{
    "question": "How much electricity do data centers use?",
    "answer": "US data centers used about 4.4% of all US electricity in 2023, or 176 terawatt-hours, according to a Berkeley Lab report for the Department of Energy. Worldwide, the International Energy Agency estimates data centers used 485 TWh in 2025, up 17% in a year, and expects about 950 TWh, around 3% of global electricity demand, by 2030.",
    "period": "2023 (US), 2025 (world)",
    "key_numbers": [
        {
            "value": "4.4%",
            "label": "Share of all US electricity used by data centers",
            "note": "Berkeley Lab for DOE, 2023",
            "stat": "ai/us-data-centers-share-of-electricity"
        },
        {
            "value": "176 TWh",
            "label": "US data center electricity use, up from 58 TWh in 2014",
            "note": "Berkeley Lab for DOE, 2023"
        },
        {
            "value": "485 TWh",
            "label": "Data center electricity use worldwide, up 17% on 2024",
            "note": "IEA, 2025",
            "stat": "ai/data-center-electricity-global"
        },
        {
            "value": "6.7% to 12%",
            "label": "Projected share of US electricity used by data centers in 2028",
            "note": "Berkeley Lab for DOE, projection"
        },
        {
            "value": "7%",
            "label": "Share of US commercial-sector electricity used by data center servers",
            "note": "EIA estimate, 2025",
            "stat": "ai/us-commercial-electricity-servers"
        }
    ],
    "tables": [
        {
            "id": "world",
            "title": "Data center electricity use worldwide (IEA estimates and projections)",
            "columns": [
                "Year",
                "Electricity used",
                "Share of world electricity",
                "IEA report"
            ],
            "rows": [
                [
                    "2024",
                    "About 415 TWh",
                    "About 1.5%",
                    "Energy and AI (Apr 2025)"
                ],
                [
                    "2025",
                    "485 TWh, up 17% in a year",
                    "Not given",
                    "Key Questions on Energy and AI (Apr 2026)"
                ],
                [
                    "2030 (projection)",
                    "About 950 TWh",
                    "Around 3% of demand",
                    "Key Questions on Energy and AI (Apr 2026)"
                ],
                [
                    "2030 (earlier projection)",
                    "Around 945 TWh",
                    "Not given",
                    "Energy and AI (Apr 2025)"
                ],
                [
                    "2035 (projection)",
                    "Around 1,200 TWh (range 700 to 1,700 TWh)",
                    "Not given",
                    "Energy and AI (Apr 2025), Base Case"
                ]
            ],
            "row_ids": [
                "world-2024",
                "world-2025",
                "world-2030",
                "world-2030-earlier",
                "world-2035"
            ],
            "note": "Estimates and projections, not metered totals. Electricity used by AI-focused data centres grew 50% in 2025 (IEA). In 2024 the United States accounted for 45% of global data centre electricity use, China 25% and Europe 15% (IEA, Energy and AI).",
            "source": "iea"
        },
        {
            "id": "us",
            "title": "US data center electricity use (Berkeley Lab for the Department of Energy)",
            "columns": [
                "Year",
                "Electricity used",
                "Share of all US electricity"
            ],
            "rows": [
                [
                    "2014",
                    "58 TWh",
                    "Not given in the release"
                ],
                [
                    "2023",
                    "176 TWh",
                    "About 4.4%"
                ],
                [
                    "2028 (projection)",
                    "325 to 580 TWh",
                    "6.7% to 12%"
                ]
            ],
            "row_ids": [
                "us-2014",
                "us-2023",
                "us-2028"
            ],
            "note": "2024 Report on U.S. Data Center Energy Use (announced 20 Dec 2024). Modelled estimates. Data-center power demand more than doubled between 2017 and 2023, largely due to AI servers; the 2028 range depends on how fast AI use and the rest of the economy grow.",
            "source": "lbnl"
        },
        {
            "id": "us-commercial",
            "title": "Data center servers in US commercial-sector electricity (EIA)",
            "columns": [
                "Year",
                "Servers' share of commercial electricity",
                "Server electricity use"
            ],
            "rows": [
                [
                    "2025 (estimate)",
                    "7%",
                    "Not given"
                ],
                [
                    "2050 (projection)",
                    "22% to 33%",
                    "446 to 818 billion kWh"
                ]
            ],
            "row_ids": [
                "eia-servers-2025",
                "eia-servers-2050"
            ],
            "note": "EIA Annual Energy Outlook 2026 (Today in Energy, 19 May 2026). Servers only, not cooling; the range covers EIA's cases, the top end its High Electricity Demand case.",
            "source": "eia"
        }
    ],
    "sources": [
        {
            "name": "United States Data Center Energy Usage Report",
            "publisher": "Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory",
            "type": "estimate",
            "url": "https://www.lbl.gov/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Energy and AI reports",
            "publisher": "International Energy Agency",
            "type": "estimate",
            "url": "https://www.iea.org/"
        },
        {
            "name": "Today in Energy / Annual Energy Outlook",
            "publisher": "US Energy Information Administration",
            "type": "official",
            "url": "https://www.eia.gov/"
        }
    ],
    "content_changed_on": "2026-10-31",
    "page_url": "https://digitaltreed.com/statistics/ai/data-center-electricity",
    "csv_url": "https://digitaltreed.com/statistics/ai/data-center-electricity.csv"
}