Google unveils Gemini 4 Hydrogen for its app and Search
The model replaces Flash branding, with access for free Gemini app users through automatic selection and developer pricing based on token usage.
Google has introduced Gemini 4 Hydrogen, an AI model being rolled out across the Gemini app, Search and its Antigravity development platform. The company says it improves speed, instruction-following and tool use compared with Gemini 3.8 Flash.
In the Gemini app, Hydrogen is positioned for everyday assistance. Free users can access it through automatic model selection when the system considers it appropriate for their prompt. Google says the model follows requested tone and formatting more consistently and selects relevant tools more often.
Hydrogen becomes the default for Search’s AI Mode and handles the hardest questions in AI Overviews. According to Google, it better understands complex queries, including those with typos or multiple parts, while producing more visual responses and a broader selection of relevant links.
Google says Hydrogen completes tasks 2.5 times faster at its default high setting than Gemini 3.8 Flash. It supports native input of 1 million tokens and output of up to 1 million tokens.
Paid Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers can use Hydrogen in Antigravity. Google is also introducing Orchestrator there, allowing models such as Carbon and Hydrogen to alternate within a session. Carbon may delegate routine steps to Hydrogen.
Developer pricing is US$1.50 for each million input tokens and US$7.50 for each million output tokens.
