The AI energy game
We name an everyday thing. You guess how many minutes of AI use would take the same electricity. It tends to surprise people — in a good way.
Electricity only. These are ballpark figures — see the method below.
How we figured this (and our sources)
The AI assumption. We count one minute of active AI use as about 10 watt-hours — a few prompts to a large “smart” model. Published per-prompt estimates vary a lot: OpenAI puts its average query near 0.34 Wh, while a 2025 study of a frontier model estimated up to ~19 Wh for a longer prompt. We picked a generous middle so we’re not understating AI. Even at the highest estimates, the everyday activities below still use more.
The everyday activities (electricity per use):
- 10-minute hot shower (electric water heating): ~2.5 kWh
- One load in the clothes dryer: ~3 kWh
- One dishwasher cycle: ~1.2 kWh
- Cooking dinner in an electric oven (~1 hr): ~2 kWh
- 10 minutes with a hair dryer: ~0.3 kWh
- One hour on a gaming PC: ~0.4 kWh
- Streaming a 2-hour HD movie: ~0.24 kWh
- 5-mile commute in an electric car: ~1.7 kWh
- A 1-hour flight, your seat’s share: ~270 kWh of jet fuel energy (planes don’t run on electricity — shown here as energy for comparison)
Sources: AI energy — DCD / OpenAI, Epoch AI, IEEE Spectrum. Home & activities — water heating, dryer, dishwasher, gaming, streaming (IEA), EV efficiency (DOE), flight fuel.
The point isn’t that AI is free — it uses real electricity and water. It’s that AI is small next to things we never think twice about. What matters most is how that power is made, and using it well.