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Energy, carbon and water estimates for AI content, shown as ranges

Energy, carbon and water estimates for AI content, shown as ranges

by daniloedu·Jul 29, 2026·1 point·0 comments
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AI Analysis

●●SolidNiche GemBig Brain

Translates abstract AI compute costs into kettles boiled and hours streamed.

Strengths
  • •Ranges instead of points acknowledge the uncertainty in proprietary model efficiency data.
  • •Contextualizes abstract metrics (joules) into relatable units like phone charges and streaming hours.
  • •Includes water usage estimates, a metric often overlooked in standard carbon calculators.
Weaknesses
  • •Closed-source models rely on generic class estimates rather than specific telemetry data.
  • •Lacks a programmatic API for integrating these estimates directly into CI/CD pipelines.
Category
Data
Target Audience

AI developers, sustainability researchers, and environmentally conscious creators

Similar To

CodeCarbon · Cloud Carbon Footprint · Machine Learning Impact Calculator

Post Description

Hi HN,

I built this calculator because I noticed it's easy to know how much a LLM costs per token, but it's extremely difficult to know it's carbon footprint or power consumption. I created this as a reference based on some published papers and public information, and it helps to have a guide of the impact of photo and video generation using AI.

I also added another factor about Token utilization, it's something that becomes important as the newer models start to use "thinking" modes to reach a conclusion. There is information up to earlier this year, so it's not possible to see the efficiency of newer models like OpenAI Sol or Kimi K3.

All the calculator does is to provide estimations and translate them in ordinary figures so people can understand it. There is no login required or any other type of paywall.

About the models, it's easier to make estimates for Open Source models (of course) so there's more confidence on that data. For the closed ones, there are estimations based on public available data.

Please let me know if you have suggestions in how I can improve this calculator.

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