By the toolist.ai editors. Researched from public sources, not hands-on tested by toolist.ai. Updated November 3, 2026; prices checked November 3, 2026.

Gemini 4 Carbon vs Gemini 4 Argon

Verdict

Use Gemini 4 Argon today, because Gemini 4 Carbon is limited to a subset of cyber defenders and trusted partners. Carbon is the stronger model on published scores, ahead on all four Artificial Analysis rows both have: 60 against 50 on the Intelligence Index, 65% against 57% on Terminal-Bench 4.0, 69% against 57% on HLE-Diamond and 65% against 53% on Terminal-Bench-Science. Google says Carbon will launch at Argon's introductory $2 and $10 per million tokens. Argon moves to $4 and $20 on December 1, 2026, and Carbon moves to the same prices on a date Google has not given.

Verdict based on published prices, limits and benchmarks, not on our own tests.

Choose Gemini 4 Carbon if

  • You are among the cyber defenders or trusted partners Google is giving access to; nobody else can use it yet
  • You can wait for the higher published scores, such as 69% against 57% on HLE-Diamond
  • You can wait, and your work is long terminal tasks: 65% against 57% on Terminal-Bench 4.0

Choose Gemini 4 Argon if

  • You need a model now: Argon is on the Gemini API paid tier, Google AI Studio and Google Cloud
  • You need a published output limit (65,536 tokens) and knowledge cutoff (March 2026); Google has published neither for Carbon
  • You want Batch and Flex prices, which cost half the standard price
  • You use the Gemini app on Google AI Pro or Ultra

Price

These costs use the introductory price Google has announced for Gemini 4 Carbon. Nobody outside Google's first access groups can use Carbon yet, and the price rises to $4 and $20 per million tokens after an introductory period with no published end date.

Per million tokensGemini 4 CarbonGemini 4 Argon
Input$2 source$2 source
Cached input$0.10 source$0.10 source
Output$10 source$10 source

Gemini 4 Carbon: Announced prices; Carbon is not on sale yet, and Google does not say whether its first groups pay. Google says Carbon will launch at the same introductory price as Gemini 4 Argon, with cached input 95% below the input price, then $4 per million input tokens and $20 per million output tokens. Argon's introductory period ends November 30, 2026; Google does not say whether Carbon's ends then too. Its Gemini API pricing page does not list Carbon yet, and Artificial Analysis lists $4 and $20. The 1,000,000-token context window is Artificial Analysis's rounded figure; Google has not published an exact limit.

Gemini 4 Argon: Introductory prices run through November 30, 2026; from December 1, 2026 input costs $4, output $20 and cached input $0.20 per million tokens. Output includes thinking tokens. Caching is implicit only; explicit caching is not supported. There is no long-context surcharge. Batch and Flex cost half; Priority costs 1.8 times the standard price. Grounding with Google Search and with Google Maps each has 5,000 free requests a month shared across Gemini 3 and newer models, then $14 per 1,000. Not available on the free tier.

Worked example: what a month costs

We priced three monthly workloads at the announced and listed rates above. The provider does not publish these figures.

WorkloadGemini 4 CarbonGemini 4 Argon
Support chatbot
100,000 replies, each 3,000 input and 400 output tokens, no caching (300M in, 40M out)		 $1,000$1,000
Document Q&A
5,000 questions over the same 60,000-token document set (90% cache hits), 800 output tokens each (300M in, 4M out)		 $127$127
Coding agent
200 tasks, each 1.5 million input tokens (90% cache hits) and 50,000 output tokens (300M in, 10M out)		 $187$187

Price your own workload

ModelCost a month
Gemini 4 Carbon $150
Gemini 4 Argon $150

Announced and listed prices, no batch or priority discounts. Cached input is billed at the cache-read price; cache-write charges are not included. Reasoning models bill their thinking as output tokens.

Limits and release dates

Gemini 4 CarbonGemini 4 Argon
ReleasedAnnounced October 28, 2026 sourceOctober 13, 2026 source
Context window1,000,000 tokens source1,048,576 tokens source
Maximum outputnot published65,536 tokens source
Knowledge cutoffnot publishedMarch 2026 source
Input and outputText, images, speech and video in; text out sourceText, images, video, audio and PDF in; text out source
API model nameNot published yetgemini-4-argon

Benchmarks

Scores as published by the provider or measured by Artificial Analysis; higher is better. A dash means no score was published.

BenchmarkGemini 4 CarbonGemini 4 Argon
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index 60.0 (high thinking, the highest level Artificial Analysis tests) source50.0 (high thinking, the highest level) source
Intelligence Index at everyday effort 58.0 (medium thinking; Google has not published a default) source–
Terminal-Bench 4.0
high thinking		 65.0% source57.0% source
HLE-Diamond
high thinking		 69.0% source57.0% source
Terminal-Bench-Science 0.1
high thinking		 65.0% source53.0% source
Output speed 88.7 tokens/s (high thinking, Artificial Analysis) source81.9 tokens/s (high thinking, Artificial Analysis) source

Benchmark and speed data from Artificial Analysis where linked.

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Sources