platform updates ·
Google opens Gemini 4 Carbon to paying developers — its strongest model yet
Google opened Gemini 4 Carbon to paying developers on November 10, 2026 — its strongest model yet, built for long, multi-step coding, research, and agentic work. It is available through the Gemini API in AI Studio and Android Studio and through Gemini for business, and it is rolling out to Google AI Ultra subscribers in Google Antigravity, the Gemini app, and AI Mode in Search.
The price is the part to watch: Carbon costs $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens through November 30 — the same introductory rate as Gemini 4 Argon — then doubles to $4 and $20 on December 1. Thinking tokens are billed as output, and Carbon is not available on the Gemini API's free tier.
Google says Carbon ranks first on CursorBench 4.0, Perplexity's WANDR, and Zapier's AutomationBench at more than twice lower cost per task than the next best external model — its own figures, not independent tests. Google is also previewing /swarm in Antigravity, which turns a single prompt into a coordinated team of agents, and scientists can apply for free Argon and Carbon access in Antigravity for six months.
Why it matters
The introductory price is a deadline, not a discount: anyone building on Carbon should budget for the December 1 doubling before they wire it into a workflow. And the /swarm preview shows where Google thinks the next step is — not one smarter model, but teams of agents working in parallel.
Sources
- Google — Gemini 4 Carbon is now available
- Unite.ai — Google Expands Gemini 4 Carbon Access Beyond Cybersecurity Defenders
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