Google's Argon model now available in Search and Gemini app
What's the story
Google has officially launched its highly-anticipated AI model, Gemini 4 Argon. The tech giant claims that this new addition can take on the best in the industry. The company says Argon offers "frontier reasoning and improved performance across complex workflows," while cutting down on common issues like hedging, repetition, and cliches that often affect AI chatbots.
Benchmark superiority
Argon outperforms GPT-6 Astra and Claude Fable 5.1
Google claims that Argon outperforms its industry counterparts, including OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra and Anthropic's Claude Fable 5.1 and Claude Opus 5.5 models, on a variety of benchmarks.
These include coding, cybersecurity, science, finance, and law.
The company is already using Argon internally for tasks such as identifying and fixing cybersecurity vulnerabilities and optimizing computing power for YouTube's comments section.
Market launch
Availability and pricing of Argon model
The model is now available to Google's Pro and Ultra subscribers through the Gemini app and AI mode in Search. It is also accessible to Ultra subscribers on Antigravity, Google's agentic development platform.
However, it remains unclear when or if Argon will be made available to Plus subscribers or free users.
Google has priced Argon competitively at an introductory rate of $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens.
Competitive comeback
Google's comeback in the AI race
The launch of Argon comes as a major step for Google, marking its return to the frontier AI race after months of being sidelined.
The move comes just a day after Meta announced its own frontier model, Muse Wonder Full.
This development highlights how quickly the dynamics in the AI space can change and that it's not just a two-horse race at the top.