But the figures rely on hardware and usage assumptions that may be inaccurate.

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.

  • plyth@feddit.orgEnglish
    2·
    7 hours ago

    That are 25 request per kWh. At 10 to 25cents per kWh that’s 1cent per request. That doesn’t seem to be too expensive.

    • gens@programming.devEnglish
      2·
      4 hours ago

      Hmmm. Sure. But I find people don’t understand how much one kWh really is. A 500W drill can twist your arm. Imagine yourself twisting someones arm with all you got for a whole hour. Or idk. Either way it’s a lot of energy.

      And then you think about how much more energy a car uses then a human does. And then you find out about hot water…