GOOGLE'S FLAGSHIPGEMINI 41M CONTEXT1M OUTPUT WITH LONG DECODEHALF PRICE TO NOV 30
Gemini 4 Argon API Pricing
Gemini 4 Argon is the model Google's price list calls its flagship reasoning model, announced on September 30, 2026 for trusted cyber defenders only and generally available on the Gemini API since October 13, 2026. It runs at an introductory $2.00/M input, $10.00/M output and $0.10/M cached input through November 30, 2026, then $4.00 / $20.00 / $0.20 from December 1. Batch, Flex and Priority double on the same date. One 1M-token window covers input, thinking and output. Checked by hand against Google's Gemini API pricing page.
Input - per 1M tokens
$2.00/M
$4.00 from Dec 1, 2026 -50%
Output - per 1M tokens
$10.00/M
$20.00 from Dec 1, 2026 -50%
Cached input - implicit only
$0.10/M
$0.20 from Dec 1, 2026 -95%
Effective - agentic blend
$1.21/M
92/8 split - 82% cache
§ 01 / TERMINAL
Run the numbers.
Live calculator on Google's introductory rate, which runs through November 30, 2026. Every figure here doubles on December 1, so run the numbers twice if the workload outlives this year.
$ /mo
Workload split
Prompt cache hit rate
Tokens you can process
—
Words equivalent (English)
—
Effective rate
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§ 02 / SCENARIOS
Real-world presets.
LONG-HORIZON CODING
Codebase migration step
$0.288/step
CYBER DEFENSE
Find-and-patch vulnerability run
$0.216/run
KNOWLEDGE WORK
Financial research brief
$0.115/brief
LONG OUTPUT
Single-pass module rewrite
$2.03/rewrite
Estimate · gemini-tokenizer-estimate · ≈3.85 chars/token Auto-counts as you type
This is a chars-per-token approximation, not a real tokenizer. Actual tokens vary by language, code density, and tool-call overhead — counts are typically ±10–20% off for English prose, more for code or non-Latin scripts. For exact billing, use the vendor's official tokenizer.
Characters 728
Words 116
Tokens (estimated) 189 tokens
Cost as input · uncached $0.00038 USD
Cost as output · uncached $0.00189 USD
Cost as cached input $0.00002 USD
| Model | Input /M | Output /M | Effective blended | Context | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini 4 Argon Current | $2.00 cache $0.10 | $10.00 | $1.21 agentic 92/8 | 1M | Google's flagship reasoning model |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash | $0.75 cache $0.075 | $3.75 | $0.481 −2.5× · promo | 1M | Newest Gemini Flash - high volume at a fraction of the rate |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | $2.00 cache $0.20 | $12.00 | $1.44 +20% | 1M | Google's Pro tier, still in preview |
| GPT-6.1 Sol | $2.00 cache $0.10 | $10.00 | $1.29 +7% | 1.05M | Balanced GPT-6 for coding and agents |
| GPT-6 Astra | $10.00 cache $1.00 | $50.00 | $6.82 +5.7× | 1.05M | OpenAI's top of stack |
| Claude Opus 5.5 | $4.00 cache $0.20 | $20.00 | $2.58 +2.1× | 1M | Anthropic's general frontier |
| Muse Wonder | $4.00 cache $0.20 | $20.00 | $2.41 +2.0× | 1M | Meta's most capable model, in preview |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | $2.00 cache $0.10 | $10.00 | $1.29 +7% | 1M | Agent loops on Anthropic's mid tier |
Compare siblings
Frequently asked.
What Gemini 4 Argon costs now and after November 30, which tiers Google publishes, and how it compares with the other frontier models.
Q · 01 How much does Gemini 4 Argon cost? +
Google lists
$2.00/M input, $10.00/M output (thinking tokens included) and $0.10/M cached input through November 30, 2026. Under this site's 92/8 agentic blend at an 82% cache-hit rate that is $1.21/M effective. There is no long-context tier: one rate across the whole window.Q · 02 What changes on December 1, 2026? +
Every token rate doubles: input to
$4.00, output to $20.00 and cached input to $0.20 per million, the card Google's launch post first gave as the price after the introductory period. Batch, Flex and Priority double on the same date. This page stores the rate in force today and will record the change when it happens; until then it shows both.Q · 03 Can I use Gemini 4 Argon through the API today? +
Yes, since October 13, 2026, as
gemini-4-argon on the paid tier of the Gemini API. Google's pricing page says it is not available on the Free tier or on the Google AI Pro plan. From the September 30 announcement until then, only trusted cyber defenders in Google's Fairwind Program could use it.Q · 04 What is the context window? +
One unified window of
1,048,576 tokens shared by input, thinking and output. A synchronous call returns up to 65,536 output tokens by default; with long decode and background execution a single response can run up to 1M tokens minus the input, generated in hops of up to 64K. All of it bills at the output rate, the highest on the card, so cap max_output_tokens on long jobs.Q · 05 Are there Batch, Flex or Priority rates? +
Yes, all three. Batch and Flex are half of Standard:
$1.00/M input and $5.00/M output. Priority is 1.8x Standard, $3.60/M input and $18.00/M output through November 30, 2026. Caching is implicit only: Google does not support explicit context caching on Argon, so there is no cache-storage charge.Q · 06 How does Argon compare on price with GPT-6.1 Sol, Claude Opus 5.5 and Muse Wonder? +
Under this site's blend Argon works out to
$1.21/M, against $1.29/M for GPT-6.1 Sol and $2.58/M for Claude Opus 5.5. Through November 30, 2026 Argon's input, output and cached rates equal GPT-6.1 Sol's; from December 1 they equal those of Opus 5.5 and Muse Wonder.Q · 07 What does Google say Argon is good at? +
Google's launch figures: state of the art on DeepSWE v1.1 (77.9%) for long-horizon software engineering, first on the Vals Index and on Zapier's AutomationBench (51.3%), 91.7% on LVBench for long-video understanding, and tied first on CWE-bench v1 (68%) for patching vulnerabilities. These are Google's own numbers from the announcement, not independent runs.
Q · 08 Should I use Argon or Gemini 3.8 Flash? +
Both are on dated introductory schedules, so compare them on the same footing. Gemini 3.8 Flash costs
$0.75/M input and $3.75/M output until its rates double on January 1, 2027. Argon is the model for the hardest coding, math and agent work; Flash is the one for volume.