Benchmarking the Best

The Hermes Index measures model performance and cost across four test suites. It averages scores across those benchmarks and calculates a mean cost per task for each model.

Performance Rankings

Nous Research tested 14 different models in the first edition of the index. Claude Opus 5.5 led the rankings with a score of 63.31. Its average cost came in at $4.99 per task.

Cost Comparison

In second place sat GPT-6 Astra, which scored 56.25. Its average task cost was $11.61, more than double what the top model charged.

Scaling Enterprise Deployments

Nous Research secured $90 million in new funding to scale enterprise deployments of its Hermes technology. The company now carries a valuation of $1.5 billion.

Background

Nous Research was founded in 2023. Hermes Agent arrived in February 2026, and the Hermes Index now gives the lab a way to publicly grade the industry's biggest models on its own turf.

Future Implications

For enterprises, the cost comparison is practical. A company running thousands of agent tasks a day cares less about a few points of benchmark score and more about the total bill. The gap between $11.61 and $2.82 per task compounds quickly at scale.