Gemini 4 Argon may launch first for Ultra and paid API users
A leak says Argon is close to release and will go first to Ultra subscribers and paid API customers at a minimum of $99.99 a month, with Google's own table showing it ahead on 12 of 18 benchmarks while Artificial Analysis scores it 53, tied with GPT-6 Astra and behind Opus 5.5 at 58.
Gemini 4 Argon looks like its finally close to leaving the Fairwind bunker and Google already told us who gets it first: Ultra subscribers and paid API customers. So the cheapest way to try Google's new frontier model is $99.99 a month. That's a bold call from the company that hands out free Pro subscriptions like candy. A few things I'll be watching once it's out: 1. Google's own table has Argon leading 12 of 18 benchmarks but Artificial Analysis puts it at 53, tied with GPT-6 Astra and still behind Opus 5.5 at 58. 2. It trails Opus 5.5 on Terminal Bench 4.0, 57.4% to 66.4% so real agentic coding is where it has to prove itself. 3. On the API it costs $2/$10 to start, which is cheaper than Astra. Opus users will only care if it actually beats Opus. If Argon really is that good, it deserves more than a paywall. Pro users who were promised "our most advanced models" deserve at least a small taste.