Google launches Gemini 4 Carbon at the top of the AI intelligence index

Google has introduced Gemini 4 Carbon, a new frontier model aimed at cybersecurity, complex reasoning and long-horizon agent work. It arrives soon after Gemini 4 Argon, but independent testing suggests a substantial performance jump.

Artificial Analysis placed Carbon first on its Intelligence Index v5 with a score of 59. It also ranked second on the firm’s Coding Agent Index, behind Claude Opus 5.5. The evaluator measured standard pricing at $4 per million input tokens and $20 per million output tokens, with a 1 million-token context window.

Cybersecurity is the first deployment focus. Google reports scores of 88.2% on SEC-bench Pro for finding vulnerabilities, 54.8% on ExploitGym for exploitation and 71.0% on CWE-bench for patching. Google says Carbon also improves long-horizon work and includes stronger frontier safeguards.

Carbon is not broadly available yet. Google is starting with selected cyber defenders through its Fairwind Program, then plans to expand access to developers, businesses and consumers.

The launch matters beyond benchmark leadership: Google is testing a staged release model for increasingly capable cyber systems, placing trusted defenders ahead of general API access.