The world's data centres already use as much electricity as a country. AI is the fastest-growing part.
In 2025 they used about 485 TWh, more than France uses in a year. The IEA expects about 950 TWh by 2030, close to Japan's 1,027.
The year slider couldn't load. The numbers above are for 2025.
A country lights up when data centres use more electricity in a year than it does (middle figure). The speaker button plays the hum: louder as they use more, wavering in forecast years. Glows are the biggest data-centre hubs, sized by power capacity. Data centres: IEA, Energy and AI (2025) and its 2026 update. Countries: Ember (2025). How we know
Side by side in 2025
Data centres against whole countries, in electricity a year. The year above moves this too. Dashed means calculated; dim means forecast.
- RussiaRussia: 1,178 TWh
- JapanJapan: 1,027 TWh
- CanadaCanada: 654 TWh
- GermanyGermany: 517 TWh
- Data centresData centres: 485 TWh, of which AI about 26.5 to 38%
- FranceFrance: 481 TWh
- United KingdomUnited Kingdom: 312 TWh
- NetherlandsNetherlands: 121 TWh
AI's part, about 26.5–38%: the United States' share, used as a world estimate.
Where it's heading
The IEA's main forecast almost doubles data-centre electricity by 2030. Its scenarios for 2035 span 700 to 1,700 TWh, so we show all of it. The bright line is measured; the dim range hasn't happened yet.
Where the electricity goes
Of the 485 TWh the world's data centres used in 2025, AI was about 129 to 184 TWh: roughly a quarter to two-fifths. The rest runs everything else online: streaming, cloud storage, websites, email and business software.
AI's share is a figure for the United States, used as a world estimate, because nobody publishes a world figure in words. How we know
AI is the fastest-growing part
Electricity growth in 2025. AI-focused: IEA, Key Questions on Energy and AI (2026). All data centres: calculated from 415 TWh in 2024 to 485 TWh in 2025.
What it does to the world
Three effects have published worldwide numbers (MEASURED). Others are real but only known place by place, so instead of inventing a total we explain them with named cases (EXPLAINED).
Electricity
485 TWh a year
Published for 2025 (IEA). Forecast for 2035: 700 · 1,200 · 1,700 TWh.
CO2 from that electricity
180 Mt CO2 a year
Published for 2024 (IEA). Forecast for 2035: – · 350 · 500 Mt (no low case published).
Water
0.12 · 2.54 · 5.48 litres per kWh
Cooling at the building uses 0.12 · 0.36 · 1.08 litres per kWh; the power plants feeding it often use more: 0 · 2.18 · 4.4 litres per kWh. For 2025's electricity that comes to 58.2 · 1,232 · 2,658 billion litres (calculated).
Strain on the grid
Ireland and the eastern United States
In Ireland, data centres used 22% of all metered electricity in 2024, up from 5% in 2015. In the eastern US, a 5,250 MW increase in the PJM grid's demand forecast, almost entirely from data centres, helped drive the results of its latest capacity auction.
Sources: Central Statistics Office Ireland, 10 June 2025 · Utility Dive, 18 December 2025
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The percentage share of metered electricity consumption used by data centres rose to 22% in 2024 from 5% in 2015
Central Statistics Office Ireland, 10 June 2025In part, the latest auction results were driven by a 5,250-MW increase in PJM's demand forecast — almost entirely driven by data centers
Utility Dive, 18 December 2025
Local air
Memphis, Tennessee
In Memphis, the county's permit lets xAI operate 15 generators at its data centre, up to 247 megawatts; TechCrunch describes them as natural gas generators. According to their manufacturer, the turbines emit nitrogen oxides, a key contributor to smog, and formaldehyde.
Sources: TechCrunch, 3 July 2025, ‘xAI gets permits for 15 natural gas generators at Memphis data center’ · NBC News, 17 June 2025
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The permit issued by the Shelby County Health Department says that xAI can operate 15 Solar SMT-130 generators with certain emissions controls, which can generate up to 247 megawatts.
TechCrunch, 3 July 2025, ‘xAI gets permits for 15 natural gas generators at Memphis data center’The turbines emit nitrogen oxides, a key contributor to smog, and formaldehyde, among other pollutants, according to their manufacturer.
NBC News, 17 June 2025
Chips and e-waste
Worldwide
A peer-reviewed study of generative AI's e-waste finds it could potentially reach 1.2 to 5.0 million tons in total over 2020 to 2030.
Read the quote
this e-waste stream could increase, potentially reaching a total accumulation of 1.2–5.0 million tons during 2020–2030
Nature Computational Science, 28 October 2024, ‘E-waste challenges of generative artificial intelligence’
Land
Prince William County, Virginia
The planned Digital Gateway would span 34 buildings and 1.7 gigawatts of data-centre capacity on 2,139 acres near Manassas National Battlefield; WTOP reported it would be the largest data-centre corridor in the world. A court found the county's advertised notice did not comply with either the state or county code.
Sources: Bisnow, 8 April 2026 · WTOP, 9 August 2025 · WTOP, 9 August 2025, quoting the court
Read the quotes
Within the 2,139-acre Digital Gateway, Blackstone subsidiary QTS and Compass Datacenters have planned to develop large data center campuses that at full build-out would span 34 buildings, 22M SF and 1.7 gigawatts of capacity.
Bisnow, 8 April 2026would be the largest data center corridor in the world, with 37 data centers spread out across over 2,100 acres in western Prince William, near Manassas National Battlefield
WTOP, 9 August 2025This Court finds that the advertised notice provided by the County did not comply with either the State or County code.
WTOP, 9 August 2025, quoting the court
Noise
Chandler, Arizona and Prince William County, Virginia
Residents near data centres in Prince William County say the constant drone, especially at night, causes anxiety and deprives them of sleep. Chandler, Arizona requires data centres to be built so their sound doesn't exceed the background level measured in a baseline study.
Sources: Prince William Times, 27 February 2023 · City of Chandler, Ordinance No. 5033, 8 December 2022
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But residents say the constant drone, especially at night, causes anxiety and deprives them of sleep.
Prince William Times, 27 February 2023The Data Center must be designed and built to incorporate sound mitigation methods sufficient to prevent the sound levels emanating from the Data Center ... from exceeding the ambient noise levels that were observed in the baseline study.
City of Chandler, Ordinance No. 5033, 8 December 2022
Every source, and how each range was built, is on How we know.
Your part
Your typing is small. Your video isn't. And your voice is the big one.
Your questions: 47.6 Wh. Your pictures: 3.66 Wh. Your videos: 90 Wh, 64% of your week.
Low · middle · high, from the figures on How we know. One week, everything counted at the data centre (not your phone).
What actually reduces it
Your week from Your part, ranked: what each change would save, in watt-hours a week. Same scale for every bar, so the small ones look as small as they are.
- Skip your one short AI video90 Wh 25.3 to 944: saves about 90 Wh (25.3 to 944) a week
- Take one day a week off AI20.2 Wh 8.68 to 173: saves about 20.2 Wh (8.68 to 173) a week
- Ask 5 fewer questions a day11.9 Wh 8.4 to 65.1: saves about 11.9 Wh (8.4 to 65.1) a week
- Make 2 fewer AI pictures a week2.44 Wh 1.26 to 5.8: saves about 2.44 Wh (1.26 to 5.8) a week
Middle figure, with the low to high range. Per-use figures from How we know, counted at the data centre.
Bigger than any of these
Next to the world's total, one person's week is tiny. The biggest levers aren't in your chat window:
- Where data centres are built. The same electricity puts out several times more CO2 on a coal-heavy grid than on a clean one. Try it in 2030.
- Whether companies publish what they use. The per-question figures here come from a handful of company disclosures and outside estimates, which is why every one of them is a range.
- Local permits. New data centres need grid connections, water and planning approval, decided in public meetings people can attend.
Claims to read twice
When a company says its AI is green, these are the common ways the wording can say more than the electricity does. They're practices, not accusations: each one is explained by researchers, regulators or reporters.
Buying certificates, not clean power
Renewable-energy certificates are used to calculate "market-based" emissions, the official figures firms report. Researchers estimate that if the trend continues, 42% of committed scope 2 (electricity) emission reductions will not result in real-world mitigation.
Sources: Nature Climate Change, 9 June 2022 · The Guardian, 15 September 2024
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If this trend continues, 42% of committed scope 2 emission reductions will not result in real-world mitigation.
Nature Climate Change, 9 June 2022Recs are used to calculate "market-based" emissions, or the official emissions figures used by the firms.
The Guardian, 15 September 2024
Matching over a year, not hour by hour
A peer-reviewed model found that matching a year's electricity use with clean power has minimal impact on long-run emissions. Matching it hour by hour keeps contributing significantly to cutting them, even as grids get cleaner.
Sources: Joule, 21 February 2024 (Princeton) · Riepin and Brown, TU Berlin, arXiv 2023
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procurement strategies that match participants' demand with carbon-free generation on an annual basis have minimal impact on long-run system-level CO2 emissions
Joule, 21 February 2024 (Princeton)Even as grids become cleaner over time, the hourly matching strategy contributes significantly to system-level emissions reduction.
Riepin and Brown, TU Berlin, arXiv 2023
"Carbon neutral" through offsets
A review estimates that less than 16% of the carbon credits issued to the projects it investigated were real emission reductions. A new EU directive will ban product claims of a neutral, reduced or positive environmental impact based on offsetting.
Sources: Nature Communications, 14 November 2024 · European Parliament, 17 January 2024
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We estimate that less than 16% of the carbon credits issued to the investigated projects constitute real emission reductions
Nature Communications, 14 November 2024the directive will ban claims that a product has a neutral, reduced or positive impact on the environment because of emissions offsetting schemes
European Parliament, 17 January 2024
"Water positive"
One company's water stewardship goal left out the water consumed by the power plants that supply its data centres. And as a former water sustainability manager put it, carbon is a global problem, but water is more localised.
Sources: Grist, 29 August 2024 · SourceMaterial, 9 April 2025, quoting a former water sustainability manager at a cloud company
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the company's water stewardship goal doesn't include the water consumed by the power plants that supply its data centers
Grist, 29 August 2024Carbon is a global problem—water is more localised
SourceMaterial, 9 April 2025, quoting a former water sustainability manager at a cloud company
Leaving out the chips and the buildings
Embodied emissions can exceed 40% of a data centre's total greenhouse gas emissions, so a footprint that leaves them out can miss a large part.
Source: ICEF Sustainable Data Centers Roadmap, October 2025
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embodied emissions can exceed 40% of a data center’s total greenhouse gas emissions and may dominate the lifetime greenhouse gas emissions footprint
ICEF Sustainable Data Centers Roadmap, October 2025
Efficiency, not the total
Researchers warn that because of rebound effects, efficiency alone won't ensure lower total harm. US data-centre electricity use climbed from 58 TWh in 2014 to 176 TWh in 2023.
Sources: Luccioni, Strubell and Crawford, arXiv January 2025 · Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 15 January 2025
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Rebound effects undermine the assumption that improved technical efficiency alone will ensure net reductions in environmental harm.
Luccioni, Strubell and Crawford, arXiv January 2025The total data center electricity usage climbed from 58 TWh in 2014 to 176 TWh in 2023
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 15 January 2025