Google Announces 'Gemini 4 Hydrogen', a Fast and Low-Cost Model Available to Free Users
Google has announced Gemini 4 Hydrogen, a new AI model focused on speed and efficiency for everyday coding and agent tasks. According to Google, it is 2.5 times faster than the previous generation model and is already rolling out globally, including for free users.
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Background and Positioning
Google has introduced Gemini 4 Hydrogen as the third model in the Gemini 4 series, following Argon and Carbon. Google positions Hydrogen as its mainstream model for daily agent tasks, emphasizing speed and efficiency.
Performance and Comparisons
According to Artificial Analysis, Hydrogen scores 51 points on standard reasoning, outperforming Argon. Google reports it is about 2.5 times faster than Gemini 3.8 Flash. In Google's benchmark comparisons against Anthropic's Claude Sonnet 5.5 and OpenAI's GPT-6.1 Terra, Hydrogen led in 7 out of 10 items, including the HLE-Diamond reasoning test at 58.8%, while trailing in terminal operations and computer use.
Pricing and Availability
Hydrogen features a 1-million-token context window. API pricing is set at $1.50 per million input tokens and $7.50 per output token. It is available immediately across multiple developer platforms, Google Workspace tools, and the free tier of the Gemini app.
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Importance 83/100
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