{"slug": "llm-gemini-0-37", "title": "llm-gemini 0.37", "summary": "Google released Gemini 4 Hydrogen, the lowest-cost model in its Gemini 4 family, priced at $1.50 per million input tokens, $0.075 per million cached input tokens and $7.50 per million output tokens, according to Simon Willison's llm-gemini 0.37 release notes. Hydrogen is only a 25% discount to Gemini 4 Carbon and Gemini 4 Argon, which both cost $2.00/$0.10/$10.00 through November 30, 2026 and double to $4.00/$0.20/$20.00 from December 1, 2026, when Hydrogen becomes a 75% discount. Willison noted Hydrogen is still 15x the $0.10/$0.50 pricing of Claude Haiku 5.5 and GPT-6 Luna, and that Hydrogen will be the new free-tier model and power AI features in Google Search.", "body_md": "**Release:** [llm-gemini 0.37](https://github.com/simonw/llm-gemini/releases/tag/0.37)\n\nGoogle launched [Gemini 4 Hydrogen](https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/gemini-models/introducing-gemini-4-hydrogen/) today - the lowest cost member of the Gemini 4 family.\n\nIt's actually not too far off the price of its much bigger siblings, Carbon and Argon. I'm finding Gemini 4's pricing *really* confusing. Here's the pricing scheme:\n\n| Model | Dates | Input ($/M) | Cached input | Output | \n|---|---|---|---|---|\n| Gemini 4 Carbon | Through Nov 30, 2026 | $2.00 | $0.10 | $10.00 | \n|  | From Dec 1, 2026 | $4.00 | $0.20 | $20.00 | \n| Gemini 4 Argon | Through Nov 30, 2026 | $2.00 | $0.10 | $10.00 | \n|  | From Dec 1, 2026 | $4.00 | $0.20 | $20.00 | \n| Gemini 4 Hydrogen |  | $1.50 | $0.075 | $7.50 | \n\nCarbon and Argon are *the same price*, and both are scheduled to double in price on December 1st. If they're the same price, why have two different models? [Google says](https://aistudio.google.com/docs/pricing) that Argon \"delivers Gemini 4 intelligence with faster responses and lower token spend per turn compared to Gemini 4 Carbon\" - so it may be priced the same, but it will use less tokens per task.\n\nHydrogen, supposedly the cheap model, is currently only a 25% discount on its more capable peers. The Hydrogen price will make more sense after December 1st, when it will represent a 75% discount. It's still considerably more expensive than Claude Haiku 5.5 and GPT-6 Luna - they're both $0.10/$0.50, so Hydrogen is 15x that.\n\nI had Hydrogen [generate some pelicans](https://tools.simonwillison.net/markdown-svg-renderer?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgist.github.com%2Fsimonw%2Fce357e95149cd16f65ec7e7106ed4fed). Here's a [full comparison grid](https://static.simonwillison.net/static/2026/gemini-4-pelicans.html) showing the pelicans for all three members of the Gemini 4 family at their three supported effort levels:\n\nConsidering how close they are in price, the difference in pelican quality for Hydrogen is quite stark.\n\nHere's [how Google describe](https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/models-and-research/gemini-models/introducing-gemini-4-hydrogen/) Hydrogen's intended position in their mix of models:\n\nIn real-world software development, while teams rely on frontier models like Carbon and Argon for deep architectural judgment when designing systems or untangling subtle bugs, they still need a fast, disciplined execution model for writing code, running tests, and verifying changes. Hydrogen is built to stand on its own as a model for everyday work — or to pair with Carbon and Argon as the high-efficiency execution engine in multi-model workflows.\n\nMost notably, Hydrogen is the new free tier model, and is the model that will power AI features in Google Search.\n\nTags: [gemini](https://simonwillison.net/tags/gemini), [llm](https://simonwillison.net/tags/llm), [google](https://simonwillison.net/tags/google), [pelican-riding-a-bicycle](https://simonwillison.net/tags/pelican-riding-a-bicycle), [llm-pricing](https://simonwillison.net/tags/llm-pricing), [ai](https://simonwillison.net/tags/ai), [llms](https://simonwillison.net/tags/llms)", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/llm-gemini-0-37", "canonical_source": "https://simonwillison.net/2026/Nov/12/llm-gemini/", "published_at": "2026-11-12 22:55:19+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-11-13 00:53:14.346342+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["large-language-models", "generative-ai", "ai-products", "ai-tools", "ai-search"], "entities": ["Google", "Gemini 4 Hydrogen", "Gemini 4 Carbon", "Gemini 4 Argon", "Simon Willison", "llm-gemini", "Claude Haiku 5.5", "GPT-6 Luna"], "also_reported_by": [], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/llm-gemini-0-37", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/llm-gemini-0-37.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/llm-gemini-0-37.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/llm-gemini-0-37.jsonld"}}