Side by side · November 2026

Gemini 4 Carbon vs GPT-6.1 Sol

Gemini 4 Carbon scores higher on the Models at Work leaderboard (75 vs 70 out of 100). On independent tests alone, Gemini 4 Carbon is ahead (92 vs 81). They cost about the same: 1,000 support replies come to $10 on Gemini 4 Carbon and $10 on GPT-6.1 Sol at list price. On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, one of the independent tests, Gemini 4 Carbon leads 60 to 55.

Updated Nov 12, 2026 · every number links to who measured it
Gemini 4 Carbon · GoogleGPT-6.1 Sol · OpenAI
Leaderboard rank#1#6
Score (0–100)7570
Kind of workHardest problemsEveryday default
Price per 1M tokens$2 to read · $10 to write$2 to read · $10 to write
Reads at once1M tokens (about 750,000 words)1M tokens (about 750,000 words)
Where you can get itGemini Enterprise Agent Platform (Google Cloud), Google AI Studio, Gemini for business, Gemini app (Google AI Ultra)OpenAI API, Amazon Bedrock, Microsoft Foundry, Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform (Google Cloud), ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, Enterprise and Edu, Microsoft 365 Copilot
Can a company host it itselfNoNo
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index6055
Humanity's Sixth Sense (Scale)Not measured46.60
Best forReading and comparing large sets of dense documents, Legal and finance analysis, Multi-step researchDrafting proposals and reports, Summarising long documents, Back-office tasks with several steps, Answering questions from company documents

Cost of 1,000 jobs

1,000 of theseGemini 4 CarbonGPT-6.1 Sol
Support repliesthe customer message, the account notes and two help articles read; a 300-word reply written$10$10
Documents processeda two-page invoice or form read; the fields pulled out$7$7
Calls summariseda 40-minute call transcript read; a summary and next steps written$26$26
Contracts revieweda 40-page contract read against a checklist; a memo of issues written$75$75
Drafts writtena brief and one example read; a 600-word email or proposal section written$11$11

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 GPT-6.1 Sol for

  • Drafting proposals and reports
  • Summarising long documents
  • Back-office tasks with several steps
  • Answering questions from company documents

The sensible OpenAI default: 55 on Artificial Analysis's index against 57 for GPT-6 Astra, at a fifth of Astra's list price.

Caveats: Two points separate it from Astra on the index, which is within noise; test Astra only where Sol's answers fall short. The ChatGPT plans are listed from our researcher's reading of OpenAI's launch page, which blocked automated reading this run; on ChatGPT Enterprise and Edu an owner has to switch the model on. In Microsoft 365 Copilot it is rolling out in phases across Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Chat with usage limits Microsoft has not published, per Microsoft's 30 September post; admins commenting there report users already reaching them.

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.

GPT-6.1 Sol: The launch thread on Hacker News, a developer forum, argued over its own title: 'near-Astra for a fifth of the price' drew 955 comments, most of them about which work to send to Sol and which to a dearer model.

Questions people ask

Which is better, Gemini 4 Carbon or GPT-6.1 Sol?

Gemini 4 Carbon scores higher on the Models at Work leaderboard (75 vs 70 out of 100). On independent tests alone, Gemini 4 Carbon is ahead (92 vs 81). They cost about the same: 1,000 support replies come to $10 on Gemini 4 Carbon and $10 on GPT-6.1 Sol at list price. On the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, one of the independent tests, Gemini 4 Carbon leads 60 to 55.

When should I choose Gemini 4 Carbon over GPT-6.1 Sol?

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 GPT-6.1 Sol over Gemini 4 Carbon?

Choose GPT-6.1 Sol for drafting proposals and reports, summarising long documents, back-office tasks with several steps, answering questions from company documents. The sensible OpenAI default: 55 on Artificial Analysis's index against 57 for GPT-6 Astra, at a fifth of Astra's list price.

Which is cheaper, Gemini 4 Carbon or GPT-6.1 Sol?

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. GPT-6.1 Sol costs $2 per million tokens it reads (input) and $10 per million tokens it writes (output) on OpenAI's list price (OpenAI 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 GPT-6.1 Sol?

At list price: 1,000 support replies cost $10 on Gemini 4 Carbon and $10 on GPT-6.1 Sol; 1,000 documents processed cost $7 on Gemini 4 Carbon and $7 on GPT-6.1 Sol; 1,000 calls summarised cost $26 on Gemini 4 Carbon and $26 on GPT-6.1 Sol; 1,000 contracts reviewed cost $75 on Gemini 4 Carbon and $75 on GPT-6.1 Sol; 1,000 drafts written cost $11 on Gemini 4 Carbon and $11 on GPT-6.1 Sol. 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.