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Grok Code Fast 1 vs Hermes Agent

Bottom line

Grok Code Fast 1 has a free plan plus paid upgrades, while Hermes Agent is free. Hermes Agent is open source and Grok Code Fast 1 is not. You can run Hermes Agent on your own machine or server; Grok Code Fast 1 is hosted by the vendor.

Which one should you try?

Grok Code Fast 1

Freemium

Best for <cite index="1-4">Agentic coding workflows requiring fast loops of reasoning and tool calls</cite>

Visit Grok Code Fast 1 See full review

Hermes Agent

Free

Best for People who want an assistant that remembers context across sessions

Visit Hermes Agent See full review

Pricing, capabilities and platforms side by side. Prices are as of the "Pricing checked" date in the table.

Grok Code Fast 1

Grok Code Fast 1

<cite index="2-1">Released in late August 2025, the xAI Grok Code Fast 1 model is a coding-focused AI model that excels at common, high-volume coding task and is designed especially for agentic coding workflows.</cite> <cite index="1-6,1-7,1-8">Built from scratch with a brand-new model architecture, it was trained on a pre-training corpus rich with programming-related content, and curated high-quality datasets that reflect real-world pull requests and coding tasks.</cite> <cite index="1-23">The model is particularly adept at TypeScript, Python, Java, Rust, C++, and Go.</cite> <cite index="1-13">The model is generally available via the xAI API, priced at $0.20 / 1M input tokens, $1.50 / 1M output tokens, and $0.02 / 1M cached input tokens.</cite>

Hermes Agent

Hermes Agent

Hermes Agent from Nous Research keeps memory across sessions, saves reusable skills and can be reached through messaging apps. We ran it on three tasks with a local 3B model and with Claude Opus 5.5.

AttributeGrok Code Fast 1Hermes Agent
PricingFreemiumFree
Price$30/monthFree (MIT, self-hosted)
Pricing checkedJun 11, 2026Jul 1, 2026
Free trial0 daysNot stated
Open sourceNoYes
Has APIYesYes
Self-hosted optionNoYes
Platforms<cite index="30-1">Available through xAI API and integrated with launch partners including GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Cline, Roo Code, Kilo Code, opencode, and Windsurf</cite>macOS, Linux, Windows (native or WSL2), Android (Termux); runs commands locally or in Docker, SSH, Singularity, Modal, Daytona, Vercel Sandbox
Languages<cite index="1-23">TypeScript, Python, Java, Rust, C++, and Go</cite>—
Released2025-08-282026-02
Pros
  • <cite index="2-25,2-26">Massive throughput of approximately 90-100 tokens per second, delivering dozens of tool calls and edits before you finish reading its initial plan in IDE integrations</cite>
  • <cite index="1-13">Economical pricing at $0.20/1M input tokens and $1.50/1M output tokens</cite>
  • <cite index="2-27,2-28,2-29">Visible reasoning traces that provide real-time, summarized view of its reasoning process, helping developers catch logic errors early</cite>
  • <cite index="1-22">Prompt caching optimizations regularly achieving cache hit rates above 90% when used with launch partners</cite>
  • Memory and saved skills carry over between sessions.
  • Reach it from a CLI or messaging apps such as Telegram and Discord.
  • You choose where commands run, including Docker, SSH and hosted sandboxes.
  • Passed all 9 of our tasks with Claude Opus 5.5 and contacted only Anthropic's API while doing it.
Cons
  • <cite index="6-31,6-34">Potential gaps in training on specific frameworks; poor performance on Tailwind CSS v3 tasks, suggesting possible smaller model size limitations</cite>
  • <cite index="6-36">Its reasoning model nature makes it unsuitable for interactive workflows requiring fast responses despite fast token throughput</cite>
  • Passed 0 of 9 tasks with a 3B local model; it needs a large model and a 64K context.
  • Heavy on tokens: an ~11,500-token prompt on every call and about 47,100 tokens per task, six times Goose's.
  • It installs its Anthropic support from PyPI on first use, so offline setups fail until you pre-install it.

Made up your mind?

Grok Code Fast 1

Freemium

Best for <cite index="1-4">Agentic coding workflows requiring fast loops of reasoning and tool calls</cite>

Visit Grok Code Fast 1 See full review

Hermes Agent

Free

Best for People who want an assistant that remembers context across sessions

Visit Hermes Agent See full review

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Specs come from each tool's own site and docs (how we test). AIDiveForge is editorially independent.

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