---
title: "Google prices Gemini 4 Argon at $2 per million tokens, a fifth of OpenAI and Anthropic's $10 flagships"
description: "Google released Gemini 4 Argon on October 13 at $2 per million input tokens, a fifth of the flagship list price at OpenAI and Anthropic, and the rate doubles after November 30. The cut lands on the labs' top-tier pricing and on Alphabet's own margin at the same time."
publisher: "The Inference"
section: "Frontier"
published: 2026-10-14T13:11:13.501Z
modified: 2026-10-14T13:23:15.203Z
canonical: https://theinference.org/article/google-prices-gemini-4-argon-at-2-per-million-tokens-a-fifth-of-openai-and-anthropic-s-10-flagships
language: en
keywords: "Google, Gemini, OpenAI, Anthropic, AI Pricing, Foundation Models"
---

# Google prices Gemini 4 Argon at $2 per million tokens, a fifth of OpenAI and Anthropic's $10 flagships

> Google released Gemini 4 Argon on October 13 at $2 per million input tokens, a fifth of the flagship list price at OpenAI and Anthropic, and the rate doubles after November 30. The cut lands on the labs' top-tier pricing and on Alphabet's own margin at the same time.

On October 13 Google [released Gemini 4 Argon to developers and businesses worldwide](https://www.reuters.com/business/google-launches-flagship-ai-model-gemini-4-argon-developers-businesses-2026-10-13/), its first frontier model since [Gemini 3 in November 2025](https://theinference.org/article/google-s-flagship-gemini-launches-at-half-price-while-its-engineers-doubt-the-code) and the first built after a brutal summer: chief executive [Sundar Pichai](https://theinference.org/markets/people/sundar-pichai) promised Gemini 3.5 Pro for June, canceled it in September, and moved DeepMind co-founder [Demis Hassabis](https://theinference.org/markets/people/demis-hassabis) out of the lab's chief executive seat in August in favor of Koray Kavukcuoglu [1][2][3][8]. Argon's [introductory price is $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output](https://venturebeat.com/technology/google-makes-gemini-4-argon-broadly-available-with-limited-time-low-api-pricing-of-2-10-per-1m-token), tokens being the chunks of text models bill by, through November 30 [2][4]. That is one-fifth the list price of [OpenAI](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/openai)'s GPT-6 Astra and [Anthropic](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/anthropic)'s Claude Fable 5.1, both at $10 and $50 [1][5][6].

## The fifth applies to the flagship tier only

The discount is narrower than the headline. OpenAI already sells GPT-6.1 Sol, and Anthropic sells Claude Sonnet 5.5, at the same $2 and $10 [4][5]. Argon's own standard rate doubles to $4 and $20 on December 1, the exact list price of Claude Opus 5.5 and of [Meta](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/meta)'s [Muse Wonder, released a day before Argon](https://theinference.org/article/zuckerberg-says-meta-caught-openai-and-anthropic-muse-keeps-73-of-new-users-then-fades-by-day-nine) [4][7][10]. What the fifth actually squeezes is the $10/$50 flagship tier, where independent evaluator Artificial Analysis scores Argon at 53, tied with Astra and Fable 5.1 and below Opus 5.5 at 58 and Muse Wonder Full at 56 [4].

*Chart: **Argon opens level with the $2 mid-tier, a fifth of the flagship list price** Column chart comparing per-million-token API list prices across eight frontier and near-frontier models*

*Standard first-party API list prices per million tokens. Argon introductory rate runs through November 30, 2026. Sources: VentureBeat; MarkTechPost. [1][4][5][6]*

## What Google claims, and where it trails

Google says engineers using Argon in its Antigravity coding platform raised agent-written code submissions 35% over four weeks while cutting rollbacks 30%, and that more than 100,000 employees use it internally; named early customers include Deloitte, LexisNexis, [Ambience Healthcare](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/ambience-healthcare) and [Alphabet](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/alphabet)'s [Isomorphic Labs](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/isomorphic-labs) [2][4]. On [Google's own comparison chart](https://www.online-tech-tips.com/google-gemini-4-argon-announcement/), Astra still beats Argon on FrontierSWE v2, 65.5% to 55.0% [9]. Sam Witteveen, chief executive of Red Dragon AI, calls Argon "a really, really, really good model" but not the best available [4]. [Buyers were already price-sensitive](https://theinference.org/article/openai-and-anthropic-priced-their-best-customers-into-china-s-open-model): two months after launch, Fable 5 drew only about 11% of Anthropic model spending across roughly 70,000 companies in [Ramp card data](https://venturebeat.com/technology/anthropics-claude-fable-5-1-and-mythos-5-1-arrive-with-a-75-cost-reduction-for-fable-cache-reads) [6].

## Alphabet's income statement funds the cut

Alphabet [earned $40.8 billion of operating income on $119.8 billion of revenue in the second quarter of 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001652044), a 34% margin, and spent $44.9 billion on capital expenditure, the first quarter in two years that capex outran its $39.1 billion of operating cash flow [11]. Meta spent $30.1 billion in the same quarter [10]. The labs charging $10/$50 are private; the company subsidizing the frontier at $2/$10 funds it from a listed income statement.

*Chart: **Alphabet's quarterly capex passed its operating cash flow in Q2 2026** Line chart of Alphabet quarterly capital expenditure and operating cash flow, Q3 2024 through Q2 2026*

*Quarterly figures from Alphabet's SEC filings, in billions of dollars. [11]*

## The window closes on November 30

The introductory rate runs seven weeks. What decides the trade is whether developers move workloads at $2/$10 before the doubling, whether OpenAI or Anthropic cut flagship list prices to hold them, and what Alphabet's next earnings print shows for cloud growth against that capex line [4][11]. Free and Plus users still have no access date [1]. Every token Google serves at $2 is a token OpenAI has to defend at $10.

## Takeaway

Gemini 4 Argon launches at $2 and $10 per million tokens, an 80% discount to the OpenAI and Anthropic flagship tier, but the rate doubles to $4 and $20 on December 1; the trade hinges on whether developers move workloads in the seven-week window and whether the rivals cut list prices to hold them.

## Sources

1. [The Verge, "Google finally releases Gemini 4 Argon", 14 October 2026 (collected)](https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/1009862/google-releases-gemini-4-argon)
2. [TechCentral (Reuters syndication), "Google's Gemini 4 Argon is finally here", 14 October 2026](https://techcentral.co.za/google-gemini-4-argon-release/287289/)
3. [Reuters, "Google launches flagship AI model Gemini 4 Argon for developers, businesses", 13 October 2026](https://www.reuters.com/business/google-launches-flagship-ai-model-gemini-4-argon-developers-businesses-2026-10-13/)
4. [VentureBeat, "Google makes Gemini 4 Argon broadly available with limited-time low API pricing of $2/$10 per 1M token", 13 October 2026](https://venturebeat.com/technology/google-makes-gemini-4-argon-broadly-available-with-limited-time-low-api-pricing-of-2-10-per-1m-token)
5. [MarkTechPost, "OpenAI Releases GPT-6.1 Sol: Near-Astra Coding and Computer Use at One-Fifth of Astra's Token Price", 30 September 2026](https://www.marktechpost.com/2026/09/30/openai-releases-gpt-6-1-sol-near-astra-coding-and-computer-use-at-one-fifth-of-astras-token-price/)
6. [VentureBeat, "Anthropic's Claude Fable 5.1 and Mythos 5.1 arrive with a 75% cost reduction for Fable cache reads", 1 September 2026](https://venturebeat.com/technology/anthropics-claude-fable-5-1-and-mythos-5-1-arrive-with-a-75-cost-reduction-for-fable-cache-reads)
7. [Meta Newsroom, "Introducing Muse Wonder and Muse Wonder Full: Frontier Models for Agents", 12 October 2026](https://about.fb.com/news/2026/10/introducing-muse-wonder-models/)
8. [Mashable, "Where is Gemini 3.5 Pro? The case of the missing AI model", 11 September 2026](https://mashable.com/tech/google-gemini-3-5-pro-delay-updates)
9. [Online Tech Tips, "Google Announces Gemini 4 Argon, but Most People Can't Try It Yet", 2 October 2026](https://www.online-tech-tips.com/google-gemini-4-argon-announcement/)
10. [Yahoo Finance, "Meta Launches Muse Wonder, Its First Frontier AI Model: Can It Pay for the Capex?", 13 October 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/meta-launches-muse-wonder-first-153328164.html)
11. [Alphabet, quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 14 October 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001652044)


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Google prices Gemini 4 Argon at $2 per million tokens, a fifth of OpenAI and Anthropic's $10 flagships — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/google-prices-gemini-4-argon-at-2-per-million-tokens-a-fifth-of-openai-and-anthropic-s-10-flagships