// TOM'S HARDWARE US — HARDWARE & GADGET
Google reveals new Gemini 4 Carbon AI model, narrowly beating Claude Opus 5.5
Tests now push models to reveal their greater weaknesses.
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
Last week, Google released its latest AI model, Gemini 4 Carbon, topping intelligence rankings charts. The model has landed with a grander splash than most. As Artificial Analysis highlights, Gemini 4 Carbon is now the highest-ranked AI model on its latest Intelligence Index V5 benchmark suite, beating Claude Opus 5.5 by one point. It achieves the number one score across four of the nine evaluations, and does so at a lower cost per task than other high-ranking models, like Claude Opus 5.5. Google is offering access to the model for cyber defenders first through its Fairwind program, with wider availability coming sometime after.
Perhaps more crucially, Gemini 4 Carbon stands apart by topping Artificial Analysis' new AA-Omniscience v 1.1 test that tracks hallucinations and knowledgeable recall of information. As governments and institutions look to maximize value and security from their use of AI, being able to claim the lowest hallucination score could prove a significant selling point.
Then again, even the best scored only 54 on the -100 to +100 scale, suggesting even the best frontier models in 2026 are a far cry from being consistently reliable when it comes to accurately recalling information.
AI model rankings change fast and regularly in 2026, and it's no surprise that the latest release from a frontier lab has pushed the envelope, but Google's Gemini 4 Carbon can be seen as a comeback after languishing with irregular releases for much of the year.
Gemini 4 Carbon (high) scores a 59 on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index V5 benchmark. That puts it a single point ahead of Claude Opus 5.5 (max with fallback), and two points ahead of OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra (max). It's also nine points ahead of Meta's Muse Wonder Full (Max), and 10 points ahead of Claude Fable 5.1 (max with fallback).
But raw, generalized intelligence isn't the whole picture with frontier models in 2026. As developers chase the Pareto frontier— the best-possible confluence of cost and intelligence — Gemini 4 Carbon is also impressively affordable. Its cost per task on the Intelligence Index test is actually slightly cheaper than Gemini 3.8 Flash (high), priced at $7.76 each. That's several dollars cheaper than either Claude Opus 5.5 or Sonnet 5.5, both max with fallback, and not far off half the price of Claude Fable 5.1, which costs $12.99 per task.
Gemini 4 Carbon is still more expensive than OpenAI's GPT 5 Astra and about six times more expensive than GPT 6.1 Sol (max). It's about 13 times as expensive per task as the open-weight DeepSeek V4.1 Flash 1017, too, although that model measures a mere 32 on the Intelligence Index rankings.
Gemini 4 Carbon isn't the best at everything, but it may be the best at most of the high price points. At least for now. Arena.ai has it holding the top spot on its Pareto Frontier chart at the more expensive end of the spectrum, but at lower price points, the Chinese open-weight models like GLM 5.3-Flash and DeepSeek V4 Pro take over.