Google releases Gemma 4 under Apache 2.0 — and that license change may matter more than benchmarks

For the past two years, enterprises evaluating open-weight models have faced an awkward trade-off. Google's Gemma line consistently delivered strong performance, but its custom license — with usage restrictions and terms Google could update at will — pushed many teams toward Mistral or Alibaba's Qwen instead. Legal review added friction. Compliance teams flagged edge cases. And capable as Gemma 3 was, "open" with asterisks isn't the same as open.Gemma 4 eliminates that friction entirely. Google DeepMind's newest open model family ships under a standard Apache 2.0 license — the same permissive terms used by Qwen, Mistral, Arcee, and most of the open-weight ecosystem. No custom clauses, no "Harmful Use" carve-outs that required legal interpretation, no restrictions on redistribution or comme