Google: Gemini 4 Carbon (batch) vs Google: Gemini 4 Argon
Side-by-side comparison of specs, pricing, benchmark scores, and task rankings. Updated 2026-11-12.
| Google: Gemini 4 Carbon (batch) | Google: Gemini 4 Argon | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | ||
| Quality Score | 100 | 100 |
| Benchmark Score | 98.9 | 82.1 |
| Input Price | $1.00/M | $2.00/M |
| Output Price | $5.00/M | $10.00/M |
| Context Window | 1,048,576 | 1,048,576 |
| Max Output | 943,718 | 943,718 |
| Tool Calling | ✓ | ✓ |
| Structured Output | ✓ | ✓ |
| Reasoning Mode | ✓ | ✓ |
| Vision | ✓ | ✓ |
| Audio | ✓ | ✓ |
| Benchmark Scores | ||
| ai_index | 99.0 | 83.2 |
The verdict
For a sample job of 1 million input tokens and 250,000 output tokens, Gemini 4 Carbon (batch) costs $2.25 and Gemini 4 Argon costs $4.50, so Gemini 4 Carbon (batch) is about 2.0 times cheaper for the same work.
Both read up to 1,048,576 tokens at once, roughly 1,573 pages of text.
On our blended benchmark score Gemini 4 Carbon (batch) leads 98.9 to 82.1.
Across the 20 tasks where they differ, Gemini 4 Carbon (batch) scores higher on 20 (SQL Generation, Code Review, Code Completion and others).
Gemini 4 Carbon (batch) was released in November 2026 and Gemini 4 Argon in October 2026.
Pick Gemini 4 Carbon (batch) if you need lower cost, benchmark performance or the stronger all-round task scores.
Costs use current list prices per million tokens; page counts assume about 0.75 words per token and 500 words per page.
Who wins by task?
| Task | Google: Gemini 4 Carbon (batch) | Google: Gemini 4 Argon |
|---|---|---|
| SQL Generation | 145 | 142 |
| Code Review | 150 | 147 |
| Code Completion | 120 | 119 |
| Code Refactoring | 151 | 149 |
| Bug Fixing | 154 | 151 |
| Unit Test Generation | 135 | 134 |
| Code Documentation | 139 | 137 |
| Regex Writing | 128 | 125 |
| CI/CD Pipelines | 131 | 130 |
| Frontend Component Design | 133 | 132 |
| Data Analysis | 138 | 136 |
| CSV / Spreadsheet Cleanup | 137 | 136 |
| ETL Scripting | 141 | 139 |
| JSON Extraction | 122 | 121 |
| Bulk Data Labeling | 120 | 118 |
| OCR / Document Parsing | 135 | 135 |
| Table Extraction from PDFs | 135 | 135 |
| Long-Document Summarization | 153 | 150 |
| Short-Form Summarization | 119 | 117 |
| Blog Post Writing | 133 | 130 |
Scores reflect capability match + benchmark data + pricing for each task. Methodology →