AI Models · Open-Source vs Paid

Hermes 4 405B Open vs GPT-3.5 Turbo (batch) Paid

Hermes 4 405B vs GPT-3.5 Turbo (batch) compared — price per token, context window, multimodality, openness and which to choose. Can the open-source model replace the paid one? Full 2026 breakdown.

Prices & specs refreshed from live data · olud.ai

Open-model prices = cheapest provider via OpenRouter; official maker rates may be higher.

Hermes 4 405BOpenNous Research
$1 /M input
$3 /M outputNo per-token fees if you self-host
TypeOpen-weight
Context window131K tokens
MultimodalNo
Self-hostYes
GPT-3.5 Turbo (batch)PaidOpenAI
$0.25 /M input
$0.75 /M outputManaged API (no infra to run)
TypeProprietary
Context window16K tokens
MultimodalNo
Self-hostNo
Choose Hermes 4 405B if you want to self-host, keep your data private and skip per-token fees — it's open-weight and runs on your own hardware. Choose GPT-3.5 Turbo (batch) if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.

Hermes 4 405B vs GPT-3.5 Turbo (batch) specs

SpecHermes 4 405BGPT-3.5 Turbo (batch)Winner
MakerNous ResearchOpenAI
TypeOpen-weightProprietaryHermes 4 405B
Context window131K tokens16K tokensHermes 4 405B
Input price$1/M · free self-host$0.25/MGPT-3.5 Turbo (batch)
Output price$3/M · free self-host$0.75/MGPT-3.5 Turbo (batch)
Vision / multimodalNoNo
Tool / function callingNoYesGPT-3.5 Turbo (batch)
Self-hostableYesNo (API only)Hermes 4 405B
LicenseOpen weightsProprietaryHermes 4 405B

Price gap & when to choose each

4.0×cheaper per output token

GPT-3.5 Turbo (batch) is ~4.0× cheaper than Hermes 4 405B on output tokens ($0.75 vs $3 per M tokens).

Choose Hermes 4 405B if…
  • You want to self-host or run on your cloud
  • You need the longer 131K context window
  • You prioritize data privacy & control
  • You are building open or reproducible AI
Choose GPT-3.5 Turbo (batch) if…
  • You want frontier performance through a managed API
  • You want the lower output price
  • You value reliability & ecosystem
  • You don't want to manage infrastructure

Feature comparison

CapabilityHermes 4 405BGPT-3.5 Turbo (batch)
Open weights (downloadable)
Self-hostable
Runs fully offline
Vision / multimodal
Tool / function calling
1M+ context window

Benchmarks: Hermes 4 405B vs GPT-3.5 Turbo (batch)

Independent benchmark scores measured by Artificial Analysis. Higher is better (except latency).

Hermes 4 405B
GPT-3.5 Turbo (batch)
Intelligence index
7.5
5.5
Math index
69.7
GPQA
72.7%
29.7%
MMLU-Pro
82.9%
46.2%
Humanity's Last Exam
10.9%
Long Context Reasoning
22.3%
LiveCodeBench
68.6%
AIME 2025
69.7%
IFBench
32.7%
τ²-Bench
22.2%
Terminal-Bench Hard
11.4%
Coding index
10.7
MATH-500
44.1%
Speed
43.4 tok/s
0 tok/s
Latency
0.74s
0s
Intelligence per $
5
7.3

Benchmark data by Artificial Analysis.

How Hermes 4 405B and GPT-3.5 Turbo (batch) score

🏆 Best value & openness: Hermes 4 405B (3.9 vs 2.6 / 5)
CriterionHermes 4 405BGPT-3.5 Turbo (batch)
Cost-efficiency4.05.0
Context window3.52.0
Openness5.01.5
Self-hosting5.01.0
Multimodality2.03.5

Scores come from live data — output price (cost), context length, open vs closed weights (openness & self-hosting) and vision/tool support (multimodality). Raw task quality isn't scored here; it depends on your benchmark — see the verdict.

What each model is

Hermes 4 405B Open

Nous Research · Open-weight

Hermes 4 is a large-scale reasoning model built on Meta-Llama-3.1-405B and released by Nous Research. It introduces a hybrid reasoning mode, where the model can choose to deliberate internally with...

GPT-3.5 Turbo (batch) Paid

OpenAI · Proprietary

GPT-3.5 Turbo is OpenAI's fastest model. It can understand and generate natural language or code, and is optimized for chat and traditional completion tasks. Training data up to Sep 2021.

Frequently asked questions

Is Hermes 4 405B as good as GPT-3.5 Turbo (batch)?

Hermes 4 405B is open-weight and competitive on many tasks, but GPT-3.5 Turbo (batch) may still lead on the hardest reasoning and agentic work. The gap keeps narrowing — benchmark both on your actual use case before deciding.

Can I run Hermes 4 405B locally?

Yes. Hermes 4 405B has open weights, so you can self-host it on your own GPUs or run it via a low-cost API. GPT-3.5 Turbo (batch) is API-only and cannot be self-hosted.

Hermes 4 405B vs GPT-3.5 Turbo (batch) — which should I pick in 2026?

Choose Hermes 4 405B if you want to self-host, keep your data private and skip per-token fees — it's open-weight and runs on your own hardware. Choose GPT-3.5 Turbo (batch) if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.

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