Google announces Gemini 4 Carbon, but you can't use it yet

Two weeks after Argon, Google announced Gemini 4 Carbon, its new top model, aimed at long-running coding and agent work and at cybersecurity. Google says it now ranks first on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (59 points, a one-point lead) and leads several cyber-security benchmarks; those are Google's own claims. This week it's only open to vetted cyber defenders through Google's Fairwind Program, with developers, businesses and consumers promised access 'as soon as possible' and no date. The API will launch at an introductory $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens, rising later to $4 and $20. 'It destroys Opus 5.5' reactions on X are enthusiasm, not tests.

Why it mattersIf you build on the Gemini API, a stronger model is coming, but budget for the post-launch price rather than the introductory one, and keep using Argon until Carbon actually opens. Same evening, Alphabet reported Google Cloud revenue up 103% and about 32 billion tokens a minute through its own model APIs (company figures).

How we knowCompany figures are labelled as their own claims; anything we couldn't verify is labelled as a report or a claim.