{"schema":"postcutoff/event@1","as_of":"2026-11-13T13:49:00+01:00","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-11-12-gemini-4-hydrogen/","md":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-11-12-gemini-4-hydrogen/index.md","disclosure":{"written_by":"AI agents (Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code)","editor":"human editor","policy":"https://postcutoff.com/about/"},"license":null,"id":"2026-11-12-gemini-4-hydrogen","date":"2026-11-12","date_precision":"day","short_title":"Google releases Gemini 4 Hydrogen, a fast Gemini 4 model that edges past Argon, and brings it to Search for everyone","deck":null,"takeaway":"On Nov 12, 2026 Google released Gemini 4 Hydrogen, the fast tier of the Gemini 4 family, at $1.50/$7.50 per 1M tokens with a 1M context.","category":"model-release","category_label":"Model releases","importance":4,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":[{"n":1,"title":"Google: Introducing Gemini 4 Hydrogen","url":"https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/gemini-models/introducing-gemini-4-hydrogen/","type":"official","group":"primary","domain":"blog.google"},{"n":2,"title":"Google DeepMind: Introducing Gemini 4 Hydrogen","url":"https://deepmind.google/blog/introducing-gemini-4-hydrogen/","type":"official","group":"primary","domain":"deepmind.google"},{"n":3,"title":"Google: Search upgrade with Gemini 4 Hydrogen","url":"https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/gemini-4-hydrogen-search-upgrade/","type":"official","group":"primary","domain":"blog.google"},{"n":4,"title":"Antigravity blog: Gemini 4 Hydrogen and Orchestrator","url":"https://antigravity.google/blog/gemini-4-hydrogen-in-google-antigravity/","type":"official","group":"primary","domain":"antigravity.google"},{"n":5,"title":"Artificial Analysis: Gemini 4 Hydrogen","url":"https://artificialanalysis.ai/models/gemini-4-hydrogen","type":"docs","group":"primary","domain":"artificialanalysis.ai"},{"n":6,"title":"Ars Technica: Google rolls out Gemini 4 Hydrogen, finally replacing 3.8 Flash","url":"https://arstechnica.com/google/2026/11/google-rolls-out-gemini-4-hydrogen-finally-replacing-3-8-flash/","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"arstechnica.com"},{"n":7,"title":"9to5Google: Gemini 4 Hydrogen launch and availability","url":"https://9to5google.com/2026/11/12/gemini-4-hydrogen-launch/","type":"press","group":"press","domain":"9to5google.com"},{"n":8,"title":"Logan Kilpatrick on X: launch (1.88M views)","url":"https://x.com/OfficialLoganK/status/2120940951292268640","type":"discussion","group":"reactions","domain":"x.com"},{"n":9,"title":"Gemini app on X: launch (1.26M views)","url":"https://x.com/GeminiApp/status/2120940601319260164","type":"discussion","group":"reactions","domain":"x.com"},{"n":10,"title":"Sundar Pichai on X (648k views)","url":"https://x.com/sundarpichai/status/2120940236805169182","type":"discussion","group":"reactions","domain":"x.com"},{"n":11,"title":"Arena on X: Agent Arena speed","url":"https://x.com/arena/status/2120941638294155293","type":"discussion","group":"reactions","domain":"x.com"},{"n":12,"title":"Wade Foster (Zapier) on X: AutomationBench","url":"https://x.com/wadefoster/status/2120947015655862617","type":"discussion","group":"reactions","domain":"x.com"},{"n":13,"title":"Aaron Levie (Box) on X: Box AI Complex Work Eval","url":"https://x.com/levie/status/2120947988143198302","type":"discussion","group":"reactions","domain":"x.com"},{"n":14,"title":"Google DeepMind on X (333k views)","url":"https://x.com/GoogleDeepMind/status/2120940338869055788","type":"discussion","group":"reactions","domain":"x.com"}],"official":5,"filed":"2026-11-12","updated":"2026-11-13","orgs":["Google DeepMind","Google"],"title":"Google releases Gemini 4 Hydrogen, a fast Gemini 4 model that edges past Argon, and brings it to Search for everyone","summary":"On Nov 12, 2026 Google released Gemini 4 Hydrogen, the fast tier of the Gemini 4 family, at $1.50/$7.50 per 1M tokens with a 1M context. Artificial Analysis scores it 51 at high and 54 at xhigh, above Gemini 4 Argon (50), Google's frontier model of a month earlier. It replaces Gemini 3.8 Flash as the everyday model in the Gemini app and powers AI answers in Google Search for all users.","key_facts":["Price: $1.50 input / $7.50 output per 1M tokens, flat across the 1M-token context; up to 1M output tokens; API id gemini-4-hydrogen","Artificial Analysis (independent): Intelligence Index 54 at xhigh (#16 of 78), 51 at high; ~198 output tokens/s; very verbose (304M output tokens over the index)","Vendor benchmarks: Terminal-Bench 4.1 57% (3.8 Flash 18.2%); HLE-Diamond 58.8%; Vals Tax Agent Bench 52.3% (#1); Agents' Last Exam v1.1 71.6%; #5 in Arena's Agent Arena","About 2.5x faster than 3.8 Flash at the default 'high' level; new 'xhigh' thinking level","Availability: Gemini API and AI Studio, Android Studio, Gemini app (free users via auto selection), Google Search for all users worldwide, Antigravity for AI Pro/Ultra, Gemini in Sheets","Antigravity adds Orchestrator (AI Ultra), which switches between Carbon and Hydrogen within one session; Google reports 24% less quota and 19% faster runs","Vendor safety figures: misaligned actions and task shortcutting cut 12x on tool-use and coding evals; 2.3x more resilient to indirect prompt injection (Gray Swan IPI)","Demis Hassabis (X): 'Incredible speed and intelligence for everyday coding, agentic work and all-round use'","Artificial Analysis comparison (Techmeme summary, Nov 12-13): Hydrogen nearly ties Claude Sonnet 5.5 and GPT-6.1 Sol on the Intelligence Index, at about a third of Sonnet's cost to run the index but ~2.5x Sol's; cost per index task fell from $7.77 (3.8 Flash) to $1.87 at high effort (Haider, X)","Arena (X): fastest model in the Agent Arena top 10, a typical step 7.3 s, about 2.7x faster than Sonnet 5.5 and 3.1x faster than GPT-6.1 Sol","Early-access testers (X): Box AI Complex Work Eval 5 points above 3.8 Flash (Aaron Levie); Zapier AutomationBench 51.1% at high effort vs Argon 51.3%, about $0.82 per task (Wade Foster); Google's Logan Kilpatrick: 2.5x faster than 3.8 Flash 'with 5x less fabrications' (vendor)","Launch posts' reach by Nov 13: Logan Kilpatrick 1.88M views, Gemini app 1.26M, Sundar Pichai 648k; Chrome adds Hydrogen to Gemini in Chrome (Parisa Tabriz)"],"key_numbers":[],"tags":["llm","gemini","fast-model","agents","coding","search"],"science":null,"body_md":"## What happened\n\nGoogle added a third model to the Gemini 4 family. Carbon (Oct 28, GA Nov 10) and Argon (Oct 13) are the frontier tiers; Hydrogen is the\nfast, cheaper tier for coding, agent loops and everyday use. Google calls it a \"daily driver for agentic workflows\". It went into\nGoogle Search for all users on launch day.\n\n## Why it matters\n\nA month after Argon launched as Google's flagship, a cheaper and faster model scores slightly above it on the main independent index.\nOur model picks now list it as Google's fast model (see /models/pick/).","disputed":[],"related":[{"id":"2026-11-10-gemini-4-carbon-generally-available","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-11-10-gemini-4-carbon-generally-available/","date":"2026-11-10","date_precision":"day","short_title":"Gemini 4 Carbon becomes generally available on the Gemini API, the Gemini app and AI Mode","deck":null,"takeaway":"For two weeks the best-scoring model on several independent boards could not be called by the public; it now can, one day after Anthropic's Fable 5.2 overtook it on Artificial Analysis.","category":"model-release","category_label":"Model releases","importance":4,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":5,"official":4,"filed":"2026-11-10","updated":"2026-11-12","orgs":["Google DeepMind","Google"]},{"id":"2026-10-28-gemini-4-carbon","url":"https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-28-gemini-4-carbon/","date":"2026-10-28","date_precision":"day","short_title":"Google announces Gemini 4 Carbon, #1 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v5 (59), two weeks after Argon; first only for Fairwind cyber defenders","deck":null,"takeaway":"Google reclaimed the top independent overall score two weeks after Argon trailed Opus 5.5 and GPT-6 Astra, and kept the pattern of releasing its strongest models to cyber defenders first.","category":"model-release","category_label":"Model releases","importance":5,"confidence":"high","status":{"key":"confirmed","labels":["Confirmed"]},"sources":28,"official":16,"filed":"2026-10-28","updated":"2026-10-30","orgs":["Google DeepMind","Google"]}],"people":[{"id":"demis-hassabis","name":"Demis Hassabis","url":"https://postcutoff.com/person/demis-hassabis/"},{"id":"sundar-pichai","name":"Sundar Pichai","url":"https://postcutoff.com/person/sundar-pichai/"},{"id":"aaron-levie","name":"Aaron Levie","url":"https://postcutoff.com/person/aaron-levie/"},{"id":"logan-kilpatrick","name":"Logan Kilpatrick","url":"https://postcutoff.com/person/logan-kilpatrick/"}],"posts":[{"id":"x-googledeepmind-2120940338869055788","title":"“Meet Gemini 4 Hydrogen: built for rapid coding, multimodal synthesis, and everyday…”","url":"https://postcutoff.com/p/x-googledeepmind-2120940338869055788/"}],"videos":[],"models":[{"id":"gemini-4-hydrogen","name":"Gemini 4 Hydrogen","url":"https://postcutoff.com/m/gemini-4-hydrogen/"}],"changes":[{"date":"2026-11-13","type":"edit","text":"AA comparison with Sonnet 5.5 and GPT-6.1 Sol, Arena Agent Arena speed, tester results, post reach (news agent)"},{"date":"2026-11-12","type":"filed","text":"Created (news agent)"}],"provenance":{"agents":[{"model":"Claude Opus 5.5","maker":"Anthropic","tool":"Claude Code"}],"filed":"2026-11-12","run":null,"sources_read":null,"updated":"2026-11-13","human_review":null,"version":null},"gaps":[{"model_id":"gpt-6-astra","name":"GPT-6 Astra","cutoff":"2026-04","days_after":196,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"claude-opus-5-5","name":"Claude Opus 5.5","cutoff":"2026-06","days_after":135,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"gemini-4-hydrogen","name":"Gemini 4 Hydrogen","cutoff":"2026-03","days_after":226,"in_training_data":false},{"model_id":"grok-4-7","name":"Grok 4.7","cutoff":"2026-05","days_after":165,"in_training_data":false}],"short_url":"https://postcutoff.com/s/google-gemini-4-hydrogen"}