Energy is consumed every time you ask a question to the ChatGPT, generate an image or run an AI search - a lot more than most people realise. As artificial intelligence becomes part of everyday life, the environmental toll is quietly rising. This story, in five charts, reveals the scale of AI’s growing energy and water footprint, who’s driving it and how the world is responding.

Chart 1: AI is Supercharging Global Energy Demand

Data centres consumed 415 TWh of electricity in 2024 and that number is expected to nearly double by 2030, largely due to artificial intelligence. To put this in perspective 945 TWh is more than three times the electricity consumption of all Australian households combined.

Chart 2: Every AI Query has a Hidden Energy Cost

Not all digital work uses the same amount of energy. One AI text query consumes nearly seven times the energy of a Google search and AI image generation takes even more.

Chart 3: Big Tech’s Thirst

AI data centres are not only consuming electricity, but they are consuming huge amounts of water to cool servers. In 2023, Google’s data centres alone used more water than every home in Australia almost twelve times over.

Chart 4: The AI Energy Race

The United States is still the biggest consumer of data centre electricity in the world but China is the fastest growing, expected to increase by 170% by 2030. The US and China combined will make up nearly 80% of all global growth.

Chart 5: The World is Worried - Especially Australia

The public excitement is divided over the rapid growth of AI. In a survey of 25 countries by Pew Research, more said they were worried than excited about the growing role of AI in everyday life. Australia is also one of the most anxious countries on earth along with United states and Italy.

References

Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2025). Water account, Australia, 2023–24. https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/environment/environmental-accounts/water-account-australia/latest-release

Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water. (2024). Australian energy statistics. Australian Government. https://www.energy.gov.au

Epoch AI. (2025). How much energy does ChatGPT use? https://epoch.ai/gradient-updates/how-much-energy-does-chatgpt-use

Google. (2024). Google 2024 environmental report. https://sustainability.google/reports/google-2024-environmental-report/

International Energy Agency. (2025). Energy and AI. https://www.iea.org/reports/energy-and-ai

International Energy Agency. (2026). Key questions on energy and AI. https://www.iea.org/reports/key-questions-on-energy-and-ai

Meta. (2023). Meta 2023 sustainability report. https://sustainability.fb.com/report/2023-sustainability-report/

Microsoft. (2024). Microsoft 2024 environmental sustainability report. https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2024/05/15/microsoft-2024-environmental-sustainability-report/

OpenAI. (2026). ChatGPT (GPT-4o, April–May 2026 version). Stacked Horizontal Bar CHarts. Prompt Link- https://chatgpt.com/share/6a29246c-cc20-83ec-b3d4-f6d0a16fb1b4

Pew Research Center. (2025). How people around the world view AI. https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2025/10/15/how-people-around-the-world-view-ai/

Surfshark. (2025). Chatbots energy consumption. https://surfshark.com/research/chart/chatbots-energy-consumption