Google releases Gemini 4 Hydrogen, a cost-efficient model for everyday coding and agents

Google released Gemini 4 Hydrogen on November 12, calling it a model for "everyday coding and agentic workflows". Its announcement says Hydrogen handles repository coding and debugging, interactive web development and multimodal workflows, and that it has tighter instruction following and fewer fabricated claims (Google's claims).

• It runs standalone across four configurable thinking levels, or alongside frontier models such as Gemini 4 Carbon and Gemini 4 Argon.
• Developers can use it through the Gemini API in Google AI Studio and Android Studio, and in Gemini for business. Paid Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers can try it in Google Antigravity, where Google says a new Orchestrator feature pairs Hydrogen with Gemini 4 Carbon.

In a post on X, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said Hydrogen finishes tasks 2.5x faster than Gemini 3.8 Flash and that its four thinking levels let users wait and pay only for the reasoning depth a task needs. He said it is rolling out to all tiers of Google AI Studio, the Gemini API, the Gemini app and Search, and to paid Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers in Antigravity.

Google points to its Gemini API "What's New" guide for model details, setup and thinking-level controls.