Gemini 4 Carbon: Benchmarks, Price ($2/$10) & How to Get Access
Gemini 4 Carbon, announced Oct 28, 2026, is #1 on the AA Intelligence Index at 59. Intro price $2/$10 per 1M tokens, then $4/$20. Benchmarks and access.
Quick answers
- What is Gemini 4 Carbon?
- Google DeepMind's new frontier model, announced Oct 28, 2026, two weeks after Gemini 4 Argon. Google calls it its strongest model, with state-of-the-art cybersecurity and long-horizon coding.
- How much does Gemini 4 Carbon cost?
- $2 per 1M input tokens and $10 per 1M output tokens at the introductory price, with cached input 95% off. After the intro period it rises to $4 / $20.
- Can I use Gemini 4 Carbon now?
- Only a subset of cyber defenders and trusted partners in Google's Fairwind Program have it this week. Developers, businesses and the Gemini app get it next, with no date given.
- How good is Gemini 4 Carbon?
- It ranks #1 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v5 at 59 and second only to Claude Opus 5.5 on the AA Coding Agent Index.
Google DeepMind announced Gemini 4 Carbon on October 28, 2026. Gemini 4 Carbon is now the top model on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, and it launches at Argon's intro price of $2 / $10 per million tokens. The catch: most people can't use it yet.
Carbon builds on Gemini 4 Argon, released two weeks earlier. Google's pitch is two things: long-horizon engineering work that runs for days, and cyber defense, where it leads on finding, exploiting and patching real vulnerabilities.
1. Gemini 4 Carbon at a glance
Spec | Gemini 4 Carbon |
|---|---|
Announced | Oct 28, 2026 |
Developer | Google DeepMind |
Built on | Gemini 4 Argon (launched mid-Oct 2026) |
Input / output | Text, image, video and speech in; text out |
Intro API price | $2 input / $10 output per 1M tokens |
Price after intro | $4 input / $20 output per 1M tokens |
Cached input | 95% off the input price |
AA Intelligence Index v5 | 59, #1 |
Access today | Cyber defenders and Fairwind Program partners |
2. Gemini 4 Carbon benchmarks
Google leads with security. Gemini 4 Carbon scores 88.2% on SEC-bench Pro (finding real vulnerabilities), 54.8% on ExploitGym (proving a bug is exploitable) and 71.0% on CWE-bench (patching the root cause). All three are state of the art per Google, measured without guardrails.
Benchmark | Gemini 4 Carbon | What it tests |
|---|---|---|
AA Intelligence Index v5 | 59 (#1) | Overall reasoning, coding, agents |
AA Coding Agent Index | #2, behind Opus 5.5 | Agentic coding |
SEC-bench Pro | 88.2% | Finding vulnerabilities |
ExploitGym | 54.8% | Exploitation |
CWE-bench | 71.0% | Patching |
WebDev Arena | 1,769 Elo (#4, +89) | Full-stack web builds |
Gray Swan IPI | 0.0% attack success | Prompt-injection resistance |
Terminal-Bench 4.0 cheating | 0.0% success, 0.4% attempts | Shortcut-taking |
In Google's own comparison table, Carbon posts the top score on 15 of 17 benchmarks against Argon, GPT-6 Astra, Claude Opus 5.5 and Claude Fable 5.1. Google also says the Chrome team saw Carbon produce high-quality patches more than 10x better than another lab's frontier model, and that it gave 2x higher success than Argon on secure code generation.
Behavior got attention too. Google reports about half as many unsupported claims as Argon, 26% less overreach, 29% less under-service, and an almost 80% drop in high-severity misalignment alerts in live internal coding.
3. Gemini 4 Carbon price
Gemini 4 Carbon launches at $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens, the same introductory price as Argon. Cached input gets 95% off. When the intro period ends, the rate becomes $4 / $20. Budget at the higher rate if you plan to use it long term.
Model | Input / 1M | Output / 1M |
|---|---|---|
Gemini 4 Carbon (intro) | $2 | $10 |
Gemini 4 Carbon (after intro) | $4 | $20 |
Claude Opus 5.5 | $4 | $20 |
GPT-6 Astra | $10 | $50 |
Even at full price, Carbon matches Opus 5.5 per token and costs well under GPT-6 Astra. Google has not said when the intro period ends.
4. How to get Gemini 4 Carbon access
- Cyber defenders: a first group gets Carbon this week.
- Trusted partners: access widens in phases through Google DeepMind's Fairwind Program.
- Developers (Gemini API, AI Studio, Vertex AI): coming soon, no date yet.
- Gemini app: coming soon. Argon took about two weeks from announcement to the app for Pro and Ultra subscribers.
- Government testing: Google is in the U.S. voluntary pre-release testing process, which shapes the pace.
5. Gemini 4 Carbon vs Gemini 4 Argon
Argon is the model you can use today. Carbon is the stronger, slower-to-ship sibling: higher on the AA index, much stronger on cyber work, better at multi-day agent runs, and at the same intro price. If you are on Argon, keep building; switching later should be a model-ID change once Carbon reaches the API.
Latest (Oct 30): Gemini 4 Carbon access, price and new scores
Access: still limited. As of October 30, 2026, Gemini 4 Carbon is not on the public Gemini API, AI Studio or the Gemini app. Sundar Pichai said trusted cyber defenders get it first, then more Fairwind partners, "ahead of wider availability soon". For timing, Argon went from cyber-only (Sep 30) to the paid API and Gemini app Pro/Ultra (Oct 13) in 13 days.
Price: the $2 / $10 intro price is a 50% launch discount on the standard $4 / $20, with no end date. Cached input is 95% off. Artificial Analysis puts Carbon at $7.76 per Intelligence Index task at standard price, about 23% less than Claude Opus 5.5 (max), using 29% fewer output tokens.
New result (Oct 28–30) | Gemini 4 Carbon | Next best |
|---|---|---|
Arena Text | #1, 1528 | Gemini 4 Argon, 1520 |
Arena Agent | #2, $1.80 median per task | Claude Opus 5.5 (Max) #1, ~72% pricier |
Arena Code: WebDev | #4, 1768 | Claude Sonnet 5.5, 1770 |
AA HLE-Diamond | 69%, #1 | Claude Opus 5.5 (max), 68% |
AA-Omniscience v1.1 | 54, #1 | Claude Opus 5.5 (max), 48 |
AA Coding Agent Index | 59, #2 | Claude Code + Opus 5.5, 62 |
AA Progress Index | 352, new frontier | — |
One weak spot: on AA-Briefcase (agent knowledge work) Carbon scores 1609 Elo, up 126 on Argon but behind Kimi K3.1 Pro (1678), Muse Wonder and Grok 4.7. Its hallucination rate also rose from 4% to 11%, still the second lowest of any model.
Latest (Nov 1): how to get Gemini 4 Carbon
Still no public access as of November 1, 2026. Carbon is not in the Gemini API, AI Studio or the Gemini app. Here is what you can do today, by who you are:
- Security teams: apply through Google DeepMind's Fairwind Program. It asks for your organization type and defensive use case, and approval is manual.
- Developers: set up a paid Gemini API account in AI Studio now and build on Gemini 4 Argon. Switching should be a model-ID change when Carbon opens.
- Gemini app users: watch Google AI Pro and Ultra. Argon reached them 13 days after its cyber-only start.
- Avoid sites that sell "Gemini 4 Carbon access". There is no paid consumer plan for Carbon yet.
Price note: several reports say the $2 / $10 intro price runs to November 30, 2026; Google itself has not published an end date.
6. Where Sumus fits
Yes, you can line up Gemini next to Claude, GPT and other top models today. In Sumus each model works as an AI employee in your team chat, so you can send security reviews to the strongest coder, cheap drafts to a fast model, and compare answers in one thread. When Carbon opens up, it slots into the same workflow.
What we're watching
- The date Gemini 4 Carbon reaches the Gemini API and the Gemini app.
- When the $2 / $10 intro price ends.
- Independent coding and cyber results outside Google's table.
FAQ
When was Gemini 4 Carbon released?
Google announced it on October 28, 2026, with limited access for cyber defenders that week.
Is Gemini 4 Carbon better than Claude Opus 5.5?
It leads Opus 5.5 on the AA Intelligence Index v5 (59) but trails it on the AA Coding Agent Index.
What is the Fairwind Program?
Google DeepMind's trusted-access program, used to phase Carbon to security partners before a wider release.
Does Gemini 4 Carbon accept images and video?
Yes. It takes text, image, video and speech input and returns text.
Is Gemini 4 Carbon free?
No free tier has been announced. API pricing is $2 / $10 per 1M tokens at launch, then $4 / $20.
When will Gemini 4 Carbon be available to everyone?
Google has not given a date. Argon took 13 days to go from cyber defenders to the paid API and Gemini app, so a similar path would mean mid-November 2026.
How long does the Gemini 4 Carbon discount last?
The $2/$10 price is a 50% launch discount with no confirmed end date. Standard pricing is $4 input and $20 output per 1M tokens.
How do I get Gemini 4 Carbon?
Today only through Google DeepMind's Fairwind Program for cyber defenders and trusted partners. Developers and Gemini app users have to wait; build on Gemini 4 Argon meanwhile.
Can I buy Gemini 4 Carbon?
No. There is no plan or purchase option for Carbon yet. Its announced API price applies once it reaches the Gemini API.
Sources
- Google DeepMind: Gemini 4 Carbon, our next frontier model, Oct 28, 2026
- Artificial Analysis on X, Oct 28, 2026
- Mashable coverage of Google's benchmark table, Oct 28, 2026. Read Oct 29, 2026.
Update log
- — Nov 1: Access still limited; added how-to-get steps by user type and intro-price end-date note; 2 FAQs.
- — Oct 30: Added latest access status, launch-discount details, Arena ranks and new Artificial Analysis scores (HLE-Diamond, Omniscience, Progress Index); 2 FAQs.
- — Oct 29: First published. Gemini 4 Carbon announced Oct 28, 2026; limited access, intro price $2/$10.