An individual using chatbots has a pretty negligible impact, with one prompt only amounting to roughly 1/150,000th of an average American’s daily emissions. Those numbers are basically right. They are also increasingly divorced from how AI is actually being used today.
The fastest-growing way that software engineers and scientists actually use AI is not typing questions into a chat box. Rather, we use AI agents through tools like Claude Code and Codex that plan, write code, run it, read the results, and iterate on their own.
My best estimate is that [my Claude Code use over 8 weeks] used around 170 kWh of data center electricity (with an uncertainty range of roughly 70 to 330 kWh across methods and assumptions).
That's quite reassuring, heavy daily agent use being less than a flight, or roughly equivalent to eating beef (my estimate); if you're a light user there's not too much to worry about, or at least...
That's quite reassuring, heavy daily agent use being less than a flight, or roughly equivalent to eating beef (my estimate); if you're a light user there's not too much to worry about, or at least it probably shouldn't be on top of your list of things to worry about, Co2 wise.
That's quite reassuring, heavy daily agent use being less than a flight, or roughly equivalent to eating beef (my estimate); if you're a light user there's not too much to worry about, or at least it probably shouldn't be on top of your list of things to worry about, Co2 wise.