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Patchnotes

Four new frontier models aimed at coding

Issue 12 min read

Google, OpenAI, Moonshot AI and MiniMax all shipped new models for coding and long agent tasks.

In this issue

Gemini 4 Carbon is built for days-long engineering work

Google introduced Gemini 4 Carbon, a model for harder coding jobs and cybersecurity work. Google’s announcement says it can keep working on complex engineering tasks for days.

Access is limited at first. Selected cyber defenders and trusted partners get it before a wider rollout.

A model that is good at security work can help attackers as well as defenders. A staged release gives Google time to see how it gets used before more people have it.

GPT-6.1 Terra is half the price

OpenAI launched GPT-6.1 Terra, a faster model built to understand screens and work across the apps on a computer. OpenAI’s announcement also lists better coding and better factual accuracy.

The number that stands out is the price. GPT-6.1 Terra costs half as much per token as GPT-5.6 Terra.

An agent that works through a computer reads a screen, acts, and reads the screen again, many times per task. Each of those steps costs tokens, so halving the per-token price makes long runs much cheaper.

Kimi K3.1 Pro gets a one-million-token context

Moonshot AI introduced Kimi K3.1 Pro for coding, research and 3D design. Moonshot’s post says it has a one-million-token context window. That is room for a large codebase or a long stack of documents in one request.

The model is available now. A faster Highspeed version is available too.

Moonshot scheduled the full model weights for release by November 4. Once the weights are out, teams can run and adapt the model on their own hardware instead of going through Moonshot’s service.

MiniMax M3.1 Flash is faster and cheaper

MiniMax M3.1 Flash is a model for coding, computer tasks and longer workflows that chain many tools together. MiniMax’s post says it is nearly three times faster than its predecessor and costs 70% less.

You can reach it through the MiniMax API and the company’s coding products.

Speed matters most in long multi-tool runs. Every tool call waits on the model, so a slow model makes the whole workflow slow.

The short version

  • All four models are pitched at coding and multi-step work on a computer.
  • Two labs cut prices. OpenAI halved the per-token cost of Terra, and MiniMax says M3.1 Flash costs 70% less than the model before it.
  • Gemini 4 Carbon is the only one with restricted access. Kimi K3.1 Pro is the only one with open weights on the schedule.

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