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Gemini 4 Argon vs Gemini 3.8 Flash
Gemini 4 Argon scores higher than Gemini 3.8 Flash on all 5 public leaderboards that rate both. On the ArtificialWatch Index, which takes the median of each model's percentile across the boards that score it, Gemini 4 Argon is at 79.7 and Gemini 3.8 Flash at 43.7 (out of 100). On each maker's API, Gemini 4 Argon costs $2 / $10 per 1M tokens (input / output) and Gemini 3.8 Flash $0.75 / $3.75.
Scores as published by each board; table composed November 10, 2026.
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Leaderboard by leaderboard
| Board | Gemini 4 Argon | Gemini 3.8 Flash | Higher |
|---|---|---|---|
| LMArena Elo (community votes) | 1,682.6 | 1,583.8 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| LiveBench global average (0-100) | 77.7 | 56 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| Vals AI Vals Index accuracy % · weighted finance + coding tasks | 69.4 | 56 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| Artificial Analysis intelligence index · measured runs only | 50.4 | 30.5 | Gemini 4 Argon |
| Epoch AI Epoch Capabilities Index (ECI) · many benchmarks on one scale | 166.5 | 158.7 | Gemini 4 Argon |
Raw scores are each board's own scale, so compare within a row, not across rows. Full table: the bench index.
For coding
On the ArtificialWatch coding index, Gemini 4 Argon is at 95.2 (#1 of 47) and Gemini 3.8 Flash at 40.8 (#26). Gemini 4 Argon scores higher on all 3 coding boards that rate both.
| Coding board | Gemini 4 Argon | Gemini 3.8 Flash |
|---|---|---|
| LMArena · Coding | 1,540 | 1,510.6 |
| LiveBench · Coding | 85.7 | 65.7 |
| Vals Vibe Code Bench | 91.9 | 78.7 |
Gemini 4 Argon at a glance
- Developer
- Status
- Live since October 13, 2026
- API price
- $2 input / $10 output per 1M tokens · Google, gemini-4-argon
- Context window
- 1.05M tokens
Live — Oct 13 · GA as gemini-4-argon on the Gemini API (Google changelog), also in AI Studio, Vertex AI, the Gemini app and Antigravity · $2 / $10 per 1M through Nov 30, 2026, then $4 / $20 from Dec 1; cached input $0.10, then $0.20 (implicit caching only) · Batch and Flex half price, Priority $3.60 / $18 · on the API, Google's pricing page says it is not on the Free tier or on the Google AI Pro plan; the consumer Google AI Pro and Ultra subscriptions do include it in the Gemini app (gemini.google, read Oct 15) and in Antigravity's desktop app and CLI since Oct 13 (Google's Antigravity blog), where a screenshot @LuminaBench posted Oct 15 shows a separate weekly Argon limit · 1,048,576-token context shared by input and output; 65,536 max output by default, up to 1,048,576 with long decode · thinking low / medium / high · knowledge cutoff March 2026 (model card) · Google's own table: ahead of Claude Opus 5.5 on 14 of 18 shared rows, behind on FrontierSWE v2 (55.0 vs 62.3), Terminal-Bench 4.0 (57.4 vs 66.4), PostTrainBench and Terminal-Bench Science · Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (read Oct 13): 52.6 at high, level with GPT-6 Astra (52.7), behind Opus 5.5 (57.6), Sonnet 5.5 (56.0), Muse Wonder Full (55.8) and Fable 5.1 (53.4) · #1 on the Vals Index (68.9%) · ARC Prize, verified (read Oct 15): ARC-AGI-3 97.5% through the provider adapter harness and 49.8% on the standard harness, ARC-AGI-2 91.3% ($0.32 a task), ARC-AGI-1 98.5% · Epoch Capabilities Index (read Oct 15): 164.6, fifth, behind Opus 5.5 (166.8), GPT-6 Astra (166.4), GPT-6.1 Sol (166.3) and Fable 5.1 (164.7), with overlapping confidence intervals · our sweep fired at 15:45 UTC · announced Sep 30 for Fairwind trusted testers first · the newer Gemini 4 checkpoints Business Insider reported Oct 9 file under their own hunts: Carbon (announced Oct 28, gemini-4-carbon) and Barium (gemini-4-next) · Cognition FrontierCode 2.0 (read Oct 30): 26.3% at high in Devin CLI, twelfth of 26, $6.51 a task.
Google doubles seven Gemini API prices: Gemini 4 Argon reaches Claude Opus 5.5's $4 / $20 on December 1, and Gemini 3.8 Flash goes to $1.50 / $7.50 on January 1
2026-11-06 · Google's own pricing pages date a doubling for seven Gemini models, starting with Gemini 4 Argon, which goes from $2 / $10 to $4 / $20 per million input and output tokens on December 1, the same list price as Claude Opus 5.5. Opus 5.5 is first on ArtificialWatch's bench index; Argon is seventh.
Gemini 4 Argon scores 97.5% on ARC-AGI-3 through a provider adapter, 49.8% on the standard harness
2026-10-15 · ARC Prize has published verified scores for Gemini 4 Argon, and on ARC-AGI-3 there are two very different numbers. Run through what ARC Prize calls the provider adapter harness, Argon scores 97.5% at low effort. On ARC Prize's standard harness it scores 49.8%.
Gemini 3.8 Flash at a glance
- Developer
- Status
- Live since September 2, 2026
- API price
- $0.75 input / $3.75 output per 1M tokens · Google, gemini-3.8-flash
- Context window
- 1.05M tokens
Live — GA Sep 2 · $0.75/$3.75 per 1M introductory through Dec 31, identical to 3.7 · 1M in / 64K out · 'our most intelligent Flash model' · 20 days after 3.7.
Gemini 3.8 Flash is GA — same price as 3.7, twenty days later
2026-09-02 · Google released Gemini 3.8 Flash today. The Gemini API changelog for September 2 reads: "Gemini 3.8 Flash generally available (GA): Released gemini-3.8-flash, our most intelligent Flash model, engineered for long-horizon software engineering, autonomous agents, and complex enterprise workflows."
Gemini 4 Argon vs Gemini 3.8 Flash: quick answers
Which is better, Gemini 4 Argon or Gemini 3.8 Flash?
It depends on what you measure. Gemini 4 Argon scores higher than Gemini 3.8 Flash on all 5 public leaderboards that rate both. Gemini 4 Argon's widest lead is on LiveBench. On the ArtificialWatch Index, which takes the median of each model's percentile across the boards that score it, Gemini 4 Argon is at 79.7 and Gemini 3.8 Flash at 43.7 (out of 100).
Which is newer, Gemini 4 Argon or Gemini 3.8 Flash?
Gemini 4 Argon. It went live on October 13, 2026, 41 days after Gemini 3.8 Flash (September 2, 2026).
Which is cheaper, Gemini 4 Argon or Gemini 3.8 Flash?
Gemini 3.8 Flash is cheaper on both input and output. On each vendor's own API, Gemini 4 Argon is $2 input / $10 output per million tokens and Gemini 3.8 Flash is $0.75 input / $3.75 output per million tokens. Prices as published in the models.dev catalog, as of 2026-11-11.
Which has the bigger context window, Gemini 4 Argon or Gemini 3.8 Flash?
Neither. Both take 1.05M tokens.
How do Gemini 4 Argon and Gemini 3.8 Flash compare for coding?
On the ArtificialWatch coding index, Gemini 4 Argon is at 95.2 (#1 of 47) and Gemini 3.8 Flash at 40.8 (#26). Gemini 4 Argon scores higher on all 3 coding boards that rate both.
Who makes Gemini 4 Argon and Gemini 3.8 Flash?
Both are from Google.
Where do these numbers come from?
Each score is the leaderboard's own published figure, read by ArtificialWatch (table composed November 10, 2026). Boards measure different things, so raw scores are only comparable within a row.
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Also: the bench index · API pricing · what a workload costs on each · the wire