Energy per query10,800 J
82.4 millionthsGallons of gasoline
5.4 billionthsFireworks shows
About 3 Wh (estimated)
The world's least useful encyclopedia

Photo from Wikimedia Commons
Large language models have large power bills/Computing
A single ChatGPT query uses roughly 10 times the energy of a Google search, at about 3 watt-hours per response. Running GPT-4 class models at scale requires enormous GPU clusters drawing megawatts of power. As AI usage grows, the energy footprint of language models has become a significant topic in sustainable computing.
About 3 Wh (estimated)
Varies with length
About 2 KB of text
Estimated 50 GWh