640
ChatGPT 5 power consumption could be as much as eight times higher than GPT 4 — research institute estimates medium-sized GPT-5 response can consume up to 40 watt-hours of electricity (www.tomshardware.com)
submitted 3 days ago by homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world
109 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The University of Rhode Island's AI lab estimates that GPT-5 averages just over 18 Wh per query, so putting all of ChatGPT's reported 2.5 billion requests a day through the model could see energy usage as high as 45 GWh.

A daily energy use of 45 GWh is enormous. A typical modern nuclear power plant produces between 1 and 1.6 GW of electricity per reactor per hour, so data centers running OpenAI's GPT-5 at 18 Wh per query could require the power equivalent of two to three nuclear power reactors, an amount that could be enough to power a small country.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] jsomae@lemmy.ml 16 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

For reference, this is roughly equivalent to playing a PS5 game for 4 minutes (based on their estimate) to 10 minutes (their upper bound)

calulationsource https://www.ecoenergygeek.com/ps5-power-consumption/

Typical PS5 usage: 200 W

TV: 27 W - 134 W → call it 60 W

URI's estimate: 18 Wh / 260 W → 4 minutes

URI's upper bound: 48 Wh / 260 W →10 minutes

[-] bier@feddit.nl 2 points 2 days ago

It is also the equivalent of letting a LED light bulb run for an entire day (depending on bright it is, some LED bulbs use under 2 watts of power).

[-] MangoCats@feddit.it 5 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I was just thinking, in more affordable electric regions of the US that's about $5 worth of electricity, per thousand requests. You'd tip a concierge $5 for most answers you get from Chat GPT (if they could provide them...) and the concierge is likely going to use that $5 to buy a gallon and a half of gasoline, which generates a whole lot more CO2 than the nuclear / hydro / solar mixed electrical generation, in reasonably priced electric regions of the US...

[-] jsomae@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

That doesn't seem right. By my calculations it should be like 5¢. Can you show your work?

Edit: didn't read. You said "per thousand requests."

[-] MangoCats@feddit.it 1 points 20 hours ago

Depends on your electric rates, of course. The gotcha in this statement is "per thousand requests" which cranks up the power usage from 40 watt-hours to 40 kilowatt hours. Say you've got "affordable" electricity at 12.5 cents per kilowatt hour: 40 * .125 = 5.

[-] buttnugget@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

I love playing PS5 games!

this post was submitted on 15 Aug 2025
640 points (100.0% liked)

Technology

74180 readers
3433 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.

Our Rules

  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related news or articles.
  3. Be excellent to each other!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
  10. Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.

Approved Bots

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
L3s@lemmy.world
enu@lemmy.world
technopagan@lemmy.world
L4s@lemmy.world
L3s@hackingne.ws
L4s@hackingne.ws