Google Gemini 4 Carbon tops AI index but remains unavailable to most paying customers

Google's Gemini 4 Carbon ranked first on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index with a score of 59, surpassing Anthropic's Claude Opus 5.5 (58) and OpenAI's GPT-6 Astra (57). However, most paying customers cannot currently access the model, as Google is initially releasing it only to vetted cyber defenders through its Fairwind Program. Google stated the staged release prioritizes safety, with wider availability for developers, businesses and consumers to follow at an unspecified date. On security benchmarks, Carbon scored 54.8% on ExploitGym, significantly higher than GPT-6 Astra's 42.4% and Claude Opus 5.5's 34.5%. Pricing is set at $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens, doubling after launch. Meanwhile, Google's Alphabet shares rose 1.5% on the news.