ChatGPT consumes as much electricity as entire countries
Artificial intelligence requires a significant amount of energy: the electricity that ChatGPT needs to process prompts could power cities, even entire countries, for several hours. This is shown by a new data analysis.
OpenAI has unveiled GPT-5.2, its most advanced AI model to date, which, according to the manufacturer, significantly improves general intelligence, programming, and understanding of long contexts. However, these performance improvements also come with a rapid increase in energy costs: According to a new analysis by the American online trading company BestBrokers, the annual amount of electricity required to answer user queries on ChatGPT alone reaches a whopping 17.23 terawatt hours (TWh). This is roughly equivalent to the annual consumption of a country such as Puerto Rico or Slovenia and is enough to supply New York City with electricity for over 110 days.
The annual energy requirement of ChatGPT to respond to user queries (17.23 TWh) can supply these countries with electricity for:
- China: 15 hours
- United States: 1 day and 10 hours
- India: 3 days and 2 hours
- Russia: 5 days and 6 hours
- Japan: 6 days and 4 hours
- Brazil: 8 days and 6 hours
- South Korea: 10 days and 1 hour
- Canada: 10 days and 2 hours
- Germany: 12 days and 9 hours
- France: 13 days and 11 hours
ChatGPT query consumes 50 times more electricity than a Google search
Each individual query on ChatGPT consumes an average of 18.9 watt-hours – more than 50 times that of a conventional Google search. With 810 million active users asking around 22 questions per week, this results in an annual electricity consumption of just under 17.3 billion kilowatt-hours. At current electricity prices in the US, the annual electricity costs for answering queries alone amount to approximately $2.42 billion.
AI as a burden on power grids
The amount of energy that ChatGPT consumes annually could theoretically also supply all households in the US with electricity for over four days or fully charge around 238 million electric cars. This means that ChatGPT's energy requirements exceed the total consumption of numerous small countries such as Kenya, Costa Rica, or Latvia. Experts warn of the increasing environmental and infrastructural consequences: as AI models become more intelligent, electricity costs and CO₂ emissions are also rising rapidly. Without transparent reporting and targeted efficiency measures, the rapidly growing demand for AI services could lead to significant long-term strain on power grids and the climate.
Source: Best Brokers
