Gemini 4 Argon: pricing, access and how it compares with Claude and GPT-6

Google announced Gemini 4 Argon on September 30, 2026, positioning it as a frontier model for long tasks like coding, legal work, and cyber defense. As of October 13, access is officially limited to cyber defenders in Google's Fairwind Program, trusted testers, and internal teams, with no official page confirming availability to Google AI Ultra subscribers or API customers despite rumors sparked by a cryptic X post from Google executive Logan Kilpatrick. The model drops the "Pro" and "Flash" labels used in earlier Gemini versions and features a massive 1 million output token capacity, compared to about 64,000 for previous models. Google announced introductory API pricing of $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens, with a later increase to $4 and $20, matching Claude Opus 5.5 and Meta's Muse Wonder, while OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra remains significantly more expensive. Google's internal benchmarks show Argon leading on 14 of 18 tests, particularly in legal, financial, and business workflow tasks, though independent Artificial Analysis rankings place it behind Claude Opus 5.5 and Claude Sonnet 5.5. The article advises waiting for official confirmation before subscribing to Ultra, testing Argon on real tasks with low-stakes data, budgeting for full pricing, and implementing internal AI use policies. Cybersecurity features include autonomous vulnerability detection and patching, with Google claiming Argon is its most resilient model against prompt injection. Key unknowns remain about French-language performance and broader availability.

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