Daily water-use scale: ordinary AI use, light use, and a heavy-query proxy

Daily water-use scale: ordinary AI use, light use, and a heavy-query proxy

Bar chart. Source: Google Cloud (2025), Measuring the environmental impact of AI inference; median Gemini Apps text prompt estimated at 0.26 ml. Comparison estimates: Jisc (2025), Artificial intelligence and the environment: Putting the numbers into perspective.. Data table with 2 rows and 10 columns follows.

Daily water-use scale: ordinary AI use, light use, and a heavy-query proxy
1 Gemini text query10 Gemini text queries/day (light use)1,000 text queries/day (Gemini proxy; not GPT-5 measurement)1 hour streaming music1 hour browsing social media1 hour Zoom callWaterSense toilet flushENERGY STAR dishwasher cycle10-minute WaterSense shower
Estimated water use (ml)0.262.62602504301,7204,80012,10075,700

Source: Google Cloud (2025), Measuring the environmental impact of AI inference; median Gemini Apps text prompt estimated at 0.26 ml. Comparison estimates: Jisc (2025), Artificial intelligence and the environment: Putting the numbers into perspective.