Hermes 2 Pro (Llama 3 base) is Nous Research's production function-calling model — combining Llama 3's strong foundation with Hermes' specialized tool-use training for reliable agentic AI.
Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 is an AI model released May 2024 by NousResearch, a leading organization in large language model research. Nous Research's Hermes 2 Pro — Llama-3 tuned for creative writing, role-play, and structured JSON/function-call output. Great storyteller. With 8B and a 8K tokens context window, Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 is designed to excel across a range of demanding tasks — from software engineering and mathematical problem-solving to multilingual content generation and long-document analysis.
Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 uses a dense transformer architecture with 8B of parameters, all of which are active for every input token. Dense architectures provide predictable, consistent behavior across diverse task types — there are no "cold" experts to warm up, and quality is uniform across prompts. NousResearch's training pipeline combined large-scale pretraining on a large-scale multilingual pretraining dataset with supervised fine-tuning and alignment techniques (RLHF or DPO), producing Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3's characteristic balance of capability, helpfulness, and safety.
As of 2026-10-16, Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 by NousResearch demonstrates measurable performance on standard AI evaluation benchmarks. On BFCL — which measures model performance on specialized evaluation tasks — it achieves 73.4%. These scores place Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 — at 8B of parameters — in a competitive position within its model class. Note that benchmark scores reflect controlled evaluation conditions; real-world performance varies by task, prompt design, and domain specificity.
The primary strengths of Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 are: Industry-leading function calling at 8B at May 2024 release; Structured JSON output reliability; Nous license — free. These make it particularly well-suited for Tool use and function calling in agentic apps at 8B scale. Users working on complex, multi-step problems benefit most from Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3's ability to maintain coherence across long inputs and produce structured, verifiable outputs.
Like all current AI systems, Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 has limitations: Superseded by Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 8B June update; 8K context. For production deployments, validating outputs against authoritative sources — especially for domain-specific or time-sensitive information — remains best practice. NousResearch continues to improve Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 through ongoing research.
Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 is available on LITHOVEX AI with a free account. Unlike direct API access — which requires billing setup, API key management, and per-token charges — LITHOVEX AI provides a seamless browser interface with no setup required, making Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 accessible to students, researchers, developers, and early-stage teams globally.
As of 2026-10-16, Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 by NousResearch demonstrates measurable performance on standard AI evaluation benchmarks. On BFCL — which measures model performance on specialized evaluation tasks — it achieves 73.4%. These scores place Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 — at 8B of parameters — in a competitive position within its model class. Note that benchmark scores reflect controlled evaluation conditions; real-world performance varies by task, prompt design, and domain specificity.
Dense transformer, 8B, Hermes 2 Pro on early Llama 3 base
The training pipeline for Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 involves multiple stages: large-scale pretraining on diverse multilingual text and code corpora to develop broad world knowledge, followed by supervised fine-tuning on instruction-response pairs, and alignment techniques such as RLHF or DPO. Each stage refines the model's helpfulness, accuracy, and safety. NousResearch's research team — based in United States — has optimized Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 for the specific capability profile described above.
Inference efficiency: Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 at 8B is designed to deliver quality outputs at practical serving speeds. Its 8K tokens context window enables processing entire documents, multi-file codebases, and extended conversation histories — particularly valuable for contract review, technical documentation analysis, and codebase-level AI assistance.
Getting started with Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 on LITHOVEX AI takes under two minutes. Follow these steps:
For best results with Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3: provide specific, context-rich prompts; include examples when generating code; specify output format when structure matters; break complex tasks into focused sub-questions.
Reliable open-source AI agent foundation
Production function calling for agentic workflows
Structured data extraction and transformation
Complex multi-tool orchestration in autonomous systems
JSON mode generation for data processing pipelines
NousResearch is a leading organization in AI research and large language model development. Their team has built expertise across natural language processing, model architecture design, and alignment research. NousResearch's models are used by researchers, developers, and enterprises worldwide. Their commitment to advancing AI capability while maintaining responsible deployment practices has made them a respected contributor to the global AI ecosystem. The organization continues to publish research and release models that push the boundaries of what AI systems can achieve.
Funding: Community-driven, open research collective
Founded: 2023, headquartered in United States.
Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 by NousResearch competes in a field with several strong alternatives. Below is a detailed side-by-side comparison against commonly listed alternatives, using benchmark data and capability profiles in the catalog.
Both Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 and the models above are available free on LITHOVEX AI — test them side by side on your real tasks before committing to a subscription with any provider.
Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 is released under Nous Research License, which means you can download and run it on your own hardware. Below are the quickest ways to get started.
LITHOVEX AI runs Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 on cloud infrastructure, so you can use it instantly in your browser without downloading anything, configuring drivers, or managing VRAM. Create a free account and start in under 60 seconds.
The Llama 3-based Hermes 2 Pro became a global reference for open-source agentic AI. Teams worldwide building AI agents, workflow automation, and tool-calling systems adopted it as their open-source foundation for reliable function execution.
Hermes 2 Pro Llama 3 by NousResearch has the following version history and notable updates:
For the complete changelog and latest release notes, visit the official NousResearch model page.