The hidden cost of your digital life

Every query, every stream, every call leaves a trace on the planet. A data-driven exploration of energy, carbon, and water behind the screens.

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Data visualization · Environmental impact

The hidden cost of your digital life

Every query, every stream, every call leaves a footprint. Here's how six common digital activities compare in energy, carbon, and water consumption.

10×
GenAI prompt vs. Google Search
(energy, high estimate)
~5 sec
of Netflix = 1 ChatGPT prompt
(energy equivalent)
27%
of all online video traffic
is adult content
96%
CO₂ reduction by turning
off video call camera
Energy consumption

Watt-hours per unit of activity. Video streaming dominates due to continuous data transfer and device power draw — especially on TVs.

Per-query activities
Google Searchper query
0.3 Wh
GenAI promptper query (typical)
0.3–3 Wh
Per-hour activities
Podcastaudio only, phone
7–45 Wh
FaceTime / video call1-on-1, HD
36–50 Wh
Netflix episodeHD on TV
77–120 Wh
Adult video (xvideos)HD streaming
80–140 Wh
Activity breakdown

Estimated energy, CO₂ emissions, and water consumption per unit of activity.

🔍

Google Search

per query
~0.3Wh
~0.2g CO₂
~0.3mL H₂O
Baseline reference. Google's custom TPUs and renewable investments keep per-query impact minimal. ~1 KB data per query.
⚡

GenAI text prompt

per query · e.g. ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini
0.3–3Wh
0.2–5g CO₂
0.3–519mL H₂O
Enormous range by model. Gemini median ~0.24 Wh. GPT-5 averages ~18.9 Wh. Water: 519 mL includes power-plant cooling (WaPo/UC Riverside).
🎧

Podcast streaming

per hour · audio only
7–45Wh
3–7g CO₂
50–100mL H₂O
The most efficient streaming activity. Audio-only ~0.045 kWh/listener-hour. 40–150 MB data transfer — a fraction of video.
📹

FaceTime / video call

per hour · 1-on-1, HD
36–50Wh
17–36g CO₂
200–500mL H₂O
Bidirectional stream. TRG Datacenters: ~17 g CO₂ for Zoom. Camera off cuts up to 96% of footprint (Purdue/Yale/MIT).
📺

Netflix episode

per hour · HD on TV
77–120Wh
36–55g CO₂
200–400mL H₂O
IEA: ~0.077 kWh/hr. Device is the main driver — TV uses 90× more than phone. 4K at ~7 GB/hr doubles the data load vs HD.
🔞

Adult video streaming

per hour · xvideos, HD
80–140Wh
42–70g CO₂
200–500mL H₂O
Per-hour impact ≈ Netflix, but less optimized CDN and heavy ad-serving. 27% of global video traffic. Shift Project: 80 Mt CO₂/yr total.
Water footprint

Approximate water consumption per unit of activity (mL). Each drop ≈ 50 mL.

Putting it in perspective

How these digital activities compare to everyday physical-world actions.

26.5
ChatGPT queries to equal
1 hour of Netflix
energy equivalent
~400 m
driving a gas car produces
same CO₂ as 1 hr Netflix
Netflix's own estimate
1,000
AI chatbot queries equal the
CO₂ of 1 hr streaming video
TRG Datacenters, 2025
30+ kg
CO₂ per year from
2 hrs daily streaming
Netflix or YouTube

Sources & methodology

  1. Epoch AI — How much energy does ChatGPT use? (Feb 2025)
  2. Sustainability by Numbers — What's the carbon footprint of using ChatGPT or Gemini? (Aug 2025)
  3. IEA / George Kamiya — The carbon footprint of streaming video: fact-checking the headlines (2020, updated)
  4. Carbon Brief — Factcheck: What is the carbon footprint of streaming video on Netflix? (2021)
  5. Greenly — The Carbon Cost of Streaming (Carbon Trust white paper reference)
  6. TRG Datacenters study — Digital Carbon Footprint: Streaming's Impact on Climate Change (Nov 2025)
  7. iTWire — Watching Netflix for an hour produces more CO₂ than 1,000 ChatGPT queries (Dec 2025)
  8. Purdue/Yale/MIT — Turn off that camera during virtual meetings, environmental study says (2021)
  9. MIT News — How to reduce the environmental impact of your next virtual meeting (2021)
  10. David Mytton — Zoom, video conferencing, energy, and emissions (2025)
  11. Netflix — The True Climate Impact of Streaming
  12. Simon Willison — A ChatGPT prompt equals about 5.1 seconds of Netflix (Nov 2025)
  13. Hypebot — From Audio to Energy: the Carbon Footprint of Streaming Quantified (Feb 2026)
  14. The Conversation — AI has a hidden water cost: here's how to calculate yours (Sep 2025)
  15. OECD.AI — How much water does AI consume?
  16. Profolus — AI Water Use in 2025 Rivaled Global Bottled Water Demand (Jan 2026)
  17. BestBrokers / University of Rhode Island — AI's Power Demand: ChatGPT's electricity consumption (2026)
  18. Online Learning Consortium — The Real Environmental Footprint of Generative AI (Dec 2025)
  19. Fight the New Drug — One of the Most Popular Porn Sites Uses More than 6 Million kWh (2022)
  20. The Reward Foundation / Shift Project — Porn harms the environment (case study, 2019)
  21. Grist — Binge-watching and porn are draining the planet's battery (2021)
  22. Earth911 — What Is the Carbon Footprint of Video Streaming? (updated Jan 2026)
  23. Jisc National Centre for AI — AI and the environment: putting the numbers into perspective (May 2025)
  24. PMC — Reducing the Individual Carbon Impact of Video Streaming (Suski et al., 2023)

Estimates vary widely by model, device, resolution, network type, grid carbon intensity, and data center cooling method. CO₂ values use global average grid intensity unless otherwise noted. Water figures include direct cooling only unless specified. Adult video estimates inferred from Netflix-equivalent streaming parameters and Shift Project traffic share analysis.