Google announces Gemini 4 Carbon, ranked first on a major intelligence index

On October 28, 2026, Google announced Gemini 4 Carbon, which it calls its strongest model, with state-of-the-art cybersecurity and long-horizon capabilities. Carbon ranks first on version 5.0 of the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, with a score of 59. It also scores 88.2% on SEC-bench Pro, a benchmark for finding vulnerabilities.

Access is staged. Google is making Carbon available first to a subset of cyber defenders, then to additional trusted partners through its Fairwind Program, and only after that to developers, businesses and consumers.

If you are a developer, a business or a consumer, you are in the last group of Google's rollout, after cyber defenders and trusted partners.

Google says Carbon will launch at the same introductory price as Gemini 4 Argon: $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens, with cached input tokens priced at 95% off the input token price. That price is introductory: after the introductory period expires, $4 per million input tokens and $20 per million output tokens will apply. If you budget beyond the introductory period, use the higher rates.

Our take:

if you already build on Argon, you can plan for Carbon at the same price.