Thinking Levels

Google has launched Gemini 4 Hydrogen as the immediate successor to 3.8 Flash, opening access to all users and replacing the older model across its product lineup. It offers four thinking levels (low, medium, high, and the new xhigh), more than triples 3.8 Flash's Terminal-Bench score, and edges out the flagship Argon on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index with 54 versus 50.

Google has launched Gemini 4 Hydrogen, targeting everyday coding and agentic workflows at $1.50 per million input tokens and $7.50 per million output tokens, covering the full 1M-token context with no tiered pricing. Versus Gemini 3.8 Flash it completes tasks 2.5x faster at the default high thinking level and lifts Terminal-Bench 4.1 from 18.2% to 57%, alongside an Orchestrator feature that dynamically switches between Carbon and Hydrogen within a session.