Most AI models are too large to be trained and run on end-user devices like laptops and phones. Instead, data centres provide the computational power needed by AI. Understanding the electricity consumption of data centres is therefore critical to understanding how AI is impacting energy demand. However, there are no comprehensive global statistics on the electricity consumption of data centres. The IEA has developed a global model that enables it to provide estimates of data centre electricity consumption by region and across time. Explore the trends with the interactive graphs below.
IEA models