Artificial intelligence (AI) is being adopted rapidly, raising questions about its growing electricity use and environmental impact. In 2025, AI accounted for about 0.5% of global electricity consumption, while all data centers used around 1.5%. Although this is a relatively small share worldwide, electricity demand is concentrated in certain regions, such as parts of the United States and Ireland, where data centers place much greater pressure on local power grids, according to Hannah Ritchie of Our World in Data.
For individual users, the energy cost of AI is relatively low. A typical AI text query uses about 0.3 watt-hours of electricity, while much larger or more complex requests consume more. Overall, the article concludes that the bigger challenge is not AI’s total electricity use but ensuring that growing demand is met with clean energy sources so emissions and local electricity costs remain under control.