Gemini API: Gemini 4 Carbon Reaches General Availability
Gemini CLIGoogle released Gemini 4 Carbon (gemini-4-carbon) to general availability in the Gemini API on November 10, 2026. The model targets sustained agentic coding, multimodal knowledge work, scientific reasoning and cybersecurity defense. Introductory pricing is $2.00 per 1M input tokens and $10.00 per 1M output tokens through November 30, 2026.
Key Takeaways
- Gemini 4 Carbon is now generally available in the Gemini API as
gemini-4-carbon, according to Google's November 10, 2026 release notes. - Google targets sustained agentic coding as a core use case, aiming at long-running engineering tasks rather than single-shot completions.
- The model is also pitched at cybersecurity defense, covering vulnerability discovery, exploitation analysis and patching.
- Introductory pricing of $2.00 input and $10.00 output per 1M tokens runs through November 30, 2026, and matches Gemini 4 Argon's introductory rates.
- At its October 28 announcement, Google said Carbon produced secure code at more than twice the success rate of Gemini 4 Argon on internal benchmarks.
- Carbon began as a restricted release through the Fairwind Program for cyber defenders, so the November 10 note marks a broadening of access.
Sources & Mentions
1 external resource covering this update
What Google Released
Google moved Gemini 4 Carbon into general availability in the Gemini API on November 10, 2026, under the model ID gemini-4-carbon. Google positions the model for four kinds of work: sustained agentic coding, multimodal knowledge work, scientific reasoning, and cybersecurity defense. The release follows Gemini 4 Argon, which reached general availability on October 13, and gives developers a second Gemini 4 option to choose from.
Carbon was first announced on October 28, 2026. At that point, access was limited to a subset of cybersecurity defenders through Google's Fairwind Program while Google continued testing safeguards. The November 10 entry in the Gemini API release notes marks the model's move to general API availability.
Built for Long-Running Engineering and Security Work
Google describes Carbon as state of the art across cybersecurity tasks, including finding vulnerabilities, exploiting them and patching software, and as suited to complex, long-running engineering and coding work. On Google's own internal benchmarks at announcement time, Carbon generated secure code at more than twice the success rate of Gemini 4 Argon. These figures come from Google and have not been independently verified.
For developers who run coding agents, the emphasis on sustained agentic work is the practical headline. Tasks that run for many steps, such as refactoring a large codebase, triaging a vulnerability report or building a feature end to end, are the workloads Google says Carbon is tuned for.
Pricing
Introductory pricing is $2.00 per 1M input tokens and $10.00 per 1M output tokens, available through November 30, 2026. This matches the introductory pricing Google set for Gemini 4 Argon. Google's release note does not state what rates apply after the introductory window, so teams planning production budgets should check the pricing page before the end of the month.
Getting Started
Developers can call the model by setting the model string to gemini-4-carbon in the Gemini API. Google points to its "What's new in Gemini 4 Carbon" guide for setup details. Teams already using Gemini 4 Argon can compare the two on their own coding and security workloads before deciding which to run in production.