Overview

• Google’s technical report estimates a median Gemini text prompt uses 0.24 Wh of electricity, 0.26 mL of water, and emits 0.03 g CO2e.
• The company says median per‑prompt energy fell about 33x and the carbon footprint about 44x from May 2024 to May 2025.
• Its full‑stack method attributes roughly 58% of prompt electricity to TPUs, 25% to host CPU/RAM, 10% to idle capacity, and 8% to data‑center overhead.
• Researchers challenge the figures for omitting water consumed in power generation, relying on market‑based rather than location‑based emissions, and using a median that can hide energy‑heavy queries; the results have not been independently verified or peer‑reviewed.
• Despite per‑prompt gains, Google reports its total carbon footprint has grown 48% since 2019, and the new estimates cover only text prompts, not image or video generation or model training.