Is Gemini 4 Hydrogen free? Yes, on the AI Studio / API free tier and in the Gemini app. Free guide & student terms →
Pricing
Figures below are official list prices, retrieved on 13 November 2026. They can change. Billable tokens include thinking tokens and, when grounding is used, internal tool instructions. This site does not sell access and has not measured actual spend per task.
| Model | ID | Input / 1M | Output / 1M | Cache read / 1M | Free tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini 4 Hydrogen | gemini-4-hydrogen | $1.50 | $7.50 | $0.075 | Yes, rate-limited |
| Gemini 4 Carbon | gemini-4-carbon | $2.00 through 30 Nov 2026; $4.00 from 1 Dec 2026 | $10.00 / $20.00 | $0.10 / $0.20 | No |
| Gemini 4 Argon | gemini-4-argon | $2.00 through 30 Nov 2026; $4.00 from 1 Dec 2026 | $10.00 / $20.00 | $0.10 / $0.20 | No |
| Gemini 3.8 Flash | gemini-3.8-flash | $0.75 through 31 Dec 2026; $1.50 from 1 Jan 2027 | $3.75 / $7.50 | $0.075 / $0.15, plus hourly storage | Yes, rate-limited |
| Gemini 4 Hydrogen (Cloud) | Input / 1M | Output / 1M | Cache read / 1M | Cache write / 1M |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Global | $1.50 | $7.50 | $0.075 | $1.875 |
| Non-global | $1.65 | $8.25 | $0.0825 | $2.0625 |
Gemini API (Developer)
Hydrogen is on both the free and paid tiers. The free tier is listed as free of charge and rate-limited; Google also notes that free-tier content may be used to improve its products, unlike the paid tier. Grounding with Google Search is not listed as available on the free tier; on the paid tier, Gemini 3 and newer models share 5,000 free search requests per month, then $14 per 1,000 requests, with a default daily cap of 1,500 requests per day on the Developer API.
Source: Google AI Studio / Gemini API docs, Retrieved 13 November 2026
Cloud / Agent Platform
Global standard prices for Hydrogen match the Developer API paid tier. Non-global regions are listed 10% higher. A cache-write column also appears on the Cloud pricing page ($1.875 / 1M global; $2.0625 / 1M non-global). The Developer API “What’s new” page discusses implicit cache reads at $0.075 / 1M and says explicit caching is not supported — if you need the write-side behaviour, check the current Cloud page rather than assuming the two documents are identical.
Source: Google Cloud, Retrieved 13 November 2026
What official docs say is billed
- Every token the model processes, including thinking tokens.
- Internal tool system instructions and function declarations when using grounding; Search grounding is also billed per query.
- Implicit cache hits are discounted; explicit
cachedContentsis not supported on Hydrogen. - Carbon and Argon have an introductory price through 30 November 2026, then a higher price from 1 December 2026. Hydrogen’s $1.50 / $7.50 figure is not described as introductory on the pages we read.
- Gemini 3.8 Flash remains cheaper on the current list ($0.75 / $3.75 through 31 December 2026) and is the model Google names as the common migration source.
For a side-by-side with OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI list prices, see the comparison page.