Gemini 4 Carbon

Google's most capable reasoning model, built on Gemini 4 Argon and set to spend more thinking per turn on hard coding, science, security and multimodal research work.

Context: 1M tokens
Max output: 1M
Cutoff: Mar 2026
Released: Nov 2026

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Hosted API price

List price via Google Cloud · per 1M tokens

USD

Input: $2.00 /1M
Output: $10.00 /1M
Hosted by: 2 providers

Hosted API pricing

How we price

Order

Providers are listed cheapest input rate first, then by output rate, a tie going to the creator's own listing. A provider that lists the model without a published rate sits at the end.

Prices

Base-tier, on-demand rates in USD per 1M tokens, converted at ECB reference rates where a provider publishes in another currency. Cached-input and batch rates show only where a provider publishes them. "Cheapest" marks the one provider with the lowest input and output pair; a tie wears no badge.

Cost

Input rate times the input tokens plus output rate times the output tokens, at the monthly volume set above the table. Cached-input, batch, long-context and reasoning-token billing are not modelled.

Transparency and funding

Affiliates: Affiliate links are marked. We may earn a commission if you click them, but commissions never affect the order.

Every provider serving Gemini 4 Carbon, cheapest input first. Set your monthly volume to see what each would bill.

Input M Output M

Every provider serving Gemini 4 Carbon, with its price per 1M input and output tokens and what the volume above would cost
Provider	Input /1M	Output /1M	Cached input /1M	Cost at 10M in + 2M out	Link
Google Cloud Creator	$2.00	$10.00	$0.10	$40.00	Visit website
Replicate	$2.00	$10.00		$40.00	Visit website

Heads up: Base-tier, on-demand rates per 1M tokens; cached, batch and long-context tiers excluded. A provider may serve a shorter context or a quantized build than the creator's release. Verify before provisioning. More on how we price.

Similarly priced models

The models nearest Gemini 4 Carbon by blended rate, each at its own cheapest provider.

Models priced nearest Gemini 4 Carbon per 1M tokens, each at its cheapest provider
Model	Blended /1M	Input /1M	Output /1M	Context	Cutoff	vs Gemini 4 Carbon
GPT-4.1 OpenAI	$3.00	$2.00	$8.00	1M	Jun 2024	−10%
o3 OpenAI	$3.00	$2.00	$8.00	200K	Jun 2024	−10%
Claude Sonnet 5 Anthropic	$3.3333	$2.00	$10.00	1M	Jan 2026	0%
Claude Sonnet 5.5 Anthropic	$3.3333	$2.00	$10.00	1M	Jun 2026	0%
Gemini 4 Argon Google Cloud	$3.3333	$2.00	$10.00	1M	Mar 2026	0%
Gemini 4 Carbon This model Google Cloud	$3.3333	$2.00	$10.00	1M	Mar 2026
GPT-5.6 Sol OpenAI	$3.3333	$2.00	$10.00	1M	Feb 2026	0%
GPT-6 Sol OpenAI	$3.3333	$2.00	$10.00	1M	Apr 2026	0%
GPT-6.1 Sol OpenAI	$3.3333	$2.00	$10.00	1M	Apr 2026	0%
Kimi K3.1 Pro Moonshot AI	$3.3333	$2.00	$10.00	1M		0%
Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview Google Cloud	$3.6667	$2.00	$12.00	1M	Jan 2025	+10%

USD per 1M tokens at each model's cheapest listed provider. Blended is the cost of 10M input plus 2M output tokens, spread over the 12M.

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Capabilities

What Gemini 4 Carbon accepts and can do, as published by Google Cloud.

Text Accepts and generates natural-language text.
Image Accepts images as input alongside text.
Video Accepts video as input.
Audio Accepts audio as input.
Reasoning Thinks before it answers, always on or as a switchable mode.
Function calling Connect to external tools, APIs, and systems.
Structured output Return responses in structured formats like JSON.
Web search Search the web for up-to-date information.
Code execution Write and execute code in a sandboxed environment.
File upload Process uploaded documents, spreadsheets, and other files.

Common questions

What is Gemini 4 Carbon good for?

Hard software engineering such as root-cause debugging and architecture design, dense research across documents and spreadsheets, scientific proofs and security audits. Google points to Argon for faster everyday coding loops and to Carbon where depth matters more than latency.

When is Gemini 4 Carbon not a good fit?

Latency-sensitive or high-volume work: Google says it spends more thinking tokens per turn than Argon, it sits at the top of Google's price range and it is not sold on the free tier. Closed weights, so no self-hosting, output is text only, explicit caching is not supported, and the Live API does not serve it.

What is the cheapest way to run Gemini 4 Carbon?

The cheapest hosted rate is $2.00 / $10.00 per 1M tokens via Google Cloud.

Can I self-host Gemini 4 Carbon?

No. Google Cloud does not publish the weights; Gemini 4 Carbon is available only through hosted APIs.