# Hermes Agent vs Instinct (slim)

> Hermes Agent scores 67.9 (B) to Instinct's 11.4 (F) for assistant proactive. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-instinct.md (~2,650 tokens) · this version ~680 tokens · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-instinct.json · canonical https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/hermes-agent-vs-instinct
- Index: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt · API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json · Updated: 2026-10-12

Hermes Agent scores 67.9 (B) on agent readiness against Instinct's 11.4 (F), and leads in every scored category. Both do assistant proactive.

- Hermes Agent: B 67.9, rank #244 of 986 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/hermes-agent.min.md
- Instinct: F 11.4, rank #984 of 986 · https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/instinct.min.md
- Hermes Agent, good for A technical owner who wants one always-on agent across chat apps with memory and scheduled jobs, on their own machine or a small server, with any model. Ahead on Reliability, 57 against 5; Schema & documentation, 80 against 3; Agent ergonomics, 80 against 5; Security & auth, 75 against 25; Payments & pricing, 60 against 0; Maintenance & community, 84 against 3; Transparency & trust, 63 against 51. Also No key needed to call it; Free to start without a card; Open source.
- Instinct, good for A consumer assistant for one adult who wants errands done by text or phone call, such as bill disputes, gifts, groceries, appointments and travel, and who accepts that it acts and spends as their agent. Also No incidents deducted, where Hermes Agent loses 3 points for them.

| Category | Hermes Agent | Instinct |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability (16%) | 57 | 5 |
| Performance (10%) | pending | pending |
| Schema & documentation (13%) | 80 | 3 |
| Agent ergonomics (13%) | 80 | 5 |
| Security & auth (14%) | 75 | 25 |
| Payments & pricing (10%) | 60 | 0 |
| Task success (10%) | pending | pending |
| Maintenance & community (7%) | 84 | 3 |
| Transparency & trust (7%) | 63 | 51 |

| Fact (where they differ) | Hermes Agent | Instinct |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Platform |
| Vendor | Nous Research | Spear Street Technology, Inc. |
| Auth | None | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Free | Paid |
| Licence | MIT | Proprietary service under Instinct's Terms of Service, which grant personal use only |
| llms.txt | yes | no |
| Last release | 2026-10-11 | none |
| Terms last updated | no document linked | 2026-08-26 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no document linked | 2026-08-26 |
| Customer content may train models |  | yes, with an opt-out |
| Terms restrict automated access |  | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking |  | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice |  | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver |  | yes |
| Popularity | 253k stars | none |