Google opens Gemini 4 Argon to the public, betting on price to win back the AI frontier
Google made its Gemini 4 Argon model generally available on Tuesday to developers, businesses and paying Gemini subscribers, at an introductory price far below rival frontier models. Google says Argon leads on most benchmarks; independent tests put it level with the top tier rather than clearly ahead.
What happened: Google said Tuesday that Gemini 4 Argon is now "globally available" to developers and enterprises through its API in AI Studio, to Google AI Ultra subscribers in its Antigravity coding environment, and to Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers in the Gemini app and AI Mode in Search, according to a post by Google DeepMind's Koray Kavukcuoglu. The Verge reported that it is not clear when, or whether, Argon will reach Plus subscribers or free users.
From limited to public: Argon was first released only to a select group of cybersecurity defenders in Google's Fairwind program so it could be tested for risks, The Verge reported. ReadingDlaw News covered that limited rollout earlier this month. Google said Tuesday it is also expanding Fairwind to "hundreds of additional" partners.
What it does: Google says Argon is built for long, multi-step work in coding, finance, law, cybersecurity and science, and that it answers "more directly with less hedging." The company says the model can handle a combined 1 million tokens of input and output through its API. R&D World noted that earlier Gemini releases capped output at 64,000 tokens, so the larger limit leaves room for long, multi-step agent runs.
The price: Argon launched at $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens, Google said. Those prices rise to $4 and $20 after November 30. The Verge said the introductory rate is about a fifth of the cost of OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra and Anthropic's Fable 5 models. The Verge also noted that per-token prices don't always mean lower real costs, because models can use different numbers of tokens for the same task.
The benchmark claims: Google says Argon outperforms other frontier models on benchmarks across several fields and ranks first on the Vals Index, which tests finance, coding, legal and tax work. These are Google's own figures. In independent testing reported by R&D World as of October 1, Artificial Analysis scored Argon 53 on its Intelligence Index, matching GPT-6 Astra but behind Claude Opus 5.5 at 58. The same testing found Argon used about 62,000 output tokens per task, compared with about 27,000 for Astra.
Safety: Google said it evaluated Argon under its Frontier Safety Framework and added layered defenses against misuse. It said outside biology red-teamers could unlock "less than 1%" of the bio sub-tasks it tests for, and that a monitor watches the model's agent actions for unauthorized shortcuts. These are company claims that have not been independently audited.
Why it matters: Argon is Google's first major frontier release since Gemini 3 in late 2025, a stretch in which Anthropic and OpenAI pulled ahead, The Verge reported. It landed a day after Meta announced its own frontier model, Muse Wonder Full, according to The Verge. For everyday users, the immediate change is a stronger model in the Gemini app for those on Pro or Ultra plans.