The world's data centres already use as much electricity as a country. AI is the fastest-growing part.
In 2025 they used about 485 TWh, more than France uses in a year. The IEA expects about 950 TWh by 2030, close to Japan's 1,030.
The year slider couldn't load. The numbers above are for 2025.
A country lights up when data centres use more electricity in a year than it does (middle figure). Glows are the biggest data-centre hubs, sized by power capacity. Data centres: IEA, Energy and AI (2025) and its 2026 update. Countries: Ember (2025). How we know
Side by side in 2025
Data centres against whole countries, in electricity a year. The year above moves this too. Dashed means calculated; dim means forecast.
- RussiaRussia: 1,177 TWh
- JapanJapan: 1,030 TWh
- CanadaCanada: 646 TWh
- GermanyGermany: 517 TWh
- Data centresData centres: 485 TWh, of which AI about 26.5 to 38%
- FranceFrance: 481 TWh
- United KingdomUnited Kingdom: 311 TWh
- NetherlandsNetherlands: 121 TWh
AI's part, about 26.5–38%: the United States' share, used as a world estimate.
Where it's heading
The IEA's main forecast almost doubles data-centre electricity by 2030. Its scenarios for 2035 span 700 to 1,700 TWh, so we show all of it. The bright line is measured; the dim range hasn't happened yet.
Where the electricity goes
Of the 485 TWh the world's data centres used in 2025, AI was about 129 to 184 TWh: roughly a quarter to two-fifths. The rest runs everything else online: streaming, cloud storage, websites, email and business software.
AI's share is a figure for the United States, used as a world estimate, because nobody publishes a world figure in words. How we know
AI is the fastest-growing part
Electricity growth in 2025. AI-focused: IEA, Key Questions on Energy and AI (2026). All data centres: calculated from 415 TWh in 2024 to 485 TWh in 2025.
What it does to the world
Three effects have published worldwide numbers. Others, like strain on local power grids and air pollution from on-site gas turbines, are real but only known place by place; we'll explain those with named cases rather than invent a total.
Electricity
485 TWh a year
Published for 2025 (IEA). Forecast for 2035: 700 · 1,200 · 1,700 TWh.
CO2 from that electricity
180 Mt CO2 a year
Published for 2024 (IEA). Forecast for 2035: – · 350 · 500 Mt (no low case published).
Water
0.12 · 2.54 · 5.48 litres per kWh
Cooling at the building uses 0.12 · 0.36 · 1.08 litres per kWh; the power plants feeding it often use more: 0 · 2.18 · 4.4 litres per kWh. For 2025's electricity that comes to 58.2 · 1,232 · 2,658 billion litres (calculated).
Every source, and how each range was built, is on How we know.
Your part
Your typing is small. Your video isn't. And your voice is the big one.
Your questions: 47.6 Wh. Your pictures: 3.66 Wh. Your videos: 90 Wh, 64% of your week.
Next to the world's total, one person's use is tiny: the biggest lever isn't your chat window. It's where data centres get built, how clean their power is, and whether companies publish what they use. That's where your voice counts.
Low · middle · high, from the figures on How we know. One week, everything counted at the data centre (not your phone).