Argon now available in AI Studio for Google AI Pro
Google on Oct. 16 (Oct. 17 Japan time) made its AI model "Gemini 4 Argon" available in its development environment "Google AI Studio" to subscribers of its paid individual plan "Google AI Pro." The change covers two sections: "Build," which creates app prototypes from text instructions, and "Playground," which lets users test the model's answers to questions. When Google began general availability of Argon on Oct. 13 (Oct. 14 Japan time), AI Studio access was limited to subscribers of its higher-tier "Google AI Ultra" plan and users of its pay-as-you-go API (a mechanism that lets developers call the AI from their own services).
attention google ai pro subscribers: you can now build with gemini 4 argon in ai studio build / playground
In the U.S., Pro costs $19.99 a month and Ultra $99.99 a month for its cheapest plan. Ultra also has a higher-tier plan at around $200 a month. The monthly price of the individual plan needed to try Argon in AI Studio fell from $99.99 for Ultra to $19.99 for Pro. Argon remains unavailable on AI Studio's free tier.
- Oct. 13
- Oct. 16
- Monthly price of individual plan with Argon in AI StudioGoogle99.99 → 19.99
Pro access widened 3 days after general availability
Argon is a model Google announced on Sept. 30 (Oct. 1 Japan time) and first offered only to organizations that defend against cyberattacks. It moved to general availability on Oct. 13, when Pro and Ultra subscribers gained access in the "Gemini" chat app. On Oct. 15 (Oct. 16 Japan time), Google announced a weekly Argon-only usage allowance for Pro users in its AI coding tool "Antigravity." The opening of AI Studio to Pro came the following day.
On the day of general availability, multiple Pro subscribers posted on Google's developer forum asking for Argon to be made available in AI Studio as well.
Other companies are also bringing their latest models to development tools on plans of around $20 a month. OpenAI lets subscribers of its $20-a-month "ChatGPT Plus" plan choose models such as "GPT-6.1 Terra," released on Oct. 26, in its AI coding tool "Codex."
- Gemini 4 Argon announced. Early access for cyber defense organizationsOfficial
- General availability. Gemini app for Pro and Ultra; AI Studio for Ultra and API usersOfficial
- Weekly Argon-only allowance for Pro in AntigravityOfficial
- Pro added in AI Studio's Build and PlaygroundOfficial
- Successor Gemini 4 Carbon announced. Early access for cyber defense organizationsOfficial
Pro allowance undisclosed, with API rates beyond it
According to Google, the usage allowance in AI Studio is daily and shared between Playground and Build. Google says only that Pro gets more than the free tier and Ultra gets even more, without disclosing specific amounts. Plan benefits apply only within the AI Studio interface, and calls made through the API from users' own services are billed separately. After the allowance is used up, users can keep working by switching to an API key with billing enabled.
Right after the opening, reports from Pro subscribers on Google's developer forum were split. On Oct. 18, posts saying the site still showed that an Ultra subscription was required appeared alongside posts with screenshots saying it was working. One user also reported not reaching the daily limit after 10 to 20 uses in a long conversation of about 400,000 tokens.
Using the model through the API beyond the allowance costs $2 for input and $10 for output per million tokens, the units of text the AI reads and writes. That is an introductory price through Nov. 30, rising to $4 for input and $20 for output from Dec. 1.
- Through Nov. 30
- From Dec. 1
- Gemini 4 Argon inputGoogle2 → 4
- Gemini 4 Argon outputGoogle10 → 20
Behind Opus 5.5 in third-party overall rating as successor Carbon arrives
In benchmarks (tests that measure performance) Google released at launch, Argon outperformed the other companies' models it was compared with on 13 of 19 items. On the other hand, on benchmarks of programming work such as FrontierSWE v2 and Terminal-bench 4.0, it fell short of OpenAI's "GPT-6 Astra" and Anthropic's "Claude Opus 5.5."
In an overall rating measured under the same conditions by U.S. evaluation company Artificial Analysis, Argon scored 53 at launch, tying GPT-6 Astra. Claude Opus 5.5 led with 58.
Google announced the successor "Gemini 4 Carbon" on Oct. 28 (Oct. 29 Japan time). On Artificial Analysis's newer version of the index (v5), Carbon scored 59, 9 points above Argon. However, Carbon is first being offered only to organizations that defend against cyberattacks, and Google has not said when Pro and Ultra subscribers or developers will be able to use it.
