1.21 Wh
estimated energy for one medium-length GPT-4o query (March 2025), about four Google searches
What the chart shows
A single medium-length GPT-4o query uses an estimated 1.21 watt-hours, about four times a Google search (0.3 Wh). A short query uses 0.42 Wh and a long one 1.79 Wh.
A daily session of eight medium-length queries comes to 9.7 Wh, about the same as charging two smartphones (10 Wh). Small per person, the total grows large across hundreds of millions of daily queries.
Key numbers
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| GPT-4o, short query | 0.42 Wh |
| GPT-4o, medium query | 1.21 Wh |
| GPT-4o, long query | 1.79 Wh |
| One Google search | 0.30 Wh |
| Daily session, 8 medium queries | 9.71 Wh |
| Charging 2 phones | 10.0 Wh |
How to read it
- AI Index estimates for GPT-4o as of March 2025.
- Comparisons use commonly cited figures for a Google search and phone charging.
Source: AI Index, 2025, via the AI Index Report 2026 (Stanford HAI), figure 1.4.7: Per-query and daily energy consumption: GPT-4o vs. common activities. Chart and text by AI Adoption.
Numbers checked against the published data on 19 October 2026.
Download the data (CSV) · Cite this chart
Numbers checked against the published data on 19 October 2026.
Download the data (CSV) · Cite this chart
Discussion