Google ships Gemini 4 Carbon to paid API and AI Ultra users
On November 10, 2026, Google made Gemini 4 Carbon broadly available after a limited rollout to cybersecurity defenders that began on October 28, according to Dataconomy. Developers on the paid Gemini API tier can call it in Google AI Studio and Android Studio, and Gemini for business customers can reach it through the API or the model picker. Google AI Ultra subscribers get it in the Gemini app, AI Mode in Search and Google Antigravity. Free API users are not covered, since the model is limited to paying developers and enterprises.
Introductory pricing is $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens through November 30, matching the launch rate of Gemini 4 Argon. From December 1, the rates rise to $4 for input and $20 for output. Google says Carbon uses more tokens than Argon to explore problems and run verification loops, so equal per-token prices do not mean equal bills. Google claims Carbon ranks first on CursorBench 4.0, Perplexity's WANDR and Zapier's AutomationBench at more than 2X lower cost per task than the next best external model.
Google is also previewing /swarm in Antigravity, a feature that turns one prompt into a team of agents, with Carbon assigned to design and auditing roles. Google has not announced downloadable weights, a self-hosting license or Vertex AI terms, so Carbon remains a hosted model reachable only through Google's own products and API.
Why it matters
For teams building agents, the per-token price matches Argon, but the bill per completed task is what matters. Carbon's longer reasoning can push a workload above expectations even at the same rate. Any budget built on November invoices will undercount December spend, because the rate doubles on December 1. Run your own evaluation set on Carbon and Argon, record tokens and failure rates per task, and model costs at the post-November 30 rates before moving production traffic.
For vendors and investors, Carbon is a premium, gated model with no open weights, which keeps buyers dependent on Google's hosted service. Startups that resell or wrap frontier models face a higher input cost from December. Cost-per-task claims from a model launch should be treated as unverified until independent results are published, since the launch numbers are partial.
Key points
- 1Gemini 4 Carbon launched November 10, 2026 on the paid Gemini API in Google AI Studio and Android Studio.
- 2Introductory pricing is $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens through November 30, 2026.
- 3The standard rate rises to $4 per million input tokens and $20 per million output tokens from December 1, 2026.
- 4AI Ultra subscribers can use Carbon in the Gemini app, AI Mode in Search and Google Antigravity.
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