The closest alternative to Hermes 4 405B is Mistral Small 4 — comparable intelligence (18.6 vs 18.6); for a cheaper option, MiniMax M3 runs $0.300/M vs $1.00/M; for more speed, Mercury 2 hits 590 t/s; and the best open-weight substitute is MiniMax M3.
Mistral Small 4 is the closest alternative to Hermes 4 405B, with an Intelligence Index of 18.6 (Hermes 4 405B scores 18.6) at $0.150 per million input tokens.
Yes — MiniMax M3 costs $0.300 per million input tokens versus $1.00 for Hermes 4 405B, while staying within ~8 points of its Intelligence Index.
MiniMax M3 is the strongest open-weight alternative to Hermes 4 405B — downloadable from Hugging Face and self-hostable, scoring 54.7 on intelligence.