Google launches Gemini 4 Hydrogen, a fast model for coding and agents that edges Argon on one index
Google says Hydrogen scores 51 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index at default settings against Argon's 50, costs $1.50 and $7.50 per million input and output tokens, and is rolling out across the Gemini app, Search and the API.
Why it matters
Hydrogen replaces the Flash line as Google's everyday model and, by Google's own figures, matches its frontier Argon on one composite index at a fraction of the price. That makes the Gemini 4 family complete days after Carbon's general release. Google is also pushing a multi-model workflow: its new Orchestrator in Antigravity switches between Carbon and Hydrogen and, on Terminal-Bench 4.0, reached near-Carbon success while using 24% less quota. The benchmark claims are Google's; independent evaluations and real pricing against rivals' fast models are what to watch.
Key facts
- Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index: 51 at default high, 54 at xhigh; Argon 50
- $1.50 per million input tokens, $7.50 per million output tokens
- Flat pricing across the 1 million-token context window
- 2.5 times faster than Gemini 3.8 Flash at the default setting
- Orchestrator: near-Carbon success on Terminal-Bench 4.0 with 24% less quota, 19% faster