Google's Gemini 4 Argon Is Now in the Gemini App for Paying Subscribers

Gemini 4 Argon, Google's newest and most capable model, is rolling out worldwide in the Gemini app and in AI Mode, the chat-style tab in Google Search.

You need a paid plan to use it: Google AI Pro at $19.99 a month, or Ultra, which starts at $99.99. Two weeks ago, Google only let security teams use Argon, saying it was so capable it would start with trusted cyber defenders. The public version still keeps its cyber safety limits.

What Google built Argon to do

Google says Argon is built to take your most complex tasks "from start to finish." Its release notes name three examples: analyzing a complex financial report, creating a deck from scattered sources, and building an interactive 3D model.

Google's demo video shows what that looks like for a small catering business. Argon takes a messy folder of project notes, including a sketch of a seating plan, and turns it into a finished proposal deck in Google Slides.

Then Gemini drafts an email to the client with the deck attached, and sets up a scheduled task, a job it reruns on its own, that handles the next client request the same way.

How its answers read differently

Google says Argon "answers questions more directly with less hedging, doesn't repeat itself more than necessary, and skips clichés," and it follows your style instructions better than any earlier Gemini model.

On long jobs, it gives you progress updates more often so you're not staring at a spinner. Google also says it trained Argon to stop and ask you before it does anything it can't undo.

How to switch to Argon in the Gemini app

On Pro or Ultra, open the model picker in the chat box. You'll see four choices: 3.5 Flash-Lite, 3.8 Flash, 3.1 Pro and 4 Argon, which Google labels "Complex tasks." Flash is the everyday choice, and Argon is for the big jobs.

Under the chat box there's also a new switch between Chat and Task. Pick Task and Gemini keeps working across your Google apps while you're away from your computer. That's the feature Google first launched as Gemini Spark, now folded into the main chat.

Rollout is staggered, so Argon may not show up for you right away, and many work accounts and people in the EU don't have it yet.

Every Gemini user, free ones included, also gets a new Customize menu in the left sidebar. There you set how Gemini responds, add skills (saved instructions it reuses), and connect more than 40 apps, like Instacart, OpenTable and Adobe. Most of those apps work in English in the US for now.

Here are two jobs that fit what Google built Argon for, ready to paste once you've switched to it:

I'm attaching our quarterly financial report. Tell me the three numbers that changed the most since last quarter and why, flag anything that looks off, and turn it into a one-page summary I could hand to my boss.

Here are my notes from three client calls. Turn them into a 6-slide deck: the problem, what each client asked for, what they have in common, and a recommended next step. Ask me before you send or share anything.

Coding with Argon depends on which plan you're on

Antigravity is Google's coding agent, and it's now built into Gemini's Mac app. You click Antigravity at the top of the app, approve the plan it writes, and it builds and tests the code in the background, then sends you a notification when it's ready to review.

Argon in Antigravity is only on the $99.99-a-month Ultra plan, and Google hasn't said when, or if, Pro subscribers will get it there. That's the biggest complaint from Pro subscribers so far, since coding is what a lot of them wanted Argon for.

Pro subscribers can still build apps with Argon in Canvas, the Gemini app's workspace for documents and code, according to Ars Technica. It's a lighter tool than Antigravity, but you can describe a small app or web page and watch Gemini build it.

Free users don't get Argon, and lost model choice on October 9

Free users don't get Argon, and neither do subscribers to AI Plus, Google's $4.99-a-month plan. Google hasn't said when, or whether, either group will get it.

Since October 9, free Gemini also picks the model for you. Google's support page says "Most prompts will go to Flash-Lite, our fastest model," and only prompts that need deeper reasoning may go to Flash or Pro. If you turn that automatic choice off, every answer comes from Flash-Lite.

The same overhaul takes Pro away from AI Plus, leaving it with Flash-Lite and Flash, on a date Google is emailing each Plus subscriber about. In an Android Authority reader poll with more than 3,300 votes, just under 60% said Google shouldn't take features away from people.

I haven't had a chance to test this model yet (my video on it comes out Wednesday, though!).

The demos in Google's blog posts and the demos on X are pretty impressive. One person had Argon build a whole 3D room full of bookshelves in a single browser file, with no 3D models or game engine:

However, just looking at the 3D scenes and landing pages it makes, it doesn't seem like it's beating Claude Opus 5.5, and it doesn't sound like people think it is either. Google says Argon beats Opus 5.5 on its own tests.

The people who've used both mostly argue about tone, with some liking Argon's directness and others still preferring Claude. I'll report back in my video, and here's how I tested Opus 5.5 against Fable 5.1 and GPT-6 Astra for comparison:

But it is nice to see at least a jump in capabilities, given that we've been waiting on Google for months now to upgrade Gemini. For the backstory, here's how Gemini 3.5 Flash learned to drive your browser back in June.

Sources

• Google: Gemini 4 Argon, built to solve your hardest problems
• Google: Gemini 4 Argon comes to the Gemini app
• Gemini Apps release notes
• Google Support: Changes to Gemini model access and limits
• 9to5Google: Gemini app gets 4 Argon
• Ars Technica: Gemini 4 Argon rolls out, but only if you pay
• The Verge: Google releases Gemini 4 Argon
• Android Authority: Gemini downgrade poll results