What Is Gemini 4 Pro (Argon)? Features, Price, Benchmarks

Google DeepMind announced Gemini 4 Argon on September 30, 2026. The company presents the model as its new frontier model, designed for "complex, long-running workflows": software engineering, enterprise knowledge work such as law and finance, and cyber defense. The most striking number is the output limit: 1 million tokens instead of the previous generation's 64 thousand.

You will also see this model called "Gemini 4 Pro" online. Let's settle that name first, then look at what the model does, what it costs and who can use it.

This post is a news roundup and compilation; I have not tested the model. Since October 13 it has been available in the Gemini app to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers and in Antigravity to Pro and Ultra (on Pro with a separate, weekly-only Argon quota); on day one it was open only to a group of approved organizations. Google's follow-up, announced October 28, is covered in a separate post: Gemini 4 Carbon. Every number below comes from Google's announcement and independent write-ups, with sources at the end.

November 14 note: The Gemini 4 family now has three models. Carbon went generally available on November 10 (Ultra subscribers in the apps, paying developers in the API). Gemini 4 Hydrogen, released on November 12, is open to free users as well; according to Google it sits one point ahead of Argon on the Artificial Analysis index at its default setting (51 to 50) and costs $1.50 per million input tokens and $7.50 for output. Argon's own access has not changed: it is still open to Pro and Ultra subscribers and paying API users, and its intro price ends on November 30. The current table is in the access post.

Is there a model called "Gemini 4 Pro"?

The official announcement does not mention a Gemini 4 release named "Pro". In Google's post the model is called Gemini 4 Argon. The "Pro" label is shorthand the community uses, based on naming like Gemini 3.1 Pro in earlier generations. Before the announcement, some sites also matched the "Argon" codename with "Gemini 4 Pro"; Google did not confirm that.

The practical upshot: if you are searching for "Gemini 4 Pro", as far as we know today it is Gemini 4 Argon. There is no separate "Pro" price, model page or model ID. For setup details, see How to Install Gemini 4 Pro Argon? Who Can Use It?.

The news at a glance

Feature	Value
Model name	Gemini 4 Argon
Announcement date	September 30, 2026
Developer	Google DeepMind
Input context	1 million tokens
Maximum output	1 million tokens (64 thousand before)
Intro price	$2 / million input tokens, $10 / million output tokens
Standard price (after intro period)	$4 input, $20 output
Cached input	95% discount off the input price
Access (Sept 30)	Cyber defenders in the Fairwind Program
Access (since Oct 13)	Paid Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers in the Gemini app and in Antigravity; on Pro, a separate weekly-only Argon quota in Antigravity

According to WinBuzzer, the intro price runs through November 30, with standard pricing from December 1.

What is it designed for?

Google highlights three areas.

Software engineering. The announcement includes internal examples: one memory optimization effort freed 300 TiB, with total savings expected to land between 500 TiB and 1 PiB. Projects porting C/C++ code to Rust are also cited, with examples over 800 thousand lines. These are Google's own accounts; there is no independent reproduction yet.

Enterprise knowledge work. Legal drafting, financial research and video analysis are listed. On the independent evaluator Vals' index, the model appears in first place.

Cyber defense. The security firm Wiz reportedly used the model to find a critical flaw in healthcare software that exposed personal data, one that earlier models missed. That is also why Google is starting access in this area.

Benchmark results

The numbers from Google's announcement and the write-ups based on it:

Benchmark	Gemini 4 Argon	Comparison
DeepSWE v1.1 (long software tasks)	77.9%	Claude Opus 5.5 74.2%, GPT-6 Astra 74.1%
Vals Index	68.9%	Claude Opus 5.5 67.0%, GPT-6 Astra 63.1%
AutomationBench	51.3%	First place in the announcement
LVBench (video understanding)	91.7%
CWE-bench v1 (vulnerability repair)	68%	Tied first with GPT-6 Astra
Terminal-Bench 4.0	57.4%	Claude Opus 5.5 66.4%
FrontierSWE v2	55.0%	GPT-6 Astra 65.5%

The most important detail is in the bottom two rows: Argon trails on terminal-based and science-type tasks. Its strengths are long context, legal and financial work, and long software tasks. I cover which model suits which job in Gemini 4 Argon vs Claude Opus 5.5 vs GPT-6 Astra.

One more caveat: according to The Next Web, some Google employees have voiced doubts that the model is as good in real workflows as it is on benchmarks. Since there was no independent reproduction on launch day, it is fair to read these numbers as "values reported by Google and the evaluators."

Independent measurements and hallucination rate (October 4 update)

In the AI Search channel's weekly news video of October 4, 2026, these additional points stand out for Gemini 4 Argon:

• Artificial Analysis intelligence index: Argon is not first; it shares second place with GPT-6 Astra and Claude Fable, a few points behind Claude Opus 5.5. But it is markedly cheaper than rivals of the same intelligence level.
• Long output: 1 million output tokens, far above the 64 thousand to 128 thousand limit seen in frontier models. This is separate from the context window: on the input side all frontier models already take 1 million tokens.
• Low hallucination rate: On the Omniscience benchmark, Argon gives a wrong answer about 15% of the time; according to the video, the figure is about 50% for GPT-6 models and between 60% and 70% for Claude models. The benchmark checks whether a model says "I don't know" instead of giving a made-up or partial answer to a question it cannot answer. So Argon looks like the most honest model when it does not know.
• Access: The video is from October 4; that day only the private program for trusted cyber defenders was open. The current status is below.

These numbers are taken from charts shown in the video; there is no independent reproduction.

November 1 note: In October Artificial Analysis updated its AA-Omniscience benchmark to v1.1 and moved its intelligence index to v5.0. On its site Argon now shows 50 points on the index and a 4% hallucination rate; the roughly 15% above and the ranking belong to the older version. I put Argon next to Gemini 4 Carbon, Claude Opus 5.5 and GPT-6 Astra with current numbers in the Carbon comparison.

Relationship to Antigravity

Antigravity is Google's agent-focused development environment, announced on November 18, 2025 alongside Gemini 3. Besides the editor view, it has a manager view where you run multiple agents in parallel.

According to Varun Mohan's announcement post, thousands of Google employees were using Argon internally in Antigravity. At the October 13 launch, WinBuzzer showed Argon in Antigravity as Ultra only; Google's Antigravity post then announced Pro and Ultra subscribers, and 9to5Google wrote on October 15 that the rollout was visible on Pro accounts. On Pro, Argon comes with a quota that is separate from the Gemini 3.8 Flash quota and weekly-only; Google has not said how large it is. See the quota section in the access post for details. Antigravity's coding interface also arrived in the macOS Gemini app.

Why was access staged?

Google states the reason openly: because the model's cyber capability is strong, it is opening access in stages. It says it is strengthening its safeguards and its techniques for catching misuse by monitoring the model's internal activity, and that it has joined the US government's voluntary pre-release access process. Partners in the Fairwind Program get a version with relaxed cyber protections.

The order was: Fairwind on September 30, then Pro and Ultra subscribers in the Gemini app on October 13, followed by Pro and Ultra in Antigravity. There is no announcement for free users. A full table is in the access post.

Google is repeating the same path for its next model: Gemini 4 Carbon, announced on October 28, opened first to just a group of cyber defenders. By Google's account, Carbon builds on Argon.

Who is it relevant for?

• Teams that process long documents and codebases: 1 million input tokens together with 1 million output tokens could make jobs like rewriting a codebase in one pass possible. But remember that output tokens are multiplied by the $10 / million price.
• Security teams: Directly relevant for organizations that can apply to Fairwind.
• Individual developers: You can try it in the Gemini app and in Antigravity with a Pro or Ultra subscription; on Pro, Argon's weekly quota is separate and its size has not been disclosed, so first see how much a task of your own uses.

For how I choose AI tools as an individual developer, see the vibe coding tools comparison.

Frequently Asked Questions

Are Gemini 4 Pro and Gemini 4 Argon the same model?

Officially there is no name "Gemini 4 Pro". The model Google announced is Gemini 4 Argon, and the community attaches the "Pro" label to it.

Is Gemini 4 Argon free?

No. The Gemini app needs a Pro or Ultra plan. On the API the intro price is $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens; from December 1 it is $4 and $20.

Can I use Gemini 4 Argon right now?

Yes, if you are a paid Google AI Pro or Ultra subscriber, in both the Gemini app and Antigravity. On Pro, Argon has a separate, weekly-only quota in Antigravity. There is no announcement for free users. Details are in the access post.

How large is the context window?

1 million tokens for input and 1 million tokens for output. The previous generation's maximum output was 64 thousand tokens.

Can I trust the benchmark results?

The numbers are values reported by Google and the evaluators. There is no independent reproduction yet; do not decide until you have tried it on your own work.

Sources

• Google, Gemini 4 Argon: our next era of frontier intelligence (September 30, 2026): tasks, benchmark results, pricing, output limit, safety rationale.
• Google, Gemini 4 Argon is now available in the Gemini app (October 13, 2026): access for Pro and Ultra subscribers.
• WinBuzzer, Google Releases Gemini 4 Argon for Longer AI Work (October 14, 2026): pricing dates. Its "Ultra only" statement for Antigravity has since changed.
• 9to5Google, Gemini 4 Argon is now rolling out to Google's Antigravity for AI Pro subscribers (October 15, 2026): separate, weekly-only Argon quota for Pro.
• Google DeepMind, Fairwind Program: who can apply and the terms of access.
• DataCamp, Gemini 4 Argon: Benchmarks, Pricing, and Access: comparison tables with rival models and availability notes.
• The Next Web, Gemini 4 Argon: Google's new flagship reaches cyber defenders first: release timing and employee doubts.
• Varun Mohan, announcement post (X): internal use in Antigravity.
• Wikipedia, Google Antigravity: Antigravity's release date and features.
• AI Search, Gemini 4, GPT 6.1, Dots, Claude Sonnet 5.5, Ideogram 4.5, Flux 3: AI NEWS (YouTube, October 4, 2026): Artificial Analysis ranking and the Omniscience hallucination rate.