Gemini 4 Carbon vs Vercel AI Gateway

Gemini 4 Carbon 40

Model reading for gemini-4-carbon on the Gemini API. Platform facts are the Gemini API listing's (gemini-api, re-read 1 November), carried over as RULES.md allows for a model on an already graded platform. Status page at aistudio.google.com/status with no readable components or history (10 of 20) and no readable incident record (5 of 30). Rate-limit tiers and spend limits published, per-model limits in AI Studio (5 of 15). Backoff guidance for 429 and 503 and SDK retries (15). No SLA (0). Carbon's launch stage isn't stated in Google's developer post, the Antigravity post or the Cloud developer guide read on 10 November, and the model ID carries no preview label, so half (5 of 10, a judgement call; Argon's GA earned the platform 10). 10 + 5 + 5 + 15 + 0 + 5 = 40.

Vercel AI Gateway 79

Hosted reading. AI Gateway is a component on www.vercel-status.com (20). The history feed, re-read on 1 November 2026, has 25 entries from 23 July to 23 October, so it covers the whole 90 days from 3 August. None names AI Gateway in its title or text. The Drains, Logs and Observability incidents (6, 17 and 20 August, 16 to 17 September, 10 October in Washington, which names delayed logs, metrics and traces in general, and 23 October) name no AI Gateway surface, and none reports requests failing. Component tags sit in the status API, which robots.txt disallows, so they were not used. A readable page that posts incidents, none touching the product, is a clean record, as vercel-connect's incidents were read from the same feed (30). The rate-limit page, re-read on 1 November, says it describes behaviour rather than fixed numbers. The paid tier has no gateway limit, and the free tier's per-model limits are not published (5 of 15). A 429 has a documented JSON body, some carry retry-after, the docs give backoff code and separate a 429 from a 402 budget rejection, and failed provider attempts are retried on other providers (14 of 15). The Enterprise SLA excludes the APIs and CLI, and no SLA naming AI Gateway was found (0). Generally available since 21 August 2025. Token Pass is early access and the Python SDK is in beta (10).

Gemini 4 Carbon 55

Model reading for gemini-4-carbon on the Gemini API. Platform facts are the Gemini API listing's (gemini-api, re-read 1 November), carried over as RULES.md allows for a model on an already graded platform. Keys bound to a service account and restricted to the Gemini API, with no scopes and a token accepted in the URL (15 of 30, the platform's deduction). Carbon is on the paid tier only, and Google's terms say paid-tier content isn't used to improve products; AI Studio use under a Google AI Ultra subscription falls under terms we didn't read, so 15 of 20 (a judgement call; the platform's 10 is for its free tier). Abuse retention with no number, and new paid projects store requests by default since 26 October (5 of 15). Request logs for billed projects (15). security.txt and a reward programme, no certification naming the API (5 of 20). 15 + 15 + 5 + 15 + 5 = 55.

Vercel AI Gateway 79

Router, read on the model lines. AI Gateway API keys belong to a team, can be limited to one project and given an expiry and a budget, are deactivated when their creator leaves the team, and can be revoked without authentication by reporting a leaked key. Keys carry no per-model or read-only scope apart from the Token Pass key type. On Vercel, project OIDC tokens replace long-lived keys (24 of 30). Vercel says it does not train on prompts, and the AI Product Terms make that a warranty only for Enterprise subscriptions. Provider training is filtered only when disallowPromptTraining or ZDR is set, the filter does not apply to BYOK, and the terms say Stealth Model providers may train on inputs (12 of 20). The gateway does not keep prompt or response content. Provider ZDR is free per request on Pro and Enterprise and not available on Hobby, and BYOK keys are skipped under ZDR unless marked (12 of 15). Per-request logs record status, provider attempts, tokens, cost and authentication method, with routing details kept 30 days and Trace Drains and spend reports on paid plans (13 of 15). Valid security.txt with HackerOne (re-read on 1 November, expires 28 September 2027), SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO 27001:2022 as Vercel states them, and a public bulletin for the April 2026 incident, closed on 16 October 2026 (18 of 20).

Gemini 4 Carbon 85

Model reading for gemini-4-carbon on the Gemini API. Platform facts are the Gemini API listing's (gemini-api, re-read 1 November), carried over as RULES.md allows for a model on an already graded platform. Discovery document for GenerateContent (20 of 25). llms.txt with Markdown twins (10). The Cloud developer guide says what Carbon takes and refuses, the parameters that return 400 or are ignored, and how to migrate (15 of 20). Structured output to a JSON Schema with some keywords not enforced (10 of 15). Examples and an errors page (15). Dated changelog and model versions (15). 20 + 10 + 15 + 10 + 15 + 15 = 85.

Vercel AI Gateway 74

Router, scored on the API lines. Vercel's OpenAPI 3.0.3 document has AI Gateway management paths (budgets, routing rules, virtual model configs, routers) and POST /api-keys. It does not cover the inference routes on ai-gateway.vercel.sh or /v1/models, /v1/credits, /v1/generation and /v1/report, which follow the OpenAI and Anthropic formats and the REST reference page (12 of 25). Every docs page is served as Markdown, and vercel.com/llms.txt lists AI Gateway and the keyless model list (10). The docs say when to use AI Gateway, which API format suits which client, and what each control leaves out, such as BYOK spend outside budgets (16 of 20). providerOptions.gateway fields are documented in tables with types, and the model list names each model's supported parameters. The request bodies have no published schema of their own (9 of 15). cURL, TypeScript and Python examples on most pages, and error tables in the FAQ, the REST reference and the Token Pass pages. The Chat Completions error list omits 402 (13 of 15). Paths carry /v1, the changelog is dated, with 95 entries naming AI Gateway from 3 August to 30 October 2026, and @ai-sdk/gateway keeps a CHANGELOG. The changelog sitemap dates one AI Gateway entry to 25 March 2025, before the alpha (14 of 15).

Gemini 4 Carbon 93

Model reading for gemini-4-carbon on the Gemini API. Platform facts are the Gemini API listing's (gemini-api, re-read 1 November), carried over as RULES.md allows for a model on an already graded platform. Function calling, with forced calls by FunctionCallingConfig on the API (20). Structured output (13 of 15). Implicit caching with durable caching on by default, cached input 95% off, explicit caches not supported, per the Cloud guide read on 10 November (15). 1,048,576 tokens shared between input and output (15). Batch at half price on the platform (10). Python and JavaScript SDKs (10). Error codes with backoff guidance (10 of 15). 20 + 13 + 15 + 15 + 10 + 10 + 10 = 93.

Vercel AI Gateway 83

Router, read on the model lines. Tool calling is documented on all six surfaces and 303 of 498 models carry the tool-use tag on 1 November, with behaviour depending on the model routed (16 of 20). Structured output is documented per surface and tagged on 278 models (13 of 15). caching: 'auto' adds Anthropic cache markers, cache_ttl asks for one-hour entries, x-session-affinity keeps a conversation on one provider, and cache-read prices are listed per model (14 of 15). 162 models list a context of one million tokens or more, a judgement call since a router has no default model (15). The SDK source has a gateway-batch.ts file, but no batch endpoint or batch discount was found in the docs (2 of 10). The AI SDK for TypeScript, the AI SDK for Python in beta, and the OpenAI and Anthropic SDKs with a changed base URL (10). Errors return message and type, an exceeded budget answers 402 apart from a 429, the SDK has ten typed Gateway*Error classes, and the FAQ maps each status to a fix (13 of 15).