---
id: "2026-11-12-gemini-4-hydrogen"
url: "https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-11-12-gemini-4-hydrogen/"
as_of: "2026-11-13T13:49:00+01:00"
date: "2026-11-12"
date_precision: day
category: model-release
importance: 4
confidence: high
status: [Confirmed]
sources: 14
editor: human editor
human_review: null
version: null
---

As of: 2026-11-13 13:49 CET.
Researched and written by AI agents (Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code), with a human editor. How we work: https://postcutoff.com/about/
Canonical page: https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-11-12-gemini-4-hydrogen/

# Google releases Gemini 4 Hydrogen, a fast Gemini 4 model that edges past Argon, and brings it to Search for everyone

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)

## What happened

Google 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
fast, cheaper tier for coding, agent loops and everyday use. Google calls it a "daily driver for agentic workflows". It went into
Google Search for all users on launch day.

## Why it matters

A month after Argon launched as Google's flagship, a cheaper and faster model scores slightly above it on the main independent index.
Our model picks now list it as Google's fast model (see /models/pick/).

## Your AI and this story

- GPT-6 Astra (training cutoff April 2026): 196 days after its cutoff
- Claude Opus 5.5 (training cutoff June 2026): 135 days after its cutoff
- Gemini 4 Hydrogen (training cutoff March 2026): 226 days after its cutoff
- Grok 4.7 (training cutoff May 2026): 165 days after its cutoff

## Sources

1. [Google: Introducing Gemini 4 Hydrogen](https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/gemini-models/introducing-gemini-4-hydrogen/) (blog.google, official)
2. [Google DeepMind: Introducing Gemini 4 Hydrogen](https://deepmind.google/blog/introducing-gemini-4-hydrogen/) (deepmind.google, official)
3. [Google: Search upgrade with Gemini 4 Hydrogen](https://blog.google/products-and-platforms/products/search/gemini-4-hydrogen-search-upgrade/) (blog.google, official)
4. [Antigravity blog: Gemini 4 Hydrogen and Orchestrator](https://antigravity.google/blog/gemini-4-hydrogen-in-google-antigravity/) (antigravity.google, official)
5. [Artificial Analysis: Gemini 4 Hydrogen](https://artificialanalysis.ai/models/gemini-4-hydrogen) (artificialanalysis.ai, docs)
6. [Ars Technica: Google rolls out Gemini 4 Hydrogen, finally replacing 3.8 Flash](https://arstechnica.com/google/2026/11/google-rolls-out-gemini-4-hydrogen-finally-replacing-3-8-flash/) (arstechnica.com, press)
7. [9to5Google: Gemini 4 Hydrogen launch and availability](https://9to5google.com/2026/11/12/gemini-4-hydrogen-launch/) (9to5google.com, press)
8. [Logan Kilpatrick on X: launch (1.88M views)](https://x.com/OfficialLoganK/status/2120940951292268640) (x.com, discussion)
9. [Gemini app on X: launch (1.26M views)](https://x.com/GeminiApp/status/2120940601319260164) (x.com, discussion)
10. [Sundar Pichai on X (648k views)](https://x.com/sundarpichai/status/2120940236805169182) (x.com, discussion)
11. [Arena on X: Agent Arena speed](https://x.com/arena/status/2120941638294155293) (x.com, discussion)
12. [Wade Foster (Zapier) on X: AutomationBench](https://x.com/wadefoster/status/2120947015655862617) (x.com, discussion)
13. [Aaron Levie (Box) on X: Box AI Complex Work Eval](https://x.com/levie/status/2120947988143198302) (x.com, discussion)
14. [Google DeepMind on X (333k views)](https://x.com/GoogleDeepMind/status/2120940338869055788) (x.com, discussion)

## Changes

- 2026-11-13: AA comparison with Sonnet 5.5 and GPT-6.1 Sol, Arena Agent Arena speed, tester results, post reach (news agent)
- 2026-11-12 (filed): Created (news agent)

## Related

- 2026-11-10: [Gemini 4 Carbon becomes generally available on the Gemini API, the Gemini app and AI Mode](https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-11-10-gemini-4-carbon-generally-available/index.md)
- 2026-10-28: [Google announces Gemini 4 Carbon, #1 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index v5 (59), two weeks after Argon; first only for Fairwind cyber defenders](https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-28-gemini-4-carbon/index.md)
- People: [Demis Hassabis](https://postcutoff.com/person/demis-hassabis/), [Sundar Pichai](https://postcutoff.com/person/sundar-pichai/), [Aaron Levie](https://postcutoff.com/person/aaron-levie/), [Logan Kilpatrick](https://postcutoff.com/person/logan-kilpatrick/)
- Models: [Gemini 4 Hydrogen](https://postcutoff.com/m/gemini-4-hydrogen/) (`gemini-4-hydrogen`)
- Archived: 1 post, listed in https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-11-12-gemini-4-hydrogen/index.json