Gemini 4 Carbon: Release Date, Price and API Access

No, developers cannot call Gemini 4 Carbon through the Gemini API today. Google announced Carbon on October 28, 2026 and says developers will get it "as soon as possible", and has published no model ID and no release date for it. The introductory price of $2 and $10 per million tokens is announced, not live: Google's pricing page, checked October 29, 2026, has no Carbon entry and lists Gemini 4 Argon.

Can you call Gemini 4 Carbon today?

Carbon is not on the Gemini API yet, and Google has published no model ID or endpoint for it. In its announcement Google says it will make Carbon available to a subset of cyber defenders in the week of October 28, 2026, and will then gradually phase access to additional trusted partners through its Fairwind Program. For developers, businesses and consumers, Google says only that it will bring Carbon to them "as soon as possible".

The page developers check for API prices is Google's Gemini API pricing page, last updated October 28, 2026 (UTC). On October 29, 2026 it lists Gemini 4 Argon and does not list Carbon.

Some third-party pages show a Carbon model ID or Carbon prices. Google's announcement and pricing page confirm neither, so treat those numbers as unverified.

What Google confirmed

Google confirmed who gets Carbon first, who comes next, and the price it will launch at. It did not date developer access. The sentences in quotation marks are Google's own wording.

• Access now: "Starting this week, we will make Carbon available to a subset of cyber defenders" (Google's announcement, October 28, 2026)
• Partners: "will gradually phase access to additional trusted partners through our Fairwind Program" (Google's announcement, October 28, 2026)
• Developers: "before making Carbon available to developers, businesses, and consumers ... as soon as possible" (Google's announcement, October 28, 2026)
• Introductory price: "Gemini 4 Carbon will launch at the same introductory price as Argon at $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens, with cached input tokens priced at 95% off input token price." (Google's announcement, October 28, 2026)
• After the introductory period: "After the introductory period expires, the price of $4 per 1M input tokens and $20 per 1M output tokens will apply." (Google's announcement, October 28, 2026)

That is an announced price, not yet live. Carbon has no line on Google's Gemini API pricing page (checked October 29, 2026), so nothing on Google's pricing page confirms the $2 and $10 introductory rate yet.

What Google has not said

Five items are missing, and each one delays a production decision:

• The model ID to put in an API call.
• The API endpoint, and the product where Carbon will appear. Google names neither.
• A release date for developers. Google says "as soon as possible".
• How long the introductory price lasts. Argon's introductory price runs through November 30, 2026; Google gives no length for Carbon's.
• Rate limits, the context window and the output limit.

Argon's standard price doubles on December 1, 2026; Google has not said whether Carbon's price will change on the same date.

Google's benchmark claims

Every figure below is Google's, from its October 28, 2026 announcement. We have not run Gemini 4 Carbon, so we cannot check them.

• Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v5.0 (59, ranked #1): Google: "Carbon ranks #1 on the recently updated v5.0 of Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index at 59." Argon's v5.0 score is not in the post, so no comparison with Argon is given.
• WebDev Arena (1768, ranked #4): Google: "Carbon jumps +89 elo points to land at #4 (1768) on WebDev Arena."
• SEC-bench Pro (88.2%): Google: "landing a firm lead in SEC-bench Pro (88.2%)".
• ExploitGym (54.8%): Google: "Carbon sets a new state-of-the-art on the popular exploitation benchmark ExploitGym (54.8%)."
• CWE-bench (71.0%): Google: "Carbon reaches 71.0% on Collinear's CWE-bench".
• Terminal-Bench 4.0, successful cheating (0.0%): Google: "Carbon reduced successful cheating on Terminal-Bench 4.0 to 0.0%", with attempts "dropping to 0.4%".
• Gray Swan Indirect Prompt Injection (IPI) benchmark (0.0%): Google compares it with Argon's 0.7%: Carbon "resisting every evaluated attack attempt".

Google says the cyber benchmarks were "evaluated without guardrails".

If you need a model now

Only the first row can be acted on today.

On Google's pricing page, Argon is the only Gemini 4 model, so it is the one to plan with this week.

Gemini 4 Argon: what you can call today

Start with Gemini 4 Argon: Google's developer post dated October 13, 2026 says "Starting today, developers can build with Gemini 4 Argon", and tells developers to "Start building using the paid tier of the Gemini API in Google AI Studio and Android Studio".

Argon is not on the free tier. The pricing page notes: "Gemini 4 Argon is not available on the Free tier."

On the Standard tier, per 1M tokens, that same page (checked October 29, 2026) gives input at $2.00 through November 30, 2026 and $4.00 from December 1, 2026; output at $10.00, then $20.00; cached input at $0.10, then $0.20.

Two more pages cover Argon: our Gemini 4 Argon review and our Gemini 4 Argon vs GPT-6 Astra comparison. For OmniaKey's current rates, see the pricing page.

FAQ

Is Gemini 4 Carbon available on the API?

No. Google has published no model ID or API endpoint for Carbon, and its pricing page, last updated October 28, 2026, has no Carbon entry and lists Argon.

What is the Gemini 4 Carbon release date?

Google has given no date. Access starts the week of October 28, 2026, with a subset of cyber defenders, and Google says Carbon will reach developers "as soon as possible".

How much will Gemini 4 Carbon cost?

Google says Carbon will launch at the same introductory price as Argon: $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens, then $4 and $20 after the introductory period. The length of that period is not stated, and the rate is not on Google's pricing page yet.

Is Gemini 4 Carbon better than Gemini 4 Argon?

Google says Carbon ranks #1 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v5.0, at 59. The post gives no Argon score on that version, so we cannot compare the two on your tasks until we can call Carbon.

Can I use Gemini 4 Carbon through OmniaKey?

OmniaKey has no Carbon model page yet, because there is no model ID to call. Gemini 4 Argon is listed and callable today, and its model page is linked above.

Snapshot: October 29, 2026, 15:20 Beijing time. We will revise the page when Google's Gemini API pricing page lists a Carbon model ID, or when Google gives a release date.