Gemini 4 Carbon is now available

Commenters discussed Gemini 4 Carbon’s release and the difficulty of accessing Google’s newest models. Several paying subscribers said Carbon was limited to Ultra or inconsistently available across plans, apps, regions, and enterprise accounts; some found their subscriptions offered older models or low usage limits. They criticized Google’s confusing branding and slow, uneven rollouts, arguing that easier access would help customers try flagship models before upgrading. Others noted Carbon was available through the API or AI Studio, and one commenter said it appeared in a consumer account bundled with Drive storage. Some compared Google unfavorably with ChatGPT and Anthropic, saying their plans provide more reliable access to leading models.

Views on Carbon’s capabilities were mixed. One API user praised it for spotting useful issues in a paper draft that other models missed, while another commenter said Argon was already a favorite for research and questions. Others hoped Carbon would improve coding and engineering work, especially with Antigravity’s Swarm feature, but worried about speed, token use, and subscription limits. Some commenters reported that Argon was too expensive or too restricted for regular work. They also disagreed over Gemini’s reliability: critics cited hallucinations as a barrier to agentic coding, while a defender pointed to benchmark results and positive experience with Gemini models. Naming confusion between Argon and Carbon, and jokes about Google’s pelican-game demo, rounded out the reactions.