ChatGPT uses about 519 milliliters (around half a liter) of water to generate a 100-word response. This water usage mainly comes from the cooling systems in data centers where the AI runs. On a daily scale, considering millions of queries, ChatGPT's data center operations consume approximately 148.28 million liters (or 39.16 million gallons) of water globally. This usage is related to cooling servers to prevent overheating during the intensive computations involved in generating responses. The water used is typically fresh water that could also be needed for drinking and other essential uses, raising concerns about water resource management in areas with high AI infrastructure concentration.
However, some sources estimate that a more realistic water consumption per ChatGPT query is around 5 milliliters, which suggests that the initial half- liter figure might overestimate the water use per interaction, though the total impact is still significant due to the volume of queries processed daily.
