BenchLeader

Gemini 4 Carbon vs Muse Spark Open 816B A42B

Full profiles: Gemini 4 Carbon (Google) and Muse Spark Open 816B A42B (Meta): every benchmark, price and rank.

Updated · Data from 4 sources

As of 29 Oct 2026, Gemini 4 Carbon is ahead of Muse Spark Open 816B A42B on quality (65.1 vs 58.5 on the BenchLeader Index), but Muse Spark Open 816B A42B is 4.0× cheaper at $2.00 vs $8.00 per 1M tokens blended. Gemini 4 Carbon leads in every category we measure both in.

Key facts (as of 29 Oct 2026)

  • Gemini 4 Carbon scores 65.1 on the BenchLeader Index and Muse Spark Open 816B A42B scores 58.5 (BenchLeader, 29 Oct 2026).
  • Gemini 4 Carbon costs $8.00 per 1M tokens blended (list price, 29 Oct 2026).
  • Muse Spark Open 816B A42B costs $2.00 per 1M tokens blended (list price, 29 Oct 2026).
  • Of the 1 benchmarks both models have, Gemini 4 Carbon leads 1 (BenchLeader, 29 Oct 2026).

Which to pick for…

The pick's numbers come first. Category scores on the BenchLeader scale (50 is the average model, 15 points one standard deviation). High confidence means a lead of half a standard deviation or more; under one point is called either.

Use casePickWhyConfidence
CodingGemini 4 Carbon72 vs 66 category score; SciCode 64.2% vs 58.5%Medium
ReasoningGemini 4 Carbon79 vs 64 category scoreHigh
KnowledgeGemini 4 Carbon76 vs 62 category scoreHigh
Lowest costMuse Spark Open 816B A42B$2.00 vs $8.00 per 1M blended; agentic coding session $0.092 vs $0.320–
High volume on a budgetNeither flagshipA smaller model is usually the better fit: Cheapest good LLMs, Fastest LLMs–

Key differences

  • Gemini 4 Carbon (high) leads on quality: 65.1 vs 58.5.
  • Gemini 4 Carbon (high) is stronger in coding, knowledge, long context, reasoning.
  • Muse Spark Open 816B A42B (xhigh) is stronger in maths.
  • Muse Spark Open 816B A42B (xhigh) is 4.0× cheaper ($2.00 vs $8.00 per 1M blended).

At a glance

SpecGemini 4 CarbonMuse Spark Open 816B A42B
DeveloperGoogleMeta
Released28 Oct 202615 Oct 2026
Context window (tokens)1,000,0001,048,576
Compared atGemini 4 Carbon (high)Muse Spark Open 816B A42B (xhigh)
Open weightsNoYes
Price in / out / cached input per 1M$4.00 / $20.00 / –$1.25 / $4.25 / $0.150

Category by category

Category scores on the BenchLeader scale: 50 is the average evaluated model, 15 points is one standard deviation. A gap under one point is called level.

CategoryGemini 4 Carbon (high)Muse Spark Open 816B A42B (xhigh)Leader
Reasoning78.963.6Gemini 4 Carbon
Coding71.765.5Gemini 4 Carbon
Maths–59.4not comparable
Knowledge75.862.2Gemini 4 Carbon
Long context64.5–not comparable

Where sources disagree

Across the 1 benchmarks both have, Gemini 4 Carbon leads 1, Muse Spark Open 816B A42B leads 0. Every overall index that rates both puts Gemini 4 Carbon ahead.

Overall indexGemini 4 Carbon (high)Muse Spark Open 816B A42B (xhigh)Leader
BenchLeader Index65.158.5Gemini 4 Carbon

Each publisher runs its own tasks, harnesses and effort settings, so their overall verdicts can differ; BenchLeader reconciles them on one scale. † measured at another effort setting of the same model (the publisher did not test the one compared here).

Price, speed and latency

List prices blended at three input tokens per output token. Per-task prices use the token counts on the methodology page; suite cost is what Artificial Analysis paid to run its whole Intelligence Index.

MeasureGemini 4 Carbon (high)Muse Spark Open 816B A42B (xhigh)
Blended price per 1M tokens$8.00$2.00
Input / output per 1M$4.00 / $20.00$1.25 / $4.25
Cached input per 1M–$0.150
Price per task: chat reply$0.0076$0.0018
Price per task: summarize a 30-page report$0.060$0.018
Price per task: code edit$0.054$0.014
Price per task: agentic coding session$0.320$0.092
Price per task: structured extraction$0.012$0.0034
Cost to run a full benchmark suite$7.76–
Output speed100 tok/s–
Time to first answer103.1 s–
Time to a complete answer108.1 s–

Each model is compared at its best-ranked reasoning-effort setting. Gemini 4 Carbon (high) scores 65.1 and takes 103 s to its first answer token. Muse Spark Open 816B A42B (xhigh) scores 58.5. Higher effort means more thinking before the answer: better scores, longer waits and more tokens billed. How reasoning effort changes scores and cost.

Every benchmark

37 benchmarks, grouped by category; each name links to the board and its leaders. † measured at another effort setting of the same model, shown for reference and not counted as a win.

MetricPublisherGemini 4 Carbon (high)Muse Spark Open 816B A42B (xhigh)
BenchLeader IndexBenchLeader65.158.5
Coding scoreBenchLeader71.765.5
Knowledge scoreBenchLeader75.862.2
Long context scoreBenchLeader64.5–
Reasoning scoreBenchLeader78.963.6
Maths scoreBenchLeader–59.4
Blended price $/MBenchLeader$8.00$2.00
Output speedBenchLeader100 tok/s–
Time to first answerBenchLeader103.1 s–
Context windowBenchLeader1,000,000 tokens1,048,576 tokens
Reasoning
GPQA DiamondEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub–88.6%
Humanity's Last Exam (AA)Artificial Analysis60.4%–
HLE-Diamond (AA)Artificial Analysis69.1%–
CritPtArtificial Analysis36.0%–
CritPt v2 hard subset (AA)Artificial Analysis63.0%–
Coding
SciCodeSciCode64.2%58.5%
SciCode (AA)Artificial Analysis64.2%–
Vibe Code Bench v1.1Vals AI89.1%–
ALE-BenchEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub–1590.1
Terminal-Bench 4.0 (AA)Artificial Analysis65.2%–
FrontierCode 1.1 (AA)Artificial Analysis48.5%–
FrontierCode 2.0 (AA)Artificial Analysis40.6%–
Agents & tools
APEX-AgentsMercor–33.4%†
Finance Agent v2.1Vals AI67.2%–
Harvey's Legal Agent Benchmark v1.1Vals AI17.5%–
Legal Research BenchVals AI55.8%–
Tax Agent BenchVals AI48.9%–
Terminal-Bench 4.0 (Vals)Vals AI63.1%–
Vending-Bench 2Andon Labs16484.2†–
AutomationBenchArtificial Analysis77.8%–
GDP.pdf (AA)Artificial Analysis28.4%–
AA-Briefcase v1.1Artificial Analysis1609–
Terminal-Bench-Science 0.1 (AA)Artificial Analysis64.8%–
Maths
FrontierMath Tiers 1–3Epoch AI Benchmarking Hub–69.8%
FrontierMath Tier 4Epoch AI Benchmarking Hub–31.7%
Show all 37 benchmarks
MetricPublisherGemini 4 Carbon (high)Muse Spark Open 816B A42B (xhigh)
Maths
OTIS Mock AIMEEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub–98.1%
Knowledge
SimpleQA VerifiedEpoch AI Benchmarking Hub–56.6%
AA-Omniscience v1.1Artificial Analysis53.5–
Excel Modeling Benchmark v1.1Vals AI76.5%–
AA-Omniscience v1.1: accuracyArtificial Analysis58.3%–
AA-Omniscience v1.1: non-hallucinationArtificial Analysis88.6%–
Multimodal
Blueprint-Bench 2Epoch AI Benchmarking Hub58.6%†–
Long context
AA-LCR v1.1Artificial Analysis79.3%–
Composite
AA Intelligence Index v5.0Artificial Analysis59.4–
AA Progress Index v1Artificial Analysis351.6–
Vals IndexVals AI70.4–
Vals Finance IndexVals AI66.3%–

Data as of 2026-10-29. Best configuration of each model; every score links to its source on the model pages.

What changed

  • Muse Spark Open 816B A42B (xhigh): BenchLeader Index 57.4 → 58.6.
  • Muse Spark Open 816B A42B (xhigh): 2 new results (SciCode, ALE-Bench).
  • Muse Spark Open 816B A42B (xhigh): first results.

Rankings: Best LLM overall · Best LLM for coding · Best LLM for agents · Best cheap LLMs

Gemini 4 Carbon vs Muse Spark Open 816B A42B: questions

Is Gemini 4 Carbon better than Muse Spark Open 816B A42B?
Gemini 4 Carbon (high) leads on quality: 65.1 vs 58.5. The BenchLeader Index combines every independent quality benchmark; Gemini 4 Carbon (high) is ahead overall as of 29 Oct 2026, but check the category scores for your use.
Gemini 4 Carbon vs Muse Spark Open 816B A42B: which is cheaper, and will that change?
Muse Spark Open 816B A42B is cheaper today: $2.00 against $8.00 per million tokens, blended at three input tokens per output token. No price change has been announced for either.
Is Gemini 4 Carbon or Muse Spark Open 816B A42B better for coding?
Gemini 4 Carbon scores higher in coding (72 vs 66 on the category index, where 50 is average). On SciCode, the top shared coding benchmark, it is 64.2% for Gemini 4 Carbon against 58.5% for Muse Spark Open 816B A42B.
Which is better for long documents?
Both take about 1M tokens: Gemini 4 Carbon 1,000,000, Muse Spark Open 816B A42B 1,048,576.
Do independent benchmarks agree on Gemini 4 Carbon vs Muse Spark Open 816B A42B?
Across the 1 benchmarks both have, Gemini 4 Carbon leads 1, Muse Spark Open 816B A42B leads 0. Every overall index that rates both puts Gemini 4 Carbon ahead.
More questions (1)
When was Gemini 4 Carbon released?
Gemini 4 Carbon was released on 28 Oct 2026.