Gemini 4 Carbon: Release Date, Price and How to Get Access

Gemini 4 Carbon is Google's newest frontier model, announced on October 28, 2026, and you cannot buy or subscribe to it yet. Google is giving access first to "a subset of cyber defenders," then to "additional trusted partners through our Fairwind Program," according to Google's announcement. There is no public release date for developers, businesses or consumers. Google has already stated the API price: Carbon "will launch at the same introductory price" as Gemini 4 Argon, $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens.

This guide covers what Google has actually announced, what Carbon will cost, how access is likely to widen, and what you can pay for today, including with crypto, so you are ready when Carbon opens.

Gemini 4 Carbon follows Gemini 4 Argon. Google's announcement was published by Koray Kavukcuoglu, SVP of Google DeepMind and Chief AI Architect at Google.

Google positions Carbon around two strengths: cybersecurity and long-horizon work such as coding and agentic tasks. The headline numbers Google published in its Carbon post:

Google also says Carbon "achieves more than 2x uplift in success rate for generating secure code over Argon" on internal benchmarks. It reports a 0.0% attack success rate on prompt-injection testing, compared with 0.7% for Argon on the Gray Swan benchmark. These are Google's own results, not independent tests.

No. Gemini 4 Carbon is Google's AI model. Gemini is also the name of a US crypto exchange with its own card; if that is what you were looking for, see our SolCard vs Gemini Card comparison.

There is no public release date. Google's post says only that it will bring Carbon "to developers, businesses, and consumers soon."

What Google has committed to is a staged rollout:

1. Now: "Starting this week, we will make Carbon available to a subset of cyber defenders."
2. Next: Google "will gradually phase access to additional trusted partners through our Fairwind Program."
3. Later, no date: "We're continuing to gather feedback and iterate on guardrails before making Carbon available to developers, businesses, and consumers."

Google adds that it is "actively engaged in the U.S. government's voluntary process for pre-release model testing." That process sits between the announcement and a public launch.

Argon is the only precedent, and it followed the same pattern. Google announced Argon on September 30, 2026, "rolling out to a set of trusted cyber defenders through our Fairwind Program." On October 13, 2026, Google said developers could build with Argon and that Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers could use it in the Gemini app.

That was about two weeks from announcement to public access. Google has not said Carbon will follow the same timeline, so treat it as a reference point, not a forecast.

Google has published API pricing for Carbon, even though the API is not open yet. From Google's announcement:

Google's footnote reads: "After the introductory period expires, the price of $4 per 1M input tokens and $20 per 1M output tokens will apply." Google has not said how long Carbon's introductory period will last.

Google has not said which Google AI plans will include Carbon, or whether it will need a new plan. The Google AI plans page does not mention Carbon. Anyone quoting a Carbon subscription price today is guessing.

Say you run an agentic coding job that reads 2 million input tokens and writes 300,000 output tokens:

Output tokens are where the cost grows. On the Gemini API, output pricing for Argon includes thinking tokens, per the pricing page, so long reasoning runs cost more than the visible answer suggests. Google has not published a separate Carbon pricing table yet, so check it once Carbon is listed.

For most people, you cannot today. The only current route is the Fairwind Program, and it is built for organizations, not individuals.

Google DeepMind's Fairwind page says "We prioritize access for governments and partners most critical to societal resilience." The groups it lists are:

• "Governments and national cyber authorities"
• "Critical infrastructure operators," including healthcare, telecommunications, energy and financial networks
• "Core technology platforms"
• Academic labs that "focus on defensive benchmarking"

Google says "We conduct background checks on organizations that apply." If your organization fits, the page links to an interest form.

No. The Fairwind page says "we do not allow partner organizations to share, redistribute, or sell access to our frontier models." A site, Telegram channel or reseller offering "Gemini 4 Carbon access" before Google opens it publicly is not selling something Google offers. Do not pay for it, in crypto or otherwise.

Get set up on the channels Carbon is most likely to arrive through, so you can switch the day it opens:

• For developers: a paid-tier Gemini API account in Google AI Studio.
• For everyone else: a Google AI plan that includes Argon today.

Both are covered below. Neither guarantees early Carbon access; Google has not said who gets it first. For Argon, Google said the wider release would start "with paid API customers and Google AI Ultra subscribers," which is the closest signal available.

Argon is Google's current public Gemini 4 model and the one you can actually use now. We cover it in depth in how to pay for Gemini 4 Argon with crypto.

According to Google's plans page, as of October 29, 2026:

Google's Argon app announcement confirms "Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers can now access Gemini 4 Argon." Prices vary by country, so check the page in your region.

From the Gemini API pricing page:

Google states that "Gemini 4 Argon is not available on the Free tier." You need the paid tier.

The Gemini API billing docs explain the setup:

• "The Gemini API uses Cloud Billing accounts for billing services, which you can set up directly in AI Studio."
• With prepay, "you purchase credits towards your prepay balance in advance of your Gemini API usage." "The minimum purchase is $5."
• With postpay, "your Cloud Billing account accrues costs and you are automatically charged at the end of the month."
• Optional auto-reload "automatically tops up your Prepay credit balance when it's running low."
• Monthly spend caps are available at the billing account and project level.

Prepay suits a card you top up with crypto, because you decide exactly how much leaves the card and when. If you use auto-reload or postpay, keep the card funded above the reload amount or your expected monthly bill.

Google does not accept crypto for Gemini plans or the Gemini API. Both bill a card. The practical route is a card you fund with crypto, which Google's checkout sees as an ordinary card charge. Our guide to paying for Google services with crypto covers Google One, Workspace, Ads and Cloud the same way.

Virtual for AI & Ad Spend is a SolCard virtual card built for AI tools and ad platforms. You top it up with stablecoins such as USDC and USDT, or with SOL, ETH and other supported assets, across Solana, Ethereum, Base, Polygon and more.

What it costs:

• Card: $10, one time.
• Top-ups: 5% of each top-up.

One thing to be clear about: SolCard does not yet have payment data for Google charges on this card. It is built for AI tools, but we are not claiming a Google approval rate. If a Google charge fails, work through why your crypto card was declined: balance, billing address and 3D Secure cover most cases.

The 5% top-up fee is the main cost of this route, and on large API budgets it adds up: $1,000 of API credit costs $50 in top-up fees. That is a real limitation, and worth weighing against how much you value paying from a crypto balance with no bank account involved.

1. Create a SolCard account and choose Virtual for AI & Ad Spend.
2. Top up with the crypto you hold, enough for the plan or prepay amount plus a small buffer.
3. For a Gemini plan: add the card at checkout on the Google AI plans page.
4. For the API: open Google AI Studio, set up billing, add the card to the Cloud Billing account and buy prepay credit (minimum $5).
5. When Google opens Carbon, switch the model in AI Studio or the Gemini app. Your payment setup stays the same.

SolCard's general-purpose cards are the Virtual and Platinum tiers, both with a $10 card fee. Virtual has a 5% top-up fee and is available in most countries, including the United States. Platinum has a 0% top-up fee, adds a physical card and Apple Pay or Google Pay, and requires identity verification, but it is not available in the US. Both charge $0.30 per transaction, per the SolCard fee breakdown. Full details are on the fees page and virtual cards page. SolCard is not available in a handful of restricted countries, so check the supported list before signing up.

Use Argon now if you have work to do this month. It is Google's current public Gemini 4 model, and its API is at the introductory price through November 30, 2026.

Wait for Carbon if your work is security research, vulnerability patching or long, multi-step coding, where Google's published Carbon results are strongest. Even then, you cannot do anything with Carbon until Google opens it, so getting set up on Argon costs you nothing in readiness.

Apply to Fairwind if you work for a government cyber authority, a critical infrastructure operator, a core technology platform or a defensive academic lab. That is the only route to Carbon today.

For paying with crypto, a crypto-funded card like Virtual for AI & Ad Spend is one option, with a 5% top-up fee as the trade-off. For other AI tools on the same card, see the AI subscriptions you can pay for with crypto.

No. As of October 29, 2026, Google is giving Carbon to "a subset of cyber defenders" and trusted partners in its Fairwind Program only. Google says it will bring Carbon "to developers, businesses, and consumers soon," with no date.

Google has not announced one. The model was announced on October 28, 2026. For reference, Argon went from announcement on September 30 to public availability on October 13, 2026, but Google has not said Carbon will follow that timeline.

Google says Carbon will launch at an introductory API price of $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens, rising to $4 and $20 after the introductory period. Google has not announced Carbon pricing for the Gemini app or Google AI plans.

Not today. Google's plans page lists Argon for Google AI Pro and Ultra, not Carbon. For Argon, Google said wider access would start with paid API customers and Ultra subscribers, but it has made no such statement for Carbon.

You cannot yet, unless your organization is accepted into the Fairwind Program. Set up a paid-tier Gemini API account in Google AI Studio now so you can switch models when Carbon is listed.

On Google's own benchmarks, yes: Google reports more than 2x the secure-code success rate of Argon and a lower prompt-injection attack rate. These figures are from Google, not independent testing.

Not directly. Google bills Gemini plans and the Gemini API to a card. A crypto-funded card such as Virtual for AI & Ad Spend shows up as an ordinary card charge at checkout, for a $10 card fee and 5% per top-up.

Treat it as one. Google DeepMind says it does "not allow partner organizations to share, redistribute, or sell access to our frontier models."

• Gemini 4 Carbon: our next frontier model, Google, October 28, 2026
• Gemini 4 Argon: our next era of frontier intelligence, Google, September 30, 2026
• Gemini 4 Argon is now available for developers, Google, October 13, 2026
• Gemini 4 Argon is now available in the Gemini app, Google, October 13, 2026
• Fairwind Program, Google DeepMind
• Gemini API pricing and Gemini API billing, Google AI for Developers
• Google AI plans, Google
• SolCard fee breakdown