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Google launched Gemini 4 Hydrogen on November 12, 2026, a fast, lower-cost model that replaces Gemini 3.8 Flash across its products. It is rolling out in Google Search for all users globally, the Gemini app, Google AI Studio and the Gemini API, according to Digital Trends and TechCrunch.
Key facts
- Google says Hydrogen completes tasks 2.5 times faster than Gemini 3.8 Flash at its default high thinking level.
- It offers four thinking levels: low, medium, high (default) and a new xhigh tier.
- API pricing is $1.50 per million input tokens and $7.50 per million output tokens, unchanged from 3.8 Flash, per Ars Technica.
- Input is native 1 million tokens, with up to 1 million tokens of output, according to 9to5Google.
- In Antigravity, Hydrogen is available to paid AI Pro and Ultra subscribers.
What Google claims
Google's figures are self-reported. Compared with 3.8 Flash, it says Hydrogen cuts fabricated claims by more than 5x and more than triples the Terminal-Bench 4.1 score (57% versus 18.2%), as quoted by 9to5Google. Partners reportedly saw runs 2x to 2.8x faster with 12% to 23% fewer tokens.
On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, Hydrogen scores 51 at the default high setting against 50 for Gemini 4 Argon, and 54 at xhigh. Google also says it ranks No. 5 on Agent Arena. Digital Trends reports that Google's own charts show it ahead of OpenAI's GPT 6.1 Terra and Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 5.5 on knowledge and multimodal benchmarks, while trailing slightly on science and math, computer use and Terminal-Bench 4.1.
On safety, Google says Hydrogen reduces overreach in agentic tasks by up to 81% and is up to 2x less likely to bypass permission boundaries on blocked tasks.
Search and the Gemini app
In Search, Hydrogen is the default model for AI Mode and handles the hardest questions in AI Overviews. Google says it better parses multipart questions and typos, returns more visual responses, and links to a wider range of sources through its fan-out technique, which splits a prompt into subqueries. Ars Technica notes it has heard the promise of more sources from Google before.
Access in the Gemini app is tiered. Ars Technica reports AI Pro and Ultra subscribers get Hydrogen live, while AI Plus and free users remain on 3.5 Flash-Lite. 9to5Google and Digital Trends say free users can receive Hydrogen through Auto model selection when it suits the prompt. The sources differ on how widely it reaches non-paying users, so the practical access for free accounts is unclear.
What to watch next
Pricing is the main near-term issue for developers. Ars Technica says Carbon and Argon cost $2/$10 now but rise to $4/$20 starting next month, which widens the cost gap with Hydrogen and strengthens the case for routing routine work to the cheaper model.
Google is building that into its tools. 9to5Google describes a new Orchestrator in Antigravity that switches between Carbon and Hydrogen within a session, with Carbon coordinating and Hydrogen running worker and verifier agents.
