GoogleMultimodalReleased 3 April 2026
Gemma 4 26B A4B pricing, context and benchmark
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT is an instruction-tuned Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) model from Google DeepMind.
262K
Input context
236K
Output context
$0.034
Official input
$0.102
Official output
n/a
AA index
01 · Model Overview
Everything that matters, in one table
Context, pricing, cache, modalities and tooling, from the model registry and Artificial Analysis.
| Model | Gemma 4 26B A4B |
| Model ID | google/gemma-4-26b-a4b-it |
| Provider | |
| Release date | 3 April 2026 |
| Status | Generally available |
| Input context | 262,144 tokens |
| Output context | 235,929 tokens |
| Official input pricing | $0.034 per 1M tokens |
| Official output pricing | $0.102 per 1M tokens |
| Cache read pricing | $0.05 per 1M tokens (50% off input) |
| Market input pricing | $0.029 per 1M (cheapest route) |
| Market output pricing | $0.086 per 1M (cheapest route) |
| Highest route pricing | $0.07 in, $0.34 out per 1M |
| Input modalities | image · text · video |
| Output modalities | text |
| Reasoning control | Not exposed |
| Tool support | Text generation only |
| Tokenizer | Gemma |
| Provider routes | 8 endpoints |
| Artificial Analysis index | Not published |
| Speed | 85 tokens/s, 23.09s to first token |
| Knowledge cutoff | Not publicly stated |
Input and output support
| Modality | Input | Output | Billed at |
|---|---|---|---|
| Text | ✓ yes | ✓ yes | $0.034 in |
| Image | ✓ yes | no | $0.034 in |
| Audio | no | no | not supported |
| Video | ✓ yes | no | $0.034 in |
| File (PDF) | no | no | not supported |
02 · Overview
What is Gemma 4 26B A4B?
Gemma 4 26B A4B IT is an instruction-tuned Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) model from Google DeepMind.
Despite 25.2B total parameters, only 3.8B activate per token during inference — delivering near-31B quality at...
Gemma 4 26B A4B carries a 262K token window, uses the Gemma tokenizer and is served by Google. On Hoodgen it sits in the Multimodal tier of the model menu next to its siblings, so you can switch mid conversation without losing the thread.
03 · Release
Release and what changed from the previous version
Released3 April 2026
| Property | Gemma 4 31B | Gemma 4 26B A4B | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Released | 2026 | 2026 | Same release window |
| Context | 262K | 262K | Unchanged |
| Max output | 262K | 236K | Changed |
| Input price | $0.1 | $0.034 | Cheaper |
| Output price | $0.34 | $0.102 | Cheaper |
| Input modalities | image, text, video | image, text, video | Unchanged |
| AA index | 4 | n/a | Newer benchmark run |
04 · Capabilities
Features and capabilities
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Vision
Screenshots, charts and photographed documents are read at the text token rate.
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Audio and video
Calls, meetings and screen recordings can be summarised in one pass.
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Prompt caching
Cached input costs $0.05 per million instead of $0.034, so stable prefixes get cheaper.
07 · Use cases
What can you do with Gemma 4 26B A4B?
Document understanding
Screenshots, charts, scanned pages and PDFs read in the prompt.
Mixed media briefs
One thread holding text, images and files together.
Extraction
Schema constrained JSON out of messy inputs.
Research synthesis
Several sources condensed with the figures preserved.
08 · Cost levers
Prompt caching and how to cut the bill
Cached input bills at $0.05 per million instead of $0.034, a 50% discount. Keep the system prompt and documents first and the changing question last, so every call hits the cache.
09 · Pricing
Gemma 4 26B A4B pricing
Official pricing
List price
$0.034 / 1M in
$0.102 / 1M out
- $0.05 cached input
- 262K context
- image, text, video input
Cheapest route
$0.029 / 1M in
$0.086 / 1M out
- 8 routes on OpenRouter
- What Hoodgen routes to first
- Same model, lower bill
Highest route
$0.07 / 1M in
$0.34 / 1M out
- Priority or premium tier
- Best under load
- Use for latency critical calls
Market pricing, every route
| Provider | Tier | Input | Output | Cache read | Uptime 24h |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PrimeIntellect | standard | $0.029 | $0.086 | $0.014 | 99.6% |
| Darkbloom | standard | $0.04 | $0.15 | $0.01 | 100.0% |
| DekaLLM | standard | $0.06 | $0.33 | $0.04 | 99.9% |
| AkashML | standard | $0.07 | $0.24 | $0.046 | 99.8% |
| DeepInfra | standard | $0.07 | $0.34 | n/a | 100.0% |
| Makora | standard | $0.08 | $0.1 | $0.046 | 100.0% |
| Io Net | standard | $0.081 | $0.279 | $0.037 | 100.0% |
| NextBit | standard | $0.09 | $0.3 | $0.05 | 100.0% |
API pricing and cost calculator
| Rate | Per call | Total | Credits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cheapest route | $0.0005 | $0.26 | 252 |
| List price | $0.0010 | $0.51 | 487 |
| Highest route | $0.0019 | $0.96 | 908 |
10 · Developers
API and developer information
| Model ID | google/gemma-4-26b-a4b-it |
| Endpoint | https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/chat/completions |
| Parameters | prompt and max_tokens |
| Streaming | Yes, server sent events |
| Modality string | text+image+video->text |
| Max prompt tokens | 262,144 |
| Max completion tokens | 235,929 |
curl https://openrouter.ai/api/v1/chat/completions \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $OPENROUTER_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"model": "google/gemma-4-26b-a4b-it",
"messages": [{ "role": "user", "content": "Summarise this document." }],
"max_tokens": 1024
}'11 · Limitations
Model limitations
| Text only output | It cannot generate images, audio or video. Pair it with an image model on Hoodgen when you need visuals. |
| Output cap | 235,929 tokens per request. Long deliverables have to be chunked. |
| Benchmarks not published | Artificial Analysis does not publish an Intelligence Index for this release, so no benchmark score is claimed here. |
| Knowledge cutoff | The provider does not state a fixed cutoff for every release. Verify very recent events against search. |
12 · Comparison
Gemma 4 26B A4B vs other Google models
| Model | Context | Input /1M | Output /1M | AA index | Released |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gemma 4 26B A4B | 262K | $0.034 | $0.102 | n/a | 2026 |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview | 1.05M | $2 | $12 | n/a | 2026 |
| Gemini 4 Argon | 1.05M | $2 | $10 | 50 | Oct 2026 |
| Gemini 4 Carbon | 1.05M | $2 | $10 | n/a | 2026 |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro Preview Custom Tools | 1.05M | $2 | $12 | n/a | 2026 |
| Nano Banana Pro (Gemini 3 Pro Image) | 131K | $2 | $12 | n/a | 2026 |
13 · Privacy
Privacy and data policy
- On Hoodgen, prompts and attachments answer that request and stay in your conversation history so you can reopen it. They are not used to train models.
- Requests route through OpenRouter to Google and are covered by that provider's API terms.
- Do not paste secrets or personal data you would not send to any hosted model.
14 · FAQ
Gemma 4 26B A4B questions, answered
Gemma 4 26B A4B is a multimodal model from Google, released 3 April 2026. Gemma 4 26B A4B IT is an instruction-tuned Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) model from Google DeepMind.
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Start chatting with Gemma 4 26B A4B
Free to try on Hoodgen AI, with a live credit estimate before every send. No API key, no setup.