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Simon Willison Compares Gemini 4 Hydrogen’s Pricing and Pelican Outputs

Simon Willison·· 3 hours agoPicksllm-gemini 0.37
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Image: Simon Willison
Who
Google
What
launched Gemini 4 Hydrogen, a lower-cost Gemini 4 model
Quote
Google launched Gemini 4 Hydrogen today - the lowest cost member of the Gemini 4 family.

What happened

Simon Willison examines Google’s newly launched Gemini 4 Hydrogen, comparing its pricing with Carbon and Argon. Carbon and Argon cost the same and are scheduled to double in price on December 1, 2026; Hydrogen is currently 25% cheaper and would be 75% cheaper afterward. He also compares pelican images from all three models and quotes Google’s description of Hydrogen as a model for everyday coding work and the one powering AI features in Google Search.

Why it matters

The pricing table and pelican comparison show how Hydrogen’s current and scheduled prices relate to Carbon and Argon, while Google’s description outlines its intended role in coding workflows.

Read next

See the full storyGoogle Rolls Out Gemini 4 Hydrogen Across Its Products and Cursor

The story so far

Google launched Gemini 4 Hydrogen across Search, the Gemini app, Google AI Studio, the Gemini API, Gemini for business, and Google Antigravity for AI Pro and Ultra subscribers; Cursor also made it available. Google says Hydrogen completes tasks 2.5 times faster than Gemini 3.8 Flash. It is the default model in Search AI Mode and handles the hardest questions in AI Overviews, where Google says it brings more links, visuals, structured responses, and comparison tables. Access depends on the product: Google says Hydrogen is available across all AI Studio and Gemini API tiers, with usage limits on free tiers, while AI Pro and Ultra subscribers can use it in Antigravity. A report says Gemini app subscribers on Plus, Pro, and Ultra can select Hydrogen, while free users may get it through automatic model selection. Cursor reports a 54.3% CursorBench score at default effort, compared with 39.6% for Gemini 3.8 Flash. Artificial Analysis ranked Hydrogen fourth overall on its AA-Robotics v0.1 benchmark, the highest-ranked Google model.

Google / GeminiModel releases