Gemini 4 Carbon is now available

Google's post on 10 November 2026 says Gemini 4 Carbon is now available to developers, enterprises, scientists, and consumers. Google calls it its strongest model, for cybersecurity and for long agent work across knowledge work, software engineering, and scientific reasoning. Google says Carbon went to a set of cybersecurity defenders through the Fairwind Program two weeks earlier. Argon remains the model Google recommends for most software engineering and knowledge work. Carbon is for tasks that test the limits, including multi-step coding and open-ended scientific research, and Google says it uses more tokens than Argon to explore and check its work.

Google says 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. On the Multimodal Knowledge Agent benchmark, which Google says it built with Artificial Analysis, Carbon ranks second at more than 6X lower average cost per task than the top model. Those figures are Google's.

Paying developers can use the Gemini API paid tier in Google AI Studio and Android Studio. Enterprises can use it in Gemini for business. Google says the introductory price matches Argon: $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens. After 30 November 2026, Google says the price is $4 per million input tokens and $20 per million output tokens, for the public Carbon model. Google AI Ultra subscribers are getting Carbon in Google Antigravity, the Gemini app, and AI Mode in Search. Google is also previewing /swarm in Antigravity, which turns one prompt into a team of agents you can track. The post says developers can assign Carbon to design, coordination, and auditing, and pair it with faster models in separate workspaces.

GitHub's changelog, dated 10 November 2026, says Gemini 4 Carbon is generally available in GitHub Copilot for Pro+, Max, Business, and Enterprise, with a gradual rollout. You can select it in Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio, Copilot CLI, the Copilot coding agent, the Copilot app, github.com, GitHub Mobile, JetBrains IDEs, Xcode, and Eclipse. Business and Enterprise administrators manage it in the model policy. GitHub says new models are enabled by default unless an administrator has turned that default off or disabled this model. GitHub says Copilot bills the model at provider list pricing under usage-based billing. That note is the Copilot changelog (opens in a new tab).

Who it's for: a paying developer, a Gemini for business customer, or a Google AI Ultra subscriber with a long coding, security, or research task.

Fits: Best for Writing stays Claude. Gemini stays third, for a draft next to Gmail and Docs. Google still points most knowledge work at Argon, so Carbon in the Gemini app does not move an ordinary memo. Best for Vibe Coding stays Cursor. GitHub Copilot can now select this model. That does not move Copilot's rank. Best for Research stays Perplexity. The writing guide, the coding guide, and the Gemini alternatives are unchanged. The verdict is unchanged.