Side by side · November 2026

Gemini 4 Carbon vs Gemini 3.8 Flash

Gemini 4 Carbon scores higher on the Models at Work leaderboard (75 vs 65 out of 100). On independent tests alone, Gemini 4 Carbon is ahead (92 vs 63). Gemini 3.8 Flash is cheaper: 1,000 support replies cost about $3.75 at list price, against $10 on Gemini 4 Carbon, which is 2.7 times as much. On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, one of the independent tests, Gemini 4 Carbon leads 60 to 31.

Updated Nov 12, 2026 · every number links to who measured it

	Gemini 4 Carbon · Google	Gemini 3.8 Flash · Google
Leaderboard rank	#1	#12
Score (0–100)	75	65
Kind of work	Hardest problems	High-volume work
Price per 1M tokens	$2 to read · $10 to write	$0.75 to read · $3.75 to write
Reads at once	1M tokens (about 750,000 words)	1M tokens (about 750,000 words)
Where you can get it	Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform (Google Cloud), Google AI Studio, Gemini for business, Gemini app (Google AI Ultra)	Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform (Google Cloud), Gemini app (Google AI Pro and Ultra)
Can a company host it itself	No	No
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index	60	31
Arena Text score	Not measured	1497 (rank 8)
Scale SWE-Bench Pro V2 (mini-swe-agent)	Not measured	58.80%
Humanity's Last Exam, Diamond (Scale)	Not measured	34.30
Humanity's Sixth Sense (Scale)	Not measured	41.60
Best for	Reading and comparing large sets of dense documents, Legal and finance analysis, Multi-step research	First-pass support replies, Summarising documents, images and recordings at volume, Routine multi-step tasks on a budget

Cost of 1,000 jobs

1,000 of these	Gemini 4 Carbon	Gemini 3.8 Flash
Support repliesthe customer message, the account notes and two help articles read; a 300-word reply written	$10	$3.75
Documents processeda two-page invoice or form read; the fields pulled out	$7	$2.63
Calls summariseda 40-minute call transcript read; a summary and next steps written	$26	$9.75
Contracts revieweda 40-page contract read against a checklist; a memo of issues written	$75	$28
Drafts writtena brief and one example read; a 600-word email or proposal section written	$11	$4.13

Worked out from each vendor’s list price and a fixed size for each job. A product built on a model charges its own price on top. See what every model costs for the same jobs.

Choose Gemini 4 Carbon for

Reading and comparing large sets of dense documents
Legal and finance analysis
Multi-step research

Second on Artificial Analysis's index (60 against the leader's 65) at a quarter of the leader's list price, but only until 30 November, when Google doubles it.

Caveats: The $2 in / $10 out per million tokens (the unit vendors bill by) is introductory; Google says $4 / $20 applies after 30 November 2026, which will lower its score here. Google says it uses more text per task than Gemini 4 Argon, so the bill can run higher at the same list price. One independent test so far. The rankings quoted in Google's launch post are relayed by Google and not counted. In the Gemini app it is for Google AI Ultra subscribers only, per Google; commenters on lower plans and one enterprise account report they cannot select it yet.

Choose Gemini 3.8 Flash for

First-pass support replies
Summarising documents, images and recordings at volume
Routine multi-step tasks on a budget

Fast and well liked in blind votes for the money, at under half the list price of Gemini 4 Argon, but users report more made-up answers than rivals and Google doubles the price on 1 January 2027.

Caveats: $0.75 in / $3.75 out per million tokens (the unit vendors bill by) is introductory; Google's pricing page says $1.50 / $7.50 from 1 January 2027. Users report more invented facts and more dropped details between messages than with rival models: have someone check its output. Third Flash release in six weeks: expect Google to retire versions quickly and plan for re-testing. In the Gemini app it is for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers, per Google's launch post. Google Workspace is not listed: no Google page we read names the model and a Workspace plan.

What people running them say

Gemini 4 Carbon: On the Hacker News (a developer forum) thread about Google's launch, several commenters on the Pro and Plus plans say Carbon shows in the app as Ultra-only, one says their company's enterprise account cannot use it yet, and another says their workplace already finds Argon too expensive. None of this is verified, and it is too little to score.

Gemini 3.8 Flash: A very large Hacker News (developer forum) thread: 1,160 upvotes, 669 comments. simonw had it build an interactive chart as a web page in '13 seconds' for '1.8 cents'; colechristensen calls it 'competitive with opus/fable and also FAST'; several use it for the bulk of the work while a stronger model writes the plan. The pushback is about reliability: one user says it 'gives me the most hallucinations' (made-up facts) of the major models, others complain it ignores what was said one message earlier, and in some subjects its knowledge stops at early 2025, which hurts research tasks.

Questions people ask

Which is better, Gemini 4 Carbon or Gemini 3.8 Flash?

When should I choose Gemini 4 Carbon over Gemini 3.8 Flash?

Choose Gemini 4 Carbon for reading and comparing large sets of dense documents, legal and finance analysis, multi-step research. Second on Artificial Analysis's index (60 against the leader's 65) at a quarter of the leader's list price, but only until 30 November, when Google doubles it.

When should I choose Gemini 3.8 Flash over Gemini 4 Carbon?

Choose Gemini 3.8 Flash for first-pass support replies, summarising documents, images and recordings at volume, routine multi-step tasks on a budget. Fast and well liked in blind votes for the money, at under half the list price of Gemini 4 Argon, but users report more made-up answers than rivals and Google doubles the price on 1 January 2027.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 4 Carbon or Gemini 3.8 Flash?

Gemini 4 Carbon costs $2 per million tokens it reads (input) and $10 per million tokens it writes (output) on Google's list price (Google: Gemini 4 Carbon is now available, read Nov 12, 2026). A token is about three-quarters of a word. Gemini 3.8 Flash costs $0.75 per million tokens it reads (input) and $3.75 per million tokens it writes (output) on Google's list price (Gemini API Pricing, read Nov 12, 2026). A token is about three-quarters of a word.

What do 1,000 jobs cost on Gemini 4 Carbon and Gemini 3.8 Flash?

At list price: 1,000 support replies cost $10 on Gemini 4 Carbon and $3.75 on Gemini 3.8 Flash; 1,000 documents processed cost $7 on Gemini 4 Carbon and $2.63 on Gemini 3.8 Flash; 1,000 calls summarised cost $26 on Gemini 4 Carbon and $9.75 on Gemini 3.8 Flash; 1,000 contracts reviewed cost $75 on Gemini 4 Carbon and $28 on Gemini 3.8 Flash; 1,000 drafts written cost $11 on Gemini 4 Carbon and $4.13 on Gemini 3.8 Flash. A product built on either model charges its own price on top.

Scores come from the Models at Work leaderboard: Score is 0 to 100 and computed, not typed. 40% is independent testing (Artificial Analysis, Arena, Scale, Epoch, Vals and others; each test is scaled against the best score on this board, and tests of real work, such as finished freelance projects or professional tasks, count double the exams). 30% is price: the vendor's list price for a typical mix of reading and writing, on a fixed scale from $0.05 to $60 per million tokens, so a model that costs a fifth as much gains real ground. 15% is what people report after running it, from Signals and linked threads. 15% is fit: how much text it can take in at once and where a business can get it (the products and clouds that carry it), with a small credit for open weights. A missing component drops out and the rest are reweighted. A model with no independent test yet is provisional and ranks below every measured one. Within three points is a tie. Vendor-published figures are labelled and never counted. Prices are vendor list prices where published; a typical mix assumes three parts reading to one part writing.