Many MindedGemini 4 Carbon opens to paying users after two-week security-only preview
On November 10, 2026, Google made Gemini 4 Carbon, its most powerful model, generally available. For its first two weeks it was limited to cybersecurity professionals in a preview. Now paying developers, businesses and Google AI Ultra subscribers can use it. Ultra costs $100 a month in the United States.
Subscribers can reach Carbon in the Gemini app, in AI Mode in Search, and in Antigravity, Google's coding platform. In AI Mode, users choose it from the model menu. They need a personal Google account, must be over 18, and face daily usage limits. The Gemini app labels Carbon for the most complex work and Argon for code and analysis. Developers can call it through the premium Gemini API in Google AI Studio and Android Studio, and businesses can select it in Gemini for Business accounts.
Pricing matches Argon's initial rates through November 30, at $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens. Those rates double from December 1. Carbon is excluded from the free API tier, and every token, thinking tokens included, is billed. Google itself still recommends Argon for most coding and knowledge work, since Carbon spends more tokens exploring and checking, so the same task can cost more.
For knowledge access, this is a mixed step. The strongest model moved from a narrow expert preview to a broad paying audience within weeks. But the frontier remains metered and paywalled, with no free tier, and the price is set to rise.
Watch the December pricing change and whether Google extends Carbon to cheaper plans. Google also announced /swarm in Antigravity, a preview feature that splits one prompt across several models, with Carbon handling design. Google's own team warns it burns quota much faster than ordinary chat. Google's first-place rankings on CursorBench 4.0 and Zapier's AutomationBench are its claims as reported, with no scores given. Prices cited are US figures.
Source: Google News