Performance Benchmarks for Gemini 4 Carbon (High)

Analyze how Gemini 4 Carbon (High) stacks up against other frontier models in terms of cost-to-performance and raw intelligence (LMArena Elo).

2026 Performance Summary

🚀 Intelligence (Elo): 1526
💰 API Cost (Input): $0.000002 / 1M tokens
⚡ API Cost (Output): $0.00001 / 1M tokens
⏱️ Real-world Throughput: 44 tokens/s

Analysis: While Gemini 4 Carbon (High) is a capable model, it is currently outperformed in efficiency by Claude Fable 5.2 (xHigh). Claude Fable 5.2 (xHigh) sits higher on the Pareto line, offering approximately 310 points more intelligence (Elo) for a comparable or lower API cost.

Highly Recommended Alternatives

Frontier Model	LMArena Elo	API Cost (1M)	Throughput
Claude Fable 5.2 (xHigh)	1836	$0.000008	79
GPT-6.1 Terra (Max)	1679	$0.000001	50
DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash-20261017 (Max)	1664	$6e-9	178

*These models represent the Pareto Frontier (optimal cost-to-performance).*