Gemini 4 Carbon Is Open to Developers, and the Cheap Price Ends November 30
Have you ever put off trying a new tool because the price looked scary, only to find out it costs the same as the one you already use? That is pretty much what happened yesterday. On November 10, Google opened Gemini 4 Carbon, its strongest AI model so far, to all paying developers through the Gemini API. Until then, only a small group of cybersecurity defenders had access through Google's…
Google has made its latest and most powerful AI model, Gemini 4 Carbon, available to all developers at competitive prices until November 30. Previously, only a select group of cybersecurity experts had access through Google's Fairwind Program after the model's initial announcement on October 28. Now, any developer with a paid API key can use Gemini 4 Carbon through Google AI Studio, Android Studio, and Google's Gemini for Business.
The catch is the price: $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens until the deadline, which is $4 and $20 respectively starting December 1st.
The model is designed to handle complex, multi-step tasks that challenge the limits of AI, such as long agentic workflows, intricate coding and debugging, and open-ended research. Its higher price tag is due to its built-in longer thinking and additional verification loops. Despite this, Google highlights that Carbon significantly outperforms other models on certain benchmarks, even at a lower cost per task.
One standout example is Signal, where researchers used Carbon to formally verify the cryptographic protocol behind its security. This task typically requires expert teams to work for years, but Carbon managed it in just weeks. Google is also previewing Swarm in Antigravity, an AI development platform that uses Carbon to handle the most complex reasoning tasks, while lighter models manage simpler tasks simultaneously.
For developers, the recommendation is to try Carbon while the introductory price is still available, focusing on tasks that it's designed for. The prices will double on December 1, so it's advised to budget accordingly. Carbon is not part of the free tier on the Gemini API, and the consumer rollout is limited to specific Google AI Ultra subscribers in the Gemini app, Google AI Ultra in Search, and Antigravity.
Despite these limitations, Carbon is definitely worth exploring for those with the right use cases, especially if they can leverage its capabilities at the current lower prices.
Written by urgent.news from Dev.to's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
