Gemma 4 appears on Chatbot Arena under a codename ahead of release

In short: Gemma 4, Google DeepMind’s next Gemma AI model, has shown up on Chatbot Arena under a hidden name, which suggests a release may be close.

What's going on

People watching AI model updates say they have spotted what looks like “Gemma 4” being tested on Chatbot Arena, a public site where users compare chatbots side by side. The model appears to be listed under a secret codename, instead of its real name. As of early April 2026, Google had not officially released Gemma 4.

There are a couple of other hints. A model card briefly appeared that included the name “Gemma 4” and referenced Google DeepMind. A model card is like a label on a food package, it tells you what the model is and what it is meant to do.

Observers also noticed recent updates to Google’s Gemma collection on Hugging Face, a popular site where developers share AI models. They say this looks similar to the activity that happened before Gemma 2 launched in June 2024 and Gemma 3 launched in March 2025.

What to watch

Leaks and community analysis suggest Gemma 4 may come in multiple sizes, including 2 billion and 4 billion “parameters” (parameters are like the number of knobs an AI can adjust as it learns). It is also expected to handle more than just text, possibly including images and even audio, and it may be able to take in much longer prompts. If Gemma 4 ships as “open-weight,” developers could download it and run it on their own devices, like a laptop or phone, instead of only using a hosted service.

Source: Arstechnica