Throughout these past years, the use of the AI tool ChatGPT has grown exponentially. Millions of people have used it to answer questions, write detailed responses to prompts and even generate images. While it can be a very useful tool, ChatGPT also causes serious environmental issues.
The company that created ChatGPT, OpenAI, was founded in 2015 to develop an advanced AI chatbot.
The company that created ChatGPT, OpenAI, was founded in 2015 to develop an advanced AI chatbot. Their first AI model, made in 2018, was called GPT-2. Since then, OpenAI has developed many versions of GPT. They finally released a public demo in December 2022, causing the company to blow up and a rise in the popularity of AI. As of February 2025, they have GPT-3 as the standard free version. GPT-4 is more advanced but requires users to have purchased a subscription. Due to GPT-4 having higher functioning levels than GPT-3, it emits more energy.
ChatGPT does not just search the internet like Google; it works by recognizing patterns in language. It was trained by processing and storing huge amounts of text from books, articles and websites to collect information and learn how people write. When you ask a question, it analyzes your words and predicts the most likely response based on what it has learned. It doesn’t think or come up with a response; it just generates text based on patterns and what it has seen before.
According to Forbes, ChatGPT consumes over half a million kilowatts of energy per day.
Although ChatGPT is extremely innovative and useful, its data operation requires a ridiculous amount of energy. According to Forbes, ChatGPT consumes over half a million kilowatts of energy per day, which is equal to 180,000 US households. To put this into perspective, the amount of energy one full year of ChatGPT uses could power the entire county of Finland for a day.
The energy used equates to 8.4 tons of carbon dioxide per year.
All of this energy usage leads to large-scale environmental impacts. Data centers are the facilities where all the information is stored, crucial to ChatGPT’s function. ChatGPT relies on these data centers because they hold the algorithms needed to analyze data properly. These centers consume energy, causing them to emit a very high carbon footprint. According to Earth.Org, the energy used equates to 8.4 tons of carbon dioxide per year. However, this number depends on what type of power source the energy comes from, whether that be renewable or nonrenewable.
A study done on ChatGPT-3 found that 700,000 liters of water was used for its training process.
Carbon dioxide is classified as a greenhouse gas, which means that it creates a greenhouse effect. This has negative impacts on the environment and the world. It traps heat in the atmosphere, letting sunlight enter, but prevents heat from leaving, which causes the earth to warm up. Too many greenhouse gasses can upset the earth’s balance and create issues such as rising sea levels and habitat loss among many others.
A study done on ChatGPT-3 found that 700,000 liters of water was used for its training process. According to Earth.Org, energy is released into heat during training. The machinery then needs to be cooled down, which is where the water formalize.
Simply asking ChatGPT to generate a 100-word email consumes 100 mL of water. Now, take that number and multiply it by the 123.5 million users it has daily, and one can see the detrimental effects on the environment. OpenAI made a statement about its environmental impact, sharing that their role “in stopping and reversing climate change is very serious.” The company added that they are also trying to find “the most efficient way to use its [ChatGPT’s] computing power.”
Although this problem is worsening, there are still solutions possible to help ease the environmental impact of ChatGPT. One way to address this issue is to advocate for more transparency when it comes to energy usage in the development of these systems. OpenAI and other AI models have made empty promises about moving to be more eco-friendly, and the amount of energy ChatGPT uses only increases with its popularity.
Individuals can also help the cause by promoting lesser usage. Not many people are informed about the environmental impacts of the AI tools they use, but if they were, maybe they would take a step back and think about their usage. If everyone used ChatGPT less, then far less energy would be used, resulting in a greener planet for us all.
