Nous Research lists 6 models and Particle Ai 1. Particle Ai is cheaper on a typical model ($0.44 per 1M tokens median). Below: line-up, price tiers, the cheapest model for each capability, and what each costs for five real workloads.
| Nous Research | Particle Ai | |
|---|---|---|
| Models listed | 6 | 1 |
| Models with published pricing | 6 | 1 |
| Typical price (median, 3:1 blend per 1M) | $0.70 | $0.44 |
| Cheapest paid model | NousResearch: Hermes 2 Pro - Llama-3 8B ($0.14) | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) |
| Longest context | Nous: Hermes 3 405B Instruct (131K) | Particle AI: Particle-1 (1.0M) |
| Free models | 1 | 0 |
| Newest model | Nous: Hermes 4 405B (2025-08-26) | Particle AI: Particle-1 (2026-10-28) |
| Price changes in the last 90 days | 1 | 0 |
For each workload: the cheapest model from each provider that can actually do it (fits the context window; tool calling required for the agent), and its monthly cost at list price.
| Workload (per month) | Nous Research | Particle Ai |
|---|---|---|
| Customer-support chatbot 50,000 conversations — each a 6-turn conversation | $13.30 with NousResearch: Hermes 2 Pro - Llama-3 8B | $38.75 with Particle AI: Particle-1 |
| RAG search over documents 20,000 questions — each a question answered from ~8 retrieved passages | $18.20 with NousResearch: Hermes 2 Pro - Llama-3 8B | $40.00 with Particle AI: Particle-1 |
| Coding / tool-using agent 2,000 tasks — each a multi-step task with tool calls and file context | no suitable model | $42.00 with Particle AI: Particle-1 |
| Batch summarisation 10,000 documents — each a 6,000-word report summarised to a page | $12.80 with Nous: Hermes 4 70B | $26.00 with Particle AI: Particle-1 |
| Long-document analysis 500 documents — each a 150-page contract or codebase read in one pass | $6.90 with Nous: Hermes 4 70B | $13.50 with Particle AI: Particle-1 |
| You need | Nous Research | Particle Ai |
|---|---|---|
| Any model | NousResearch: Hermes 2 Pro - Llama-3 8B ($0.14) | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) |
| With tool calling | none listed | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) |
| With image input | none listed | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) |
| With reasoning mode | Nous: Hermes 4 70B ($0.20) | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) |
| 128K+ context | Nous: Hermes 4 70B ($0.20) | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) |
| 1M+ context | none listed | Particle AI: Particle-1 ($0.44) |
| Model type | Nous Research | Particle Ai |
|---|---|---|
| text+image->text | 0 | 1 |
| text->text | 6 | 0 |
| Price per 1M (3:1 blend) | Nous Research | Particle Ai |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 1 | 0 |
| Under $0.50 | 2 | 1 |
| $0.50 – $3 | 3 | 0 |
| $3 – $10 | 0 | 0 |
| $10 and up | 0 | 0 |
Particle Ai is cheaper on a typical model: a median of $0.44 per 1M tokens (3:1 input/output) against $0.70 for Nous Research. The cheapest paid models are NousResearch: Hermes 2 Pro - Llama-3 8B at $0.14 and Particle AI: Particle-1 at $0.44.
It depends on the job: Nous Research offers the broader line-up (6 models vs 1), Particle Ai the lower typical price, Particle Ai the longest context (1.0M tokens). The workload table above shows which wins for chat, RAG, agents, batch jobs and long documents.
Nous Research: Nous Research lists 6 models and Particle Ai lists 1.
Particle Ai: Nous Research's longest is Nous: Hermes 3 405B Instruct at 131K tokens; Particle Ai's is Particle AI: Particle-1 at 1.0M.
Nous Research: 1 free model (e.g. Nous: Hermes 3 405B Instruct (free)). Particle Ai: none.
Nous Research: 0 of 6 models accept images. Particle Ai: 1 of 1.