Google releases Gemini 4 Argon: 1M-token output, tied with GPT-6 Astra on an independent score
Gemini 4 Argon reaches general release
On October 1, 2026 at 05:00 KST it was available only to defensive security organizations through the Fairwind program. On October 14, 2026 at 01:00 KST it reached general release on paid Gemini API tiers, AI Studio, Google Antigravity (Ultra subscribers), and the Gemini app and Search AI Mode (Pro and Ultra subscribers).
Source: Google blog, Oct 14 ↗
Model ID, 1M output, and price
The model ID is gemini-4-argon. The default thinking level is medium, and low, medium, or high can be selected. Input, thinking, and output share one 1,048,576-token window, and a single response can run up to 1M tokens. Through November 30 the introductory price is $2 per 1M input tokens, $0.10 per 1M cached input tokens, and $10 per 1M output tokens including thinking tokens. From December 1 those prices are $4, $0.20, and $20. It is not available on the free tier or on the Google AI Pro plan in the API.
Source: Gemini API docs ↗
Independent score ties Astra
On the Artificial Analysis leaderboard (2026-10-14), Gemini 4 Argon (high) scores 53, tying GPT-6 Astra (max). Claude Opus 5.5 (max) scores 58. Claude Sonnet 5.5 (max) and Muse Wonder Full score 56. Grok 4.8 is not on this leaderboard. Grok 4.7 (xhigh) scores 46. On AA-Omniscience the hallucination rate is 15% for Argon and 51% for Astra, and accuracy is 50% for Argon and 63% for Astra. Hallucination rate and accuracy for Opus 5.5 are not in the sources checked. One analysis says the low hallucination rate comes from answering 'I don't know' more often, not from getting more answers right.
Benchmarks Google published
Across the 18 items Google published, Argon was the sole leader on 12 and tied for first on 1. DeepSWE v1.1 is 77.9%, LVBench is 91.7%, FrontierSWE v2 is 55.0%, and Terminal-bench 4.0 is 57.4%. Harvey Legal Agent Benchmark is 19.6%, AutomationBench is 51.3%, and the Gray Swan indirect prompt-injection attack success rate is 0.7%. No coding-benchmark numbers that compare Argon directly with Grok turned up.
Community reaction
The Hacker News launch thread reached 1,579 points and 1,048 comments by October 1. The most common complaint was that nobody could use it yet, followed by doubts about the benchmarks. On Reddit r/singularity the 15% hallucination rate drew the most interest, along with the point that the cost advantage Artificial Analysis cited uses the introductory price and that the regular price is higher than Astra. Bloomberg reported that some Google employees doubt the real coding performance, and Google disputed that report.
Source: Hacker News, Oct 1 ↗
The conclusion first: On the early morning of October 14 (KST), Google released its new top model, Gemini 4 Argon, worldwide. On Google's own table it leads 12 of 18 benchmarks, but on the Artificial Analysis leaderboard (2026-10-14) Argon (high) ties GPT-6 Astra (max) at 53 and sits below Claude Opus 5.5 (max) at 58. The differences that stand out are the hallucination rate (15%) and output that can run to 1M tokens in one response.
When it shipped, and what shipped
- Announcement: October 1, 2026, 05:00 KST. At first it was offered only to defensive security organizations through the Fairwind program. (Google blog)
- General release: October 14, 2026, 01:00 KST. It rolled out to paid Gemini API tiers, AI Studio, Google Antigravity (Ultra subscribers), and the Gemini app and Search AI Mode (Pro and Ultra subscribers). (Google blog)
- Model ID:
gemini-4-argon. The default thinking level is medium, and low, medium, or high can be selected. (Gemini API docs)
Main capabilities
- Input, thinking, and output share one 1,048,576-token window. A single response can pass 64K and run up to 1M tokens (Long decode). (Gemini API docs)
- In Antigravity it can be selected as the model for running
/goaland for coordinating multiple agents. (AI Studio developer guide) How/goaljudges inside a harness is written up in Claude Code vs Codex /goal. - Tuned for defensive security. It was trained to find, verify, and patch vulnerabilities, and trusted defensive organizations get it without the cyber guardrails. (Google blog)
- Google's internal examples (Google's announcement): a C/C++ to Rust migration, a libgav1 decoder 2.7x faster than the previous Rust port, and more than 300 TiB of data-center memory saved.
Price
| Through Nov 30 (introductory) | From Dec 1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Input (1M tokens) | $2 | $4 |
| Cached input (1M tokens) | $0.10 | $0.20 |
| Output, including thinking tokens (1M tokens) | $10 | $20 |
It is not available on the free tier or on the Google AI Pro plan in the API. (Gemini API docs)
Comparison with other models
Independent evaluation (Artificial Analysis)
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index | Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index |
|---|---|
| Claude Opus 5.5 (max) | 58 |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 (max) | 56 |
| Muse Wonder Full (Meta) | 56 |
| GPT-6 Astra (max) | 53 |
| Gemini 4 Argon (high) | 53 |
| GPT-6.1 Sol (max) | 52 |
| Grok 4.7 (xhigh) | 46 |
| MiMo-V2.6-Pro (Xiaomi) | 46 |
| Qwen3.8 Max | 45 |
| GLM-5.3 (max) | 45 |
| Kimi K3 (max) | 44 |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash (high) | 41 |
| DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (max) | 39 |
| Model | Intelligence Index |
|---|---|
| Claude Opus 5.5 (max) | 58 |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 (max) | 56 |
| Muse Wonder Full (Meta) | 56 |
| GPT-6 Astra (max) | 53 |
| Gemini 4 Argon (high) | 53 |
| GPT-6.1 Sol (max) | 52 |
| Grok 4.7 (xhigh) | 46 |
| MiMo-V2.6-Pro (Xiaomi) | 46 |
| Qwen3.8 Max | 45 |
| GLM-5.3 (max) | 45 |
| Kimi K3 (max) | 44 |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash (high) | 41 |
| DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (max) | 39 |
Source: Artificial Analysis leaderboard (as of 2026-10-14). Grok 4.8 is not on this leaderboard. The Grok entry listed there is Grok 4.7 (xhigh) at 46.
| AA-Omniscience (%) | Gemini 4 Argon | GPT-6 Astra | Claude Opus 5.5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hallucination rate | 15% | 51% | N/A |
| Accuracy | 50% | 63% | N/A |
| Gemini 4 Argon | GPT-6 Astra | Claude Opus 5.5 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hallucination rate (AA-Omniscience, lower is better) | 15% | 51% | unreported |
| Accuracy (AA-Omniscience) | 50% | 63% | unreported |
Sources: AT Pulse, endue briefing (both cite Artificial Analysis numbers). One analysis says the low hallucination rate comes from answering "I don't know" more often, not from getting more answers right.
Benchmarks Google published
| Google-published benchmarks (%) | Gemini 4 Argon | GPT-6 Astra | Claude Opus 5.5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSWE v1.1 | 77.9% | 74.1% | 74.2% |
| LVBench | 91.7% | 87.5% | 83.7% |
| FrontierSWE v2 | 55.0% | 65.5% | N/A |
| Terminal-bench 4.0 | 57.4% | N/A | 66.4% |
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Argon | GPT-6 Astra | Claude Opus 5.5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSWE v1.1 (long-horizon software work) | 77.9% | 74.1% | 74.2% |
| LVBench (long-video understanding) | 91.7% | 87.5% | 83.7% |
| FrontierSWE v2 | 55.0% | 65.5% | unreported |
| Terminal-bench 4.0 | 57.4% | unreported | 66.4% |
Source: VentureBeat, which reproduces Google's published table. Across the 18 items Google published, Argon was the sole leader on 12 and tied for first on 1. "Unreported" means the sources checked here do not give a number. No figures that compare Argon directly with Grok turned up.
Work automation and security benchmarks
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Argon | GPT-6 Astra | Claude Opus 5.5 | Grok 4.8 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harvey Legal Agent Benchmark (legal research, higher is better) | 19.6% | 5.4% | 3.8% | unreported |
| AutomationBench (Zapier task execution, higher is better) | 51.3% | 41.4% | 42.5% | unreported |
| Gray Swan indirect prompt-injection attack success rate (lower is better) | 0.7% | 8.5% | 1.0% | 51.8% |
Source: VentureBeat, reproducing Google's published material. The Gray Swan figure is the rate at which attacks succeeded, so lower means stronger defense.
Community reaction
- Hacker News: The launch thread reached 1,579 points and 1,048 comments by October 1. The most common complaint was "nobody can use it yet," followed by doubts about the benchmarks. (endue briefing, HN)
- Split takes on HN: One view was that intelligence and cost per task are almost the same as Opus 5.5 High. Another was that it is disappointing. (HN)
- Reddit r/singularity: The 15% hallucination rate drew the most interest. At the same time, people pointed out that the cost advantage Artificial Analysis cited uses the introductory price, and that the regular price is higher than Astra. (Reddit)
- Skepticism inside Google: Bloomberg reported that some employees doubt the real coding performance, and Google disputed that report. (AT Pulse)
Hands-on examples on X
These posts were published after the October 14, 2026 public launch. The results are the authors' own claims.
Voxel F1 car. Antigravity, high.
Gemini 4 Argon high in Antigravity just simple prompt: > voxel art of mercedes amg f1 car one shot btw
Dragon made with Tripo 3D, Blender MCP, and Argon medium.
Gemini 4 Argon flying dragon test, all custom made assets, no animations or video gen Tripo 3D for mesh (via browser control not MCP) + Blender MCP + Argon 4 Medium = not bad for one shot?
Gemini Argon 4 campire test via Blender MCP this is NOT an animated video or generated in anyway this is a .blend file made entirely out of Blender this is amazing? i thought it misunderstood and made a video lmaoo
Seven one-prompt games all ran on the first try. 132K output tokens, $1.34.
Gemini 4 Argon dropped this morning. I threw my 7-game one-shot gauntlet at it within the hour. 7/7 on the first try. Zero edits. $1.34 total. Every game loaded and ran with no fixes. About 6 minutes, 132K output tokens. What should I run next?
Same drone-show prompt. Argon took 7 minutes and $0.65 at the launch price. Opus 5.5 took 91 minutes and $16.57.
Google just opened Gemini 4 Argon. Same prompt as Opus 5.5, Muse and GLM: 1,000+ drones over the Seine, finale "CHEZ DOM". One shot. 1. Argon: cleanest. $0.65*, 7 min 2. Opus: most cinematic. $16.57, 91 min 3. Muse: gold arch in the way 4. GLM: lost finale *launch price
What is still not settled
- Terminal-bench 4.0 numbers differ by source. This piece uses the VentureBeat figures taken from Google's official table (Argon 57.4%, Opus 5.5 66.4%).
- Every internal result cited here comes from Google's own announcement.