Lowest-Latency Nous Models

Quick answer · Updated June 2026

Hermes 4 70B has the lowest latency of any Nous model, responding in about 254ms to first token. Hermes 3 70B Instruct (447ms) and Hermes 3 405B Instruct (free) (650ms) round out the top three.

254msLatency

16.0Intelligence

84 t/sSpeed

$0.130Input /M

131KContext

AI models ranked by time-to-first-token (p50). The most responsive large language models for real-time and interactive use cases.

Frequently asked

Which Nous model has the lowest latency?

Hermes 4 70B has the lowest latency of any Nous model, responding in about 254ms to first token. Hermes 3 70B Instruct (447ms) and Hermes 3 405B Instruct (free) (650ms) round out the top three.

What's a good alternative to Hermes 4 70B?

Hermes 3 70B Instruct (447ms) is the closest alternative on this metric, followed by Hermes 3 405B Instruct (free) (650ms). See the full ranking above for the tradeoffs.

How many Nous models are there?

modelgrep tracks 5 Nous models with live benchmarks, speed, latency and per-provider pricing, led on intelligence by Hermes 4 405B. 5 of them qualify for this ranking.

More Nous rankings

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All rankings

Small & Fast LLMs Smartest LLMs Best LLMs for Coding Best LLMs for Design & Frontend Fastest LLMs Cheapest LLMs Best Free LLMs Best Reasoning LLMs Best Vision LLMs Best LLMs for Agents Best Open-Source LLMs Longest-Context LLMs