Gemini 4 Carbon vs Gemini 4 Hydrogen
Gemini 4 Carbon leads Gemini 4 Hydrogen on coding, 86.6 to 77.9 on the Vibe Coding Index, and Gemini 4 Hydrogen costs 1.3x less per output token ($7.50 vs $10.00 per million). Updated November 14, 2026; 47 benchmarks have a result for both.
Gemini 4 Carbon or Gemini 4 Hydrogen: which to pick
Pick Gemini 4 Carbon for coding: it scores 86.6 on the Vibe Coding Index against 77.9 for Gemini 4 Hydrogen.
Pick Gemini 4 Hydrogen for output tokens 1.3x cheaper ($7.50 vs $10.00 per million) and work measured by Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) or Design Arena: websites, where it leads.
- Shared results
- 47
- Gemini 4 Carbon only
- 26
- Gemini 4 Hydrogen only
- 3
- Like-for-like categories
- 7 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 77.9.
4 benchmarks behind each score
Intelligence
AA Intelligence Index
No call
Only Gemini 4 Carbon has a AA Intelligence Index result, 60.0.
Directional only
Web design
Design Arena: websites
Gemini 4 Hydrogen
Gemini 4 Hydrogen leads, 1320 against 1319.
Same board, both measured
General
Vals Index
Gemini 4 Carbon
Gemini 4 Carbon leads, 70.5% against 68.5%.
Same board, both measured
Long documents
Listed context window
No call
Both take 1.05M tokens.
Listed by OpenRouter
Everyday cost
1K input + 500 output tokens
Gemini 4 Hydrogen
Gemini 4 Carbon $0.0070, Gemini 4 Hydrogen $0.0053 per turn.
List prices
At a glance
- Coding index
- Gemini 4 Carbon 86.6 from 4 benchmarks, Gemini 4 Hydrogen 77.9 from 4 benchmarks.
- Widest category
- Coding, 5.9 points apart on average over 11 shared benchmarks.
- Widest single gap
- LMArena Text: multi-turn: Gemini 4 Carbon 1569 against Gemini 4 Hydrogen 1485, 14.0 points apart on a 0 to 100 scale.
- Output price
- Gemini 4 Carbon $10.00 against Gemini 4 Hydrogen $7.50 per million output tokens, 1.3x apart.
- 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 4 Carbon | Bars | Gemini 4 Hydrogen | Ties |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coding | 11 | 0 | ||
| Agentic work | 5 | 1 | ||
| Reasoning | 6 | 0 | ||
| Math | 1 | 0 | ||
| Knowledge | 5 | 0 | ||
| Web design | 3 | 2 | ||
| General | 12 | 1 | ||
| All shared boards | 43 | 4 |
CodingLike-for-likeSix of these boards feed the Vibe Coding Index110
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Carbon | Gemini 4 Hydrogen | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench coding | 91.0% | 78.5% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena WebDev | 1768 | 1704 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Terminal-Bench 4 (Vals AI) | 63.1% | 54.0% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Vibe Code Bench (Vals AI) | 89.1% | 87.8% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Terminal-Bench 4.0 (Artificial Analysis run) | 65.2% | 54.0% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| FrontierCode 2.0 | 40.6% | 39.0% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| FrontierSWE | 61.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| ALE-Bench | 2374.7 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: coding | 1564 | 1516 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: software and IT | 1552 | 1513 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena WebDev: React | 1792 | 1724 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena WebDev: HTML | 1770 | 1743 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| CursorBench 4.0 | 60.4% | 57.8% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Neither model has a result on the other 39 boards here | |||
IntelligenceDirectional onlyPublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index2 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Carbon | Gemini 4 Hydrogen | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA Intelligence Index | 60.0 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Epoch Capabilities Index | 169.8 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
Agentic workLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index51
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Carbon | Gemini 4 Hydrogen | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: agents building mobile apps | 1284 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Design Arena: spreadsheets | 1224 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LiveBench research | 92.5% | 86.8% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LiveBench browser | 80.0% | 77.1% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LiveBench long agentic | 72.7% | 61.8% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) | 51.8% | 52.3% | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| Legal Research Bench (Vals AI) | 55.8% | 53.8% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark (Vals AI) | 17.5% | 11.3% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| APEX-Agents | 84.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Vending-Bench 2 | $16,484 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 34 boards here | |||
ReasoningLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index60
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Carbon | Gemini 4 Hydrogen | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| LiveBench reasoning | 90.6% | 88.6% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| HLE-Diamond (Artificial Analysis run) | 69.1% | 58.8% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| CritPt v2, hard subset (Artificial Analysis run) | 69.0% | 66.0% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| GPQA Diamond (Epoch AI run) | 96.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| ARC-AGI | 98.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| ARC-AGI-2 | 94.2% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| SimpleBench | 92.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Chess puzzles | 78.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Mystery game puzzles | 73.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| EBR-bench | 87.6% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts | 1551 | 1520 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: expert | 1582 | 1558 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: hard prompts in English | 1545 | 1514 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here | |||
MathLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index10
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Carbon | Gemini 4 Hydrogen | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| OTIS Mock AIME | 100.0% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| FrontierMath, tiers 1 to 3 | 90.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| FrontierMath, tier 4 | 95.1% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: math | Not measured | 1507 | Only Gemini 4 Hydrogen measured |
| LMArena Text: mathematical work | 1538 | 1534 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| MathArena | 85.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 8 boards here | |||
KnowledgeLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index50
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Carbon | Gemini 4 Hydrogen | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA-Omniscience | 53.5 | 46.3 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| SimpleQA Verified | 77.7% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text: science | 1535 | 1519 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: medicine and healthcare | 1525 | 1488 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: legal and government | 1542 | 1532 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: business and finance | 1520 | 1486 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| FACTS Benchmark Suite | 78.4% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| PRBench Legal | 53.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Neither model has a result on the other 13 boards here | |||
Web designLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index32
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Carbon | Gemini 4 Hydrogen | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Design Arena: websites | 1319 | 1320 | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| Design Arena: UI components | 1357 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Design Arena: game dev | 1326 | 1369 | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| Design Arena: 3D | 1434 | 1415 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Design Arena: all code categories | 1348 | 1333 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LiveBench design | 80.2% | 77.3% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Neither model has a result on the other 3 boards here | |||
GeneralLike-for-likePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index121
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Carbon | Gemini 4 Hydrogen | Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vals Index | 70.5% | 68.5% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LiveBench data analysis | 86.5% | 83.2% | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Long context reasoning (AA-LCR) | 79.3% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| GDPval-AA | 1733 | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| Furniture assembly | 77.5% | Not measured | Only Gemini 4 Carbon measured |
| LMArena Text | 1538 | 1502 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: instruction following | 1539 | 1519 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: creative writing | 1533 | 1509 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: English | 1530 | 1499 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: non-English | 1534 | 1495 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: Chinese | 1613 | 1631 | Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
| LMArena Text: French | Not measured | 1512 | Only Gemini 4 Hydrogen measured |
| LMArena Text: Spanish | Not measured | 1494 | Only Gemini 4 Hydrogen measured |
| LMArena Text: Russian | 1560 | 1492 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: multi-turn | 1569 | 1485 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: longer queries | 1549 | 1524 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: writing and language | 1542 | 1500 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| LMArena Text: entertainment and media | 1527 | 1503 | Gemini 4 Carbon |
| Neither model has a result on the other 31 boards here | |||
Image generationNot comparablePublic boards, shown as published, kept out of the index0 boards, none shared
| Benchmark | Gemini 4 Carbon | Gemini 4 Hydrogen | 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 4 Hydrogen costs less
Repository review
50K input + 3K output tokens
Gemini 4 Hydrogen costs less
Agent loop
200K input + 10K output tokens
Gemini 4 Hydrogen 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 4 Carbon | Google Gemini 4 Hydrogen |
|---|---|---|
| Maker | ||
| Weights | No public weights listed | No public weights listed |
| Released | November 10, 2026 | November 12, 2026 |
| Context window | 1.05M | 1.05M |
| Input $/Mtok | $2.00 | $1.50 |
| Output $/Mtok | $10.00 | $7.50 |
| Coding index | 86.6 | 77.9 |
| Independent measurements behind it | 4 | 4 |
| Cost per solved task | Not computable | Not computable |
| Source | OpenRouter listing | OpenRouter listing |
Questions
Is Gemini 4 Carbon better than Gemini 4 Hydrogen for coding?
Pick Gemini 4 Carbon for coding: it scores 86.6 on the Vibe Coding Index against 77.9 for Gemini 4 Hydrogen. Pick Gemini 4 Hydrogen for output tokens 1.3x cheaper ($7.50 vs $10.00 per million) and work measured by Tax Agent Bench (Vals AI) or Design Arena: websites, where it leads.
Which is cheaper, Gemini 4 Carbon or Gemini 4 Hydrogen?
Gemini 4 Carbon costs $2.00 per million input tokens and $10.00 per million output tokens; Gemini 4 Hydrogen costs $1.50 and $7.50. Cost per solved task is known for neither of them.
Which has the bigger context window, Gemini 4 Carbon or Gemini 4 Hydrogen?
Neither: both take 1.05M tokens.
How many benchmarks is the Gemini 4 Carbon vs Gemini 4 Hydrogen comparison based on?
47 benchmarks have a result for both models as of November 14, 2026. Gemini 4 Carbon's coding index rests on 4 independent benchmarks and Gemini 4 Hydrogen's on 4. Where only one model has a result, the page says so instead of naming a winner.