llm-gemini 0.37 released; Google Gemini 4 pricing called confusing
Simon Willison released llm-gemini 0.37, coinciding with Google's launch of Gemini 4 Hydrogen, the lowest-cost member of the Gemini 4 family. Willison criticizes the pricing as confusing: Carbon and Argon share identical prices and are both scheduled to double on December 1, 2026, while Hydrogen offers only a 25% discount despite being positioned as the cheap option.
Coverage timeline
Simon Willison
Release: llm-gemini 0.37 Google launched Gemini 4 Hydrogen today - the lowest cost member of the Gemini 4 family. It's actually not too far off the price of its much bigger siblings, Carbon and Argon. I'm finding Gemini 4's pricing really confusing. Here's the pricing scheme: Model Dates Input ($/M) Cached input Output Gemini 4 Carbon Through Nov 30, 2026 $2.00 $0.10 $10.00 From Dec 1, 2026 $4.00 $0.20 $20.00 Gemini 4 Argon Through Nov 30, 2026 $2.00 $0.10 $10.00 From Dec 1, 2026 $4.00 $0.20 $20.00 Gemini 4 Hydrogen $1.50 $0.075 $7.50 Carbon and Argon are the same price , and both are scheduled to double in price on December 1st. If they're the same price, why have two different models? Google says that Argon "delivers Gemini 4 intelligence with faster responses and lower token spend per turn compared to Gemini 4 Carbon" - so it may be priced the same, but it will use less tokens per task. Hydrogen, supposedly the cheap model, is currently only a 25% discount on its more capable peers.
Related stories
Google launches Gemini 4 Hydrogen, a low-cost agentic model, across products
Google announced Gemini 4 Hydrogen, a new Flash-level multimodal model with a 1M token window, priced at $1.50/1M input and $7.50/1M output tokens. It is available across AI Studio, the Gemini API, Search, the Gemini app, and Antigravity, and introduces an xhigh reasoning level. Benchmarks show it nearly ties Claude Sonnet 5.5 and GPT-6.1 Sol on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index at lower cost, and it powers an upgraded AI Mode in Search.
9 reports · 6 sources569 points · 351 comments
Google launches Gemini 4 Carbon to public, adds swarm feature in Antigravity
Google DeepMind has made Gemini 4 Carbon, its self-described strongest model, available to the general public via consumer, developer, and enterprise channels, two weeks after an initial release to cybersecurity defenders. The model is priced at $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens, with a scheduled increase to $4/$20 on December 1st. Google also previewed a 'swarm' feature in its Antigravity IDE, and highlighted a research case where Carbon-powered agents formally verified Signal's encryption code.
Google DeepMind unveils Gemini 4 Carbon, tops AI benchmark
Google DeepMind announced Gemini 4 Carbon, its next frontier model, claiming state-of-the-art performance in cybersecurity and long-horizon tasks. The model scored 59 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v5.0, ranking first ahead of Claude Opus 5.5 (58) and GPT-6 Astra (57). It is initially available only to select cybersecurity defense companies through the Fairwind program, with pricing at $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens, rising to $4 and $20 later.
8 reports · 6 sources1013 points · 801 comments
Google launches Gemini Decisions API with Decision 1 model, priced at $0.10 per 1M input tokens
Google launched the Gemini Decisions API, powered by its new Gemini Decision 1 model, which returns predefined answers with confidence scores for yes/no, choice, and rubric-scoring questions. The API is priced at $0.10 per million input tokens with free output, and supports text, images, audio, video, and PDFs. It joins Jev and OpenAI in the decision model category, with Jev remaining the cheapest at $0.042 per million tokens.
News updates every hour. Subscribe in your RSS reader to get new stories automatically.
Subscribe