Key Terms
- Fairwind Program - a limited-access program (launched Sep 2, 2026) giving governments, critical-infrastructure operators, and security partners prioritized access to Gemini 3.8 Flash Cyber and future frontier cyber models; 650+ participating partners, with mandatory operational standards (access restricted to internal security/IR/pentest teams, MFA). Source: Google – Fairwind Program
- CodeMender - Google's agent harness for finding, verifying, and fixing vulnerabilities (and general coding), paired with 3.8 Flash Cyber inside Fairwind; billed per token at the underlying model's rate. Sources: Google – Fairwind Program , Google – Pricing
- Introductory pricing via credits back - the $0.75/$3.75 Flash rates are promotional pricing "provided through 50% credits back on net spend" through December 31, 2026; standard $1.50/$7.50 rates apply from January 1, 2027. Source: Google – Pricing
- Global vs Non-global - Gemini Flash models bill 10% higher when requests are routed to a specific non-global region (e.g. 3.8 Flash non-global intro input is $0.825/MTok vs $0.75 global). Source: Google – Pricing
- Priority tier - premium serving at 1.8x standard price; for 3.8 Flash it is $2.70/$13.50 (standard rates from Jan 1, 2027; $1.35/$6.75 until then under the promo). Source: Google – Pricing
- Flex/Batch tier - discounted serving for non-urgent workloads at roughly 50% of standard pricing (3.8 Flash intro Flex: $0.375/$1.875 per MTok). Source: Google – Pricing
- Thinking / effort levels - 3.8 Flash "works harder": it executes extra reasoning steps and may consume more tokens at higher effort levels; Google says lower effort or 3.7 Flash remain options for efficiency-first workloads. Source: Google – 3 8 Flash And 3 8 Flash Cyber
- DeepSWE v1.1 - a long-horizon, real-world software engineering benchmark; Argon claims a state-of-the-art 77.9%. Source: Google – Gemini 4 Argon
- CyberGym / CWE-bench - vulnerability-discovery and vulnerability-patching benchmarks used to position 3.8 Flash Cyber (CWE-bench pass@1 47.2%). Source: Google – 3 8 Flash And 3 8 Flash Cyber
- AI credits (consumer) - Gemini app limits use a compute-based meter that refreshes every 5 hours up to a weekly cap; subscribers can extend limits by purchasing AI credits. Source: Gemini – Advanced
- Antigravity - Google's agent-first development platform (CLI and IDE); the surface where 3.8 Flash demos shipped and where Google AI plans get tiered agent rate limits. Sources: Google – 3 8 Flash And 3 8 Flash Cyber , Gemini – Advanced
Latest Changes
Changes since the 2026-08 report.
- New model: Gemini 3.8 Flash launched Sep 2 as Google's third Flash release in six weeks, "our best reasoning and coding model yet, at the same speed and low cost of 3.7," at the same introductory $0.75/$3.75 per MTok through December 31, 2026. Source: Google – 3 8 Flash And 3 8 Flash Cyber
- New model: Gemini 3.8 Flash Cyber launched Sep 2, a cybersecurity variant with frontier vulnerability-discovery and patching performance, priced at standard rates ($1.50/$7.50, no intro discount) and available only to trusted defenders via the new Fairwind Program. Source: Google – Pricing
- New flagship announced: Gemini 4 Argon (Sep 30) at an introductory $2/$10 per MTok with cached input at 95% off ($0.10/MTok); $4/$20 applies after the intro period, with no end date published. It expands the output token limit to an industry-leading 1M tokens, up from 64K, and rolls out first through Fairwind. Source: Google – Gemini 4 Argon
- Pricing mechanics clarified: the 3.8/3.7/3.6 Flash intro rates are delivered as 50% credits back on net spend, and the page now explicitly posts post-promo prices ($1.50/$7.50 global, $1.65/$8.25 non-global) starting January 1, 2027 for all three models. Source: Google – Pricing
- Verified unchanged: Gemini 3.5 Flash stays $1.50/$9.00, Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite $0.30/$2.50, Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite $0.25/$1.50, and Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview $2.00/$4.00 input and $12.00/$18.00 output (at/below vs above 200K tokens); 3.1 Pro Preview is still the only GA-priced Pro model, so the Pro-tier gap carried since June persists. Source: Google – Pricing
- New program: Fairwind (Sep 2) pairs 3.8 Flash Cyber with the CodeMender harness for autonomous find-verify-fix workflows; 650+ partners globally (Wiz, CrowdStrike, Palo Alto Networks, Snowflake named); any Google Cloud customer can otherwise buy CodeMender with public models. Source: Google – Fairwind Program
- CodeMender pricing published on the Vertex pricing page: token-based at model rates with no markup (3.8/3.7/3.6 Flash $1.50/$7.50 standard, 3.5 Flash $1.50/$9.00, 3.1 Pro $2.00/$12.00), with the Flash intro discount applying to CodeMender use of those models through Dec 31. Source: Google – Pricing
- New audio models: Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking (Sep 15, described as the top-rated speech-to-speech model for multi-step reasoning) and Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS / Flash-Lite TTS (Sep 23); the 3.8 Live API is priced on Vertex (text input $0.75, audio output $12.00 per MTok). Sources: Google – Google Ai Updates September 2026 , Google – Pricing
- Plans verified unchanged: Code Assist Standard $22.80/$19 and Enterprise $54/$45 per user/month on both pricing surfaces; the free individuals tier is now served from codeassist.google, and the platform formerly named Vertex AI Agent Platform appears as "Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform." Sources: Google – Pricing , Google – Code Assist
- Community trust signal: a medium post claiming Google AI Studio's delete function only hides prompts (with a VRP auto-ban for reporting it) drew a 56-point, 39-comment HN thread on Sep 20; unaddressed by Google in fetched sources. Source: News – Item
Plans
| Plan | Price (monthly) | Price (annual) | Usage limits | Key inclusions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini Code Assist for individuals | $0 | N/A | undisclosed | Free code assistance via codeassist.google; unpaid-tier users were moved to Antigravity CLI/Antigravity on June 18, 2026. Source: Google – Pricing |
| Gemini Code Assist Standard | $22.80/user | $19/user | undisclosed | Code completion/generation/chat, Gemini 3 with 1M-token context (Preview release channel), local codebase awareness, agent mode (preview, MCP + human-in-the-loop), Gemini CLI, Colab Enterprise, BigQuery/Firebase/Cloud Run integrations, Gen AI indemnification |
| Gemini Code Assist Enterprise | $54/user | $45/user | "increased daily usage limits" (numbers undisclosed) | Everything in Standard + code customization on private repos, Gemini in Apigee/Application Integration, Gemini Cloud Assist premium features (free during preview), increased agent mode and Gemini CLI usage |
| Gemini app Free | $0 | N/A | undisclosed; 5-hour refresh + weekly cap | Access to Gemini 3.6 Flash, varying access to 3.1 Pro, image generation, Deep Research, Gemini Live. Source: Gemini – Advanced |
| Google AI Plus | $7.99 AUD (region-served price; USD price not shown in fetched region) | undisclosed | 2x free-tier usage (tokens undisclosed) | 2x Gemini limits, 400 GB storage, 200 Google Flow credits |
| Google AI Pro | $32.99 AUD (region-served) | undisclosed | 4x free-tier usage (tokens undisclosed) | 4x limits, entry Antigravity agent rate limits, Jules expanded task limits, AI Studio expanded limits, $10/month Google Cloud credits (Developer Programme), 5 TB storage, YouTube Premium Lite |
| Google AI Ultra 5x | from $149.99 AUD (region-served) | undisclosed | 5x Pro usage (tokens undisclosed) | Higher Antigravity/Jules/AI Studio limits, Deep Think, Gemini Spark, $40/month cloud credits, 20 TB storage, YouTube Premium |
| Google AI Ultra 20x | $329.99 AUD (region-served) | undisclosed | 20x Pro usage (tokens undisclosed) | Highest Antigravity/Jules/AI Studio limits, $100/month cloud credits, 30 TB storage |
Hourly SKUs (monthly / 12-month commitment): Standard $0.031232877 / $0.026027397 per hour; Enterprise $0.073972603 / $0.061643836 per hour; at 730 hours/month these resolve to $22.80/$19 and $54/$45. Source: Google – Pricing
Terms explained:
- Code customization - suggestions tailored to an organization's private codebases, Enterprise-only. Source: Google – Code Assist
- Gemini Cloud Assist - AI infrastructure design, diagnostics, and troubleshooting; premium features free during preview for Enterprise. Source: Google – Pricing
- AI credits - consumer mechanism to extend Gemini app limits past the weekly cap; pricing not published on the fetched pages. Source: Gemini – Advanced
- Jules - Google's asynchronous coding agent (beta), tiered by Google AI plan. Source: Gemini – Advanced
Sources: Google – Pricing , Google – Code Assist , Gemini – Advanced , One – Ai Premium
API Pricing
All prices per 1M tokens (USD) on the live Vertex/Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform pricing page. Flash intro rates run through December 31, 2026.
Standard Pricing
| Model | Input <=200K | Input >200K | Cached input | Output <=200K | Output >200K |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini 4 Argon (announced; intro) | $2.00 | undisclosed | $0.10 (95% off input) | $10.00 | undisclosed |
| Gemini 4 Argon (post-intro) | $4.00 | undisclosed | $0.20 | $20.00 | undisclosed |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash Cyber (Global) | $1.50 | $1.50 | $0.15 | $7.50 | $7.50 |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash Cyber (Non-global) | $1.65 | $1.65 | $0.165 | $8.25 | $8.25 |
| Gemini 3.8 / 3.7 / 3.6 Flash (Global, intro to Dec 31, 2026) | $0.75 | $0.75 | $0.075 | $3.75 | $3.75 |
| Gemini 3.8 / 3.7 / 3.6 Flash (Global, from Jan 1, 2027) | $1.50 | $1.50 | $0.15 | $7.50 | $7.50 |
| Gemini 3.8 / 3.7 / 3.6 Flash (Non-global, intro) | $0.825 | $0.825 | $0.0825 | $4.125 | $4.125 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash (Global) | $1.50 | $1.50 | $0.15 | $9.00 | $9.00 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite (Global) | $0.30 | $0.30 | $0.03 | $2.50 | $2.50 |
| Gemini 3.1 Flash-Lite (Global) | $0.25 | $0.25 | $0.025 | $1.50 | $1.50 |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview (Global) | $2.00 | $4.00 | $0.20 / $0.40 | $12.00 | $18.00 |
| Gemini 3 Flash Preview (Global, text/image/video) | $0.50 | $0.50 | $0.05 | $3.00 | $3.00 |
| Gemma 4 26B | $0.15 | N/A | $0.015 (cache hit) | $0.60 | N/A |
Flex/Batch and Priority (3.8 Flash, Global)
| Tier | Input | Output |
|---|---|---|
| Flex/Batch (intro, to Dec 31, 2026) | $0.375 | $1.875 |
| Flex/Batch (from Jan 1, 2027) | $0.75 | $3.75 |
| Priority (intro, to Dec 31, 2026) | $1.35 | $6.75 |
| Priority (from Jan 1, 2027) | $2.70 | $13.50 |
| 3.8 Flash Cyber Flex/Batch | $0.75 | $3.75 |
| 3.8 Flash Cyber Priority | $2.70 | $13.50 |
Gemini 3.8 Live API (Non-global, per 1M tokens)
| Type | Price |
|---|---|
| Text input | $0.75 |
| Video/image input | $1.00 |
| Audio input | $3.00 |
| Text output (response and reasoning) | $4.50 |
| Audio output | $12.00 |
| Avatar video output | $1.00 (billed only while speaking; 6,192 tokens/second of video) |
CodeMender (per 1M tokens, matches model rates; Flash intro discount applies to Dec 31)
| Model | Input | Cached | Output |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini 3.8 Flash Cyber | $1.50 | $0.15 | $7.50 |
| Gemini 3.8 / 3.7 / 3.6 Flash | $1.50 (intro effective $0.75) | $0.15 | $7.50 (intro effective $3.75) |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | $1.50 | $0.15 | $9.00 |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro | $2.00 | $0.20 | $12.00 |
AlphaEvolve (now listed): cost = Gemini model price + AlphaEvolve agent price; the agent fee is 2x the model rate for 3.7/3.8 Flash ($3.00 input, $15.00 output-and-thinking per MTok). Source: Google – Pricing
Source: Google – Pricing
Model Performance / Benchmarks
| Benchmark / Metric | Score | Model | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| DeepSWE v1.1 (long-horizon SWE) | 77.9% (state of the art) | Gemini 4 Argon | Claimed new SOTA for real-world long-horizon software engineering. Source: Google – Gemini 4 Argon |
| AutomationBench (Zapier) | 51.3% (#1) | Gemini 4 Argon | End-to-end business-function execution. Source: Google – Gemini 4 Argon |
| CWE-bench v1 (patching) | 68% (tied for first) | Gemini 4 Argon | Builds on 3.8 Flash Cyber's v0 results. Source: Google – Gemini 4 Argon |
| LVBench (long video understanding) | 91.7% (state of the art) | Gemini 4 Argon | Source: Google – Gemini 4 Argon |
| Vals Index (finance/coding/legal/tax, GDP-weighted) | leading (exact score in image chart) | Gemini 4 Argon | Chart-only, not extractable as a number. Source: Google – Gemini 4 Argon |
| Output token limit | 1M tokens (up from 64K) | Gemini 4 Argon | Industry-leading per Google. Source: Google – Gemini 4 Argon |
| HLE-Verified | 54.9% | Gemini 3.8 Flash | Multi-step reasoning across STEM/humanities/professional fields. Source: Google – 3 8 Flash And 3 8 Flash Cyber |
| DeepSWE v1.1 | outperforms "most larger frontier models" (exact score in chart) | Gemini 3.8 Flash | Chart-only; independent HN tracking had 3.8 Flash topping deepswe.datacurve.ai ahead of Opus 5 at launch. Sources: Google – 3 8 Flash And 3 8 Flash Cyber , News – Item |
| CWE-Bench (patching, Collinear) | 47.2% pass@1 vs 47.8% for the leading frontier model, at significantly lower cost | Gemini 3.8 Flash Cyber | Source: Google – 3 8 Flash And 3 8 Flash Cyber |
| Internal 20-language vulnerability benchmark | >70% discovery success | Gemini 3.8 Flash Cyber | Source: Google – 3 8 Flash And 3 8 Flash Cyber |
| Chrome Security patching | 2.6x more correct patches than best commercial models | Gemini 3.8 Flash Cyber | Source: Google – 3 8 Flash And 3 8 Flash Cyber |
| Wiz penetration-testing benchmark | +7.5-9.7% recall at 2.3-5.2x lower cost vs leading frontier models | Gemini 3.8 Flash Cyber | Source: Google – 3 8 Flash And 3 8 Flash Cyber |
| Critical vulnerability discovery | found in <2 hours (typically months of research) | Gemini 3.8 Flash Cyber | Google Cloud Vulnerability Research. Source: Google – 3 8 Flash And 3 8 Flash Cyber |
| Gray Swan Indirect Prompt Injection | leading (chart-only) | 3.8 family / Argon | Charts published as images, no tabular scores. Sources: Google – 3 8 Flash And 3 8 Flash Cyber , Google – Gemini 4 Argon |
| Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index | 3.8 Flash: 52/57/59 at low/medium/high vs 3.7 Flash 51/53/57 | Gemini 3.8 Flash | Third-party; community-cited. Source: News – Item |
| Cost per task (AA) | $0.58 (3.8 Flash) vs $0.68 (GLM-5.3) and $0.84 (Kimi K3) | Gemini 3.8 Flash | Third-party; community-cited at launch. Source: News – Item |
Google again published most comparison data as GIF/WebP charts rather than tables, so exact competitor scores (Claude, GPT, GLM, Kimi) on DeepSWE, Vals, CyberGym, and Gray Swan are not extractable from official sources.
Latest News
Gemini 3.8 Flash and 3.8 Flash Cyber (September 2, 2026)
Google's third Flash release in six weeks. 3.8 Flash is "our best reasoning and coding model yet" at 3.7's speed and cost (intro $0.75/$3.75), with gains in long-horizon software engineering, agentic workflows, and specialized reasoning; it explicitly trades tokens for performance ("works harder") with lower effort levels or 3.7 Flash recommended for efficiency-first workloads. 3.8 Flash Cyber is Fairwind-gated. Consumers get 3.8 Flash in the Gemini app, AI Mode in Search, and Gemini in Sheets; enterprises via Gemini Enterprise; developers via Antigravity, AI Studio, and the Gemini API. Source: Google – 3 8 Flash And 3 8 Flash Cyber
Fairwind Program Launch (September 2, 2026)
Limited-access program pairing 3.8 Flash Cyber with the CodeMender harness for autonomous vulnerability finding and patching ("verified, deployment-ready patches in minutes" vs weeks), with 650+ partners globally across governments, critical infrastructure, and core technology platforms. Participants must restrict access to internal cyber/IR/pentest teams and deploy MFA. Google.org separately announced its total cybersecurity funding passed $100 million. Source: Google – Fairwind Program
Gemini 3.8 Live and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking (September 15, 2026)
Two speech-to-speech audio models: 3.8 Live for everyday conversation and 3.8 Live Extended Thinking, described as the top-rated speech-to-speech model for multi-step reasoning, rolled out to developers in AI Studio/Gemini API and across Search Live, Gemini Live, and Workspace voice features. A 493-point HN thread discussed the launch. Sources: Google – Google Ai Updates September 2026 , News – Item
Gemini 3.8 TTS Family (September 23, 2026)
Gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS and Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS, described as Google's most expressive text-to-speech models with custom voice generation and scene dialogue direction from text prompts, rolling out across Gemini Notebook and Google Vids; a 331-point HN thread followed. Sources: Google – Google Ai Updates September 2026 , News – Item
Gemini 4 Argon Announced (September 30, 2026)
Frontier model for "real-world coding, enterprise knowledge work, and cyber defense": intro $2/$10 per MTok with cache at 95% off ($4/$20 post-intro), 1M-token output limit, DeepSWE v1.1 77.9% SOTA, AutomationBench 51.3% #1, CWE-bench v1 68% tied-first, and internal results including a 40% beat on a published quantum-optimization baseline, 300+ TiB of memory freed across Google data centers (estimated 500 TiB to 1 PiB total), and C/C++-to-Rust migrations from 32K lines (libgav1, resulting decoder 2.7x faster than the prior Rust port) up to 800K+ lines (Fuchsia Zircon kernel). Rolling out to trusted cyber defenders via Fairwind first, then paid API customers and Google AI Ultra subscribers, with no dates given; Google is participating in the U.S. government's voluntary pre-release access process. Source: Google – Gemini 4 Argon
Bloomberg: Employee Skepticism About Argon (September 30, 2026)
On launch day, Bloomberg reported that Google is "grappling with employee skepticism about the new Gemini model"; the story drew an HN thread (23 points) and was widely linked from the 1,683-point Argon discussion. Source: News – Item
Surface Expansion: Gemini for Windows, Googlebook, Connected Apps (September 2026)
The Gemini app shipped on Windows (Alt+Space overlay, Gemini Spark task delegation, Nano Banana image and Gemini Omni video generation), Googlebook (Android laptop "designed for Gemini Intelligence") opened pre-orders, and a new wave of Connected Apps (Airtable, Linear, monday.com, Adobe, Webflow, and others) rolled into the Gemini app. Source: Google – Google Ai Updates September 2026
Community Signals
Gemini 4 Argon: 1,683 points, 1,171 comments, availability dominates (Sep 30)
The largest Google thread of the month split between pricing surprise and frustration that nothing is purchasable yet. iamronaldo flagged the price: "Argon will launch at an introductory price of $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens, with cached input tokens priced at 95% off input token price. Wow" News – Item . babelfish: "Gemini not beating the 'can't release a model' allegations" News – Item . dom96: "Why announce this if it's not available yet? Why not at least announce when it will be released to the public? None of the other AI labs do this. Really frustrating." News – Item . deanc reported consumer lag: "I pay for AI plus... when I go to gemini.google.com the most recent model I can use is 3.6-flash-lite. Two revisions have been released since then and they still can't put these things in the hands of customers." News – Item . A counterpoint on capability from taylorfinley on 3.8 Flash: "I pasted the error message into agy and it proceeded to attach GDB to my GPU driver, reverse-engineer the kernel queue ioctl interface, and author an LD_PRELOAD C shim to get ROCm llama.cpp working on my Strix Halo. My jaw was hanging open the whole time." News – Item . Thread: News – Item
Gemini 3.8 Flash: 1,160 points, 669 comments, benchmarks vs hands-on split (Sep 2)
mattlondon captured the cadence-and-Pro-gap meme: "this comes after what - 3 or 4 weeks since 3.7 Flash... At this point it is a meme of course, but where is 3.5 Pro :)" News – Item . Hands-on views were mixed. mythz: "it's capable for many tasks but in noway compares to Claude/Sol - requires more prompts and the output isn't as good. So just another mid-tier flash model... Antigravity has very generous quotas so it's a good workhorse model when your Claude/OpenAI subs run out." News – Item . satvikpendem blamed the harness: "The harness [is] the main thing holding back Google models... even the Google CEO said they're falling behind in agentic tasks." News – Item . simonw measured a thinking-low regression: "high cost 8.9742 cents... Here are the 3.7 pelicans for comparison... 8.4387 cents (I think thinking level low is a regression on 3.8 compared to 3.7.)" News – Item . a11r on third-party scoring: "3.7 was 51, 53, 57 for Low, Medium and High, 3.8 is 52, 57, 59" on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index. News – Item . AM1010101 on ecosystem lock-in: "not being able to use opencode with a subscription is not really something I'm realistically going to do when claude and codex are around." News – Item . Thread: News – Item
Google AI Studio data-deletion allegations (56 points, 39 comments, Sep 20)
A medium post titled "Google AI Studio fakes data deletion. VRP auto-banned me in 60s for reporting it" claimed deleted prompts are only hidden and that reporting the issue via Google's Vulnerability Reward Program triggered an automatic ban; a follow-up post ("Delete is a scam: Your prompts are not deleted, just hidden") added 24 points on Sep 19, and an "AI Weekly Warns Firms on Google AI Studio Data Retention Fraud" post added 31 points on Sep 21. No Google response surfaced in fetched sources. Thread: News – Item , follow-ups: News – Item , News – Item
Other September signals
Third-party analysis of Argon pricing/performance from Artificial Analysis drew 111 points and 61 comments: News – Item . A Verge story on the Fairwind-gated release ("Google announces Gemini 4, restricts access to 'trusted cyber defenders'") was submitted Sep 30: News – Item . Reddit search for "gemini code assist" was blocked by a login wall this cycle and could not be used.
Reddit recovery (added 2026-10-03)
A logged-out Reddit recovery pass (October 3) found no Gemini coding threads above 100 votes in the month's top results. Scale signal: r/GeminiAI counts 497K weekly visitors with 11K weekly contributions (captured 2026-10-03), the second-largest AI-assistant subreddit footprint this cycle. Reddit – Geminiai
Enterprise Readiness
| Feature | Available? | Details |
|---|---|---|
| SSO (SAML/OIDC) | Yes | Via Google Cloud Identity/IAM integration (not separately re-verified this cycle). Source: Google – Pricing |
| SCIM | Not re-verified this cycle | Historically provided through Cloud Identity; not mentioned on pages fetched this cycle. |
| Audit logs | Yes | Usage metrics and observability logging with a dashboard: daily active use, chat exposures, code suggestions, acceptance rates, lines of code accepted. Source: Google – Code Assist |
| IP indemnity | Yes | Google's Gen AI indemnification covers Gemini Code Assist licensed users on both Standard and Enterprise; source citation flagged when suggestions quote at length. Sources: Google – Code Assist , Google – Pricing |
| Data residency | Partial | VPC Service Controls and Private Google Access verified; regional routing controls bill at non-global rates (10% premium). Source: Google – Code Assist |
| HIPAA | Not re-verified this cycle | Covered under Google Cloud BAA per earlier cycles; absent from pages fetched this cycle. |
| Air-gapped / on-prem | Not re-verified this cycle | Google Distributed Cloud Air-gapped historically available; absent from pages fetched this cycle. |
| SLA | Not re-verified this cycle | Governed by Google Cloud SLA terms; not on pages fetched this cycle. |
| Admin controls (RBAC) | Yes | Enterprise Access Controls with granular IAM permissions, data governance policy (no training on customer code), admin console for license management; SOC 1/2/3 and ISO/IEC 27001, 27017, 27018, 27701 certified. Source: Google – Code Assist |
| Fairwind operational controls | Yes (program-gated) | Participants must limit 3.8 Flash Cyber access to internal cybersecurity/IR/pentest teams and enforce MFA. Source: Google – Fairwind Program |
Terms explained:
- VPC Service Controls - defines a security perimeter around Google Cloud resources to prevent data exfiltration. Source: Google – Code Assist
- Source citation - Code Assist automatically flags suggestions that quote a source at length, for license compliance. Source: Google – Code Assist
Transparency Gaps
| Gap | Details | Severity |
|---|---|---|
| Gemini 4 Argon availability | No GA date for developers, enterprises, or consumers ("as soon as possible"); no end date for the $2/$10 introductory price; no >200K-tier or long-context price columns published. Source: Google – Gemini 4 Argon | High |
| Flash promo cliff | 3.8/3.7/3.6 Flash introductory pricing expires December 31, 2026 and all three double to $1.50/$7.50; implemented as credits back on net spend rather than a rate cut, so budgeting requires the post-promo math. Source: Google – Pricing | High |
| Code Assist usage limits | Standard and Enterprise publish no request/token numbers; Enterprise is differentiated only as "increased daily usage limits" and "increased agent usage." Sources: Google – Pricing , Google – Code Assist | High |
| Consumer plan limits and pricing | Gemini app plans quantify usage only as 2x/4x/5x/20x multipliers with no token numbers; AI credits exist but their price is not published on the fetched pages; plan prices are region-served (USD figures not extractable this cycle). Source: Gemini – Advanced | Medium |
| Benchmark comparability | DeepSWE, Vals Index, CyberGym, and Gray Swan results are published as image charts, so exact scores versus Claude/GPT/GLM/Kimi are not extractable; Argon's Vals Index "leading" claim has no number. Source: Google – Gemini 4 Argon | Medium |
| Fairwind eligibility | No published criteria for who qualifies, waitlist timelines, or the full operational standards beyond team restriction and MFA; 650+ partners named only via logo wall. Source: Google – Fairwind Program | Medium |
| 3.x Pro status | Gemini 3.1 Pro is still a Preview and 3.5/3.6 Pro never shipped GA; Google has published no statement on whether the Pro preview stabilizes or is superseded by Argon. Source: Google – Pricing | Medium |
| AI Studio deletion allegations | Community claims that deletion only hides prompts, with an alleged VRP auto-ban for reporting, are unaddressed in fetched Google sources; directly relevant to Gemini API/Studio data-governance posture. Source: News – Item | Medium |
| Consumer model distribution | Paid subscribers report 3.6 Flash in the Gemini app while 3.8 Flash ships to API and Pro/Ultra surfaces; Google publishes no model-rollout matrix per consumer tier. Source: News – Item | Low |
| Live API reasoning billing | Live API session billing re-bills all accumulated context tokens every turn, but per-turn effective costs for long sessions are not published as examples. Source: Google – Pricing | Low |