Gemini 4 Argon Singapore: Free vs Paid Plans Compared

Three things happened in two weeks, and they all point the same way: Google is nudging people onto paid plans.

On 30 September, Google DeepMind announced Gemini 4 Argon, its new top model, but handed it only to vetted cybersecurity defenders through a programme called Fairwind. On 9 October, free Gemini accounts lost the model picker: no more choosing between Flash-Lite, Flash and Pro, just one option called Auto that picks for you. Google says most prompts go to Flash-Lite, its fastest model, and deeper reasoning requests may go to Flash or Pro. Then on 13 October, Argon opened to anyone paying for it.

Here is how the plans sit on Google's Singapore pricing page today.

The awkward tier is AI Plus. At S$6.98 it still does not include Argon or the Pro model, so the gap between free and Plus is narrow if better answers are what you are after.

Argon is the first model in Google's Gemini 4 family. Think of it as the engine, not a new app. You still open the same Gemini app on your phone or laptop; Argon is what you select inside it.

Google built it for jobs that run long rather than answer quickly: large code migrations, financial and legal document work, and finding and patching security holes. Google puts the output limit at 1 million tokens, up from 64K on the previous generation, which is what lets it write a long structured document in one pass instead of stopping halfway.

The company also says its own engineers increased agentic code submissions by more than 35% while rolling back nearly a third fewer changes, and that Argon ranks first on the Vals Index across finance, coding, legal and tax tasks. Those are Google's numbers from Google's tests, and nobody outside the company had published a reproduction on launch day. Treat the leaderboard as a claim rather than a settled fact. The details are in Google's launch post.

For developers the API costs US$2 per million input tokens and US$10 per million output tokens until 30 November, then doubles to US$4 and US$20. On paper that undercuts GPT-6 Astra, which we covered in our GPT-6 Astra explainer.

If you are not sure which side of the line you are on, open the Gemini app and look at the model name under the input box. Then check these three things.

1. Tap the model picker. If Auto is the only option, you are on the free plan.
2. Give it something genuinely long: "Summarise this 40-page document into a one-page brief with section headings" and attach a real PDF. If it loses the second half or skips details, you are feeling the smaller model.
3. Open gemini.google/sg/subscriptions and confirm which plan Google thinks you are on before you pay for anything. Plenty of people are still on a subscription they signed up for months ago and forgot about.

One warning about the paid tiers: Google is also rolling out low, medium and high thinking levels for subscribers, so your picker may not match a screenshot you saw online. That is Google testing on your account, not you doing something wrong. And if you mainly chat, free is still fine. Deep Research, Gemini Live and image editing did not move.

Google AI Pro is S$28.99 a month. Over six months that is S$173.94, which is real money for something you might use to tidy up emails.

Since 16 September, Singapore Citizens aged 18 and above can get six months of Google AI Pro free through the SkillsFuture AI Subscription, after completing an eligible AI course listed on MySkillsFuture. It is one of five tools on offer and you only get to choose once. We walked through the whole redemption process in our SkillsFuture AI Subscription guide, including which tool suits which kind of person.

Two caveats. The subscription gives you the AI Pro plan, and Google decides what a plan includes from month to month, so nothing is guaranteed for your full six months. And do not sign up for a course you have no interest in just to get the free plan. The tool is worth roughly S$174. Your evenings are worth more.

Model upgrades raise the ceiling. Prompts decide what you actually finish. These five work on Flash-Lite and on Argon, which is deliberate: if a prompt only works on the most expensive model, that is usually a prompt problem.

Study and revision

I am preparing for [O-Level / A-Level / polytechnic exam] in [subject]. My weaker topics are [list 2 or 3]. Build me a 10-day revision plan with 45-minute blocks, one past-paper question per day, and the exact mark-scheme keywords I should look for. Ask me two questions first if you need more detail.

Work writing

Here are my messy meeting notes: [paste]. Turn them into a one-page status update for my manager in plain English. Show what was decided, what is pending, and who owns each item with the deadline. Flag anything where my notes were unclear instead of guessing.

Small business admin

You are helping a small business owner in Singapore read a supplier quotation. Here is the quotation: [paste the line items]. List the charges that look vague or bundled, suggest five questions I should ask the supplier, and note anything that could change once 9% GST is applied.

Home and renovation

Compare these two renovation quotations for a 4-room HDB flat in Singapore: [paste both]. Build a table of what each one includes and leaves out, then list the items most likely to turn into extras later. Do not tell me which contractor to choose.

Deciding whether to pay

Ask me five questions to work out whether I need a paid AI subscription or whether the free tier covers what I do. Wait for my answers, then give a straight recommendation and tell me exactly what I would lose by staying free.

Argon on AI Pro does not mean Argon everywhere. In Google's own Antigravity developer forum, users spent 14 October complaining that the coding platform still locks Argon behind the S$139.99 Ultra tier. If you are buying Pro for coding agents, check that before you pay.

The benchmarks are Google's and independent labs had not reproduced them at launch. That does not make them wrong. It does mean the real gap between Argon, GPT-6 Astra and Claude Opus 5.5 is probably narrower than a launch post implies.

Then the usual one, which matters more at work. Do not paste NRIC numbers, client lists, staff salaries or anything confidential into a chat window, paid or not. Under PDPA your organisation is still responsible for that data. Use an approved work account or strip the identifying details first.

Last thing. A bigger model will not rescue a vague prompt. The most common reason people decide AI is useless is that they asked for "some ideas" and got exactly that. If you are new to this, our AI tools directory is a reasonable place to look before you spend S$28.99 a month.