Gemini 4 Carbon API Released: Price, Access and Flash Status

2026-11-13 — Gemini 4 Hydrogen is Google's fast everyday coding and agentic-work model, generally available as gemini-4-hydrogen from November 12, 2026. Google charges $1.50 input / $7.50 output per million tokens, including thinking in billed output. It recommends Hydrogen as the upgrade from Gemini 3.8 Flash. Hydrogen reads text, images, video, audio and PDFs and produces text.

Gemini 4 Hydrogen: API, Pricing, Benchmarks & Flash Upgrade · Cheap Gemini 4 Hydrogen API: Compare Providers & Costs · Gemini 4 Hydrogen vs Sonnet 5.5 vs GPT-6.1 Terra

Gemini 4 Carbon API is released: availability and price

Gemini 4 Carbon is generally available from 2026-11-10 under the stable model ID gemini-4-carbon. APIMaster has integrated 4 public active routes, from $0.3588624 input / $1.794312 output per million tokens, up to ~82.1% off Google's current Standard price. This supersedes our October 28 report of restricted Fairwind access.

Carbon and Gemini 4 Flash are separate status questions: Carbon is released; an official Gemini 4 Flash API model has not been verified in this check.

Checked 2026-11-11 at 10:32 UTC. USD per million input / output tokens. Only public status=1 routes without client-exclusive labels are counted. Carbon ranges from $0.3588624–$2 input / $1.794312–$10 output; Argon from $0.8341424–$2 / $4.170712–$10; 3.8 Flash from $0.30201255–$1.50 / $1.51006275–$7.50. Discounts compare with Google's current Standard promotional rates, not later full prices. The live marketplace card is authoritative.

Cheap Carbon API and setup · Carbon vs Argon

Gemini 4 Carbon release date and Fairwind access

Google announced Carbon on 2026-10-28, initially through Fairwind for selected cyber defenders. Its API changelog now marks 2026-11-10 as general availability. The public model page confirms gemini-4-carbon.

The documented context is 1,048,576 tokens shared across input, thinking and output; the ordinary synchronous output ceiling is 65,536. Long decode extends generation within that budget using a separate execution flow. Text, image, video, audio and PDF inputs produce text; native image/audio generation and Live API are unsupported. Compatible routes may expose a subset of native features.

Carbon vs Argon: the clearest improvements

The following figures are from Google’s official launch evaluation table, not APIMaster tests. Differences are percentage points unless stated otherwise.

The original English chart is Google’s material, stored unchanged. Source: Google’s October 28 announcement and its evaluation table; pricing and access references below.

Official Google benchmark table

Google’s table puts Carbon at 59 on AA Index v5.0, versus GPT-6 Astra at 57 and Claude Opus 5.5 at 58. Carbon does not win every test: FrontierSWE 2 is 61.2%, below Astra’s 65.5% and Opus’s 62.3%; OSWorld-2.1 offline subset is 81.5%, below Opus’s 87.2%.

Long-horizon coding and safer execution

Google reports engineering runs lasting days, WebDev Arena 1768 Elo / #4 / +89 Elo, and approximately half as many unsupported claims as Argon. Its evaluations show overreach down 26%, under-service down 29%, and Gray Swan indirect-prompt-injection attack success down from 0.7% to 0.0% on the evaluated attacks. These are dated Google results, not universal guarantees.

Cybersecurity results cover vulnerability discovery, exploitability validation and patching. Google says the external cyber evaluations were run without guardrails. Its internal secure-code-generation success exceeded Argon by 2×; the Chrome team’s >10× patch claim uses an unnamed competing model, so it is not a universal Carbon-vs-Argon comparison.

Gemini 4 Carbon API price and current alternatives

Google Standard: $2 / $10 through 2026-11-30, then $4 / $20 from 2026-12-01. Implicit cached input: $0.10, then $0.20. Google Batch: $1 / $5, then $2 / $10. These are USD per million tokens; output includes thinking. Carbon has no Free API tier. See Google pricing.

At the 2026-11-11 check, the Carbon card starts at $0.3588624 / $1.794312, versus Argon at $0.8341424 / $4.170712. A fixed 100,000 input + 20,000 billed output budget costs about $0.07177 for Carbon, $0.16683 for Argon, $0.40 on Google Standard or $0.20 on Google Batch. Tools, cache, media and retries can change total task cost. The marketplace card is authoritative.

Gemini 4 Flash release date: what is confirmed?

Carbon’s announcement does not announce Gemini 4 Flash or identify Carbon as Flash. The October 21 community discussion anticipated an affordable everyday model; it does not establish a release date or price. Existing AI Studio documentation includes Argon under AI Pro and AI Ultra, not Free; API billing is separate. These Argon terms do not establish Carbon entitlements.

Earlier community discussion · AI Studio plans

Three practical examples to compare

These are suggested evaluation tasks, not measured Carbon outputs. Give both models the same inputs, tools and budget; compare accepted artifacts, time, billed tokens and interventions.

1. Repository bug: provide a failing regression, request root-cause analysis, a minimal patch and passing checks. Count unnecessary changes and human interventions.
2. Web application: provide a design reference and require mobile layout, validation and a working data interaction. Compare browser behavior, visual quality and cost.
3. Defensive patch: use an owned vulnerable sandbox with a failing security test. Compare the fix and legitimate behavior after patching.

How to call the Gemini 4 Carbon API

Choose a compatible live Carbon route, then use this basic OpenAI-compatible text example. It illustrates configuration; this article has not run a paid Carbon benchmark. Native Google grounding, media, long decode and tool options depend on the selected route.

Register with APIMaster → create an API key → use API Base https://apimaster.ai/v1 and model ID gemini-4-carbon. Compare the Carbon card and Argon card before choosing a route.

import os
from openai import OpenAI

client = OpenAI(
    api_key=os.environ["APIMASTER_API_KEY"],
    base_url="https://apimaster.ai/v1",
)
response = client.chat.completions.create(
    model="gemini-4-carbon",
    messages=[{"role": "user", "content": "Review this migration plan and propose verification steps."}],
)
print(response.choices[0].message.content)
print(response.usage)

For the broader model background, see the Carbon overview.

FAQ

Has Gemini 4 Carbon been released?

Yes. Announced on 2026-10-28; generally available from 2026-11-10 as gemini-4-carbon, with public APIMaster discount routes now live.

What is Carbon’s API price?

Google Standard is $2 / $10 through 2026-11-30, then $4 / $20 from 2026-12-01. APIMaster starts at $0.3588624 / $1.794312 across 4 public active routes at the 2026-11-11 check.

Is Carbon stronger than Argon?

Google reports AA Index v5.0 50→59, Terminal-Bench 4.0 57.1%→65.2%, and GraphWalks 84.2%→96.2%. Actual workload results still need testing.

Is Carbon the same as Gemini 4 Flash?

Google has not established that naming relationship. Flash’s public release date remains unconfirmed.

Can I call Carbon on APIMaster now?

Yes. APIMaster has 4 public active Carbon routes from $0.3588624 / $1.794312 at the 2026-11-11 check. Use gemini-4-carbon with an APIMaster key and a compatible route.

Does AI Pro or AI Ultra unlock Carbon?

A Google AI subscription and pay-as-you-go API billing are separate products. Check the current AI Studio plan terms for web access. APIMaster access uses an APIMaster key and wallet, without requiring a Google AI subscription.

Sources and next step

Official announcement · Fairwind Program · API pricing · Model catalog · Release notes · AI Studio plans · Earlier community discussion

Google's November 10 GA changelog · Carbon model specification · Current Carbon pricing

Carbon discount routes are live, from $0.3588624 / $1.794312, up to ~82.1% off current Google Standard. Register → create a key → use https://apimaster.ai/v1 with gemini-4-carbon. The live marketplace card is authoritative.

Argon · 3.8 Flash

Register → Create a key → https://apimaster.ai/v1