Sam Altman's Dubious Claims About ChatGPT's Environmental Impact

Published Date : 11/06/2025 

In a recent blog post, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman made bold claims about the energy and water usage of ChatGPT, but critics are skeptical of the accuracy of these figures. 

The AI brain rot in Silicon Valley is a multifaceted issue, and for OpenAI’s figurehead, Sam Altman, it often results in vague and optimistic talk about artificial intelligence as a solution to all the world's problems. However, Altman’s claims reached new heights of skepticism this week as he cited wildly deflated numbers for OpenAI’s water and electricity usage, which have been contradicted by numerous past studies.

In a Tuesday blog post, Altman cited internal figures for how much energy and water a single ChatGPT query uses. The OpenAI CEO claimed a single prompt requires around 0.34 Wh, equivalent to what “a high-efficiency lightbulb would use in a couple of minutes.” For cooling these data centers used to process AI queries, Altman suggested a student asking ChatGPT to do their essay for them requires “0.000085 gallons of water, roughly one-fifteenth of a teaspoon.”

Altman did not offer any evidence for these claims and failed to mention the source of his data. Gizmodo reached out to OpenAI for comment, but we did not receive a response. If we take Altman’s figures at face value, simple math can help us understand the true scale of water usage. OpenAI has claimed that as of December 2025, ChatGPT has 300 million weekly active users generating 1 billion messages per day. Based on the company’s and Altman’s metrics, this would mean the chatbot uses 85,000 gallons of water per day, or a little more than 31 million gallons per year.

ChatGPT is hosted on Microsoft data centers, which are already known for their high water and power consumption. Microsoft has plans for “closed-loop” data centers that don’t use extra water for cooling, but these projects won’t be piloted for at least another year. These data centers were already water- and power-hungry before the advent of generative AI. For Microsoft, water use spiked from 2021 to 2022 after the tech giant formed a deal with OpenAI.

A study from University of California researchers published in late 2023 claimed the older GPT-3 version of ChatGPT consumed about 0.5 liters for every 10 to 50 queries. Even at its most optimistic, OpenAI’s older model would use 31 million liters of water per day, or 8.18 million gallons. This is for an older model, not the current, more powerful GPT-4.1 plus its o3 reasoning model.

The size of the AI model significantly impacts its energy consumption. Multiple studies have been conducted on the environmental impact of training these models, and since they continuously need to be retrained as they grow more advanced, the electricity cost will continue to escalate. Altman’s figures do not mention which queries are formulated through its multiple different ChatGPT products, including the most advanced $200-a-month subscription that grants access to GPT-4o. It also ignores the fact that AI images require much more energy to process than text queries.

Altman’s entire post is full of big tech optimism shrouded in talking points that make little to no sense. He claims that datacenter production will be “automated,” so the cost of AI “should eventually converge to near the cost of electricity.” If we are charitable and assume Altman is suggesting that the expansion of AI will somehow offset the electricity necessary to run it, we’re still left dealing with rising global temperatures. Multiple companies have tried to solve the water and electricity issue with AI, with some landing on plans to throw data centers into the ocean or build nuclear power plants just to supply AI with the necessary electricity. Long before any nuclear plant can be built, these companies will continue to burn fossil fuels.

The OpenAI CEO’s blog post encapsulates the bullheaded big tech oligarch thinking. He said that “entire classes of jobs” will go the way of the dodo, but it doesn’t matter since “the world will be getting so much richer so quickly that we’ll be able to seriously entertain new policy ideas we never could before.” Altman and other tech oligarchs have suggested we finally encourage universal basic income as a way of offsetting the impact of AI. However, OpenAI knows that it won’t work. He’s never been serious enough about this idea that he has stumped for it harder than he has before cozying up to President Donald Trump to ensure there’s no future regulation on the AI industry.

“We do need to solve the safety issues,” Altman said. But that doesn’t mean that we all shouldn’t be expanding AI to every aspect of our lives. He suggests we ignore the warming planet because AI will solve that niggling issue in due course. But if temperatures rise, requiring even more water and electricity to cool these data centers, I doubt AI can work fast enough to fix anything before it’s too late. But ignore that; just pay attention to the still unrevealed Jony Ive doohickey that may or may not gaslight you as the world burns. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS): 

Q: What are Sam Altman's claims about ChatGPT's energy and water usage?

A: Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, claimed that a single ChatGPT query requires around 0.34 Wh of energy and 0.000085 gallons of water for cooling, which is roughly one-fifteenth of a teaspoon.

Q: How do these claims compare to previous studies?

A: Previous studies from the University of California suggest that the older GPT-3 model used about 0.5 liters of water for every 10 to 50 queries, which is significantly higher than Altman's claims.

Q: What is the environmental impact of AI data centers?

A: AI data centers are known for their high water and power consumption. Microsoft, which hosts ChatGPT, has seen a spike in water usage after forming a deal with OpenAI. The environmental impact is expected to increase as AI models become more advanced and require more resources.

Q: What solutions are being proposed to reduce the environmental impact of AI?

A: Some companies are exploring solutions like throwing data centers into the ocean or building nuclear power plants to supply AI with the necessary electricity. However, these solutions are still in the planning stages and will take time to implement.

Q: What is Sam Altman's stance on the future of jobs and AI regulation?

A: Altman believes that AI will create a wealthier world, making new policy ideas possible. However, he also suggests that we need to solve safety issues and that AI should be expanded to every aspect of our lives. He has been less vocal about universal basic income compared to his efforts to avoid AI regulation. 

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