All topics
21 reviewed answers. More are being checked.
About you
- How much electricity does one ChatGPT question use?About 2% of a phone charge
- Do “thinking” modes use more energy than normal answers? YESYes, often far more
- How much does my ChatGPT use add to my carbon footprint in a year?About 0.2 kg of CO₂ a year
- How much electricity does making an AI picture or video use?About 90 Wh: like boiling a litre of water
- Should I stop using ChatGPT to help the planet? PARTLYSmall for you, big in total
- Which uses more electricity: training AI, or people using it?Using it, where anyone has measured
Comparisons and myths
- Does asking ChatGPT use 10 times more energy than a Google search? PARTLYOut of date
- Does ChatGPT use a bottle of water for every email it writes? NOBODY KNOWSNot for the model that was measured. For today’s, nobody has published it
- Is asking ChatGPT worse than streaming Netflix? NONo: an hour of streaming is about 41 to 230 questions
- Is using AI worse for the climate than taking a flight? NONo, for ordinary chatting
- Does saying “please” and “thank you” to ChatGPT waste energy? PARTLYA little. The “tens of millions” was a quip
The world's total
Growth and the future
- Will AI cut more emissions than it causes? NOBODY KNOWSIt could, in a forecast. Nobody has measured it
- Will more efficient AI chips fix AI’s energy problem? NONot on their own
Your bills and the grid
Water
Near you
Power sources
- Are data centres powered by coal, gas or renewables?Mostly fossil fuels: coal about 30%, gas 26%
- Are tech companies restarting Three Mile Island to power AI? PARTLYUnit 1, for Microsoft’s data centres, and not running yet