Google introduces Gemini 4 Argon with access limited to selected testers
Google has announced Gemini 4 Argon for sustained coding and professional tasks, beginning with selected cybersecurity defenders while broader paid access remains undated.
Google announced Gemini 4 Argon on September 30, with initial access for selected trusted cybersecurity defenders and early testers.
Paid API customers and Google AI Ultra subscribers are intended to be the first broader audiences, but Google has not given a release date. For most readers, this is a model to prepare to evaluate; general access has no published date.
A consequential design change is the announced one-million-token output limit, up from 64,000. Google presents this as room for longer reasoning and software-engineering trajectories. More room to work is a capacity limit; it does not establish that a longer run will finish correctly. Introductory API prices are planned at $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens, rising later to $4 and $20. The introductory period's duration is unspecified.
There is an external benchmark to inspect. The Vals Index table updated September 30 reports Argon at 68.90%, alongside 67.04% for Claude Sonnet 5.5 and 66.97% for Claude Opus 5.5. The index combines finance, coding, legal and tax tasks using economic-sector weights. These close aggregate scores are a reason to test a candidate on one's actual work, rather than infer a decisive advantage from its rank. The page's narrative takeaways still describe the previous leaders, so the current table and the older commentary should be distinguished.
Take it further
Review Fairwind eligibility Prioritized for governments, critical infrastructure and core technology defenders; defensive research labs may apply. Access is vetted, not guaranteed; no application deadline shown.
Sources & details 3 sources
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Paste the brief into your voice app to discuss this reporting.Revised 4 October 2026. Reporting and visuals refined. Original source dates and prior checks retained.
Reporting sources
- Google: Gemini 4 Argon announcement
Published September 30, 2026. Access, output limit and future introductory/standard prices checked October 1; no broad release date or introductory-period end supplied.
- Vals AI: benchmark table and methodology
Table dated September 30, 2026. Eight component benchmarks across four sectors; current table lists Argon while narrative takeaways still describe earlier leaders.
- Google DeepMind: Fairwind eligibility and controls
Undated current programme page, checked October 1, 2026; selected partners receive access, with application review and usage restrictions.
Images & figures
Google’s announcement. Maximum output is capacity, not completed work. Broader release and introductory-price duration remain undated.
Google: Gemini 4 Argon announcement