Grok 4.6 vs Hermes 3 70B
Comparing Grok 4.6 and Hermes 3 70B across benchmarks, pricing, and capabilities.
xAI · Nous Research · Updated for 2026
Which is better?
Grok 4.6 and Hermes 3 70B trade strengths across price, capabilities, and technical limits. The better choice depends on the workload.
On price, Hermes 3 70B is roughly 4.9x cheaper per token on a blended 3:1 input/output basis, which adds up quickly at production volume.
Grok 4.6 also accepts a larger context window (500,000 input tokens), making it the stronger choice for long documents and large codebases.
Based on current benchmark, pricing, and model metadata for 2026.
Choose Grok 4.6
- you process long inputs — it offers a 500,000 token context window
- you want the most recent training data — it shipped Aug 2026
Choose Hermes 3 70B
- cost matters — it's about 4.9x cheaper per token
- you need open weights you can self-host or fine-tune
At a glance
The differences that matter most.
Performance Benchmarks
Comparative analysis across standard metrics
Grok 4.6 and Hermes 3 70Bdon't have any common benchmark datasets to compare. They may have been evaluated on different testing suites.
Arena Performance
Playground indexes and blind preference scores
Pricing Analysis
Price comparison per million tokens
For input processing, Grok 4.6 ($2.00/1M tokens) is 5.7x more expensive than Hermes 3 70B ($0.35/1M tokens).
For output processing, Grok 4.6 ($6.00/1M tokens) is 4.3x more expensive than Hermes 3 70B ($1.40/1M tokens).
In conclusion, Grok 4.6 is more expensive than Hermes 3 70B.*
* Using a 3:1 ratio of input to output tokens
Context Window
Maximum input and output token capacity
Grok 4.6 accepts 500,000 input tokens compared to Hermes 3 70B's 131,072 tokens. Only Hermes 3 70B specifies output context (16,384 tokens).
Input Capabilities
Supported data types and modalities
Grok 4.6 supports multimodal inputs, whereas Hermes 3 70B does not.
Grok 4.6 can handle both text and other forms of data like images, making it suitable for multimodal applications.
Grok 4.6
Hermes 3 70B
License
Usage and distribution terms
Grok 4.6 is licensed under a proprietary license, while Hermes 3 70B uses Apache 2.0.
License differences may affect how you can use these models in commercial or open-source projects.
Proprietary
Closed source
Apache 2.0
Open weights
Release Timeline
When each model was launched
Grok 4.6 was released on 2026-08-12, while Hermes 3 70B was released on 2024-08-15.
Grok 4.6 is 24 months newer than Hermes 3 70B.
Aug 12, 2026
1 weeks ago
2.0yr newerAug 15, 2024
2.0 years ago
Knowledge Cutoff
When training data ends
Grok 4.6 has a documented knowledge cutoff of 2026-02-01, while Hermes 3 70B's cutoff date is not specified.
We can confirm Grok 4.6's training data extends to 2026-02-01, but cannot make a direct comparison without Hermes 3 70B's cutoff date.
Feb 2026
—
Provider Availability
Grok 4.6 is available from xAI. Hermes 3 70B is available from DeepInfra.
Grok 4.6
Hermes 3 70B
Outputs Comparison
Judge for yourself.
Run your own prompts against Grok 4.6 and Hermes 3 70B side-by-side, then vote on the output you prefer.
FAQ
Common questions about Grok 4.6 vs Hermes 3 70B.