Labs · Thursday, October 29, 2026
Google says Gemini 4 Carbon goes to cyber defenders first
The File desk · Oct. 29, 2026, 6:35 a.m. ET
Partially confirmed1 primary sources
Status
Partially confirmed. Google published the announcement on October 28, 2026. The scores, the price, and the government testing are the company's account. This desk did not open a government page or the benchmark sites.
- ConfirmedGoogle posted the Gemini 4 Carbon announcement on October 28, 2026, under Koray Kavukcuoglu's byline.
- Partially confirmedThe index score, the cybersecurity percentages, and the claim of a U.S. government pre-release process are stated by Google. This desk did not open those outside pages.
Google on Wednesday announced Gemini 4 Carbon, which it calls its strongest model, and said most people cannot use it yet. A subset of what the company calls cyber defenders, people who defend computer systems, get it first. Koray Kavukcuoglu, a senior vice president at Google DeepMind, wrote the post.1
Google said Carbon builds on Gemini 4 Argon, which it launched two weeks earlier. It said Carbon ranks first on version 5.0 of the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, with a score of 59, and that it is built for long coding jobs and for finding, checking, and fixing software flaws. Those test scores are the company's. This desk did not open the index.1
The company said it will not open Carbon to developers, businesses, or consumers this week. The first users get access through a program Google calls Fairwind, while the company takes part in what it describes as the U.S. government's voluntary process for testing a model before release. No government page on that process was opened for this story.1
Why it matters (Estimate). Estimate. A reader cannot sign up for Carbon from this post. Google says a wider release comes later, with no date. The score of 59 and the cybersecurity percentages are Google's account of tests, not a certification by a government. The price is what Google says it will charge once access opens, not a bill anyone received on Wednesday.
Google said the introductory price matches Argon: $2 per million input tokens. Output is listed at $10 per million. A token, on this price list, is a piece of text the company counts. A footnote says that after the introductory period the price is $4 per million input tokens and $20 per million output tokens.1
How we know
Notes
- 1.Google, “Gemini 4 Carbon: our next frontier model,” by Koray Kavukcuoglu, SVP, Google DeepMind and Chief AI Architect, Google, Oct. 28, 2026. https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/gemini-models/introducing-gemini-4-carbon/ “Today, we’re announcing the next frontier model: Gemini 4 Carbon, our strongest model with state-of-the-art cybersecurity and long horizon capabilities.” “Carbon ranks #1 on the recently updated v5.0 of Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index at 59.” “SEC-bench Pro (88.2%)” for finding vulnerabilities, “ExploitGym (54.8%)” for exploitation, and “CWE-bench (71.0%)” for patching. “Building on Gemini 4 Argon, which was launched two weeks ago.” “Starting this week, we will make Carbon available to a subset of cyber defenders” through the “Fairwind Program,” while “actively engaged in the U.S. government’s voluntary process for pre-release model testing.” Introductory price “$2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens,” with cached input “95% off.” Footnote: after the introductory period, “$4 per 1M input tokens and $20 per 1M output tokens.” Also on the page, and not used in the story body: WebDev Arena “+89 elo” to “#4 (1768)”; “more than 2x uplift” in generating secure code versus Argon; Chrome team “more than 10X better” on patches than “another lab's large frontier model”; Terminal-Bench 4.0 cheating “0.0%,” attempts “0.4%”; high-severity misalignment alerts “dropped by almost 80%”; unsupported claims cut “approximately 2x”; overreach reduced “26%” and under-service “29%”; prompt-injection attack success “0.0%.” Those figures are Google's.
What is still unknown or disputed
- Which U.S. office is running the voluntary pre-release testing. Not named. No government page was opened.
- When developers and the public can use Carbon. The post says "as soon as possible" and does not give a date.
- Who computed the index score of 59. The post says Carbon ranks first on that index and does not say the index maker published the number separately.
Primary sources
Every claim in this story is drawn from the documents below. If a fetch failed, that is recorded on the card.
Source 1
Gemini 4 Carbon: our next frontier model
Google · October 28, 2026
Google announced Gemini 4 Carbon on October 28, 2026, said it ranks first on an intelligence index at 59, and said public access is not open this week.
https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/gemini-models/introducing-gemini-4-carbon/