Gemini 2.5 Pro vs Gemini 4 Carbon
Gemini 4 Carbon leads Gemini 2.5 Pro on coding, 86.6 to 19.2 on the Vibe Coding Index, at about the same output price ($10.00 vs $10.00 per million). Updated November 14, 2026; 42 benchmarks have a result for both.
vs boards won of 42 shared
Gemini 2.5 Pro or Gemini 4 Carbon: which to pick
Pick Gemini 4 Carbon for coding: it scores 86.6 on the Vibe Coding Index against 19.2 for Gemini 2.5 Pro.
Gemini 2.5 Pro is neither cheaper nor larger in context, and leads no benchmark both models were measured on.
Model AGemini 2.5 ProGoogle19.2/1003 independent benchmarks$0.64 per solved taskModel BGemini 4 CarbonGoogle86.6/1004 independent benchmarksNo cost per solved task
- Shared results
- 42
- Gemini 2.5 Pro only
- 52
- Gemini 4 Carbon only
- 31
- Like-for-like categories
- 8 of 9
Only benchmarks that tested both models count toward a pick; a result only one model has is shown but not compared.
Which one for your work
Each card is decided by one number both models carry. Where only one has it, the card says so and makes no call.
Coding
Vibe Coding Index, six public coding benchmarks
Gemini 4 Carbon
Gemini 4 Carbon scores 86.6 against 19.2.
3 and 4 benchmarks behind the scores
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
No call
Only Gemini 4 Carbon has a AA Intelligence Index result, 60.0.
Directional only
Agentic work
AA Agentic Index
No call
Only Gemini 2.5 Pro has a AA Agentic Index result, 1.6.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
Gemini 4 Carbon
Gemini 4 Carbon leads, 1319 against 1159.
Same board, both measured
General
Vals Index
No call
Only Gemini 4 Carbon has a Vals Index result, 70.5%.
Directional only
Long documents
Listed context window
No call
Both take 1.05M tokens.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Gemini 2.5 Pro
Gemini 2.5 Pro $0.0063, Gemini 4 Carbon $0.0070 per turn.
List prices
Cost per solved task
One SWE-bench Verified task, solved
No call
Only Gemini 2.5 Pro has the number, $0.64.
Directional only
At a glance
- Coding index
- Gemini 2.5 Pro 19.2 from 3 benchmarks, Gemini 4 Carbon 86.6 from 4 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Agentic work, 96.4 points apart on average over 1 shared benchmark.
- Widest single gap
- Vending-Bench 2: Gemini 2.5 Pro $574 against Gemini 4 Carbon $16,484, 96.4 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Both cost $10.00 per million output tokens.
- Context window
- Both take 1.05M tokens.
Benchmark by benchmark
First the score: boards each model leads, per category, where both have a result. Then every board, a category to a fold; bars are each result on a 0 to 100 scale, so compare the two in a row, not one row with another.
| Category | Gemini 2.5 Pro | Bars | Gemini 4 Carbon | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 0 | 6 | ||
| Intelligence | 0 | 1 | ||
| Agentic work | 0 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 0 | 6 | ||
| Math | 0 | 5 | ||
| Knowledge | 0 | 5 | ||
| Web design | 0 | 5 | ||
| General | 0 | 13 | ||
| All shared boards | 0 | 42 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index06
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Pro | Gemini 4 Carbon | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| SWE-bench Verified | 53.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| LiveBench coding | Not measured | 91.0% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena WebDev | 1228 | 1768 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| AA Coding Index | 33.3 | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| SWE-bench Verified (Vals AI) | 54.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | Not measured | 63.1% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 0.4% | 89.1% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LiveCodeBench (Artificial Analysis run) | 80.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| SciCode | 46.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| Terminal-Bench Hard (Artificial Analysis run) | 26.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| Terminal-Bench 4.0 (Artificial Analysis run) | 0.0% | 65.2% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| FrontierCode 2.0 | Not measured | 40.6% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Terminal-Bench | 32.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| FrontierSWE | Not measured | 61.2% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| GSO-Bench | 3.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| WeirdML | 54.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| ALE-Bench | Not measured | 2374.7 | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1451 | 1564 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1459 | 1552 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena WebDev: React | Not measured | 1792 | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1236 | 1770 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena WebDev: from an image | 1285 | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| Terminal-Bench 2.0 | 32.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| CursorBench 4.0 | Not measured | 60.4% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 28 boards here | |||
IntelligenceLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Pro | Gemini 4 Carbon | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | Not measured | 60.0 | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 144.9 | 169.8 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index01
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Pro | Gemini 4 Carbon | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Agentic Index | 1.6 | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | Not measured | 1284 | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Design Arena: spreadsheets | Not measured | 1224 | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LiveBench research | Not measured | 92.5% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LiveBench browser | Not measured | 80.0% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LiveBench long agentic | Not measured | 72.7% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 51.8% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | Not measured | 55.8% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | Not measured | 17.5% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| τ²-Bench Telecom | 54.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| APEX-Agents | Not measured | 84.2% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| GDPval | 23.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| DeepResearch Bench | 41.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $574 | $16,484 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Search | 1143 | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| BrowseComp-Plus | 29.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| τ³-Banking | 13.7% | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 27 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index06
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Pro | Gemini 4 Carbon | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench reasoning | Not measured | 90.6% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 84.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| Humanity's Last Exam (Artificial Analysis run) | 22.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| HLE-Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 69.1% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| CritPt v2, hard subset (Artificial Analysis run) | Not measured | 69.0% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 85.3% | 96.5% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| ARC-AGI | 41.0% | 98.5% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 4.9% | 94.2% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| SimpleBench | Not measured | 92.6% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Chess puzzles | Not measured | 78.0% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | Not measured | 73.0% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| EBR-bench | Not measured | 87.6% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1455 | 1551 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1452 | 1582 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1452 | 1545 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Vision: diagrams | 1273 | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| LMArena Vision: homework | 1282 | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| Kagi LLM Benchmark | 70.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index05
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Pro | Gemini 4 Carbon | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AIME 2025 (Artificial Analysis run) | 87.7% | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| OTIS Mock AIME | 84.7% | 100.0% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 24.6% | 90.5% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 0.0% | 95.1% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: math | 1450 | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1455 | 1538 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| MathArena | 13.3% | 85.4% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index05
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Pro | Gemini 4 Carbon | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| CaseLaw (Vals AI) | 63.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| CorpFin (Vals AI) | 60.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| MortgageTax (Vals AI) | 68.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| MedCode (Vals AI) | 50.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| MMLU Pro (Artificial Analysis run) | 86.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| AA-Omniscience | Not measured | 53.5 | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| SimpleQA Verified | Not measured | 77.7% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1481 | 1535 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1476 | 1525 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1480 | 1542 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1440 | 1520 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| FACTS Benchmark Suite | Not measured | 78.4% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| PRBench Finance | 38.9% | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| PRBench Legal | 41.4% | 53.3% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Neither model has a result on the other 7 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index05
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Pro | Gemini 4 Carbon | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1159 | 1319 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1130 | 1357 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1101 | 1326 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Design Arena: data viz | 1219 | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1060 | 1434 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1142 | 1348 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LiveBench design | Not measured | 80.2% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 2 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index013
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Pro | Gemini 4 Carbon | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | Not measured | 70.5% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LiveBench data analysis | Not measured | 86.5% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| MedScribe (Vals AI) | 73.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| IFBench | 48.7% | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 69.0% | 79.3% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| GDPval-AA | 463 | 1733 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| DTBench | 82.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| LMCA | 34.8% | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| Furniture assembly | Not measured | 77.5% | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text | 1458 | 1538 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1437 | 1539 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1454 | 1533 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Vision | 1263 | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| LMArena Text: English | 1458 | 1530 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1452 | 1534 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1507 | 1613 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: German | 1487 | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| LMArena Text: Japanese | 1461 | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| LMArena Text: Korean | 1434 | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| LMArena Text: French | 1474 | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | 1474 | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1461 | 1560 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: Polish | 1479 | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1452 | 1569 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1449 | 1549 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1454 | 1542 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1441 | 1527 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Vision: English | 1261 | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| LMArena Vision: Chinese | 1300 | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| LMArena Vision: reading text | 1270 | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| LMArena Vision: humor | 1262 | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| LMArena Vision: captioning | 1304 | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| LMArena Vision: recognizing things | 1284 | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| LMArena Vision: creative writing | 1265 | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| LMArena Document | 1423 | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| MultiChallenge | 53.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 2.5 Pro measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 2.5 Pro | Gemini 4 Carbon | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Neither model has a result on 5 boards here | |||
What each workload costs
Three fixed token mixes at each model's listed price, so per-token rates become a bill.
Chat turn
1K input + 500 output tokens
Gemini 2.5 Pro$0.0063Fits in one request
Gemini 4 Carbon$0.0070Fits in one request
Gemini 2.5 Pro costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Gemini 2.5 Pro$0.092Fits in one request
Gemini 4 Carbon$0.130Fits in one request
Gemini 2.5 Pro costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Gemini 2.5 Pro$0.350Fits in one request
Gemini 4 Carbon$0.500Fits in one request
Gemini 2.5 Pro costs less
Listed OpenRouter rates, without cache or batch discounts. A workload that does not fit a model's context window would need splitting.
Specification differences
The leading value in a row is marked; a row with a missing value names no leader. Our two rows are marked in red.
| Specification | Google Gemini 2.5 Pro | Google Gemini 4 Carbon |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | ||
| Weights | No public weights listed | No public weights listed |
| Released | June 17, 2025 | November 10, 2026 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $1.25 | $2.00 |
| Output $/Mtok | $10.00 | $10.00 |
| Coding index | 19.2 | 86.6 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 3 | 4 |
| Cost per solved task | $0.64 | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Gemini 2.5 Pro better than Gemini 4 Carbon for coding?
Pick Gemini 4 Carbon for coding: it scores 86.6 on the Vibe Coding Index against 19.2 for Gemini 2.5 Pro. Gemini 2.5 Pro is neither cheaper nor larger in context, and leads no benchmark both models were measured on.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 2.5 Pro or Gemini 4 Carbon?
Gemini 2.5 Pro costs $1.25 per million input tokens and $10.00 per million output tokens; Gemini 4 Carbon costs $2.00 and $10.00. Cost per solved task is known for Gemini 2.5 Pro only.
Which has the bigger context window, Gemini 2.5 Pro or Gemini 4 Carbon?
Neither: both take 1.05M tokens.
How many benchmarks is the Gemini 2.5 Pro vs Gemini 4 Carbon comparison based on?
42 benchmarks have a result for both models as of November 14, 2026. Gemini 2.5 Pro's coding index rests on 3 independent benchmarks and Gemini 4 Carbon's on 4. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.