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There is no single established global total for AI’s electricity use. The best available headline figures measure all data centres, which handle AI as well as many other workloads: the International Energy Agency (IEA) estimated 415 terawatt-hours (TWh) of data-centre electricity use in 2024 and 485 TWh in 2025. Its 2026 central projection is about 950 TWh in 2030. Those totals are not AI-only figures.

What the global figures measure

These figures describe electricity consumed by data centres—not all energy used across AI’s lifecycle, and not electricity attributable only to AI. Data centres also run cloud services, storage, networking, and other digital workloads. The IEA’s 2025 report and its 2026 update give slightly different historical and projected figures because they are separate estimates published at different times.

IEA source and year Data-centre electricity figure Scope and status
2025 report 415 TWh in 2024 Estimated global electricity use by all data centres; about 1.5% of global electricity.
2025 report About 945 TWh in 2030 Global all-data-centre base-case projection; just under 3% of global electricity.
2026 update 485 TWh in 2025 Estimated global electricity use by all data centres.
2026 update About 950 TWh in 2030 Updated central projection for all data centres; around 3% of global electricity demand.

The IEA’s 2025 report put global data-centre electricity consumption growth at about 12% per year over the five years preceding that report. Its base case projected the total to more than double between 2024 and 2030. That is rapid growth from a relatively small global share: the same base case says data-centre demand accounts for less than 10% of total global electricity-demand growth over that period.

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How much of that electricity is for AI?

The cited global totals do not isolate AI’s share. The 2026 IEA update estimates that electricity consumption at AI-focused data centres will triple between 2025 and 2030. That is a distinct measure from total data-centre electricity: it concerns facilities focused on AI, and does not mean all electricity used by those facilities—or by data centres generally—can be assigned exclusively to AI.

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AI is nevertheless a major driver of the changing demand. In the IEA’s 2025 base case, electricity use by accelerated servers—hardware associated mainly with AI—grows by 30% annually from 2024 to 2030, compared with 9% annually for conventional servers. Accelerated servers account for nearly half of the projected net increase in global data-centre electricity use through 2030 in that scenario.

Why AI needs data centres and so much power

AI computing needs concentrated hardware

Training AI models and running them for users require computing systems with powerful processors and accelerators. Data centres bring those servers together with the storage and networking equipment that supplies data and connects workloads. This concentration makes it possible to operate large computing systems, but it also concentrates electricity demand in a small number of facilities.

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More power per rack means more heat to remove

AI servers can draw substantial power in a relatively compact area. The IEA’s 2026 analysis says AI-server power density increased 11-fold between 2020 and 2025. Higher power density means a facility must deliver more electricity to equipment in a given footprint and remove the resulting heat. Cooling is therefore part of the electricity demand, alongside servers, storage, networking, and supporting power systems such as uninterruptible power supplies.

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In the IEA’s 2025 base case, cooling and other infrastructure contribute about 20% of the net increase in global data-centre electricity demand through 2030. The exact division of a facility’s electricity among computing, cooling, and other equipment varies with its design and installed systems.

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Demand can change quickly

The 2026 IEA update identifies rapid swings in AI training and model-use loads as a reliability challenge. A grid or facility must be able to supply power when computing demand rises, not just match an annual average. That is one reason power density and load timing matter in addition to total yearly TWh.

Why a modest global share can matter greatly to local grids

Data centres are unevenly distributed, so a global percentage can hide intense pressure on particular power systems. According to the IEA’s 2025 executive summary, the United States accounted for 45% of global data-centre electricity consumption in 2024, China for 25%, and Europe for 15%. Nearly half of U.S. data-centre capacity was located in five regional clusters.

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The IEA estimated that data centres could account for nearly half of U.S. electricity-demand growth through 2030, even as its 2025 global base case put their share of worldwide demand growth below 10%. These figures use different geographic scopes. They illustrate why the timing and location of new loads can be consequential for grid connections, transmission, generation, and reliability, even when the worldwide annual share remains relatively small.

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Where the additional electricity may come from

The IEA’s 2025 supply analysis projects that renewables will meet nearly half of data-centre electricity-demand growth from 2024 to 2030 in its base case. It also projects natural gas and coal together will supply over 40% of the additional demand. The mix differs by region; the projection does not imply that every new data-centre load is served by renewables.

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This supply accounting concerns the electricity physically consumed, including grid electricity and on-site generation. An operator’s renewable-energy contract or other procurement arrangement is a separate accounting matter and does not establish that renewable electricity physically supplies the facility at every hour.

The IEA’s 2026 update notes that some U.S. developers are pursuing on-site natural-gas generation amid delays in obtaining grid connections. On-site generation can change how a facility obtains power, but it does not remove wider grid bottlenecks. The update estimates that global data-centre battery installations could reach 20–25 gigawatts (GW) by 2030 if incentives support deployment. GW measures power capacity, not annual electricity use; this is a conditional estimate, not a guaranteed buildout.

What the U.S. estimates say—and what they do not

A 2024 U.S. Department of Energy announcement summarizing Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory’s report estimated that U.S. data centres used 176 TWh in 2023, equal to 4.4% of U.S. electricity consumption. The report estimated a range of 325–580 TWh for U.S. data-centre use in 2028, equivalent to 6.7–12% of U.S. electricity. That wide range reflects uncertainty in the forecast. These are U.S.-only figures and should not be compared as though they were global totals.

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Can you calculate the electricity used by one AI prompt?

Not reliably from these aggregate figures. Electricity use for a particular prompt depends on the model, the hardware and its utilization, the amount of computation involved, and what is included in the accounting boundary—for example, whether supporting facility electricity is counted. The official estimates cited here address data-centre totals and scenarios; they do not establish one universal energy-per-prompt value. A single number without those conditions would imply more precision than the evidence supports.

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