paid tier advertises the same model catalog — 200+ models on the Portal pricing page and 300+ frontier agentic models in the Hermes integration docs. The catalog spans every major lab (examples available as of August 2026; the live Portal model selector is the authoritative list):

Hermes Agent Nous Portal integration, verified July 31, 2026

One important caveat about Hermes 4. Hermes-4-70B and Hermes-4-405B are available on the Portal at deep discounts and they are excellent chat/reasoning models — strong at math, science, instruction following, schema adherence, roleplay, and long-form writing. They are not recommended for use inside Hermes Agent, because they are tuned for chat and reasoning rather than the rapid-fire tool-calling loop the agent relies on. The Portal’s own info page carries the same warning. Use them for research workflows, or reach the Portal through the subscription proxy from other tooling. For agent work inside Hermes, pick a frontier agentic model instead:

/model anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.6     # best general-purpose agentic model
/model openai/gpt-5.5-pro              # strong reasoning + tool calling
/model google/gemini-3-pro-preview     # huge context window
/model deepseek/deepseek-v4-pro        # cost-effective coder

Hermes Agent Nous Portal integration, verified July 31, 2026

The Tool Gateway: what your credits actually buy

The same subscription unlocks the Tool Gateway — four hosted backends that would otherwise each require their own signup, dashboard, and billing. A fifth option, a Modal serverless terminal sandbox, is available as an optional add-on you turn on separately:

Tool	Partner	What it does
Web search & extract	Firecrawl	Agent-grade search and full-page extraction. No Firecrawl key, no rate-limit babysitting.
Image generation	FAL	Nine models under one endpoint: FLUX 2 Klein 9B, FLUX 2 Pro, Z-Image Turbo, Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image), GPT Image 1.5, GPT Image 2, Ideogram V3, Recraft V4 Pro, Qwen Image.
Text-to-speech	OpenAI TTS	High-quality TTS without a separate OpenAI key. Enables voice mode across messaging platforms.
Cloud browser automation	Browser Use	Headless Chromium sessions for browser_navigate, browser_click, browser_type, browser_vision. No Browserbase account needed.
Cloud terminal sandbox (optional add-on)	Modal	Serverless terminal sandbox for code execution. Not part of the default bundle — enable via hermes setup terminal when you want a remote shell.

Hermes Agent Nous Portal integration, verified July 31, 2026

The Free tier does not include hosted tool usage. If you want the gateway, you must be on a paid plan. Nous Portal pricing, verified July 31, 2026

Which tier should you buy?

A safe buying rule for any subscription whose effective per-request cost depends on your workload: start with Plus unless you already know you have a high-volume workload. Then monitor your actual usage on the Portal dashboard and either top up or upgrade based on real consumption — don’t guess a higher tier up front.

Free: eval only

Pick this if you are only evaluating the Portal or want to try a handful of free models. You will not be able to run meaningful Hermes Agent workflows without hosted tool usage, and you have no monthly credits. This is a try-before-you-buy tier.

Plus: the individual-developer default

Pick this if you are running one Hermes Agent session at a time, mostly chat and occasional tool use. The $10 rollover cap absorbs slow weeks. Most individual developers land here.

Super: the power-user default

Pick this if you are running multiple agents in parallel, doing serious image generation, running cron jobs against the Portal, or want headroom for voice mode. The $50 rollover cap and 5× the Plus credits make it the power-user default.

Ultra: only if Super isn’t enough

Pick this only if your actual observed usage on Super is consistently burning through the credits. The $100 rollover cap is the largest buffer; everything else is the same model catalog and the same gateway.

You can upgrade or downgrade from portal.nousresearch.com/manage-subscription at any time. Treat the live page as authoritative for current bonus amounts, since vendors adjust bonuses without notice. Nous Portal pricing, verified July 31, 2026

Limits to understand before subscribing

The Portal follows standard paid-subscription patterns. The recurring items below are the ones readers most often miss.

• Recurring charges. Paid tiers are monthly subscriptions that auto-renew through the payment method on file at portal.nousresearch.com/manage-subscription. Cancellation stops the next renewal but does not retroactively refund the current month.
• Rollover cap forfeits excess. Anything above the per-tier cap ($10/$50/$100) does not carry into the next billing cycle.
• Top-ups are available. If you run low, Portal supports custom credit top-ups (preset $10 / $20 / $50 options appear on the dashboard) on top of your monthly allowance. Check the Portal dashboard for current top-up amounts and terms — they can change.
• Free tier has no gateway. Free plan subscribers can log in and use the free models, but get no hosted tool usage and no monthly credits. If you want web search or image generation through Hermes, you need a paid tier.

Check portal.nousresearch.com/manage-subscription on the day you pay. Treat checkout as authoritative. Nous Portal pricing, verified July 31, 2026

Five-step Hermes quick setup

Already subscribed to Plus, Super, or Ultra? This is the fast path. About five minutes if you already have Hermes installed and a Portal login ready. The full walkthrough lives in Detailed setup and configuration.

Bash  Five steps. About 5 minutes with your Portal login ready.

1. Install Hermes if needed.

   curl -fsSL https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.sh | bash
   source ~/.bashrc   # or source ~/.zshrc
   hermes doctor

2. Run the one-shot Portal setup.

   hermes setup --portal

   Opens your browser for OAuth, stores the refresh token, and (if you pick a model) sets model.provider: nous and turns on the Tool Gateway.
3. Verify the key file (macOS/Linux).

   stat -c '%a %n' ~/.hermes/auth.json   # expect 600 ~/.hermes/auth.json
   # macOS portable form: ls -l ~/.hermes/auth.json  →  -rw------- at the line start

4. Smoke-test the connection.

   hermes portal info

   Expect Auth: ✓ logged in, Model: ✓ using Nous as inference provider, and every gateway tool showing via Nous Portal.
5. Exercise a model + tool call.

   hermes chat

   Then ask: search the web for “Hermes Agent release notes” and summarize the top 3 hits. A web_search tool call and a coherent summary prove the full path works.

Before you set up Hermes Agent

Three things make setup smoothest, but only the first is strictly required to run the command:

1. A Nous Portal account. Create one at portal.nousresearch.com/manage-subscription. A Free account can authenticate and use the free models — you do not need a paid plan just to run hermes setup --portal. Upgrade to a paid plan when you want monthly credits, paid models, and hosted Tool Gateway access.
2. Hermes Agent installed. The installer covers Linux, macOS, WSL2, Android (Termux), and Windows (PowerShell). Hermes Agent installation, verified July 31, 2026
3. A browser on the setup machine (or SSH port forwarding — see OAuth over SSH). OAuth needs a browser to complete; the loopback callback runs where Hermes runs.

Three credential families to keep straight. This guide uses Nous Portal exclusively — you do not need an OpenAI key, an Anthropic key, a Firecrawl account, a FAL account, a Browser Use account, or any other per-vendor credential. The Portal’s OAuth login mints short-lived JWTs automatically; the refresh token lives at ~/.hermes/auth.json and is the only long-lived credential on disk. Hermes Agent Nous Portal integration, verified July 31, 2026

If you also have an OpenAI pay-as-you-go key, an Anthropic API key, or an OpenRouter key, leave them in ~/.hermes/.env — they will not conflict, and you can still /model to them mid-session. They are simply not required for the Portal path.

Detailed setup and configuration

Install Hermes Agent

If you do not already have Hermes Agent installed, run the one-liner for your platform.

Linux / macOS / WSL2 / Android (Termux):

curl -fsSL https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.sh | bash

Windows (native, PowerShell):

iex (irm https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/install.ps1)

Desktop installer (macOS/Windows, recommended when available): download from hermes-agent.nousresearch.com and run it. Hermes Agent installation, verified July 31, 2026

The installer handles Python, Node.js, ripgrep, and ffmpeg automatically. You only need git (and curl + xz-utils on Linux) to be present.

After install, reload your shell and verify:

source ~/.bashrc   # or: source ~/.zshrc
hermes --version
hermes doctor

If hermes: command not found, reload the shell or check that ~/.local/bin is on your PATH. If hermes doctor reports a missing module, the installer source is being invoked instead of the venv launcher — re-run the install. Hermes Agent installation, verified July 31, 2026

Configure Nous Portal in Hermes Agent

There is exactly one command. On a fresh install or on an existing install that wants to switch to Nous, run:

hermes setup --portal

This single command does five things in sequence:

1. Opens your browser to portal.nousresearch.com for OAuth login.
2. Stores the refresh token at ~/.hermes/auth.json.
3. Lets you pick a Nous model from the curated list (or skip to keep your current default).
4. Sets model.provider: nous in ~/.hermes/config.yaml (when you pick a model).
5. Turns on the Tool Gateway for web search, image generation, TTS, and browser automation.

Hermes Agent Nous Portal integration, verified July 31, 2026

If you are on an existing install and want to add the Portal alongside your existing providers (OpenRouter, Anthropic, etc.) without replacing them, run hermes model and pick “Nous Portal” from the list — your existing providers stay configured and /model can switch between them mid-session. Hermes Agent AI providers, verified July 31, 2026

Headless / SSH / remote hosts

OAuth needs a browser, but the loopback callback runs on the machine where Hermes is running. If you are SSH’d into a server or running in a Codespace / Cloud Shell, two options:

# Option A: SSH port forwarding (preferred for interactive shells)
ssh -N -L 8642:127.0.0.1:8642 user@remote-host    # in a local terminal
hermes setup --portal                              # on the remote, then open the printed URL in your local browser

# Option B: device-code login (works from Cloud Shell, Codespaces, EC2 Instance Connect)
hermes auth add nous --type oauth
# Then re-run `hermes setup --portal` to wire the provider + gateway

See the OAuth over SSH guide for full patterns including ProxyJump chains, mosh/tmux, and ControlMaster gotchas. Hermes Agent — Run Hermes with Nous Portal, verified July 31, 2026

Command map

Command	Job	Observable success state
hermes --version	Confirm Hermes is installed and on PATH	Prints Hermes Agent vX.Y.Z and install directory
hermes doctor	Health-check the install	Exits clean, no ModuleNotFoundError or missing-deps warnings
hermes setup --portal	OAuth login, set Nous as provider, turn on Tool Gateway	Browser opens, terminal returns to prompt after callback; ~/.hermes/auth.json exists
hermes model	Interactive provider/model picker (existing install)	Lists “Nous Portal” alongside any other configured providers
hermes portal info	Inspect login + provider + gateway routing	Prints Auth: ✓ logged in, Model: ✓ using Nous as inference provider, every gateway tool showing via Nous Portal
hermes portal tools	Detailed Tool Gateway catalog with per-tool routing	One row per gateway tool, each routed to its partner or Nous Portal
hermes chat	Start a chat session	Reaches the chat prompt; first user message gets a model response
hermes config set model.provider nous	Force Nous as the provider if hermes setup --portal skipped the model picker	hermes config get model.provider returns nous
hermes portal open	Open the subscription management page in your browser	Default browser opens portal.nousresearch.com/manage-subscription

Hermes Agent Nous Portal integration, verified July 31, 2026; Hermes Agent installation, verified July 31, 2026

Smoke-test the connection

The single command to confirm end-to-end that you are routed through the Portal is hermes portal info. A working install shows:

  Nous Portal
  ───────────
  Auth:    ✓ logged in
  Portal:  https://portal.nousresearch.com
  Model:   ✓ using Nous as inference provider

  Tool Gateway
  ────────────
  Web search & extract  via Nous Portal
  Image generation      via Nous Portal
  Text-to-speech        via Nous Portal
  Browser automation    via Nous Portal

Hermes Agent — Run Hermes with Nous Portal, verified July 31, 2026

To exercise the model and the gateway in one prompt, start a chat and ask for something that needs web search:

hermes chat

Hey, search the web for "Hermes Agent release notes" and summarize the top 3 hits.

If you see a web_search tool call (Firecrawl-backed, through the gateway) and a coherent summary, every part of the wiring works. Hermes Agent — Run Hermes with Nous Portal, verified July 31, 2026

Verified commands, unverified live auth. The command syntax for hermes setup --portal, hermes portal info, hermes chat, and the smoke-test prompt was checked against the Hermes Agent documentation and a local install (v0.19.0, July 31, 2026). Because OAuth authentication is tied to an individual Portal account, confirm your own provider and credit status with hermes portal info after setup.

Check usage and remaining credits

There is no in-CLI usage counter yet. To see your credit balance and consumption, open the Portal’s billing page in your browser:

hermes portal open       # opens portal.nousresearch.com/manage-subscription

From the same page you can also upgrade, downgrade, cancel, and inspect per-tool usage breakdown. The pricing page lists the current monthly credits and rollover cap for your tier. Nous Portal pricing, verified July 31, 2026

Troubleshooting

The Portal has fewer failure modes than multi-vendor setups because there are no API keys to mistype. The remaining ones are listed in the order you are most likely to hit them.

hermes portal info shows “not logged in” after hermes setup --portal

The OAuth flow did not complete. Re-run the one-shot:

hermes portal

If your browser does not open or the callback fails, you are likely on a remote/headless host. See OAuth over SSH for the port-forwarding workarounds. Hermes Agent — Run Hermes with Nous Portal, verified July 31, 2026

Model: currently openrouter (or another provider) instead of “using Nous as inference provider”

Your local config drifted. The OAuth worked but model.provider still points elsewhere. Fix it directly:

hermes config set model.provider nous

Or interactively:

hermes model
# pick "Nous Portal"

Re-verify with hermes portal info. Hermes Agent — Run Hermes with Nous Portal, verified July 31, 2026

Tool Gateway tools showing partner names instead of “via Nous Portal”

The gateway opt-in did not take. Re-run with the gateway prompt, or flip individual tools:

hermes tools
# → Web search       → "Nous Subscription"     (recommended)
# → Image generation → "Nous Subscription"     (recommended)
# → Browser          → "Browserbase"           (your existing key, if any)
# → TTS              → "Nous Subscription"     (recommended)

Verify the new mix with hermes portal tools. Hermes Agent — Run Hermes with Nous Portal, verified July 31, 2026

”Re-authentication required” mid-session

The refresh token expired or was revoked. Hermes mints short-lived JWTs from the refresh token at ~/.hermes/auth.json. Re-authenticate inline:

hermes auth add nous --type oauth

If the refresh keeps failing with invalid_grant or HTTP 4xx, Hermes quarantines the dead refresh token and asks for a fresh login the next time. Hermes Agent Nous Portal integration, verified July 31, 2026

Model I want isn’t in the /model picker

The Portal exposes a curated catalog — the picker shows what the Portal currently routes. To use a provider-specific model not exposed by the Portal, configure that provider directly with its own API key (e.g. OPENAI_API_KEY in ~/.hermes/.env for direct OpenAI). /model then shows it alongside Portal. Hermes Agent Nous Portal integration, verified July 31, 2026

Billing not appearing on my Portal account

Subscriptions can take a few minutes to propagate after first payment. If usage is being routed through the gateway (hermes portal tools shows via Nous Portal) but no charges appear, work the diagnosis in order:

1. Run hermes portal info and confirm Portal is the active provider (Model: ✓ using Nous as inference provider).
2. Confirm the model you used is actually routed through Portal (some models are served by other backends).
3. Open the Portal usage or billing dashboard and check the per-tool breakdown.
4. If the dashboard still doesn’t match your activity, contact Nous through their help page.

Hermes Agent — Run Hermes with Nous Portal, verified July 31, 2026

One caveat on the commands above. The setup and verification commands are documented and syntax-checked, but the live OAuth handshake is yours to run — sign in with your own Portal account and confirm routing with hermes portal info. If something fails, hermes doctor and hermes portal info are the first two things to check before blaming the Portal.

Security and cost controls

The Portal changes the security model from “long-lived API keys in dotfiles” to “one short-lived JWT minted per request from a single OAuth refresh token.” That is materially better, but it is still a paid subscription. Treat the refresh token accordingly.

• Keep ~/.hermes/auth.json owner-readable. chmod 600 ~/.hermes/auth.json. The Portal OAuth writes it for you but the file mode is your responsibility. (macOS portable check: ls -l ~/.hermes/auth.json → the line should start with -rw-------.)
• Never commit ~/.hermes/. Add it to global gitignore. If you have a public dotfiles repo, move the auth file out (HERMES_HOME=/some/private/path).
• Do not paste your Portal refresh token into shell history. Re-run hermes setup --portal if you need a new one.
• Revoke and start clean when needed. Run hermes auth logout nous to wipe the local refresh token (this is a local cleanup — it removes the stored credentials from this machine, it does not contact the server to revoke). To fully revoke server-side, also remove the subscription/session from the Portal web UI. Then re-run hermes setup --portal to sign in fresh. Hermes Agent — Run Hermes with Nous Portal, verified July 31, 2026
• Distinguish three credential families. (a) Portal refresh token — used by the OAuth path described in this guide. (b) Pay-as-you-go API keys for other providers (OPENAI_API_KEY, ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, etc.) — independent of the Portal. (c) Provider-specific OAuth tokens (Claude Max, ChatGPT Codex, Qwen OAuth, etc.) — independent. Never confuse them when reading your bill.
• Set a usage eyeball. The Portal’s billing page is the source of truth for your credit burn. If you are running cron jobs or unattended sessions against the Portal, open the page weekly until you have a stable baseline. Hermes Agent — Run Hermes with Nous Portal, verified July 31, 2026

Keep this setup current

Vendor pricing and Hermes provider details drift. Re-check the live pages below before buying, debugging, or upgrading:

• Nous Portal pricing: https://portal.nousresearch.com/manage-subscription
• Nous Portal home: https://portal.nousresearch.com/
• Hermes Agent Nous Portal integration: https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/integrations/nous-portal
• Hermes Agent AI providers: https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/integrations/providers
• Hermes Agent — Run Hermes with Nous Portal: https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/guides/run-hermes-with-nous-portal
• Hermes Agent installation: https://hermes-agent.nousresearch.com/docs/getting-started/installation

The local install was probed with hermes --version on July 31, 2026 (v0.19.0). If you are on a much older release, run hermes update before debugging against the commands in this guide.