BETA RELEASE

How Much Energy Does It Take to Power Billions of AI Queries?

Secondary article IEEE Spectrum
Published: 2025-10-01 Accessed: 2026-04-29
Original source ↗ Archived copy ↗

Summary

An analysis of generative AI energy consumption, estimating ChatGPT's daily impact and projecting global AI energy needs to reach 347 TWh by 2030.

Key quotes

OpenAI says ChatGPT has 700 million weekly users and serves more than 2.5 billion queries per day.
The Schneider Electric report estimates that all generative AI queries consume 15 TWh in 2025 and will use 347 TWh by 2030

The article examines the energy requirements of AI inference, comparing OpenAI’s reported figures with external research from Schneider Electric. It discusses the potential need for massive ‘Stargate-class’ data centers to support projected growth.