Gemini 4 Carbon

Gemini 4 Carbon is Google's frontier model that excels at deep work in complex, real-world tasks across domains including coding, finance, legal, cybersecurity, and science. Gemini 4 Carbon is a Google Frontier Model subject to Section 34 of the Service Specific Terms (for details, see Abuse monitoring).

4 Carbon differs from earlier Gemini models in the following ways:

  • Unified input and output token limit and long decodes: 4 Carbon has a unified 1,048,576-token limit that includes both input and output tokens (where output includes thinking, function calls, and the final response) across all supported API surfaces (the GenerateContent API, the Interactions API, and the OpenAI compatibility Chat Completions API). A single foreground segment generates up to 65,536 output tokens when streaming (or 32,768 tokens when non-streaming). On both the Interactions API and the GenerateContent API (v1beta1), you can extend output up to 1,048,576 tokens (minus your input tokens) using long decodes: the Google Gen AI SDK and Agent Studio handle continuation_token automatically across segments, or you can use background=true on the Interactions API or pass continuation_token in a custom continuation loop (known issue: continuation_token is supported only in the v1beta1 API, which the Google Gen AI SDK uses by default). For details, see the developer's guide to Gemini 4 Carbon.
  • Thinking levels: 4 Carbon supports thinking levels LOW, MEDIUM (default on gemini-4-carbon), and HIGH (default on gemini-4-carbon-cyber-permissive). Setting thinking_budget or thinking_level="MINIMAL" returns an HTTP 400 validation error.
  • Sampling parameters: Custom values for sampling parameters (temperature, top_p, and top_k) are ignored.
  • Context caching: 4 Carbon supports implicit caching only (4,096-token minimum), with durable caching enabled by default. Explicit context caching isn't supported.
  • Office and OpenDocument file inputs: In addition to PDF (application/pdf) and plain text (text/plain), 4 Carbon accepts Microsoft Office (.docx, .dotx, .doc, .pptx, .ppt, .xlsx, .xls) and OpenDocument (.odt, .odp, .ods) files inline or from Cloud Storage on both the GenerateContent API and the Interactions API.

Try in Agent Studio Deploy example app Developer guide Pricing

Note: "Deploy example app" requires a Google Cloud project with billing and Agent Platform API enabled.
Model ID gemini-4-carbon
Modalities
Text Input and output
Image Input only
Audio Input only
Video Input only
Token limits Context window 1,048,576
Maximum output tokens 1,048,576
Capabilities
Tools
APIs
Consumption options
Input size limit
  • GenerateContent API: 500 MiB compressed
  • Interactions API: 256 MiB compressed (synchronous or streaming); 9.75 MiB uncompressed (deferred, when background and store are true)
Interactions API URI limit Up to 100 distinct Cloud Storage (gs://) URIs per request across all modalities on the Interactions API, including URIs carried forward from earlier turns using previous_interaction_id. generateContent supports gs:// URIs up to the per-modality model item limits (up to 6,500 combined multimodal files when including plain-text files).
Technical specifications Image
  • Maximum images per prompt: 3,000 (images and documents combined)
  • Maximum inline part size (GenerateContent API): 256 MB
  • Maximum file size per file from Cloud Storage: 2 GiB minus 500 KiB
  • Maximum file size per file from public HTTP or HTTPS URLs: 15 MiB
  • Maximum file size per file for direct local uploads in the console: 7 MiB inline (up to 50 MiB staged to Cloud Storage)
  • Maximum file size per file for Google Drive imports in the console: 7 MB (10 MB total)
  • Default resolution tokens: 1,120
  • Supported MIME types:
    image/png, image/jpeg, image/webp, image/heic, image/heif
Text
  • Maximum number of files per prompt: 3,000 documents (shared with images; up to 6,500 total files when including plain text)
  • Maximum number of pages per file: 3,000
  • Maximum inline part size (GenerateContent API): 256 MB
  • Maximum file size per file from Cloud Storage: 2 GiB minus 500 KiB
  • Maximum file size per file from public HTTP or HTTPS URLs: 15 MiB
  • Maximum file size per file for direct local uploads in the console: 7 MiB inline (up to 50 MiB staged to Cloud Storage)
  • Maximum file size per file for Google Drive imports in the console: 7 MB (10 MB total)
  • Default resolution tokens: 560
  • OCR for scanned PDFs: Not used by default
  • Supported MIME types:
    application/pdf, text/plain, application/msword, application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document, application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.template, application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.text, application/vnd.ms-powerpoint, application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.presentationml.presentation, application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.presentation, application/vnd.ms-excel, application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet, application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet
Video
  • Maximum video length (with audio): Approximately 45 minutes
  • Maximum video length (without audio): Approximately 1 hour
  • Maximum number of videos per prompt: 10
  • Maximum inline part size (GenerateContent API): 256 MB
  • Maximum file size per file from Cloud Storage: 2 GiB minus 500 KiB
  • Maximum file size per file from public HTTP or HTTPS URLs: 15 MiB
  • Default resolution tokens per frame: 70
  • Supported MIME types:
    video/x-flv, video/quicktime, video/mpeg, video/mpegs, video/mpg, video/mp4, video/webm, video/wmv, video/3gpp
Audio
  • Maximum audio length per prompt: Approximately 8.4 hours, or up to 1 million tokens
  • Maximum number of audio files per prompt: 1,000
  • Maximum inline part size (GenerateContent API): 256 MB
  • Maximum file size per file from Cloud Storage: 2 GiB minus 500 KiB
  • Maximum file size per file from public HTTP or HTTPS URLs: 15 MiB
  • Speech understanding for: Audio summarization, transcription, and translation
  • Supported MIME types:
    audio/x-aac, audio/flac, audio/mp3, audio/m4a, audio/mpeg, audio/mpga, audio/mp4, audio/ogg, audio/pcm, audio/wav, audio/webm
Parameter defaults
  • Temperature: 1.0 (fixed; custom values ignored)
  • topP: 0.95 (fixed; custom values ignored)
  • topK: 64 (fixed; custom values ignored)
  • candidateCount: 1 (fixed)
Supported regions

Model availability

  • Global: global
  • Multi-region: us, eu

ML processing

  • Multi-region: us, eu

Provisioned Throughput

  • Global: global
  • Multi-region: us, eu

Standard PayGo

  • Global: global
  • Multi-region: us, eu

Priority PayGo

  • Global: global
  • Multi-region: us, eu
Knowledge cutoff date March 2026
Versions
  • gemini-4-carbon
    • Launch stage: GA
    • Release date: November 10, 2026
Security controls Online prediction
  • Data residency
  • CMEK
  • VPC-SC
  • AXT
Batch inference
  • Data residency
  • CMEK
  • VPC-SC
  • AXT
Context caching
  • Data residency
  • CMEK
  • VPC-SC
  • AXT
See Security controls for more information.

Gemini 4 Carbon for cyber

Gemini 4 Carbon for cyber is a version of Gemini 4 Carbon for defensive cybersecurity use cases, such as vulnerability discovery, reverse engineering, exploit verification, and patch generation. Gemini 4 Carbon for cyber is a Google Frontier Cyber Model subject to Section 31 of the Service Specific Terms (for details, see Abuse monitoring).

Gemini 4 Carbon for cyber is generally available on Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform behind an allowlist. To request access, contact your Google team or apply through the Fairwind Program. Access to earlier Gemini Cyber models (such as Gemini 4 Argon Cyber Permissive or Gemini 3.8 Flash Cyber) doesn't carry over; you must apply separately.

The following table shows how Gemini 4 Carbon for cyber differs from Gemini 4 Carbon:

4 Carbon 4 Carbon for cyber
Model ID gemini-4-carbon gemini-4-carbon-cyber-permissive
Access Verified enterprise customers in select regions Allowlist only (Fairwind Program)
Default thinking level MEDIUM (supports LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH) HIGH (supports LOW, MEDIUM, HIGH)
Computer use Supported Not supported
Supported regions global, us, eu global, us