Gemini 4 Carbon gets billing SKUs on Google Cloud for the Gemini API and Vertex AI, at Argon's $4 / $20 list price, before any public release

Google Cloud's public SKU list now carries Gemini 4 Carbon under two services, the Gemini API and Vertex AI. Google announced Carbon on October 28 but has so far opened it only to cyber defenders and trusted partners. @LuminaBench's billing tracker flagged the rows at 08:10 UTC on November 10, and ArtificialWatch read them on Google's SKU list at 08:55 UTC.

THE PRICES

Per 1M text tokens, global, as Google's SKU list prices them:

• Standard: $4 input, $20 output, $0.20 cached input.
• Batch and Flex: $2 input, $10 output, $0.10 cached input.
• Priority: $7.20 input, $36 output, $0.36 cached input.
• On Vertex AI, regional cached input costs 10% more than global: $0.22 against $0.20.
• These rows match Gemini 4 Argon's SKUs line for line, except Batch cached input: $0.10 for Carbon, $0.05 for Argon.

These look like list prices rather than launch prices: Argon's SKU rows also read $4 / $20, while Google's Gemini API pricing page charges $2 / $10 for Argon through November 30 and $4 / $20 from December 1. On October 28 Google said Carbon would start at the same $2 / $10 introductory price, then move to $4 / $20.

A CYBER VERSION

Vertex AI also lists a separate 'Gemini 4 Carbon Cyber Permissive' set of SKUs, at $4 input and $20 output online. Google already uses the same naming for 'Gemini 4 Argon Cyber Permissive' SKUs on Vertex AI.

WHAT IS NOT CONFIRMED

• A public release. At 08:55 UTC, Google's Gemini API models list, pricing page and changelog, and Vertex AI's model docs, have no Gemini 4 Carbon entry, and OpenRouter lists no Carbon id.
• @Mr_Salio posted at 07:53 UTC that Carbon is live on Vertex AI and will be publicly available today. ArtificialWatch could not confirm either claim, and Google has given no date.

WHAT WE DO NOT KNOW

When developers and businesses get access, and whether Carbon opens at the $2 / $10 introductory price or at the $4 / $20 list price. ArtificialWatch alerted on Carbon on October 28, the day Google announced it. We will update this story and the model page when it opens to the public.

UPDATE, 15:53 UTC

Gemini 4 Carbon went generally available on the Gemini API this afternoon (our radar fired at 15:46 UTC), at the $2 / $10 introductory price through November 30 and $4 / $20 after that, which confirms these SKU rows as the December list price. Our launch story has the details.