About MyAIUsage

MyAIUsage was created to shine a light on something most of us never think about: the hidden environmental footprint of our everyday AI use. Every time we ask a chatbot a question or generate an image, data centres behind the scenes are using water and electricity to make it happen.

This site doesn’t claim to provide exact measurements. Instead, it gives a rough but relatable estimate of how much water and electricity different prompts might use, based on research and publicly available data. The aim is simple: help people understand the scale, compare it to everyday activities, and make more mindful choices.

How the calculator works (short version)

Each text prompt is multiplied by an estimated average resource cost. Image prompts are weighted much higher because they need more computing power. The exact figures vary depending on the AI model, the data centre’s efficiency, and the local energy mix. For a deeper dive, see our full methodology notes.

What we base it on

• Academic work on AI water use and cooling methods (for example, the widely-cited 2023 study “Making AI Less Thirsty”).
• Public talks and blog posts by hardware vendors and cloud providers discussing energy per inference.
• Comparisons with familiar household activities (boiling a kettle, running a dishwasher, brewing coffee) to give results context.

Important caveats

• Figures are illustrative — they raise awareness but aren’t precise audits.
• Numbers will change as data centres adopt new hardware and cooling strategies.
• Training large AI models is far more resource-intensive; this tool focuses only on everyday use.

Got newer data or feedback? We’d love to hear it. Email us at contact@myaiusage.com.