Should I stop using ChatGPT to help the planet?
The claim: “Using ChatGPT is bad for the planet.”
Partly. One person’s share is small: a typical user’s year of ChatGPT questions makes about 0.2 kg of CO₂ by Hum’s sums from OpenAI’s figures, roughly what an average US car emits in half a mile (US EPA). Even 50 questions a day is about 7 miles of driving. Some uses weigh more: one short AI video clip used about 90 Wh in a Hugging Face test, as much as about 260 short questions. The large part is the total, and it’s growing fast.
The bigger pictureAll the world’s data centres consumed about 485 TWh of electricity in 2025, and the IEA expects about 950 TWh by 2030. Electricity use by AI-focused data centres grew 50% in 2025. How much CO₂ that makes depends on where the power comes from: the IEA expects renewables to meet half of the growth.
Why the claim misleads
It’s true of the total, not of one person’s text questions. The total depends on billions of users, heavy uses like video, and the power behind the data centres.
What nobody knows yet
- OpenAI gives only an average per question and hasn’t published how it’s measured.
- Nobody publishes how use is spread across people, so a typical user is an average.
- The grids behind ChatGPT’s data centres aren’t published, so the world average stands in.
- Training, chips and buildings aren’t counted in one person’s share.
Sources (8)
- NBER Working Paper 34255 (OpenAI and Harvard), How People Use ChatGPT Measured
“By July 2025, 18 billion messages were being sent each week by 700 million users, representing around 10% of the global adult population.”
Quote checked on the page, 18 Oct 2026 - OpenAI (Sam Altman; average query, method not published) Company says so
“the average query uses about 0.34 watt-hours, about what an oven would use in a little over one second”
Quote checked on the page, 2 Oct 2026 - Ember, Global Electricity Review 2025 Measured
“Emissions intensity dropped by 2.3% to 473 grams of CO2 per kilowatt hour (gCO2/kWh)”
Quote checked on the page, 2 Oct 2026 - US EPA, Greenhouse Gas Emissions from a Typical Passenger Vehicle (tailpipe CO2) Estimated
“The average passenger vehicle emits about 400 grams of CO2 per mile.”
Quote checked on the page, 25 Oct 2026 - Delavande, Pierrard & Luccioni (Hugging Face), Video Killed the Energy Budget Measured
“generating a single short video with WAN2.1–T2V–1.3B consumes nearly ∼90 Wh”
Quote checked on the page, 3 Oct 2026 - IEA, Key Questions on Energy and AI (2026) Estimated
“electricity consumption from data centres roughly doubling from 485 TWh in 2025 to 950 TWh in 2030”
Quote checked on the page, 3 Oct 2026 - IEA, Key Questions on Energy and AI (2026) Estimated
“Electricity consumption from AI-focused data centres grew even faster, surging 50% in 2025.”
Quote checked on the page, 3 Oct 2026 - IEA, Energy and AI (2025) Forecast
“Half of the global growth in data centre demand is met by renewables”
Quote checked on the page, 18 Oct 2026
Hum’s sums
- 18 billion ÷ 700 million ≈ 26 messages each a week
- 26 × 52 weeks × 0.34 Wh ≈ 0.46 kWh a year
- 0.46 kWh × 473 g/kWh ≈ 0.2 kg of CO₂ a year
- 50 questions a day × 365 × 0.34 Wh × 473 g/kWh ≈ 3 kg of CO₂ a year
- 0.2 kg ÷ 400 g a mile ≈ half a mile of driving
- 3 kg ÷ 400 g a mile ≈ 7 miles of driving
- 90 Wh ÷ 0.34 Wh ≈ 260 short questions
Cite this
NBER Working Paper 34255 (OpenAI and Harvard), How People Use ChatGPT, as quoted in Hum, “Should I stop using ChatGPT to help the planet?”, https://humearth.org/q/should-i-stop (quote checked 18 Oct 2026).
Cite the original source first; Hum is where you found it.
What do Wh, kWh and TWh mean?
Wh is a watt-hour: a 1-watt light left on for an hour. 1 kWh = 1,000 Wh, and 1 TWh = 1 billion kWh. Hum compares each number with something everyday so you don’t need the units.
Send this answer
Is using ChatGPT bad for the planet? Partly: a typical user’s year of questions makes about 0.2 kg of CO₂, roughly half a mile in a US car (Hum’s sums). The total is the big part: data centres used about 485 TWh in 2025 (IEA).