Google released its Gemini 4 Argon AI model only to a vetted group of cybersecurity experts rather than the public, citing safety concerns about misuse by hackers.
Google released Gemini 4 Argon, its first frontier model in over seven months. Independent testing puts it level with GPT-6 Astra, while Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5 performs better; its per-token price is low, but it uses more than twice as many tokens per task.
Why it matters: The model brings Google level with one leading competitor, though the higher token use per task works against the low per-token price.
Written by AI from The Decoder's published text.
Background
From our own funding, model and news trackers, not from the source.
- Latest funding
- $30B · 31 Oct 2026
- Newest model on the API
- GPT-6.1 Terra Pro · 26 Oct 2026 · $1 in / $5 out per million tokens
- Latest funding
- Growth · $65B · 28 May 2026
- Newest model on the API
- Claude Haiku 5.5 · 7 Oct 2026 · $0.1 in / $0.5 out per million tokens
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Google releases Gemini 4 Argon AI model with restricted access over safety concerns
Primary source
“Gemini 4 Argon is Google's first frontier model in over seven months. It matches GPT-6 Astra in independent testing but can't keep up with Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5.”
Reporting from a publisher outside the organisation being covered.
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